Every profession has jargon that is used as shorthand, and that’s great. Using jargon is necessary so a carpenter doesn’t have to say “that big metal doo-hickey” and so scientists don’t have to use long, boring explanations to explain what a uberthermodynamic enthropic reaction is (disclaimer: that’s not real). Buzzwords in business, however, seem to be around to confuse everyone.

We’re not very fond of buzzwords. Tiny Fey and Alec Baldwin of 30 Rock aren’t fans either. Buzzwords are overused in our line of work. Being the marketing and PR superstars that we are, we have a pretty decent idea of what they mean. We’ve waded through our share of acronyms and ridiculous “concepts” (Example: The Hedgehog Concept. It means “do what you are best at.” Really.) Naturally, we’re a bit jaded.

We recently saw an article about the most overused buzzwords in press releases. We realized nobody really knew what they actually mean. So we’ve created a layman’s dictionary of buzzwords you’ll encounter in business, PR and marketing. If this blog was a tabloid, we’d call this article “The Meanings THEY Don’t Want You to Know!!!”

Innovation: New product or technology. Pretty simple idea, but when you think about how many times something is called “the most innovative thing ever,” it gets a little annoying. Artificial light was an innovation; that new flavor of Mountain Dew is not. 
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Real-Time: Just like it sounds. Instant feedback or answers. We’re in a real-time environment. Twitter is real-time feedback from the world. Morse-code on a telegraph was real-time feedback, too. Remember that. 
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Dynamic: Quick-changing. Today’s industry and technology is a lot more dynamic than it used to be. 
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Groundbreaking: A really awesome innovation (see above). Changes the industry, sometimes the world. Not always great. (Right, hydrogen bomb?) 
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Best Practice: We’re pretty sure this means agreed-upon strategies that provide value in an industry. (Wikipedia confirms.) 
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Cutting Edge: New, groundbreaking product or technology (see above). 
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Product Integration: AKA “Product Placement.” Paying for your product, logo or service to be in the media. Reese’s Pieces in the movie “ET” is considered the grandfather of product integration. 
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Seamless Integration: One thing and another thing go well together without any problems. Used most in mergers and acquisitions. I imagine this comes from the garment-making industry. 
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Think Outside the Box: Novel and creative thinking. Term coined by someone who probably never actually thought outside the box. 
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Synergy: Oh, synergy. Poor, poor synergy. Whipping boy of the buzzwords. The scapegoat. It’s a medical term adopted by business that basically means “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” It’s not always a great thing in medicine, but businesses LOVE synergy. 
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Low-Hanging Fruit: Some sort of fruit-picking metaphor adopted for business. In reality, it just means to reach the easiest goal without much effort. If you were a lion, it would mean to eat the slowest and fattest antelope. 
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Secret Sauce: This was new to us before the list came out. Apparently people use it. Presumably, it’s derived from the fast food industry and means “Thousand Island Dressing,” but in reality it just means “your strategy or product that gives you an advantage over everyone else, but your competitors can’t figure out what it is.” 
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Paradigm Shift: This should mean “using your secret sauce and thinking outside the box with a groundbreaking, innovative, cutting-edge technology that provides synergy and allows you to capture the low-hanging fruit with more ease to get real-time, dynamic results.” However, it just means something new and different is happening that revolutionizes the way people see your industry, business or environment. 
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There are hundreds and hundreds more, but it’s your turn to find them. Really, there’s a time and place for everything. Even these buzzwords. We’re not condemning their usage, just their frequency. Writing with buzzwords is like going out for a night of drinking (maybe that’s why they’re called “buzz”words?). Think about it: if you have a few buzzwords or have a few drinks, you feel smarter and more confident. After a few more, you start to feel dizzy and unbalanced. After too many, you feel like vomiting, nobody understands what you’re saying and you wake up in the morning feeling terrible about yourself. Remember, the content you create and the strategy you come up with is more important than the words you use to describe it. Use these words in a way that provides actual value and understanding. Buzz responsibly.

What is your favorite (or least favorite) buzzword? If we get enough responses, we can have a sequel!

Regular

You knew it would happen eventually. The Black Sheep have decided to start a [virtual] book club. We have a bunch of old PR and marketing books lying around, and heck, we may as well read them… again. Don’t worry – we’ll buy some new ones too. In fact, we’re taking suggestions and encouraging you guys to follow along with us! Submit your entry, we’ll make the selection, and bam! We’re a legit book club. Posts will appear every second Wednesday of the month.

Back to the point. We’re trying to get through these old books. Not because their information is relevant. It probably isn’t. But, like the time you had to read The Scarlet Letter in 11th grade, it’s more about the context and the time period when it is was written than the content itself. It helps us see how far we’ve come and how far we have to go. So, without further ado, The Fall of Advertising & the Rise of PR by Al and Laura Ries.

So here’s the thing about this book. It’s mostly wrong. But this book is kind of like a teenager. It was written in 2004 – years after advertising (and I’m talking about strictly advertising) lost its credibility, and PR was finally emerging as a progressive marketing tactic – except at this point it was taking itself too seriously and it wasn’t fully developed. This book shared about a million anecdotes about the failures of advertising campaigns, the gross amounts of money spent and the misconceptions surrounding “creativity” (which is apparently a bad thing). And yes, they listed “blimps” as alternative forms of advertising.

After railing on advertising for a good 146 pages, PR comes into the picture. The authors actually make a few valid points explaining the way PR can be used to build a brand and advertising can follow suit to boost awareness. But, they never fully accept advertising as a necessity. And, they also mandate way too many rules – including creating a celebrity spokesperson. Um, no.

But, like I said before, this book has to be taken into context. This is the era before social media surfaced in the field of marketing, before Twitter, and before anyone truly recognized the power of PR and the significance real two-way interaction with an audience – a phenomenon not possible when PR meant nothing more than press releases and newspaper articles. While they recognize the importance of establishing credibility, they don’t quite know how to make it happen without tactics as disingenuous as the advertising they claim as useless. And they certainly don’t know a thing about performance, unexpected events or viral campaigns. In fact, they describe PR as “slow moving.” Not any more, my friends.

It’s amazing to think that in 6 short years the dynamic has changed so drastically. And we’re lucky, right? We actually have the power to truly reach our customers – not bribe them, not trick them… not even beg them, but really get them to listen! We are the luckiest marketing professionals and business owners to date, and we’d be crazy not to take advantage of the opportunities at hand.

So should you read this book? Not unless you want a trip into the dark ages or a very thorough history of advertising flops. But, the lesson remains, even if it is unintentional: Our perception of marketing is only what we make of it. We have the ability to create change, be successful, and challenge ideals. Can you imagine Black Sheep back then? Your company? We don’t want to.

Black Sheep Book Club: The Fall Of Advertising and The Rise Of PR