Perhaps a love for language and the ability to do sums are the main reasons for my career in marketing. But the language of marketing continues to fascinate – and frustrate me.

Marketing people seem to be particularly receptive to using language and ideas – many introduced by the latest airport business lounge best seller – as a type of faux science which they use to conceal shallow thinking, claiming their approach delivers better campaigns & therefore justifies higher fees – (no problem with higher fees if grounded on genuinely intelligent work).

‘Engage’ has suddenly, apparently, become the key to successful marketing campaigns – interesting word ‘engage’ – a sign of personal commitment, a busy telephone line, an encounter in battle, a conversation. But surely marketing campaigns have always been designed to ‘engage’ – I can’t quite remember the last time we were asked to produce a campaign which would alienate the people we wanted to feel or do something as a result of that campaign.

‘Nudge’ is another recent favourite – at the beginning of 2011, the COI wrote to agency associations asking them to canvass their members for thoughts on how communications might be effected in a time where our Government has decided to ‘Nudge’ people…hot on the tails of Obama.

Of course, engage and nudge are not alone – who can forget presentations littered with paradigms; synergy; tipping points; herds; word of mouth; one-to-one / relationship / contextual / buzz/ smart /action marketing…and only last week ‘social media currency’ – used to describe the number of ‘likes’ on Facebook…good grief!

In the not too distant future I’m expecting to read that ‘in a changing world, successful campaigns will be designed to nudge consumers over tipping-points with engaging messages’ – hopefully that’s when someone will declare ‘that’s enough – please get back to marketing basics.’