Written by I had ‘<Insert buzzwords here>’ for a while on my LinkedIn profile. Showing my discontent about self-proclamations of ‘Expert’, ‘Ninja’ and ‘Thought Leader’, but the main reason was that it was genuinely impossible to include all the adjectives to explain ‘marketer’ – character limits…the Achilles’ heel of digital.
Right now, saying you’re a marketer or you’re trained in marketing, isn’t enough. We must be a Growth Hacker, a Demand Generator, or Agile Marketing Guru. The more we distil our contributions, the more we’re seen as the experts.
To say we can take something to-market, or demonstrate our achievements in uplifting sales, conversation, and profitability, is not enough. It’s not buzzwordy enough. It’s not something that we can place on the slide deck at a conference for Lead Generation, sorry, I mean, Demand Generation.
And that’s the reason for this rant. They’re buzzwords. Meaningless to anyone and everyone who isn’t trying to take their place in the latest hyperbole.
To be recognised, we need to be “down wiv da kids…” except it’s all complete bollocks.
TLDR – Click on the links below to learn more about the bollocks behind the buzzword:
Marketing Buzzwords Explained
Taking a few of my personal favourites on a trip from Marketing Street to Reality Town, I’ve translated twelve words of what the Marketing Mavens are referring to, so we, the Marketing Nerds, can make sense of it all and leverage them in our favour:
Growth Hacking Definition
To hack growth. Or grow with hacks. It’s your arsenal, you choose. A range of tools and strategies only specialists possess. Far beyond the marketer of yesteryear, today, and tomorrow. They are growth specialists, because they’ve taken the concept of what marketing actually is, and they’re actually applying it.
Confused? We all are. Because when you compare traditional marketing to growth hacking, it’s a rebrand. They’re the Ernies to the marketing Burts, we’re all here for the hackers of growth. If only they picked up a book from the 1960s… Growth Hackers may realise just how dated they really are…
Thought Leadership Definition
The leaders of thought, or should it be the thought regurgitators…? There was once a time when those ‘experts’ were genuine due to their experiences and training. Now anyone with a LinkedIn account and access to Wikipedia can waffle on about any topic or theory that was understood and known in the 1980s, forgotten in the 2010s, and rehashed in the 2020s.
Don’t blame all thought-leaders, there are genuine experts with opinions. The LinkedIners, however, are the ones to look out for.
These thought-vomiters are building a personal brand. Forget respect, statuses are power. Engagement is the currency of success.
It’s just they’re so far up their own ass, they can’t hear their boss shouting at them to get on with the work they’re paid to do.
Don’t worry, they will soon be called onto a stage to talk about the work they should’ve been doing…
Pivot Definition
‘Diversification,’ ‘change in strategy’, ‘change direction,’ take too many characters, and we all remember that Friend’s episode, right? You know, the one with Ross and the sofa…? Shame that through the pandemic, we’ve only just discovered what digital transformations actually involve, and hence, why digital transformations fail.
The pivot is about innovative technology, the new shiny opportunities. Forget the user experience and internal training…that comes later. After the horse has bolted and customer services are drowning with complaints.
Influencer Marketing Definition
Remember the hype over the partnership with Nike and Michael Jordan back in the ‘90s? The Air Jordans were desired from both sides of the pond (including yours truly). Well, you see rather than working with celebrities for their endorsements, sports personalities for their aspiration and knowledge, or having genuine customer recommendations, we now use TikTokers and Instagrammers.
Everyday people, with not-so-average audience volumes. Use their platforms to share your message. Your promotion. Content creators are the future.
Ignore the fact that they haven’t used what you sell. Trust, or lack of it, is an ongoing issue. People are paid to say good things about your brand? No shit, Sherlock. If only we utilised influencer marketing to support development. Make them genuine customers.
