What is it with companies and jargon? Why do they feel the need to invent words that actually obscure what they are trying to say? I came across a beauty the other day made all the more amusing by its context.
A friend of mine has signed up as a mystery shopper with a couple of market research agencies. It's actually a great way of making a little (and I do mean a little) extra money if you are out and about anyway.
However, the potential assignment that landed in my friend's inbox recently had her wondering just what had happened to her brilliant career. It also sparked off a string of amusing, if somewhat childish, emails.
The research company admitted in the first line they were struggling to get takers for this assignment and went on:
"The calls involve merchandising and auditing toilet seat displays of varying sizes within a well know DIY outlet." Wonder why no-one had volunteered? Could it be that the job itself was just too ridiculous? Or could it be that the description was just plain mystifying? -
"Visiting a major DIY outlet you will work to re-planogram a toilet seat display fixture, add new products and remove a de-listed product from the display for collection at a later date by a 3rd party."
Work to re-planogram? For goodness sake. Definately a case of flushing communication down the pan methinks.
You can find out more about mystery shopping from GfK.com and about taking part in paid online surveys from moneymagpie.co.uk.
