PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT - 3(+1) marketing books, 12 insights and 4 extras from 2023 to help you with your marketing in 2024.
As we head into the new calendar year, obviously with reinvigorated with eternal optimism and plans of growth (right?), it may be useful to check out a couple of these bits...
Hello, and a belated Happy New Year to you!
May I start by wishing you a great 2024 and thanking you for coming back to read this. Now my 2nd anniversary since penning my opener and now in the 3rd year of Front of Mind. exciting stuff!
Its almost as if I am finally nailing this consistency thing. My hope again, is that I can, for your benefit and for mine, do 10 posts (with a floating month off, likely August, but that said March is looking spicy timewise, let’s see) with a neat December wrap.
The hope with this is always to help new marketeers learn and experienced ones learn and recap on marketing principles, with a nod to things that are happening around, all while ensuring we don’t get distracted. Last year I pointed out some reading and resources you could look at. This time around, albeit not as comprehensive, I do want to build on some reading I have done this year, some seminal book titles and from folk I truly respect, with key takeaways for those who won’t/can’t read, in the hope we have a great year all round. With the new IPA Bellwether report released this week suggesting marketing budget growth at its best for almost 10 years, I say it is time for optimism!
To caveat, these are not reviews as I am no book critic; I have oodles of respect for fully published authors and with every chance that I too one day will write one, I am aware of what goes into it, the discipline, the research, the editing. I released a relatively short eBook 3 years ago; Back to Basics (which in hindsight, as happy as I was with much of the content and the excellent contributors, was missing a couple of key up front chapters on research/orientation, but that’s more my own irritation), but even then the time it took to corral, write/review was wild! Shout if you want a PDF copy by the way! They all serve purposes and have areas of value, so let’s assume they are all 5 star…
The main marketing books I completed in the last 12 months include the very late to the party (on my end) marketing royalty How Brands Grow by Professor Byron Sharp, the excellent collection of essays in Les Binet and Sarah Carter’s How Not to Plan; 66 Ways to Screw it Up, and Richard Shotton’s excellent follow up to the Choice Factory, The Illusion of Choice. I also read a wild card book by Sam Conliffe, Be More Pirate. I’ll explain. And a few other bits too. This is not a pitch from me to read them, but more to reflect on the key areas you can learn/consider.
Let’s get stuck in…
#1- DISTINCTIVE BRAND ASSETS, AND MENTAL AND PHYSICAL AVAILABILITY (c/o Professor Byron Sharp, How Brands Grow)
So we start with the best-known messiah of the Ehrenberg-bass Institute. Many a more seasoned reader will already be aware and this one may be granny-suck-eggs territory, but there’s 3 fundamentals that so many in marketing alarmingly don’t think about, especially in a world of seductive niche targeting. Professor Sharp’s marketing science divides opinions, not on the findings themselves but on more the fact it is a science. However you cannot take away the breadth and the comprehensive research that went into this with some helpful visuals! The big 3 I will always remember from this :
1. Double Jeopardy - Basically you’re up against it. I discussed this briefly in my Small Business marketing post last year, but the duality of setbacks comes from both the larger businesses doing better i.e. selling more, and being more available, in mind (see sub-point 3) so brand ‘loyalty’ increases. Also switcher volumes are constant, therefore a greater percentage of small business customer base is volatile. The rich-typically-get-richer type thing. Understand this (bleak) reality first off.
2. Distinctive Brand Assets - Codify Codify Codify. Be consistent, Not getting into distinctiveness v differentiation, (they’re both right and have their own intrinsic value and purpose) but the key thing here is to be memorable with unique characteristics i.e. distinctive. Your colour palette and font. Your logo and tone of voice, Your sound and smell. They all contribute to mental availability (again point 3)…
3. Physical & Mental Availability - They are both crucial for brand growth and management. Both playing their part to come together to create memory structures in buyers’ heads, so ultimately, more people recall them and buy their stuff. Whilst the physical availability is ensuring the distribution and visibility is there, the mental availability is created by a combination of both the constant physical reminders and the distinctive features of the brand, This is what matters. Also memory structures aren’t just creating memory, but for your brand! There was a well recalled ad for a US beer brand (Miller I think) however the brand wasn’t that memorable, and despite the ad being funny/liked, it drove competitor sales. Maintaining brand association is key.