Like customer research, but with people who are representing 000s… you could say, we don’t need influencers, we need customers who influence…
Brand Purpose Definition
Ikiagi – a Japanese term for ‘a reason for being.’ This no longer applies to individuals lost in the ether and struggling to find a reason to get up in the morning. It’s also essential for brands.
Because behind all the talk and bluster of moments, being there for us, and having meaningful relationships with brands, the cold, harsh reality is they’re not our friends. They sell us stuff. We, as marketers, sell stuff. In most cases something that people could genuinely live without.
Brand Purpose has become a bolt-on. A way of making ourselves feel better about what we do and the legacy we leave. Perhaps it’s our conscience creating the conflict that resides within us. Cognitive dissonance infests our minds.
The irony is that the purpose we create is an afterthought, has no influence over strategy or operations (that would be Corporate Social Responsibility), but enables us to put forward a new entry for next year’s awards. To support our professional progress.
Brand purpose is social bandwagoning for personal gain and should be banned…oops, the cat is out of the bag…
Strategy Definition
I know what you’re thinking. Strategy isn’t a buzzword. In its true form, no. But the way we use the term, ‘strategy’, has made it into a buzzword. Everything is a strategy. TikTok is a strategy. Using the word strategy, is a strategy.
Because strategy is senior, sexy, and hubris.
Forget nuance, different tools for different situations. Tactics are lower-level. Without them, the strategy can’t be executed, but we’re working for perception and promotion. We do strategy. Even though it’s a campaign plan and has no influence on business strategy… yet, we’ll continue to conflate the two.
Marketing isn’t a toolbox for businesses, to develop and execute a solution. It’s the ads and graphics department. If only we used the frameworks the Growth Hackers use…time to create a growth strategy as opposed to a marketing strategy…the merry-go-round continues…
Edutainment Definition
When the terms ‘entertainment’ and ‘educational’ love each other very much, they close their eyes, make a wish, and a brilliant white stork appears, with ‘edutainment’ wrapped in a bundle of prestige. It’s a beautiful moment.
This is the category of content that is both entertaining and educational. Radical, right? Imagine books, videos, podcasts, and even mini-films that could be in this category. Like documentaries. How did the creators of Sesame Street or Frozen Planet cope with pitching their ideas without this genre title?! It’s mind-boggling to think of life without it!
Luckily, we have agencies willing to support us with our edutainment content strategy.
And if you want to know who coined this term, rumour has it, that if you say it three times in the mirror with the lights off, he appears behind you, whispering in your ear: ‘I’m the creator of edutainment’. Following you wherever you go. He doesn’t leave, not until you recognise his achievement and kiss his ass five times. Careful though, flatulence is an issue…
Content Marketing Definition
Speaking of content, we’ve come to one of the more well-established buzzwords of our generation – content marketing. Because, when Marketers say, “people don’t want ads, they want content”, what they really mean is, it needs to be a really strong creative. Which is exactly what Creatives have been saying for decades. That’s the crux of it.
Content, was a term used by IT teams in the ‘90s calling for the material they needed for the primitive age of the interwebs. But, through the art of gaming search algorithms (mainly, Google), social platforms and a bit of thought leadership, sorry, I mean LinkedInnering, content marketing has established itself as a core discipline within the promotional sphere.
A blend of PR, mixed in with information resources, and a dash of edutainment. Although, it’s perceived as the entirety of marketing, depending on who you speak to.
It’s the fuel for communities, the ingredient for growth, yet with the dichotomy of choice, it has lost its purpose. Falling into the trap of creating the content first, and then wondering what to do with it afterwards – that’s why content marketing fails…
Agile Marketing Definition
Are you responsive, adaptable, and flexible? Are you willing to drop everything and work on the latest hyperbole? Congratulations, you’re an agile marketing pro.
