October 23, 1997

The rose by any other name...

Companies don't have products anymore; they have "solutions." Of course, these solutions are not cheap or even inexpensive; they're "cost-effective."

Euphemisms--indirect or vague terms substituted for ones that are more direct--are invading our society. Our language has taken a turn for the worse with "preowned cars," "courtesy calls" (the ones that come in the middle of dinner asking if you want to change long-distance carriers), and the dreaded "corporate downsizing," replacing "used cars," "telemarketing," and "layoffs."

Unfortunately for designers, euphemisms have also become commonplace in our work literature. For example, we've all noticed that companies don't have products anymore; they have "solutions." Of course, these solutions are not cheap or even inexpensive; they're "cost-effective." Even in technical documentation, companies often obfuscate the information they give us, whether inadvertently or by choice. Their vague language makes you wonder if these companies are trying to hide something.

There was a time when technical companies would tell you about a product simply: Here is the product, this is what it does, here's how you get it, and this is what it costs. Now, even news releases, which are the first broad-based discussion of a new product or service, are sometimes so obscure that you can often read the entire release and still not know the product's function or the service's benefits.

Electronics vendors, in a rush to differentiate themselves from their competitors, try to impress with fancy words, rather than just describing product features. Do vendors take this approach to obfuscate their product descriptions, or do they really like using multisyllabic words? Part of our job as EDN technical editors is to dig through the words, ascertain what is really new and unique about these products, and tell you what we have discovered.

I throw out a challenge to the technical-marketing community: Discard the fancy terminology and write about your products and services in direct language that clearly describes what you're selling. If you have a product that is truly useful to the engineering community, just tell people what makes the product so good. Engineers are "to-the-point" people; they'll appreciate information that helps them do their jobs better. Then again, if vendors start using clear and direct language, maybe fewer technical-editing jobs will be available.

If any of you come across a particularly annoying nebulous product description, please send it along to me. EDN might publish your examples in a future issue.

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