What Can Laws of Physics Tell us about Marketing?

This talk by Dan Cobley, a Director of Marketing at Google, brings great insight into the parallels between Newton’s Law and marketing. Specifically, why are new brands created instead of just extending current brands? He demonstrates that inertia can work for you or against you depending on the circumstances.

When people know that they are being observed and measured, their behavior changes. Dan takes under consideration a physics law that states that by measuring something, you are in fact changing its current state and thereby not achieving an accurate measurement. In the marketing realm, he ties together the fact that just asking consumers is not enough to know the truth – You must observe consumers in their natural habitat.

His third point discusses the application of the scientific method. The scientific method states that it only takes one data point to disprove a theory. A company can invest thousands of dollars into a brand, but it only takes one bad experience to forever change the overall impression of that brand. His examples of BP and Toyota are especially poignant.

As international businesspeople, it is important for us to understand the impact of our marketing in many different arenas. Forming a brand is difficult in just one culture, but to form that brand across many countries and cultures infinitely more challenging. This short video does an excellent job of considering the challenges of international marketing with selling products to different groups of people across the world.