21st century marketing marks the dawn of an age that surpasses simple industrialization, commerce and structuralism, and celebrates more human traits. Financial and economic interactions are the culmination of human transactions in the widest sense, transactions which begin with exchanges of thoughts, emotions, experiences and social activities. Therefore, this ‘Marketing’ is spearheaded by ‘Branding,’ which represents the acceptance and harnessing of paradoxical, oxymoronic, allegorical, metaphorical and esoteric tensions in culture, emotion and spirituality.
In short – it’s complicated out there and we marketers need to mirror that complexity with practical, diverse, layered and integrated propositions. For those of you that have watched the movie Inception, you’ll know what I mean as it is about entering dreams and creating dreams within them. I’d like to draw from an interesting piece of cross-disciplinary research. Last year I witnessed Beth DuFault and James McAlexander present their research1 findings at a conference on Consumer Culture Theory held at Oxford Saïd Business School. Afterwards, we chewed the fat a little and they were kind enough to send me a copy of their paper. DuFault and McAlexander write that:
“By researching primary source documents, we demonstrate that Newtonian science and the birth of what we now know as the scientific method itself achieved acceptance, in part, owing to the activities of Isaac Newton and his advocates that can be best described as marketing. The successful diffusion of the Newtonian scientific belief system was influenced by marketing activities that included promotion, sales of representative and demonstrative products, and publicity. These marketing activities worked to build the equity of the Newtonian brand and to overcome the competitive offerings of the time.”
Is branding such an important and basic function of human existence, especially when faced with increasing complexity and connectivity, that it is something necessitating its study by all? With so much talk about the importance of personal branding and marketing yourself, along with overwhelming noise, information and competition, shouldn’t all professionals receive formal training in this area?
Well, Isaac Newton seemed to fare well without any formal marketing training and qualifications. Also, if we put aside the need for technical terms or labeling for one minute and instead look at definitive meanings, or the ‘doing’ side of the equation, it would appear that Newton was someone who valued, understood and practiced marketing – spearheaded by branding, advertising and public relations. Furthermore, if we try to imagine what life would be like for Newton if he were around today, we can reasonably assume that he would receive media training, hire a public relations agency or agent, and have his own television documentary series. He’d keep a blog, tweet and launch a social media campaign – uploading content on YouTube, iTunesU, TED, Pinterest and SlideShare. Well based upon his previous track record, relative to now: it’s more than likely that Newton would actually be doing much more.
Similarly, if we look at particle physicist, television presenter and former chart-topping musician Professor Brian Cox, we find another example of great integrated marketing. In what has been termed by The Telegraph as the ‘Brian Cox effect,’ Manchester University (where Cox lectures on quantum mechanics and relativity) has increased its A-Level entry requirements for Physics undergraduate degrees to A*A*A. This requirement stands as the highest entry threshold for any course in Britain – higher than that at Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Imperial College London. The number of students taking physics in Britain has doubled in eight years, bucking the trend for a dropping demand for higher education due to the introduction of tuition fees. Also, when the University of Manchester raised their entry requirements, there was a further surge in applications.
These two examples are great antidotes to the poisonous rhetorical questions challenging the value and need for marketing. These questions often infer that branding is especially about making people want things they don’t need or desire, and transforming them into mindless objects. Still, these examples only suggest that marketing is a vocation or tool, but not that it is necessarily weighty enough to shoulder the full weight of scholasticism – for the focus of these two scientists was not marketing, but physics. I am going to argue that branding, as we understand and frame it today, actually had to be present from the start of scientific experimentation as a competitive and intended form of communicative transactional response to a variety of internal and external factors. Branding has always been around us and a science, but – just like Intel – someone had to place a sticker on the outside for it to receive attention and mass appeal.
Marketing is Mind-sharing, Mien-sharing, and Money-sharing.
A recent BBC News article, reporting the findings of a study undertaken by High Fliers in the UK, cites that graduates who have had internships are three times as likely to land jobs and Marketing is the most popular sector for these jobs. Advertising and Public Relations are the most desired jobs by graduates, with 50% across the UK planning to work in London and 21% overseas. Furthermore, graduate aspirations of wanting to work in cities like London and further afield are indicators that marketers are seeking environments that are culturally rich and diverse. Over 300 languages are spoken in London, with approximately 45% of the population being White British, 15% being White non-British and 40% being non-White. What a fantastic microcosm and training ground.
Apart from graduate career aspirations, it could be that industry demands are greater and graduates are responding to, or even being sucked into, the profession. Nevertheless, the demand is there and the discipline is expanding its tentacles. So, this beckons the question: Should business schools do more to attract marketing applicants since not all marketers study marketing, or other related subjects? And, with such demand, the call for more qualifications in marketing (now more widely marketed) will surely help contribute to the competitive advantage of individuals and organizations.
Now, take a look at how many business schools offer dedicated degrees or majors, rather than just a module, in Branding and you will quickly notice that the numbers are actually quite small. This is indeed surprising when one considers how crucial branding is to the survival of an organization.
Also, with more consumer-centric, social, collaborative and relational approaches being demanded, I argue that there is an inherent shortfall in many marketing models. It makes little sense to me to see that current marketing approaches and models do little to analyze and segment marketers at the same level and depth as they dissect consumers, or to join the two parties together. Branding is about practicing what you preach and walking in the shoes not of your audience, but of your collaborative friends.
And so, everyone to some extent is a marketer. Therefore, the key question is: What sort of marketer do you want to be, how plugged in are you and how do you and others want to market together? My suggestion is that more non-marketing professionals and increasingly-collaborative consumers are becoming more accepting of the idea that branding is something that they want to be a part of and can use. Branding is about the human experience and is a fundamental function of human existence. Therefore, as marketers, we should also embark on a journey of sharing with the wider community not just what we brand, but also how we brand. A reality of willing and active consumers as branded actors, agents and endorsers.
Photo credit: Not Lost in New York by Trey Ratcliff