Most of my dozen readers engineers or managers actively involved in manufacturing or production. But a number are marketing people. This post is sort of to explain to the latter the attitudes of the former.

My friend Walt has a “PR Wall of Shame.” Sometimes every editor feels the same. Press releases often try too hard to convince us that something is important. I write another blog on spiritual living where I’ve been discussing simplicity. A good press release could practice some of that. Instead of saying “fastest,” stating the actual speed is much a more powerful message to engineers.

Try these words lifted from a recent press release:

 

highly experienced 
unprecedented customer service
significant investments in resources
unprecedented value
Vice President, Best-in-Class Product 
quickly and definitively acted 
unique opportunity
unparalleled knowledge
extensive market knowledge and expertise
leveraging vast industry tenacity

 

They must have fallen in love with the word “unprecedented.” I don’t see that one often. But I love the marketing hype that is now in titles–vice president of best-in-class products. I don’t think I could give out that business card with a straight face.

None of those modifiers add any value to the statements other than to try to get the reader to think that this is really great stuff. This might work if you are writing to the readers of Seventeen magazine. Or E. But not to professionals.

A famous man once said, “Let your yes be yes and your no be no.” I learned this 30 years ago–how to write about technical ideas with simplicity and (hopefully) power. Turned into a career. I bet it could for marketing people, too. 😉

 

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