What's the difference, if any, between "hit the mark" and "hit the spot"? They're defined everywhere very much along the same Lines, that is "have the desired effect, be successful".
Do you use them differently, and if yes, what makes you pick one over the other?
The only definition that marks one out from the other comes from Longman, defining "hit the spot" as:
informal to have exactly the good effect that you wanted, especially when you are hungry or thirsty
Following up on Kristina Lopez's brief comment above regarding "hit the spot," I offer a couple of relevant definitions from Christine Ammer, The American Heritage Dictionary of Idioms, second edition (2012). First, for "hit the spot," Ammer offers this:
hit the spot Give total satisfaction, as in This beer really hits the spot. This expression gained enormous currency with a 1930s advertising jingle in which a popular soda was said to hit the spot. {Slang; mid-1800s}
The popular soda in question was Pepsi-Cola, and you can see a cartoon/advertisement featuring the jingle here.
Second, Ammer has this entry for "hit the bull's-eye," which she views as being interchangeable with "hit the mark" (and with "hit the nail on the head"):
hit the bull's-eye Also hit the mark or the nail on the head. Be absolutely right, as in ... Jane hit the mark with her idea for shuffling personnel, ... The round black center of a target has been called a bull's-eye since the 17th century; mark similarly alludes to a target; and the analogy to driving home a nail by hitting it on the head dates from the 16th century.
So there is really no significant overlap in the idiomatic use of the two expressions. A hot fudge sundae right about now might hit the spot, but a reminder from my health-conscious spouse that I shouldn't order one hits the mark.
