What does... "third party understandable" actually mean?
Benno Maggi explains in his column "What does... actually mean?" he explains terms from the field of marketing and communication. This time he explains the term "third party understandable".
Finally, a German word can be described here that is not yet in the Duden, but is nevertheless already used very frequently. This is usually reserved for Anglicisms. Hopefully, however, this word will never make it into the Duden, because that would be somehow too shameful for our industry.
The interpretation of the word "third party understandable" is simple. Understandable for third parties. The reason for its use, however, seems meaningless at first glance, but very revealing at second. In the past, messages simply had to be understandable, not understandable to third parties. Best of all for those whom it concerned: in church the faithful, on television the viewers or on a billboard the customers.
Who are the third parties, please?
When concepts or campaigns are returned from management with the comment that they are not comprehensible to third parties, marketing managers and their agencies are usually at a loss. After all, they learn the classic sender-receiver model in their training courses. Who are these third parties who do not understand?
If the cooperation between the agency and the marketing department is working well, the unknowing management is usually identified as this third party and complained about. In the case of less well-functioning cooperation, the comment is simply forwarded to the agency with a request for optimization.
What rarely happens, but would be important: That as a third party the customer is meant, to whom the product or service should be sold in the end. Therefore often also called "end customer". Which is a doubly wrong formulation. It is always proclaimed everywhere: Customer first or more old-fashioned, the customer is king. But it doesn't seem to be about the customer at all. In first place comes the ME, regardless of whether this belongs to the agency, the marketing and communications managers or the management. In second place are always the others from this triumvirate and only in third place the "end customer". In other words, the person for whom the whole thing is intended. This also clarifies the question of who the "third parties" are for whom what we are doing here is not comprehensible.
* Benno Maggi is co-founder and CEO of Partner & Partner. He has been eavesdropping on the industry for over 30 years, discovering words and terms for us that can either be used for small talk, pomposity, excitement, playing Scrabble, or just because.
