Will “Marketingspeak” Kill Technology?

A Slashdot reader’s comments on a recent Web Services Journal essay serve as a good reminder to avoid “marketingspeak”. The WSJ article discusses problems at Sun Microsystems, and the Slashdot reader believes the company’s failings lie in marketing.

“Sun is going to fail in this decade if it does nothing but send out surveys to customers asking them to validate marketing phrases of Sun’s creation,” says the author. He adds: “If you are someone who never gets tired of hearing ‘proven,’ ‘best-of-breed,’ ‘cost-effective,’ or ‘taking the surprise out of business solutions,’ then contact Sun and demand as much of their current marketing material as they can muster.”

I’m sure we can all think of examples of this (I know I’ve written a few), where words lose their meaning because of overuse, but whether or not marketing speak will spell the death of technology is another story. Rather, I think it will just set smart companies (and intelligent marketers) apart.