#2. DEBUNKING PLANNING MISCONCEPTIONS (with How Not to Plan, Les Binet & Sarah Carter)
According to my Goodreads, this was the longest time it took me to read a book ever (apparently I started it in July 2020 and finished in January 2023, a solid 2.5 year effort). I attribute that to spending time on each one rather than my clinical ability for distraction of course! There’s so many but these stood out. We are talking 2-3 page chapters, reflective actions and case studies, so I tried to really consider each one...
1. RESEARCH (chapter - ‘When not to be rigorous’) - generally people put too much rigour into where they shouldn’t and not enough where they should. E.g. plan more at the beginning and end of the campaign (e.g. sales data, market research, audience size at start, measurement and effectiveness at the end). But rather people get deep and intellectualise/formalise the messy less important mid part too much e.g. brand hierarchies.
2. CREATIVE/COMMS (chapter - ‘Humour DOES not sell’) - “to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, marketing is too important to be taken seriously” and they remind us that sometimes we all take things a little too seriously with our processes, our customer journeys and so on. We are minded that ‘seriousness seriously inhibits creativity’. hell yeah, and more pertinently the output should have more levity; too much seriousness can make the marketing less effective, and charmless advertising can actually raise our defences, therefore lower net sales and profits. Have a laugh!
3. MEDIA - (chapter - Waste IS not Good’) - a crucial reminder in the overtargeting culture we have. They rightly point out that ‘wastage’ has become the bad word amongst efficiency circles, and there is a place for that. However, they literally call ‘Bullshit’ on the recently accepted notion that online media is cheaper and more cost effective with less wastage etc. They further debunk wastage, showing the relative commercials costs on say TV v DM, and how VW advertise for future buyers, not those buying now, the latter of which efficiency is obsessed with! There are also wider cultural impacts, social proof, and well advertised brands will have the effect of deriving value and meaning. So yes, proceed with caution but create waste where you can!
#3. UNDERSTANDING HUMAN BIASES IN YOUR MARKETING ACTIVATION (with The Illusion of Choice by Richard Shotton)
I am a big fan ofthis area, and will definitely write about it more in the future. Behavioural Science for brands has its detractors. But I have worked with clients, especially public sector ones, where behaviour changeover the short-to-long term is the objective, so I have seen it in action. Other proponents of it like Rory Sutherland and his Ogilvy Consulting’s Behavioural Science unit, as well as Richard focus on things to help your efforts based on small experiments. The goal is to really try these tests yourself, but 2-3 thoughts/findings that surprised me pleasantly and can be used in a positive way :
1. Parity in reward (chapter ‘Fairness’) - this is the perfect summary of how petty and jealous humans can be by nature. And indeed monkeys with cucumbers. My favourite example is from some researchers in Chicago that offer to to pay a group of participants $7 to help with a political study. 72% agreed to it. However another crew were offered $8, yet only 54% agreed. Why?? Because the 2nd lot had it framed differently; they were told that another group who did it got $10. Wasn’t fair of course. Think how fairness can be applied, from fair pricing, to competing for customers who have been treated unfairly. If prices are higher it is ‘because’ of something too.
2. Status elevates by breaking convention (chapter - ‘The Red Sneakers Effect’) - by being different, breaking convention and not confirming, this is a good thing. On the back of a study by Francesca Gino from Harvard Business School, concluding that professors more casually dressed were seen as 14% more competent that those smartly dressed, summarises it well : ‘since nonconformity often has a social cost, observers may infer that a nonconforming individual is in a powerful position that allows her to risk the social costs of nonconformity without fear of losing her place in the social hierarchy’. Fear not in your pursuit of a distinctive brand!
3. Making things difficult (Chapter 3) - This defies a lot of ‘best practice’ in the marketing space. Making it easy to buy is an absolute I agree with, especially with web customer experience. One click Apple Pay checkout please! But that is not what we are talking about here. By at first making things difficult, a 2nd more appealing option can drive purchase or buy-in. Robert Cialdini supports this with his studies, and Shotton opens the chapter with the anecdote of the charity fundraiser asking for lump sum, followed by a more successful 2nd ask for smaller monthly donations. Effort and difficulty can also be reflected in the sourcing/creation of the product and service e.g. if a tradesman went through loads of steps to deliver a service/repair, that context helps. Often used with coffee brands, talking about the steps and provenance of faraway lands.
