Chainsaw Jen hates buzzwords as much as I do
I am forever telling clients that there are many words that are so overused as to be meaningless. Being a ‘leading solutions provider,’ ‘innovative leader’ or ‘award winning’ does not differentiate you nor add anything to your PR or marketing copy. In fact it can diminish your credibility. It certainly makes my eyes glaze over.
That’s why I love this article from Ragan’s PR Daily which reports on PR strategist Adam Sherk’s analysis of the top 25 most overused buzzwords in PR and marketing.
The most common word (used 776 times in press releases in a 24 hour period) is ‘leading’ followed by ‘solution’ (622 times). Innovate / innovative / innovator was #4 on the list.
So please peoples, take a buzz saw to the buzz words and find more creative ways to express yourselves.
OK, first things first. Full disclosure. I had Vegemite for breakfast this morning. And when friends from Australia come over to visit and ask what they can bring me, the answer is always Vegemite. So there’s still some Aussie in me despite having no accent what so all anymore and living in the US for longer than I care to admit to. And as someone born and raised in Australia I’ve always been annoyed by The Outback Steakhouse shtick. There’s no Bloomin’ Onions in Australia. And some of the other menu names are truly cringe-worthy.
Eat at Outback and the troups benefit. This connects to their brand how?
But I can get past that. I get it, it’s a theme restaurant. With these things come caricatures and schmaltz. But as a brand strategist, rather than offended Aussie, I don’t get their campaign: Thanks For Giving. If you order off their Red, White, and Bloomin’ menu before April 5th, they’ll donate money to Operation Homefront, a non- profit providing assistance to US service members and wounded warriors. They’re promoting it everywhere. You can share your hero story and they will feature it on their website and Facebook page. When I first saw the ad on TV my reaction was, huh? It was a complete disconnect for me. Please don’t misunderstand, it’s admirable and commendable to want to support US service men and women, but it’s a confusing brand strategy. (more…)
For those of you who are foodies and want more details about the Seattle Top Chef tryouts, here’s the guest blog post on Table Talk Radio:
Will Seattle Chefs Be Packing Their Knives For Top Chef?
Today I attended the Top Chef tryouts and had a great time chatting with some of the chefs who were auditioning for Season 9 of Bravo TV’s hot reality show. I’ll be guest blogging about it for Table Talk Radio and will post a link when it’s up.
Even though a lot of the chefs described some delicious and mouth-watering dishes, the descriptions of seared tuna dishes are all a bit of a blur. (Tuna was a popular choice for the culinary interpretation of the color blue.) It was a great reminder about the need to create ways to stand out from the crowd.
Bravo is conducting auditions in 9 cities across the country. Clearly, it’s a given that there will be many extremely talented chefs applying. So I was surprised that when I asked ‘what makes you stand out’ that many of them answered in what I would call ‘ante-in’ terms: ‘I’m passionate about culinary arts’ or ‘I have great cooking skills’ or ‘I’m creative.’ Really? That might be what gets your foot in the door but it’s not what will make you stand out. (more…)
For those of you who enjoyed Chris Arlen’s tips on great presentations and are wanting more, here’s a terrific follow up from my friends at Artitudes Design on chosing the right fonts. While we all yearn to be creative, sometimes sticking with the tried and true is the right strategic choice.
And the moral of the story? Always test your presentation on multiple machines to make sure the formatting hasn’t gone awry.
Some Fonts Can Make Your PowerPoint Suck
