Because you are reading Network World, I don't have to tell you about Cisco's market power and penetration within all aspects of the network market. But how did the company get there? Cisco is the preeminent practitioner of what I call poster child marketing. It does these things itself, publicizes them massively and gains credibility with big customers that are facing the same problems.

We saw this during the bubble with the e-commerce system that Cisco rolled out. Its ability to increase productivity by taking a majority of orders over the Internet was at the cutting edge. Likewise, its ability to close the books on a multibillion-dollar enterprise within hours also was also unprecedented.

Big company CIOs sought out Cisco's CIO and CEO to find out the secret. That access and credibility resulted in major strategic deals going Cisco's way.

Now Cisco is turning its attention to security awareness, and it's a very compelling story. First, I am a huge fan of security awareness training. I think much of the hot water we find ourselves in daily could be avoided by teaching unsophisticated users to not do stupid things. A smart user community is worth more than the tightest technical defenses.

Getting there is hard, and it takes a significant commitment. But you can do it and Cisco can show you how. The company recently put together a piece that offers 10 tips for security awareness. It's great stuff, and I hate almost all the marketing I see. This piece has credibility. It puts a face (of Cisco CSO John Stewart) on an intractable problem. Most of all, it shows that security awareness training can be done. It's poster child marketing at its finest.

As you look through the tips, they seem kind of marketing-oriented. Exactly - being a security professional involves both selling and marketing. Here are the tips:

1. Get buy-in from upper management. This is self-evident but if the CEO doesn't believe, you don't have a chance.

2. Appoint the right person to lead the charge. Cisco has a well-spoken CSO and a former public relations professional to spearhead the awareness strategy.

3. Conduct extensive research. You don't know how to most effectively communicate to an audience if you don't understand them. This is Marketing 101.