Pruning my email inbox, I’m made aware again and again of how overuse of buzzwords and phrases really bothers me. It’s my special personal problem, I know. But the word “premium” and the phrase “hand crafted” really bother me. I hardly had to go more than a few messages before encountering them both.
Premium is such a truly rare thing, and the things described as premium are not rare nor unusual. It’s like the use of the word “classy” – which, in my view, is also a negative indicator or unintentionally ironic. I drive a car that has a “Premium” trim level. There are two more trim levels above Premium. That makes no sense to me.
And “hand-crafted” (in contemprary use) says to me only that you weren’t able to fully automate the process you use to make everything as close to exactly the same as possible. In other words, there was a human involved, poor you. But you use that as a selling point as if that makes your coffee or printed t-shirt somehow more remarkable than another coffee or printed tshirt.
I’m sorry to harass you with my thoughts. I only want to push back against the copycats.
Unfortunately, there is someone, somewhere, who is going to think these terms are good idea and will launch a new campaign using them.