The Hawthorne Media Glossary
Key Terms from Marketing, Media and Culture

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T

Tipping Point
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The phrase tipping point or angle of repose is a sociology term that refers to that dramatic moment when something unique becomes common.

The phrase was coined by Morton Grodzins, who studied integrating neighborhoods in the early 1960s. He discovered that most of the white families would remain in the neighborhood so long as the comparative number of black families remained very small. But, at a certain point, when "one too many" black families arrived, the remaining white families would move out en masse in a process known as white flight. He called that moment the "tipping point." The idea was expanded and built upon by Thomas Schelling in 1972.

Trade Show
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A trade fair (or trade show) is an exhibition organised so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their new products and services. Generally trade fairs can not be open to the public and can only be attended by company representatives (members of the trade) and members of the press.

Examples of trade fairs are CeBIT and COMDEX (computer industry) and Photokina (photographic industry).

U

Undercover marketing
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Undercover marketing is a subset of guerrilla marketing where the consumer doesn't realize they're being marketed to. For example, a marketing company might pay an actor or socially adept person to use a certain product visibly and convincingly in locations where target consumers congregate. While there, the actor will also talk up their product to people they befriend in that location, even handing out samples if it is economically feasible. The actor will often be able to sell consumers on their product without those consumers even noticing it.

V

Viral Marketing
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Viral marketing and viral advertising refer to marketing techniques that seek to exploit pre-existing social networks to produce exponential increases in brand awareness, through viral processes similar to the spread of an epidemic. It is word-of-mouth delivered and enhanced online; it harnesses the network effect of the Internet and can be very useful in reaching a large number of people rapidly.

Viral marketing is sometimes used to describe some sorts of Internet-based stealth marketing campaigns, including the use of web logs, seemingly amateur web sites, and other forms of astroturfing to create word of mouth for a new product or service. Often the ultimate goal of viral marketing campaigns is to generate media coverage via "offbeat" stories worth many times more than the campaigning company's advertising budget.

The term "viral advertising" refers to the idea that people will pass on and share cool and entertaining content; this is often sponsored by a brand, which is looking to build awareness of a product or service. These viral commercials often take the form of funny video clips, or interactive Flash games, images, and even text.

Viral marketing is popular because of the ease of executing the marketing campaign, relative low-cost (compared to direct mail), good targeting, and the high and rapid response rate. The main strength of viral marketing is its ability to obtain a large number of interested people at a low cost. The main weakness is that sometimes messages can look like e-mail spam and this creates the risk of damaging the brand. The 'from' and 'subject' lines then become very important in order to remedy this problem (Tell-A-Friend principle); for example, when sending a link or webpage, sometimes the subject line is "(Name of person here) thought you would like this page". The receiver will then recognize the name and know that it is not unsolicited.

The most difficult task for any company is to acquire and retain a large customer base, through the use of the internet and the effects of e-mail advertising the B2C efforts have a greater impact then many other tools of marketing. E-mail generates 15% of online sales in North America and is on the increase. Viral marketing is a technique that avoids the annoyance of spam mail; it encourages users of a specific product or service to tell a friend. This would be a positive word-of-mouth recommendation. One of the most successful perspectives found to achieve this customer base is the integrated marketing communication IMC perspective.

Vlog
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A vlog or video blog is a blog (short for weblog) which uses video as the primary content; the video is linked to within a videoblog post and usually accompanied by supporting text, image, and additional meta data to provide context.

Blogs often take advantage of RSS for syndication to other web sites and aggregator software (rss readers). With the inclusion of RSS Enclosures, which provides the ability to attach media files to a feed item/blog post, it is possible to bypass the mainstream intermediaries and openly distribute media to the masses via the Internet. Vlogs are beginning to take advantage of this technological development, just as audioblogs have in recent years via the podcast boom.

VOIP
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Voice over Internet Protocol (also called VoIP, IP Telephony, Internet telephony, and Digital Phone) is the routing of voice conversations over the Internet or any other IP-based network. The voice data flows over a general-purpose packet-switched network, instead of traditional dedicated, circuit-switched voice transmission lines.

Protocols used to carry voice signals over the IP network are commonly referred to as Voice over IP or VoIP protocols.

