Saying what you mean

Estate agents were at one time renowned for the ability to describe properties that others would consider a ruin, or tiny with such glowingly positive descriptions as 'has great potential' or 'charming bijou residence ideally located for shops/school/station'. Legislation was introduced to limit the flamboyant descriptions to have greater affinity with reality.  Marketing and PR however are not exempt from generous descriptions of their client's products. Outrageously high ticket items might be described as 'reassuringly expensive' to allay any concern that the published price is an error and to hint at a delicious sense of exclusivity. One company preferred to describe products as 'inspiringly priced' to pre-empt price objections and eliminate the risk of bargain hunters thinking they were going to get a budget priced product. One blog this week obviously felt the need to provide a series of translations for advertising agency speak. Examples of agency code speak include, 'the product as hero is old hat' and 'it blew their minds in research' translating to, 'we think the product is crap' and 'consumers think the product is crap too'. Other codes are budget related - 'it's highly campaignable' translates to 'we can make even more in production' and 'it'll work in the press' as code for 'they can't afford television'. Then there are engineers writing sales copy. They are not all as extreme as a public lecture given a few years ago by an eminent scientist whose opening line was reported as, 'let me start by assuming everyone is familiar with double differential integration'. But in general few buyers are actually interested in whether the product is a marvel of engineering excellence, instead they prefer to know that it works, is reliable and if necessary can be fixed easily if it goes wrong. Most of all they want to know what is in it for them? In short why would they consider buying the product? That's where marketing is essential, not only to ensure that the product was developed to meet a market need in the first place, but to explain in simple terms why it will enrich their lives. Working in partnership with a technical marketing agency that can speak engineering and marketing language is something that many successful businesses have recognised - and one of the reasons they are successful.