Not literally (unless your campaign really calls for it).

Marketing has become bloated with meaningless buzzwords, outdated thinking, and false divides that do more to confuse than clarify. It’s time to get back to the essentials: aligning with business outcomes, understanding the fundamentals, and, most importantly, selling to humans.

1. Strip Away the Jargon
The worst offenders:

• B2B vs. B2C: Every business sells to humans. Whether pitching software to procurement or sneakers to teens, buyers have emotions, fears, and desires. Drop the false divide and focus on understanding people.
  
• Brand Positioning: What other positioning exists? Adding “brand” is like saying “wet water.” Positioning is inherently about the brand. Just say positioning—it’s clearer and doesn’t make you sound like a walking buzzword.
  
• Brand vs. Performance Marketing: This rivalry isn’t real. They’re complementary, not competitive. Strong brands make performance campaigns more effective. Performance drives brand growth by reaching new audiences. They’re two sides of one coin.

2. Modernize the Fundamentals
The 4Ps aren’t broken, but they’re often misused. They need strategic evolution:

• Product: Not features—solving real customer needs
• Price: Not discounts—strategic value capture
• Place: Not channels—understanding how customers actually buy
• Promotion: Not just ads—shaping perceptions for growth

Use them as strategic levers, not a lazy checklist.

3. Focus on Humans
Forget B2B/B2C—it’s all H2H (Human-to-Human). Your audience doesn’t separate “brand” from “performance.” They form one perception: What kind of company are you?

• If you’re purely transactional, you’re cold
• If you’re all fluff, you’re irrelevant
• The best marketing drives action while building connection

4. End the Victim Mentality
It’s easy to blame CEOs for not valuing marketing. “They don’t understand us.” “They just want results yesterday.” But here’s the thing: CEOs aren’t the problem—our communication is. Ironic?

When we serve up metrics like “likes” and “impressions,” we’re failing to connect marketing’s work to what CEOs care about: growth, revenue, and market share. Stop blaming the CEO and start marketing marketing. Frame your impact in business terms, not marketing buzzwords:

• Replace “brand equity” with competitive advantage.
• Replace “awareness” with market penetration.
• Replace “engagement metrics” with revenue impact.

When you shift the conversation, you shift the perception of marketing—from a cost center to a growth engine.

Finally.
Marketing should simplify, clarify, and create impact—not get lost in its own jargon.

Strip away the noise.
Focus on outcomes.
Understand humans.
Make the fundamentals work harder.

What marketing noise will you strip away first?