Marketing Defined and Writing to be Understood

A reader asked me to expand on my comments about reader comprehension by providing an example. O.K.

I ran across a couple of interesting definitions of "marketing"

"Marketing: find out what your customers want and then give it to them."
Tim Cohn, Marketing Consultant and Author

"Marketing and innovation are the two chief functions of business. You get paid for creating a customer, which is marketing. And you get paid for creating a new dimension of performance, which is innovation. Everything else is a cost center."
Peter Drucker

"Marketing is the art of getting one or more people to sit up, pay attention, and take action."
Bruce Allen

A general definition of marketing:
The act or process of buying and selling in a market.

Another marketing definition:
The commercial functions involved in transferring goods from producer to consumer.

The definitions are real -- take them for what they mean to you.

The writing styles are real too. Take a look at the definitions again and think about how you comprehended each statement. I imagine that just like me, you had to re-read a few of them just to get on top of what the writer is saying.

Do your readers a favor and write with simple and friendly words. Don't make your audience work to comprehend your message!