Say Goodbye to Business Buzzwords: A Quick Primer on Linguistic Puffery

Go to any corporate website these days and you'll see it: a barrage of business buzzwords. If the company sells software, you'll find enough of these high-falutin', self-satisfying business buzzwords to choke an e-horse.

How did this happen? Best as I can tell, many people think that if you can confuse someone with linguistic puffery, they'll think you are smarter. Therefore, they should trust you. In reality, when a potential customer's eyes glaze over from the barrage of these pesky business buzzwords, it benefits nobody. If you want to sell your product to someone, I recommend you speak in a language they can easily understand-preferably something English-like.

Business Buzzwords: The Main Offenders
Currently there are a set of words enjoying their time in the business buzzwords limelight. If you see any of these words, here is a quick primer on what they might actually mean.

Solution. Whatever product or service a company is trying to sell you, they will call a solution. This generic term also strips away any uniqueness a product might have. As such, a solution could be anything from satellites to snake oil.

Robust. Traditionally used to describe lettuce, robust is a gaining a new lease on life from corporations who want you to know their products have a lot of features.

Enterprise. This means "company." When sales copy is intended to flatter you, it will refer to your company an enterprise. Well, unless you are Captain Kirk, you probably don't have an enterprise; however, you may have a pretty swell company.

Realize. When you or I (or any normal person) hears the word "realize," we think it means something akin to "understand" or "comprehend." Silly us. Lately, it has fallen in to the business buzzwords bin. When a marketer says, "realize," he means "to make something real". Using this logic, you can openize a window or foldize the laundry. Go ahead; feel the power.