Mark Ritson: Most Australian marketers are shithouse at marketing. Totally shithouse.
By Mark Ritson
adjunct professor at Melbourne Business School
It’s a common enough occurrence. A large brand or media channel conducts some market research not to understand customers but to fuel a communications campaign designed to highlight an issue and generate media coverage about it. I must get at least one of these reports dangled in front of me every month by a PR firm in the hope that I will write about it.
The formula behind the recent publication of “Shared Stories: Building Brand in the Digital Age” is therefore nothing new. But the results of the research, commissioned by Facebook and conducted by consulting firm Deloitte, are the stuff of genuine marketing headlines. In particular, two findings have been hotly debated ever since the report was published this month.
The first shocking result, taken from a sample of 300 senior Australian marketers, measured the importance of brand. Asked for the most important objective in their current marketing strategy, only 17 per cent of marketers agreed that it was building brand. Increasing sales, market share and customer engagement were all deemed to be as or more important than brand-building, with revenue growth the most common focus.
25 Comments
Can someone take the microphone away from this guy?
This dude swears all the time to sound like he’s a renegade, a contrarian, a tough guy. Instead he just comes across as an unprofessional try hard. Who is he anyway?
The more Ritson stands up on his high horse and petulantly points his finger and at the less credibility he has.
Did he have any to begin with? Does a successful marketing guru with his finger on the pulse of what is ‘shit’ or not decide to become a glorified school teacher? Or does he put his money with his mouth is and actually do something?
This guy seems to be trying to be the Trump of the marketing industry. This article could have benefitted from having some insight apart from using “shithouse” in a sentence for effect. Fail – resubmit.
…someone that has built a career of saying everything is wrong and shit. Unfortunately, the microphone that be LinkedIn is not going away too soon.
Trends? Shit. Digital as a channel? Shit. Marcel? Shit. Digital video? Shit. Brand values? Shit. Content marketing? Shit.
This guy is a one trick pony.
Focussing on super long-term trends and entirely basing brands on ‘Gen Z’ – Shit? Yes
Digital as a channel in isolation – Shit? Yes, multiple channel approach
Digital video – Shit? See above
Content Marketing – Shit? See above
Brand Values – shit? Yes if they are lofty, not grounded in anything and are just hot air and not guiding your strategy.
I think you severely misunderstand what Ritson talks about
SCENE:
Mark Ritson spends the weekend at home or in some beach house, flicking through his Twitter (although he’ll later claim that we should be loyal to the TV and that Twitter and Facebook are dumbing us down).
Anyway, a lot has been happening in the news! The football grand final is coming up, Trump met the Queen, Elon Musk has put his foot in it. This get’s Mark thinking: “I haven’t been the topic of conversation for some time…”
With a surge of blood to his ego, Musk — oops, I mean Mark — sits down at his computer and looks for some crisis — oops, I mean report — that he can leverage.
Perfect! He’s found one! And better yet, he can probably beat it up enough to get invited to be a panellist at some upcoming conferences.
With the perfect report, all he needs is the perfect title. How about some naughty words that’ll get Australia’s nuclear upper-middle class marketing crowd a little bit hot under the collar?
“Shithouse!” Now Mark really feels like one of the tradies at his local cafe of whom he formulated elaborate scenarios about how he’d reply to them if they ever asked him something.
With a strong title that’ll certainly get people talking and some beat-up about why marketers / young people / social media users are braindead and not as good as he (authors note: I don’t know the contents of the article because of the AU’s paywall. Can a better marketer please fill me in?) – Mark retires back to his quarters, already tasting the salty comments on CB and Mumbrella from the non C-level marketing plebes, and thinking “man isn’t the industry glad they have me!”
I actually 100% agree with him and I can’t see why you wouldn’t. Surely we have all been in those meetings and briefings where channel is more important than message, where a 300 page research deck is disguised as insight and where great ideas are calously killed because they don’t have 4 messages in them?
The confidence and ability of marketers in this country is at an all time low and that dictates what happens in those meetings and directly gives birth to the creative work, that is for the most part, appallingly bad. It’s why tech platforms are bought quicker than brand building ideas and why customers are treated as numpties.
Brand should always be first and at the moment it is rare to find it there. This is his point. As creative people we should all vehemently agree.
Keep being the contrarion Mr Ritson, at some point someone might take note!
Do we really have to listen to him? CB please you’re smarter than this.
Kotler’s marketing textbooks are the reason for much of the poor marketing in Australia. Most marketing courses in Australia use it unfortunately. Kotler has no idea about brands – he positions it as a form of promotion. He books do not the explain the importance of the brand because it doesn’t fit into the 4Ps framework. So, don’t blame the marketers – they don’t know any better.
Because at marketing college you are not a child, you are an adult. And any adult with half a brain can question a system, and interrogate or research its flaws and weaknesses – then make up their own mind as to whether the 4Ps are good enough to explain marketing. This victim mentality is a 5th P…. Pathetic.
I think whether you agree or not at least it’s an informed POV. I’d prefer to have something to think about rather than subscribe to the who weekly of advertising.
Mark is spot-on! Most people who are making the comments have clearly no idea as to what is really going on. They all sound like juniors who are not connected to top level marketers. I know marketers in big companies who have no idea about brand and brand building. It’s a shithouse situation.
He and his edgy contrarian mates bore me because they offer no solutions to help us against the trends they complain about. Their columnrants are the opinion piece equivalent to an ad without a call to action. Yeah, guys. Everything’s shit. Everyone’s dumb. Facebook is wrong. Whatfuckingever. But what little thing can I do today at the next tissue session to stem the tide?
Be better at marketing.
Be better at marketing.
That’s helpful, Mark ritson.
I think all wrong thinking people are right. You’re all shit…
So negative comments roughly translated as “I have no fucking idea what Marketing is because I have insufficient training” you lot certainly are the colouring in department. Have fun never being at board level, arrogant shites.
Well, I work with a lot of you on a daily basis. And the truth of the matter is that the vast majority of you are terrified of advertising, awful at marketing and depend on research companies and Facebook to do your job. It’s why your brands are non existent, your sales are terrible and whining on a creative blog is the only release you have from your loveless, pointless, destructive jobs. Ritson is right.
I reckon the little guy who pointed out the Emporer’s lack of clothing probably copped it from the comfy folk who benefited from the regimes’s largesse. Keep at ‘em, Mark. You’ve clearly hit a nerve.
@Nathan Buckley has grown into a good football coach.
Respectfully mate, if you had any idea what you are doing, or had read any of what Mark (and others) have been saying for years outside of this article, you’d know exactly what the ‘call to action’ is. Diagnose the market, your competitors and your own brand (with robust research)…segment, target, position, set objectives, then execute. Better yet? Get a formal marketing qualification or some training. Apparently, it can help make you better at marketing.
IMHO Ritson makes more sense than any 2 of the nay-sayers at this site. His message is consistent and his credentials are open for all to see – unlike most of his detractors. So if you disagree with him – or are offended by his use of expletives to make a point – here’s a couple of alternatives: 1) Don’t read his offerings, or 2) Engage in proper debate on the issue, declaring your own credentials. But neither is likely to work with the bitchy old men (or women) who are only capable of slinging shit from the sidelines. Any way that one man’s opinion – albeit one with over 30 years marketing in public and private sectors, backed up by recently-acquired post-grad qualifications.
Hi Mark,
I don’t mind at all that you’ve got a microphone, but when it’s strapped to your head in a roomful of people, maybe don’t chew half a glass of ice.
If I wanted to see a Rancor, I’d have stayed home and watched Star Wars.