Ted Talk as an organization is a platform to share ideas with a key focus on technology, entertainment and design, on a myriad of topics from business, science and global issues. Dan Cobley formerly of Google shared his presentation in Ted Talk with his topic being “What physics taught me about marketing”.
After listening to Dan Cobley’s Ted Talk the first thing that is evidenced is that any and everything can have a connection, all we need is an introspective review, since from a general perspective marketing and physics have nothing in common. The principles of marketing and branding were connected in a thematic manner with regards to the physics principles starting with Newton's second law, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the scientific method and the second law of thermodynamics (Cobley).
The connection with regards Newton’s law is in relation to the philosophy of acceleration equals to force and mass and this is related to the marketing theory, in relation to the suppleness of smaller brands to rectify a branding issue better than a big brand, since, the bigger the brand the more force it will need to force a strategic brand makeover. Hoover is an example of a big company not being able to be create a brand identity, exclusive of being a Hoover seller in the minds of the consumers, similarly Unilever and P&G approach is akin to Newton’s law where they keep brands separate as small is agile and easier to reposition.
The physics of Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle says that, it is not possible to measure a particle accurately since by measuring it the act of measurement changes its position and similarly, in marketing in view of the latest technology it is easier to measure consumer’s actions and behaviors due to better point of sale tracking and digital media tools. Thus the message is to measure what the consumer’s actually do than what they say.
The scientific method in relation to the marketing viewpoint, is that one can spend time and money to build a brand’s identity, but only one action can ‘disprove’ as in destroy consumer’s belief, as evidenced from the examples given i.e. Toyota image hit due to car recalls and BP’s oil spillage incident, and issues that preceded Tiger Woods and most recently Maria Sharapova drugs case.
The last concept is entropy i.e. the second law of thermodynamics, which is the measure of a disorder of a system, that will always increase, and is, related to the current chaos of the digital marketing age, where the message is dispersed and cannot be controlled, they key word is ‘trolling’ and that is a good thing since, marketing is all about interactivity, and the marketers need to be in control to get the best out of any situation.
On a personal level the impact of the talk that can be ingrained in the educational life is to not procrastinate on studies and projects and the more things will pile the more it will be difficult to finish them on time, and professionally to not delay jobs since it may impact on the overall operational effectiveness, thus like the Newton Law, the identity of the jobs needs to be clear in the minds to be able to deliver with quality.
As a student or a professional, the brand image is the key, since actions done at university level, carries to the professional level, thus whatever, equity is created can be damaged due to one act of recklessness that could have happened in the past or any recent action.
Finally, it is imperative to think out of the box at all levels be it a university project or a professional project, that may help in looking at solutions from different angle, to create a personal brand that can be activated to the fullest potential.
Works Cited
Cobley, Dan. What physics taught me about marketing. Ted Talk 2010. Web 25 March, 2016.