+1… #4. FOLLOWING THE CODE OF THE 18TH CENTURY SEAS (with Be More Pirate by Sam Conliffe)
This was recommended to me as the author created something called the Uncertainty Experts, a movement and mindset which I am quite a fan of, given the at-times precarious nature of self employment (and indeed the notion that no marketing success is guaranteed, only well informed bets). So keen to see how he linked the rebels of the 18th Century seas to the way of life these days. Without it being a marketing book per-se it did deliberately provide some foods for thought :
1. Disruption for good - Everything was to beat the establishment. The pre-eminent challengers of the organisational status-quo of the time. Conliffe affirms that the behemoths of today (e.g. Facebook / Microsoft) were disruptors once. One too many Elon Musk references for my liking, but for any market or culture to be disrupted, rallying troops is key and having a real identity and standing for something…
2. Equity in the organisation - which comes back to the teamwork thing. In terms of democracy and a progressive way of working, they nailed it. Pensions. Critical illness cover. Gay/Bi rights. Compensation spread equally to derive team effort. Etc etc. Everyone on the same page ensured a shared interest in the whole and objectives duly met. That said, getting marooned on an island is likely worse than a 360 review or PCA.
3. Replay of distinctive brand assets - Pirates were known for a fearsome reputation. this was reinforced by multiple things. The Jolly Roger Flag, the skull and crossbones. The eye patch. Treasure Island. Of course, the pirates (according to Conliffe anyway) were nowhere near as bad or violent as their reputation suggests, but they did cultivate fear, especially to the establishment. They had codes on board, consistency in their approach and would spread like wildfire; it never would have happened without consistency. and knowing the pirate codes. Again though, I think you can use your brand codes to not instil thoughts of pillaging, but the point remains. Brands are what people say and think of you. Remarkable given the lack of connectivity and social media at the time!
MISCELLANEOUS
A couple more bits from the year to close things off…
A (SHORT) READ. The Unpublished David Ogilvy - a short eBook I read on a flight somewhere from the adland legend. He talks about the principles of human nature further and as one of the original advocates of real copy that sells, he has a great example of how to sell an aga cooker. Love this :
“Superlatives belong to the marketplace and have no place in a serious advertisement, they lead readers to discount the realism of every claim… Apparent monotony of treatment must be tolerated, because only the manufacturer reads his own advertisements.”
A NEW NEWSLETTER. Ideas we Love - A New Substack to Follow or at least bookmark and read. Matt Prentis (who does the previously recommended A to Z of Media Planning) & global insights guy Tom Darlington over at PHD have kickstarted a really lovely newsletter, Ideas We Love. They go through some classic activations that really inspire and pull on great insights. I especially enjoyed this weeks 90s special about McDonald’s and a fax machine.
A LOVELY WATCH… - . The Marketing Meetup - All the Zoom events and podcast overload on the daily walks in Covid put me off these things for life. But Joe Glover and the team at TMM have created something different. ‘Positively Lovely’ events and webinars. A nice supportive crew, lovely speakers and above all else some really brilliant talks in both live events and webinars.
…OR LISTEN - . Call To Action Pod - . If you prefer in ear medium to on-screen check out Giles Edwards and his Gasp!’s Call to Action Pod. They get some great marketeers from all over sharing real stories of great experiences, warts and all, and answer the all important (and less so) questions! Take time to watch/listen/feel good, and unlike much of the above, you don’t have to read!
CLOSING THE BOOK
Hope the above helps. Through a combination of books, newsletters, webinars, podcasts (and of course the day-to-day work), we owe it to ourselves to try to garner ourselves with the best work, so we ourselves can maintain a sharp axe. Some of the above may be a little ‘heard it before’ to some (but good to recap right?), especially on the HBG stuff, but I hope we all took something interesting from these great works, maybe through a debunking of a planning myth or a human behavioural quirk learnt!
This year I intend to read 3-4 more texts (I generally read about 1.1.5 books a month to placate my Goodreads target), from which a third will be industry related- I can’t be too boring. I’ve history, travel and 70s rock biographies to read on my list that seemingly never ends. Next time I will revert totally to my own world, and as it’s a leap year special it’ll take a different turn…maybe.
Until next year, and Happy Reading!
SA
P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, The place formerly known as Twitter or even my company page. If you want to discuss working together, you need some marketing advice, or simply something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!