Marketing Lingo Defined

December 7th, 2007 by Cristina Favreau

Clients often ask me to explain marketing jargon. With so many new terms being coined, I even find myself asking what certain terms mean.

Do you find industry vernacular used way too much, expecting you to know exactly what is meant? I sure do (and I’m sure I’ve done it on my blog)!

While some expressions are self-explanatory (like email marketing: Sending electronic messages using your favorite email program, like Outlook, Gmail or Hotmail, to promote your business and services), other sayings are not so evident (like drip marketing).

So I’ve taken it upon myself  to (attempt to) describe marketing terms in everyday language, in a new blog series called Marketing Lingo Defined.

I already have a long list of special terms and expressions particular to marketing that I’ll be defining, but if there’s a term you’d like me to explain first, please let me know by leaving a comment.

It’s finally time to demystify obscure and often pretentious marketing language marked by circumlocutions and long words…. Ummm… I mean, it’s finally time to define marketing in plain English!

Category Marketing Lingo Defined | Comments

  • gigipendleton
    Two words that are horribly misused in marketing -- and in business in general, particularly in job descriptions -- are "drive" and "leverage." I never quite know what someone means when they use these terms anymore, but it always seems like the sentence is missing something. For example, "Must be able to drive sales. . . . " Drive sales where? I think they mean to say, "Must be able to drive sales up," right? Or maybe, "Must be able to drive up comsumer response, thereby increasing sales." Same thing with leverage -- when I read it in a sentence, 9 times out of 10, I'm left thinking there are words missing, or that the writer really should have used a different word. For example:
    "Leverage your time and marketing dollars and enter into joint ventures with other businesses," should actually begin, "Make the most of your time and marketing dollars . . .". There's a book called "Facebook Marketing: Leverage Social Media to Grow Your Business." It seems like it should be called "Leveraging the Power of Social Media . . . "

    You can't leverage social media, but you can leverage its power -- right?
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