Somewhere in the late ’80s or early ’90s, a group of freshly minted MBAs cracked open Pandora’s box and out spilled the alphabet soup: KPI, P&L, ROI, EBITDA, CRM. Suddenly, business conversations weren’t conversations anymore—they were spelling bees. Instead of asking how the business was doing, people asked about the P&L. Instead of saying “we should measure success,” they insisted on KPIs. It was progress, I suppose, if progress means you need a decoder ring to survive a Monday staff meeting.

But MBAs only set the table. The internet cooked the feast. Once email took over, the flames were fanned. And then came texting, Slack, Teams, Snapchat—each encouraging us to talk faster, shorter, smaller. Now we have acronyms for acronyms. Your kid sends you “SMH” and you don’t know if they’re mad, confused, or having a small seizure. Your client rattles off a list of industry-specific abbreviations that sound suspiciously like a bad Scrabble hand.

I’ll admit… without Google, I’d be helpless. If you dropped me into a meeting without Wi-Fi, I’d sit there blinking politely as acronyms rumble past like a herd of bison. Every once in a while, I might nod, pretending to understand, but really I’d be thinking, “Is EBITDA a financial metric or the name of that gal in Star Wars with the striped head-tentacles… she might even be a Jedi? Hmmm. Yes, I’m certain. She’s a Jedi.” By the end of the meeting, I’d have enough letters written down to win a triple-word score, but not the slightest clue what anybody actually said.

Here’s the real problem: Acronyms are supposed to save time, but in practice, they waste it. Think about it. “To be honest” is four syllables. “T-B-H” is three. Did we shave off so much effort that society is better for it? Or have we just convinced ourselves that character count equals clarity? Somewhere between OMG and FOMO, we threw the baby out with the bathwater—and that baby was actually the real communication.

Acronyms are the symptom of a bigger problem: We’ve forgotten how to tell stories. Stories require words, rhythm, and a little patience. Acronyms require nothing but anxiety and the faint hope your audience is in on the code. Which means most of the time, nothing is communicated. We’re all busy transmitting signals, but no one’s really connecting.

That’s where a good marketing partner comes in. You don’t need another acronym in your life—you need a translator. Someone who can take your KPIs, your EBITDA, your CRM strategy, and turn them back into English. Better yet, into a story. A story your audience actually wants to hear—one they’ll remember long after the alphabet soup has gone cold.

At Ostrom Creative, we believe in telling stories that make people stop scrolling, lean in, and nod along. We trade in clarity, not in shorthand. Because if your brand can’t be understood without a decoder ring, it won’t be remembered at all.

PS. Some acronyms are ok.

— Tom
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