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How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

The great thing about Marketing is that you get to use words and phrases that normal human beings never use. Here's an example from over a decade ago:

XYZ fit the installed base of web browsers we were targeting, and worked well in an awareness space.

I have no idea what an "awareness space" is.

The punch line? This sentence came from a person whose title was "Director of Communication"!

Published Thursday, March 29, 2007 7:00 AM by oldnewthing
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# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:21 AM by Daniel Garlans

Interestingly enough (as a coincidence at least from my perspective), on Tuesday during my Introduction to Marketing class at university we learned about some key aspects of targeting customers for new products, and "Awareness" is the first step in the 'social adoption of innovation' process... So the phrase probably made PERFECT sense to the person, and probably was intended to bring along with it a whole range of other positive connotations.

I guess the failure in communications therefore came from the director forgetting that while 'basic principles' might indeed be extremely basic and easy to understand, if no one has ever taught them to you, they still don't make any sense. It'd be like talking to a non-programmer about loops and functions and interrupts; it's all basic to us, but to the outsider, not quite so much!

Still, isn't that what communications directors are supposed to think about? ;)

(and, in the end, I suppose that's probably the point you were making in the first place, making this entire comment somewhat redundant)

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 10:45 AM by JamesNT

Marketing:  The art of taking anything negative about a company or product and making it sound/look like a postitive feature.

JamesNT

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:40 AM by Dan McCarty

I have no idea what "Director of Communication" is.

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:55 AM by Miles Archer

Think of "Director of Communications" as it is 1984 style newspeak.

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 11:57 AM by Adam

Dan > Sounds like "Head of PR" to me.

But then again it could be a telephone switchboard operator - "how may I direct your call?" ;)

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 7:31 PM by ::Wendy::

the awareness space is actually the blanket that is covering discoverability,  I thought everyone knew that by osmosificationalism

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Thursday, March 29, 2007 9:02 PM by Ryan

"I can't approve this until it's been more socialized."

Figured it needed a red flag with a hammer on it?

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Friday, March 30, 2007 1:06 AM by Igor

Grouchy Smurf: "Me, I don't like marketing!"

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Friday, March 30, 2007 2:02 AM by Dewi Morgan

Back when I worked on a helpdesk, some of the dumbest support calls I ever got were from IT directors. You would expect an IT director of a large company to know how to turn on the laptop, log ni and read email... but no.

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Friday, March 30, 2007 9:17 AM by Mike

I'm a marketing guy (for better or for worse!) and even I will admit that this quote sounds like a Dilbert cartoon gone bad...

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Saturday, March 31, 2007 12:14 AM by Olivier

From what I remember in the entrepreneurial computer science course at university, selling things is a process of 4 things: AIDA, where

A stands for Awareness

I stands for Interest

D stands for Decision

A stands for Action

This is part of what is called the "sales funnel", look it up. From what I remember, this is something every salesman should know.

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Wednesday, April 04, 2007 3:49 PM by Maurits

Could you tell more about the context of that sentence... where was it uttered, who was in the room, etc.?

# re: How to talk like Marketing: The awareness space

Wednesday, April 04, 2007 5:20 PM by Murray Bowles

Did they only test it in ONE awareness space?

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