What’s gobbledygook? The nonsensical words or phrases. Or in Sandy’s understanding: the unnecessary overly-used, meaningless marketing jargon.
I like how David Meerman Scott of WebInk explain why we should really steer clear from gobbledygook. This article is so liberating, now I know I’m not the only one annoyed by these words. How did certain phrases get so abused? According to David,
“these writers don’t understand how their products solve customer problems, or are too lazy to write for buyers, they cover by explaining myriad nuances of how the product works and pepper this blather with industry jargon that sounds vaguely impressive.”
And guess what, it turns out, many people aren’t impressed with all the gobbledygook you used. You might think that the words have made your glossy brochures glossier, but your readers probably could care less. Some of the top gobbledygook phrases of 2008 includes: “innovate”, “pleased to”, “unique”, “focused on”, “leading provider”, and many more. While in 2006, top chart hits include “next generation”, “flexible” , “robust”, world class”, “scalable” , “cutting edge”, etc.
Say I want to market my home-made cookies, the worst brochure I can make will be the one that says :
“Sandy’s cookies are unique chocolate chip cookies that are focused on scalability and ease of use. The cookies’ new and improved cutting edge dough has placed Sandy’s cookies as one of the world’s best cookies according to Gartner, Inc. Crumbleabilities and textures are constantly measured in each production to ensure only best cookies are produced. Our cookies will help clients streamlining their mission critical, enterprise wide activities by increasing productivity through gastronomical delights.”
And yes, there’s no such word as crumbleabilities, that’s just some gobbledygook I made. Let the cookie crumblesss…