Bravo for Buzzwords

From time to time a journalist becomes fed up with the buzzword-laden press releases that constantly arrive in their Email inbox and decides to take action. The latest to chide technology vendors and their public relations agencies for too much jargon is the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Worthen.

(Thanks to Steve Lunceford at BearingPoint for turning me on to Worthen’s article.)

Here is his assault on Oracle for a release announcing their new offering “designed to simplify the lifecycle management of complex IP-based services.”

Oracle’s Hot New Offering: Gobbledygook
http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/02/08/oracles-hot-new-offering-gobbledygook/

While I find Oracle’s release suffering from a bit too much industry mumbo-jumbo, I am 100 percent comfortable standing up in defense of the buzzword.

For starters, in the technology markets words like enterprise, best of breed, solution and integrated actually mean something to customers, prospects and investors. In all marketing and promotion, it’s critical to talk in the language of the audiences a company targets.

Moreover, technology vendors have an expectation the journalists, analysts and bloggers who cover their industry have an understanding of the meaning of most of these buzzwords. It is typically business writers like Worthen who have a jargon meltdown.

The goal with a press release (or any form of writing for that matter) is to communicate in a clear and concise manner, while engaging the audience.

Here are two exceptional press releases from Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) client Tellabs. Full disclosure: Strategic does write many of these releases, yet it is the folks at Tellabs who champion a more creative approach to their written communications.


Ongoing fall in viewer retention overshadows 36% mobile TV growthSurvey of 34,000 mobile users reveals revenue potential for operators if quality and reliability improve
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/nr021208.shtml


Tellabs® 8607 Access Switch coming soon to cell sites near youNewest access superstar delivers video, data and voice to world's smallest screens
http://www.tellabs.com/news/2008/nr021108.shtml