Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Consultants, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Innovation, Insight, Management, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Packaging
There are some marketing terminologies that make my blood pressure pop.
One of them is ‘codify’.
Codify.
A word that implies we’ve used cutting edge science, space-age technology and Einstein intellect to explore, understand and articulate the rules of the impossible and the unexplained.
But actually all we’re talking about is looking at how some pretty blatantly obvious stuff has worked.
Hell, if you spend 2 minutes online, you’ll find most of it explained by the very people who did it in the first place.
But there we go, throwing out ego-enhancing words with our smug smiles as if we are the masters of the universe … a bastard love child of Steve Jobs and Elon Musk … when really we’re a bunch of human photocopiers who go into meltdown when the Wi-Fi goes down.
I get we’re in marketing.
I get we need to show our value to business.
But apart from the fact that means pushing brands forwards rather than copying what others are doing, the only people we end up fooling with this sort of bullshit are the sort of people we shouldn’t want to be working with in the first place.
Seriously, codify is as much as a cry for validation and acceptance as when WeWork kept claiming they were a tech company.
I get from a marketing perspective that there can occasionally be some real value in this, but as one of my mentors recently said to me – who is an individual with an incredible track record in business – if you want to make a difference to a company, make a difference to them.
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I’ve codified this is the new posting time for you. What’s my prize?
Comment by Bazza April 8, 2021 @ 8:02 amThank you for proving my point perfectly. Hahaha.
Comment by Rob April 8, 2021 @ 8:26 amI hear you though. It’s thrown around all the time and always grates. Especially when they announce it as a proclamation of genius when they’ve just read a chart.
Comment by Bazza April 8, 2021 @ 8:05 amjumped up little fucks who think theyre impressing people with their bullshit when we can all see theyre using bullshit to disguise the fact they know nothing, have done nothing and achieved nothing. theyre dumb as fuck parasites. living off people no one fucking likes or respects. twats.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:16 amWith this post and this comment, have we gone in a time machine and travelled back to this blog in 2005? I’m not complaining, it is just an observation. Maybe this is what happens when everyone is able to write and respond to posts in the beginning/middle of the day rather than late evening?
Comment by George April 8, 2021 @ 8:23 amThat sounds very very scary. Hahaha.
Comment by Rob April 8, 2021 @ 8:26 amwho the fuck cares.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:35 amI see the New Zealand effect has worn off.
Comment by John April 8, 2021 @ 8:10 amor got campbell back to when he was mildly bearable.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:14 amI’m waiting for my visa to be revoked.
Comment by Rob April 8, 2021 @ 8:27 amif anything can bring jacinda down, it’s her giving you a fucking visa.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:36 amthis is petty fucking bollocks campbell. youre best post in fucking ages.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:12 amYour last sentence is excellent. Or should I say Lee’s last sentence. ; )
Comment by George April 8, 2021 @ 8:21 amYes. I know. But you know what he’s like with credit. Which is how we’ve been able to steal all his ideas and phrases for decades. Hahaha.
Comment by Rob April 8, 2021 @ 8:28 amand dont forget the freebies you conned him out of. covid may be a fucking disaster for airlines but i bet va are still better off now theyve not handed you biz class seats for trips to the fucking supermarket.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 8:38 amFTW.
Comment by DH April 8, 2021 @ 9:03 amas per fucking usual.
Comment by andy@cynic April 8, 2021 @ 2:17 pmAn excellent assassination of mediocrity in a suit.
Comment by Lee Hill April 8, 2021 @ 7:09 pmwannabe fucking consultants. and consultants.
Comment by andy@cynic April 9, 2021 @ 7:39 am