Buzzwords marketing

Happy Earth day fellow habitants! These days we hear a lot about the environment and topics like sustainability as our actions are taking a huge toll on the planet and many feel the urge to do something. From individuals to companies, many of us are becoming more and more aware of the pressing choices and immediate effects of our actions. But I wanted to write about something that bothered me for a long time.

Ever since I have been teaching marketing and a range of business courses, I am exposed to an infinite number of texts to stay up-to-date with the recent marketing and content strategies and to find resources written about the subject to share with my dear students. I can confidently say that I read hundreds of articles and academic work each year. Some are old, some are new. One thing I notice is the frequency of words used in these works and I wanted to point out a couple of things regarding branding strategies.

I wouldn't want to come off as a naysayer but I find the big fuss about certain words too annoying. Especially when they are used only as a marketing strategy. What drives me mad is that we oscillate between fuss and obsession with them. When you see the same words over and over, article upon article, they don’t generate the same excitement anymore. A company needs better content strategy.

It's not that I am against any of these ideas themselves but once they become popular, their meanings overinflate and you see them pass around in posts, webinars, meetings, and whatnot, only not as much in action. Suddenly, it’s all that everyone is talking about without necessarily believing in them and practising those virtues, or even know anything about them at all.

I was a student in the ’90s and I remember rolling my eyes over a reading that talked about the same thing we discussed earlier in another class, and then again in another. This is why I try to avoid using similar topics in my lectures but they are almost like an outbreak. Once a topic is popular, everyone seems to talk about it to get their fair share of the trend and to get the attention they seek. As a lecturer, it becomes harder to find unique materials for lessons.

Here are a bunch of words that everyone seems to use so copiously these days; digital marketing, digital transformation, data and big data, sustainability, AI, disruption, innovation, and disruptive innovation, and on and on the beat goes.

These terms are so overused that they would feel violated if words had feelings. Though I am a fashion industry professional, I always like to consider myself as a customer first. As a business owner, you should also look at your brand, as much as you can, as a customer to be objective.

With this point of view, ask yourself this question; when was the last time you referred to any brand as innovative? Too frequently innovation is mentioned but how many brands are actually innovative? How many products and services that you bought or used would be truly innovative (let alone being disruptive)? So why should customers feel this way? How many customers are on the lookout for innovation when they shop? Is it really relevant to the industry?

All brands provide value in one way or the other. But not necessarily something unique. And especially in fashion industry, the value propositions can overlap or be very similar as designs are based on trends and companies source their fabrics from certain suppliers, etc. I remember owning a Lewis shirt and coming across another in H&M a while later that was made from literally the same fabric, and almost in the same exact style (a checkered button-down oxford shirt).

Honestly, I cannot remember the number of times I have seen and heard the word innovation though. Even in the least relevant article about a certain business, you come across the word innovation. Everyone's talking about how it is changing the world and all which is true in some ways. However, I am curious if innovation is truly employed by people and companies or if there is much ado about nothing. Innovation does happen but not as often as it is claimed. There are certainly innovative technologies and brands but they are not in every industry and cannot be. And neither in such large numbers, nor it is needed (imagine toilet papers). Not every single company out there is innovative. But reading about it, you wonder why we are still not living on Mars by now. I am not going to go into detail and list examples of companies or technologies that are truly innovative case by case. This is not the point.

Another such word is sustainability. If you are somewhat active on LinkedIn, you will know what I am talking about. Every other company says how much they care about it and what they have been doing to be more sustainable whereas, in fact, they are just entering the realm of sustainability. More knowledgeable among us will confirm that in order to be truly sustainable, you have to have all operational cycles in your business to comply with these rules to be considered truly sustainable. From the raw materials grown in the fields to the final moment when your products end up in your customers’ wardrobes, every step of the way should be sustainable so that a fashion brand can be deemed so. Otherwise, it is merely a claim that yours is a sustainable fashion brand.

I started taking a course on www.futurelearn.com about sustainability about 5 weeks ago. It is an excellent initiative by the University of Arts London (UAL) and Kering, the luxury fashion group. I enrolled in the course not because the word is highly popular or because I can brag about it to my clients but to sincerely learn about the topic and become a better customer in the first place before being a better-skilled fashion consultant. By the way, I definitely recommend it to anyone who is in or out of the fashion industry.

Back to the point... As the course kept going, I realised how some companies, such as Kering Group and brands under the group, are taking this really seriously. Meanwhile, countless others are just riding the buzzword wave to surf the customer seas politically. Sustainability is one topic that especially young consumer groups are more and more aware of, as we know from the data. Younger people care more about it as it involves our future and the future of our planet. Eventually, some companies have the dollar signs in their eyes drooling to tap into this consumer base.

However, similar to trends, buzzwords should be treated carefully. Benefiting from the latest buzz might seem like a good idea. A shortcut to marketing your brand. But eventually, the truth will out. If your claims are not met and if this is discovered, you will end up hurting your brand image and your reputation. Also, you need to beware of how branding consultants might be misguiding you for short-term gains.

To finish, here are two funny articles for more buzzwords that you might want to avoid.

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/worst-buzzwords-of-2020-111548392.html

https://www.cmswire.com/digital-marketing/the-worst-marketing-buzzwords-of-2020/