Forget working on market changes to inform future diversification and strategy (sorry, I meant ‘pivot’), the metaverse is coming. Soon, everyone will drop their phones and put on their VR headsets. Ignorant to the reality that surrounds them – virtual bliss (it’s not like it’s going to exacerbate pre-existing societal issues from web 2.0)…
Forget the structure, processes, and bureaucracy within an organisation, agile marketing is the strategy that doesn’t solve this. As it doesn’t involve any other departments or teams.
Competitive advantage is gained from structure shaping the functions, but in the world of agile marketing, having a loose plan means you can switch and change up as needed.
Don’t fret about completing anything, another bandwagon will be arriving soon.
Personal Branding Definition
We no longer have a reputation, we, are a brand. We’re all brands. Your mum is a brand.
Unknown potential, waiting to be moulded for people to discover, fall in love with, and follow us happily ever after. For we become the centre of the community, built to help and deliver tiny packages of inspirational light and insight through our tweets and LinkedIn pontifications.
Forget being good at what you do, or being nice to people, that’s old-skool. The thought-fluencer and storyteller position will secure your perception of the decision-makers amongst the masses. Competence is no longer about proof, only bluster. Those too busy working, ain’t busy progressing.
The days of when people did nice things purely for the benefit of helping the person in front of them, are gone. Now, it’s to reassure our position in the world through praise by a bunch of egotistical thought-regurgitators only looking to boost their own engagement. The LinkedIners return.
Worth remembering though, no one’s putting your follower count on your gravestone, mate.
Calm down.
Performance Marketing Definition
Is it 60:40 or 40:60? We could talk about the long and short of it all, however, the concepts of context and adaptability are lost amongst the masses. You’re either acquiring sales now, or building for the long term, the idea of integrating to do both, simultaneously, is as mythical as it is magical.
Performance marketing is a misnomer. Clear to those who are channel agnostic. Brand vs performance is a zero-sum game. A conflated argument used by those to show their specialist superiority as a PPC Master.
Because when you cut through the noise, the call-to-action is either designed for a specific acquisition, for the ‘short-term’ (promo, offer, specific product, event, etc.), or for the benefit of pushing the entire proposition or securing future consideration (long-term). Mental availability, physical availability, and all that jazz.
Digital channels have enabled faster, more accurate targeting and access. But in doing so, has narrowed the influence that comes with broadcast media (other people knowing the brand). ‘It depends’ rears its level head again…
Performance is the barometer and outcome for the efficacy of the strategy. How well the funnel is performing, and the flow within it. The marginal gains are not constrained to the realms of Google Ads, but also reside in the lair of the customer service team. Knowing the metrics that matter helps.
View it as a classification of tactical optimizations across the board, and you’ll avoid the pitfalls of those entrenched in the digital silos.
Demand Generation Definition
The choice to change ‘Lead Generation’ to ‘Demand Generation’ was clear, a new theme was needed for next year’s conference season. Because it’s just too obvious to point out that you don’t get the leads, without generating the demand. That’s preposterous!
Which is exactly what marketing is about.
Shock horror, this is all the work we do before the horse has bolted…you know, the stuff that usually is either ignored, or not done by marketing, because we only do ads and graphics…
This might be top-of-the-funnel stuff, but this is nothing like building momentum for the funnel. Increasing the flow for the stages. It’s different. It’s growing the pie, it’s generating demand, and it’s yet another analogy talking about the same thing.
Buzzword hype has peaked.
Adjective Marketing
When the targets are down, the buzzwords rise. To the uninitiated, they are mystifying and thought-provoking. At the forefront of marketing mastery.
But, have no doubt, none are new concepts. The similarities to textbooks from before the 2010s are both uncanny and grinding to the zeitgeist.
Add the adjective and they’re fresh, exciting, and rebranded. After all, semantics sell.
Share your thoughts
Do you have any other buzzwords that need explaining? Do you have your own definitions? Let me know in the comments below, send me a tweet @CJPanteny, or get in touch.
And if you liked this blog, don’t forget to share it on your socials and bask in its ranty goodness.
See you next time.
Carl Panteny 