Reference
Glossary
Definitions of core terms used in The Marketing Helix framework. All terms are defined in their specific usage within the model, which may differ from general marketing usage.
Core Terms
The foundational vocabulary of the model.
- Marketing Helix
- A customer behavior model describing continuous customer motion and the conditions under which marketing alignment occurs. The Marketing Helix posits that customers remain in motion: their awareness, consideration, and readiness states shifting continuously: and that marketing messages achieve alignment only when trust, relevance, and timing are simultaneously present. See The Model for a full treatment.
- Customer Motion
- The continuous change in a customer's awareness, consideration, and readiness state over time. Customer motion is the foundational observation of The Marketing Helix: customers do not wait at defined stages for brand-initiated messages to move them forward. Their cognitive position in a consideration process changes independently of brand action, influenced by incidental exposure, peer signals, and internal readiness shifts.
- Customers in Motion
- The foundational observation of The Marketing Helix: customers do not wait at funnel stages. Their readiness, context, and trust state change continuously, influenced by content encountered incidentally, peer recommendations absorbed in unmarketed contexts, and prior experiences with the brand or its category. The model is built on this observation and does not attempt to predict or control when a customer reaches a particular state.
- Alignment
- The simultaneous presence of trust, relevance, and timing that produces a pull effect toward selection. Alignment is not a gradient: partial alignment (two of three conditions met) does not produce proportional results. All three conditions must be present above their respective thresholds for the alignment mechanism to activate and signal gravity to occur.
- Funnel Model
- A linear marketing framework that assumes customer progression through fixed stages from awareness to purchase. The funnel model, originating with AIDA theory (Elias St. Elmo Lewis, 1898), assumes sequential stage progression, a single entry point, and a terminal conversion event. It is critiqued within The Marketing Helix for assuming customer stasis, excluding post-purchase behavior as a system input, and treating trust as implicit rather than as a primary variable. See Helix vs. Funnel.
The Three Forces
Trust (purple), relevance (teal), and timing (blue): each rotating in their own plane around the customer at center. Every term in this glossary connects to one or more of these forces and their interactions.
The Three Forces
Trust, Relevance, and Timing: defined.
- Trust
- The condition under which a customer permits a marketing signal into active consideration. Trust is the first gate in the alignment sequence. A message that does not pass the trust threshold is not evaluated for relevance or timing: it is dismissed before consideration begins. Trust is accumulated across prior experiences, third-party assessments, peer recommendations, and exposure to brand-produced content. See Trust.
Trust: The Permission Condition
Each interaction builds an orbit. As trust accumulates, the orbit tightens: the message moves closer. The pull is structural, generated by trust mass, not by message force.
- Relevance
- The degree to which a marketing message matches a customer's current decision state. Relevance is a relational property: not a property of the message in isolation, but of the fit between message content and the specific phase of consideration the customer currently occupies. A message accurate to an earlier or later decision stage will not achieve alignment at the customer's current state. See Relevance.
Relevance: The State-Match Condition
The customer is at center. A message is relevant only when its context intersects the customer's current decision state: the innermost ring. The outer rings represent broader context the message may occupy but not directly reach.
- Timing
- The temporal alignment between message delivery and customer readiness. Timing determines whether trust and relevance converge at the moment the customer is in an active decision state. Alignment that occurs before readiness produces marginal trust accumulation but no conversion. Alignment that occurs after readiness produces no opportunity. See Timing.
Timing: The Convergence Condition
Customer readiness rises and falls. The window (bounded by dashed markers) is the interval of active decision state. A message arriving outside the window: before or after: does not intersect readiness regardless of trust or relevance.
Mechanisms
How alignment operates: the pull mechanics.
- Signal Gravity
- The phenomenon by which highly aligned messages are drawn into a customer's active consideration by the customer's own readiness state. Signal gravity is the pull mechanism in The Marketing Helix: when trust, relevance, and timing are simultaneously present, the message is not merely delivered: it is pulled. This distinguishes aligned marketing from push-based interruption: push marketing applies external force to overcome customer inertia; signal gravity operates from within the customer's consideration state. Misaligned signals remain in orbit or fade without producing gravity. The magnitude of signal gravity at any moment is a function of the trust mass the brand has accumulated through prior aligned exposures. See Gravitational Pull.
- Gravitational Pull
- The force exerted on marketing messages by a customer's accumulated trust state and active readiness. In physical systems, gravitational force is not applied externally: it is generated by mass. In The Marketing Helix, trust functions as gravitational mass: a brand that has accumulated sufficient trust within a customer's consideration environment creates a field in which aligned messages are pulled toward selection rather than pushed against resistance. Gravitational pull increases as trust compounds through repeated aligned exposures (visibility compounding) and decreases when trust signals are absent, inconsistent, or actively contradicted. The practical implication is that brands investing in trust accumulation are building the mass that makes future alignment events more probable and more efficient: requiring less external force (spend, frequency, interruption) to produce the same alignment result. See The Full Model.
- Misaligned Signal
- A message that reaches a customer when trust, relevance, or timing conditions are not met. Misaligned signals do not produce selection. Depending on which force is absent, they may produce marginal trust accumulation (if trust and relevance are present but timing is not), no effect (if relevance is absent), or active trust reduction (if the message is perceived as intrusive or inaccurate relative to the customer's current state).
- Visibility Compounding
- The accumulative effect of repeated, aligned exposures building greater trust over time. Visibility compounding explains why The Marketing Helix is not a loop (returning to the same point) but a helix (advancing with each cycle). Each aligned interaction raises the trust baseline from which subsequent interactions operate, reducing the threshold required for future alignment events to produce selection.
- Post-Purchase Helix
- The continuation of helix dynamics after initial selection, incorporating retention, advocacy, and referral as trust inputs for new customers in motion. The Post-Purchase Helix observes that a customer who has completed a purchase does not exit the model: their post-purchase behavior (reviews, referrals, repeat engagement) produces trust signals that re-enter the helix as inputs for customers who have not yet reached alignment. See Post-Purchase Helix.