I’d fall over if I didn’t have jargon to lean on

Jim Davies didn’t pull any punches in his exposé of marketing slang did he? (DW 26 August). Having worked on both sides of the client-consultancy round table, and worn everything from white collars to black jumpers, I don’t really see what the problem is.

Jim Davies didn’t pull any punches in his exposé of marketing slang did he? (DW 26 August). Having worked on both sides of the client-consultancy round table, and worn everything from white collars to black jumpers, I don’t really see what the problem is. Language (of which jargon is as good a subset as any) makes the world go round, literally, as any consultant will tell you.

Try walking into a pitch without a PowerPoint deck brimming with brand bullseyes if you dare. Try delivering the values of a brand essence without using the words brand, value or essence. Try having breakfast with the chief executive of a utilities major without eschewing the urgent need for the FTSE 100 to attain top line growth by steadily growing consumer demand. You simply can’t, wordsmith or no wordsmith.

MBA students take an unfair brunt of the blame for extending what is frankly a very useful (conceptually and analytically) and lucrative (for the client, not

just the consultant) common language framework. After all, medical doctors and consultants use a thought process and verbal interplay that would leave most laymen cold. What’s the difference?

If Davies thinks there is a smarter phraseology for the notions of ‘core competency’ and ‘synergy’, I’m sure I am not the only one who would like to hear it. Let people say what they mean. And if they really mean ‘here’s the game plan’, let them execute it unheckled.

James Harrington

Founder

JH Design

London SW7

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