Momentum for Marketing

I recently watched a TED talk from a while ago by a man named Dan Cobley. In his talk he spoke about a parallel between marketing and physics. And this is what I wanted to talk about today.

Cobley explains that similar to the physics concept: 'the bigger the mass of an object the more force is needed to change its direction'. A similar outlook can be applied to marketing: 'The bigger a brand, the more difficult it is to reposition it'.

And this is what stuck out to me. I guess I never thought of it like that, but it's true, the larger a brand is it actually is more difficult to make changes to its positioning. Cobley brought up an example that helped me understand this concept better.

The example he used were the companies Unilever and P&G (Procter & Gamble) and how these two companies keep their brands separate without combining them under a big parent brand. If they were under one parent brand, developing concepts or products and their advertising would be a lot more of a challenge. Keeping them separate, allows the brands to maintain their individuality and continue to progress with a variety of brands with unique positions.

Larger brands making changes to how they are positioned in the market's mind takes a lot of effort. Cobley defines this as "the more massive a brand, the more baggage it has,the more force is needed to change its positioning". Cobley used Hoover as an example of explaining this. Hoover, the well known vacuum cleaner company, had difficulties persuading audiences that they were more than just a vacuum cleaner brand. Trying to replace the perception consumers already have with a new outlook requires a lot more momentum to make effective change.

This way of understanding the momentum of marketing has helped me learn more about position in the view of bigger and smaller companies. Let me know if you know of other companies similar to Unilever and P&G who have a similar approach.

Thank you for you reading!

Stay safe :)