Internet Marketing Malarkey

Maybe it is simply a colloquialism of the area in which I grew up, but I use the term malarkey a lot - without really giving much thought to what it means.

It was second nature to me then, that when I started to get involved in e-commerce / e-marketing back in '96 I referred to it as 'this e-commerce malarkey'  or ' this e-marketing malarkey'.

So what did I mean by the term? Or more importantly - what did my audiences think I meant?

The dictionary that sits on my desk - the Collins Concise - has only a two-word definition: 'nonsense, rubbish'.

Oh dear ... that's not really what I mean when I say ' malarkey'.

A quick look online adds a little, but not much. Two definitions that are exemplars of most definitions are:

• 'Exaggerated or foolish talk, usually intended to deceive' . [thefreedictionary.com]
• 'Insincere talk: nonsense or rubbish, especially insincere talk'. [encarta.msn.com]

Another - wordwebonline.com -  is a little closer to what I think I mean when I use the word:

'Empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk'.

As does the New International Dictionary of the English Language:

'Insincere or pretentious talk or writing designed to impress the hearer or reader and usually to distract attention from ulterior motives or actual conditions'.

Interestingly, this definition dates back to the early 70s - about the time that I would have started to use the term.

With regard to my reference to 'Internet marketing malarkey'  [or e-marketing] a combination of the last two definitions helps come up with:

'Empty rhetoric or pretentious talk [or writing] designed to impress the hearer or reader'.

So why do I use this term? Well, take a look around my own web site - alancharlesworth.eu - and you will get the gist of where I am coming from.

A lot of what we call Internet marketing is really just marketing but using a different medium [my page, 'there is nothing new in marketing on the web' makes this point]. Include a big helping of 'the king' s new clothes' and a significant slice of 'in the land of the blind, the one eyed man is king' and you have my opinion on Internet marketing.

Add all this up and I think I'm right [well, right-ish] when I refer to Internet marketing as a bit of a malarkey.