Introduction

From the original book, April 2020. Historical biography and references preserved as published.

The last thing I ever expected to attempt to write was a dictionary.

As I started to write it, it turned out not to be a dictionary at all. A dictionary provides meanings. With my newest project, I am attempting to offer meaning.

How can you understand marketing today from a practical perspective? When you see a word like “impression,” “programmatic,” or “unique,” what does it mean? What is the significance? Do these terms make any sense at all?

One approach is to define terminology with the authority of a governing body, like editors of an established dictionary or officers of an industry trade association. Another is to crowdsource ideas, such as in a wiki. Wikipedia offers definitions for most of the terms and concepts that follow; at times, I’ve cross-checked my work with Wikipedia and cited the crowd’s wisdom when appropriate.

Both the authoritative and crowdsourced approaches feel too distant and inert. They must settle on language that pleases everyone.

Instead, I use the rough format of a dictionary to share more personal perspectives – perspectives that may please no one. They are completely unauthoritative. They are biased. Experts in their field who understand any given concept better than I do will quickly conclude that I have no business writing any of this.

That’s a fair assessment.

For much of my career, I’ve been the dumbest person in the room trying to keep up, and in the process, I’ve been connecting concepts and ideas in ways that give the smarter people around me a different point of view. Occasionally, that even leads to insight (see also: Insights). It’s been my modus operandi for two decades in practically every meeting I’ve attended, column I’ve written, and conference where I’ve spoken.

When it works, it’s like a moment out of the end of an episode of Columbo. When it doesn’t, there’s little harm done, as I remain the dumbest one in the room. It’s a form of thinking out loud, learning by doing, and having fun trying, flipping the focus from the destination to the journey.

Thank you for joining me on this journey, one that is just getting started.

The inspiration for this guide struck as I finished reading Benjamin Dreyer’s eponymous Dreyer’s English. His opus is a compendium of ruminations (he would hate this overwrought syllable-retching) about the written word based on his illustrious (not illustrated) copy editing career (or is it copy-editing career?). While I read it (past tense), it struck me how much the marketing field could use its own version.

Vain and foolhardy as I am, I sat down and started writing Berky’s Marketing English.

The first entry was “Impressions,” and I started defining it as “a metric that never determines if a unit of advertising made an impression on someone.” This is not how marketing guides are written, so I kept writing. “Betty White” and “La Croix” soon joined “influencer marketing” and “virtual reality.” Even with 115 entries here, there is much more to write.

Through Upwork, I encountered the talents of Isabela Flores de Moura. Based in Porto Alegre, Brazil, her soul is far older – perhaps centuries older – than her years, and she immediately created a visual style and identity for this guide that added a dimension to it. Her passion for this project continually inspired me to keep working on it, and I can only hope this is the first collaboration of many. I would love nothing more to introduce you to her if you are seeking such a collaborator as well.

I welcome hearing thoughts on what other terms should be defined and enshrined here. If you think your idea is too obvious, remember that you are smarter than me, and I am trying to keep up.

Enjoy this one person’s attempt to find meaning in marketing and share it with others.

David Berkowitz Principal of the Serial Marketer consultancy and founder of the Serial Marketers community April 2020