The Science of Marketing

While I much rather be golfing, the fact of the matter is it’s February in New England. That means that we have to rely on our second distraction of choice – skiing. This distraction led to a discussion and the inspiration for this post. A former colleague of mine (let’s call him "Tony") is planning an early March ski trip and e-mailed me to see if I was interested: "I’m thinking of Waterville Valley or Stratton. But, I’m leaning toward Stratton because it is bigger." Having climbed the New England Hundred Highest mountains, I know that Waterville (aka, Mount Tecumseh) is bigger than Stratton. And, by "bigger", I mean higher – Tecumseh is 4003′ and Stratton is 3940′. However, Tony had another "bigger" in mind. He meant the number of trails. According to their web sites, Stratton has 90 and Waterville has 52.

What Tony intended to say (more trails) was misinterpreted (higher elevation) by me. In fact, I asked someone else what they thought if I said "Stratton is bigger than Waterville" and he said "more popular". In communications, words such as "bigger" are not always better because, if not modified, they can convey different ideas to different people.

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