When cultural references are lost on potential customers

Businesses desperately want ways to connect with customers, and - provided that it's done tastefully - they can connect with customers by insightful references to current trends.

So someone tried to do this recently, with the following statement:

Federal CIOs are going down like Lannister banner men.

Many of you will read this sentence and either appreciate the reference, or comment that the reference is totally inappropriate.

The rest of us will sit here and go "Huh?"

For the benefit of those who, like me, are in the last category, this is from an article entitled "CIO Game of Thrones?" So once I Bing or Google the reference, I'll presumably figure out who Lannister banner men are.

"But John, you are an obvious outlier," many of you are saying. "You don't watch any TV other than sporting events, Whose Line, and Jeopardy. EVERYONE watches Game of Thrones."

And that technology machine Mashable agrees with this assessment about Game of Thrones' popularity.

As everyone learned this season on Game of Thrones, you don't need three fire-breathing dragons to dominate the competition, but it certainly helps.

That's right - EVERYONE learned this. Didn't they?

According to the network, Game of Thrones Season 7 has averaged 31 million viewers per episode – up 34% over Season 6 last year – once live, DVR, on-demand, and streaming views are all factored in.

Mind you, that's not even counting the numbers for the Season 7 finale. An all-time high of 16.5 million viewers caught the episode Sunday night.

So, follow the numbers. That season finale that everyone watched was seen by 16.5 million people. Generously assume that another 14 million or so pirated the show to get around HBO's fees. That means that around 290 million people in the United States did NOT see the Game of Thrones finale that everyone is supposedly talking about. That's 90 percent.

Well perhaps the numbers are different in specific demographics. What about IT people who love fire-breathing dragons, some chair in Croatia or wherever, and Bannister - I mean Lannister banner men? (Still haven't Binged that yet.) Maybe the percentage there will increase from 10 percent to, say, 25 percent.

Now I love obscure references more than everyone else, but I don't expect everyone to understand them when I use or misuse them. So if you want your Lannister banner men to fight fire-breathing dragons in multiples (the dragons), make sure you're not leaving your target audience behind.

Because the points DO matter.