Using big words in marketing copy is for the lawyers and academics. But if there's no legalese, liability or certification to worry about, why not stick with plain old words that most people can understand...?


Because I write for a living, I'm always curious to see how businesses and organizations position themselves. To marketers, focusing on the benefits far outweighs the features of any product or service, yet I must say that I often stumble across copy that doesn't make sense to me or is just too wordy. Either they're trying to impress me or they swallowed a dictionary.
Here's an example:
"We work with companies who want unassailable competitive advantage and reliable growth in profitability."
Doesn't this mean that they help companies stand out from their competitors so they can make more money? And what's with "unassailable?" I'm not a Menses member, but I do have two post-graduate degrees, and frankly, it's not a term I come across regularly. And to get really anal, "who" refers to people, so using "that" would have been correct.
Here's another I found on someone's Web site:
"ABC Software is a custom software development company specializing in the rapid development of highly maintainable and dynamic software to meet custom client software specifications. ABC attains rapid delivery through active management and focused teamwork coupled with the constant improvement of our internal processes and development methodology."
Yikes!
In the marketing world, content is king. It needs to grab you by the emotional jugular and keep you captivated. Words have power, so keeping it simple and honest works for me.