“No great thing is created suddenly.”

Why is effective communication so important? There are variety of examples and reasons to be clear and concise, but when it comes to managing major marketing campaigns, it raises the stakes considerably. In an effort to pacify its partner Intel and other suppliers, when Microsoft was preparing to launch Vista it allowed computers that weren’t entirely up to snuff to be marketed as “Vista Capable” and more capable computers to be designated “Vista Premium Ready”. Now there is a lawsuit that has  just been granted class action status over the confusion this distinction created.

Seth Godin recently made the point that its up to the communicator to be effective in the first place. If I’m not paying attention to your presentation that’s my fault, but if I’m just plain bored or confused, that’s up to the communicator. If Microsoft had done a better job and taken care of this marketing effort better in the first place, they may have avoided another lawsuit.