Being a marketing student (always) and teacher (sometimes), I am constantly on the lookout for interesting thoughts, ideas and opinions on marketing and related subjects, from some of the world’s most brilliant thought leaders. Most of these insights come to me randomly via various digital feeds; mostly on my Twitter TL, and from email newsletters I’m subscribed to. Sometimes I get them on the web, mostly when I search deliberately.
Since I’m too lazy to blog consistently and generally too distracted (by work) to articulate my own original ideas for now (no shame, I know), I’ve decided to collect and curate my thoughts on my top reads of the week, hopefully, every week. And these thoughts will be based on my personal takeaways from the gems I stumble upon, while living life on the internet.
I’m calling the series TTITL (pronounced ‘title’), an unnecessary acronym for Theme, Thinker, Idea, TL;DR (too long, didn’t read) and Link Please!
The subjects are inspired by my favourite marketing, media, communications and tech ‘teachers’ and sources, and will be published on the IDA blog on Fridays (errrm… or Saturdays). So, be prepared to read a lot of Prof. Mark Ritson and Prof. Scott Galloway, my two favourite marketing minds. Of course, there’ll be loads of stuff from my fave sources; CIM, Marketing Week, Campaign and Ad Week.
There’ll be occasional entries from the world of pop culture; sports, music, film and general entertainment. So, it won’t be all boring academic stuff, I promise.
Hopefully, fellow busy professionals and some students of marketing out there will find one or two useful gems from stuff I stumble upon.
Read my first TTITL entries below:
Theme: Covid-19 and the virtual marketplace
Thinker: Prof. Mark Ritson
Idea: The increasingly more virtual nature of the marketplace brought about by Covid-19 will favour bigger brands in the long run.
TL;DR: Even though going online helps cut operational costs, which seems like a great thing for many small businesses, the unrestricted access to customers also lowers competitive barriers and removes physical distance from the purchase decision –– for ALL brands. This eventually plays to the strengths of the biggest, strongest brands, who are able to offer their likely superior and better known products directly to customers who mostly had access to smaller, local brands pre-Covid.
Link Please: Marketing Week [paywall]
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Theme: Covid-19 and the business of higher education in America
Thinker: Prof. Scott Galloway
Idea: Many American Universities are endangered, and may perish if they are unable to hold in-person classes due to the fear of Covid-19 pandemic, and the growing call for online-only classes as schools plan to resume in the Fall.
TL;DR: Not being able to hold in-person classes will greatly affect the finances of a majority of American schools. Only those with strong brand equity, good credential-to-cost ratio, high revenue (tuition), significant endowment and strong alumni network will eventually thrive or manage to survive the effects of Covid-19 pandemic.
Link Please: Prof Galloway‘s website [Newsletter sub is highly recommended]
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Theme: Self-belief in one’s dreams as fuel for success in business and life
Thinker: Mr. Jermaine Cole (J. Cole)
Idea: Having self-belief and holding on to seemingly impossible dreams are key drivers in pushing us past creative summits and helping us overcome professional challenges.
TL;DR: J. Cole was an above average basketball player while in University. He had dreams of playing basketball professionally. However, at some point, he had to choose between his first love, rap music and basketball. He chose to prioritize rap, and deferred the basketball dream till later. Now, 10 years after he got his big break in rap, and after becoming an elite and accomplished professional in that field, he’s still quietly nursing hoop dreams.
The lesson here, is that in life, it’s okay to dream, and in many cases, dreams do come true. However, one must also be pragmatic and realistic about what is most important and critical at every phase of life.
Link Please: Players Tribune