Voice over IP traffic may be deployed on any IP network, including ones lacking a connection to the rest of the Internet, for instance on a private building-wide LAN.

W

Webinar
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A Webinar is a seminar which is conducted over the World Wide Web. It is a type of web conferencing. In contrast to a Webcast, which is transmission of information in one direction only, a webinar is designed to be interactive between the presenter and audience. A webinar is 'live' in the sense that information is conveyed according to an agenda, with a starting and ending time. In most cases, the presenter may speak over a standard telephone line, pointing out information being presented on screen, and the audience can respond over their own telephones, preferably a speakerphone.

WiFi
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Wi-Fi (sometimes written Wi-fi, WiFi, Wifi, wifi) is a trademark for sets of product compatibility standards for wireless local area networks (WLANs). Wi-Fi, short for "Wireless Fidelity", was intended to allow mobile devices, such as laptop computers and personal digital assistants (PDAs) to connect to local area networks, but is now often used for Internet access and wireless VoIP phones. Desktop computers can use Wi-Fi too, allowing offices and homes to be networked without expensive wiring. Many computers are sold today with Wi-Fi built-in, others require adding a Wi-Fi network card. Other devices, such as digital cameras, are sometimes equipped with Wi-Fi.

Wiki
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A wiki (IPA: /wi?ki?/, "weekee" [1]) is a web application that allows users to add content, as on an Internet forum, but also allows others (often completely unrestricted) to edit the content. The term Wiki also refers to the collaborative software used to create such a website (see Wiki software). In essence, the wiki is a vast simplification of the process of creating HTML pages, and thus is a very effective way to exchange information through collaborative effort.

Wiki with an upper case W and WikiWikiWeb are both used to refer specifically to the first wiki ever created (25 March 1995). The WikiWikiWeb is, like the Portland Pattern Repository, a section of a Portland, Oregon, web site operated by the company Cunningham & Cunningham. Wiki proponents often spell 'wiki' with a lower case "w". The name is based on the Hawaiian term wiki, meaning "quick," "fast," or "to hasten" (Hawaiian dictionary). Sometimes wikiwiki (or Wikiwiki) is used instead of wiki (Hawaiian dictionary). Also, ??w?w? in the Hawaiian is used in place of wiki, Wiki, wikiwiki or Wikiwiki.

Word of Mouth
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Word of mouth is the passing of information by verbal means, especially recommendations, but also general information, in an informal, person-to-person manner, rather than by mass media, advertising, organized publication, or traditional marketing. Word of mouth is typically considered a spoken communication, although web dialogue, such as blogs, message boards and emails are often now included in the definition.

Word of mouth promotion is highly valued by marketers. It is felt that this form of communication has valuable source credibility. People are more inclined to believe word of mouth promotion than more formal forms of promotion because the communicator is unlikely to have an ulterior motive (ie.: they are not out to sell you something) (for evidence as to the conditions under which word-of-mouth communication is effective, see Grewal et al. 2003). Also people tend to believe people that they know. In order to manufacture word of mouth communications, marketers use publicity techniques. See Word of mouth marketing.

There is some overlap in meaning between word of mouth and the following: rumour, gossip, innuendo, and hearsay; however the negative connotations of these words are not included in the meaning of word of mouth.

X

Y

Z

Zeitgeist
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Zeitgeist is originally a German expression that means "the spirit (Geist) of the time (Zeit)". It denotes the intellectual and cultural climate of an era. (collective consciousness, collective unconscious in psychology)

The concept of zeitgeist goes back to the German philosopher Johann Gottfried Herder. However the word itself was coined by the philologist Christian Adolph Klotz in 1769, when he translated the Latin genius seculi (genius meaning guardian spirit and saeculum century) into the German zeitgeist.

Zeitgeist has achieved a unique status among German loanwords in other tongues, having found an entrance into English, Spanish, Japanese and even Dutch.

It is a term that refers to the ethos of a cohort of people, that spans one or more subsequent generations, who despite their diverse age and socio-economic background experience a certain worldview, which is prevalent at a particular period of socio-cultural progression. Zeitgeist is the experience of a dominant cultural climate that defines, particularly in Hegelian thinking, an era in the dialectical progression of a people or the world at large.