Making Lectures Fun

How to animate sessions is always on a lecturers' mind. Fortunately marketing is quite a fun subject already. Some of the concepts can be a bit dry however, and don't always stick in students minds. This summer I have been working on introducing celebrity marketing across my lectures as a way to make more irreverent, but also get across the key points in an engaging and memorable way. Here is one I made earlier using the Kardashians and the BCG Box. I'm not saying Kris Jenner thinks like this herself. But she does.

My colleagues suggestion to do the same thing with terrorist organisations is certainly interesting. However, no.

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Publishing Pipeline

Drug companies have what they call pipelines. This refers to the future drugs they are developing and which they hope will eventually come to market and make them lots of money (and cure sick people blah blah). There are lots of points in the pipeline that a drug can fail - clinical trials etc. It is an expensive, time consuming, and uncertain journey. So drug companies try to always have some things in the pipeline at any one time, at various stages of development. This way there is always some hope of success. I think academics can apply the same principle. Getting an article published is expensive, time consuming and uncertain. It is better to have a few options on the go so that if one hits a snag - an unresponsive collaborator, reviewers taking ages, a rejection - you still have other things to be working on. So consider your own pipeline. How does it look? Ideally a few mature projects close to completion. Some others which are still at a draft phase but well on the way in term...

Charisma, uniqueness, nerve and talent: what marketing can learn from RuPaul’s Drag Race

A niche and frequently persecuted sub-culture turned into a global pop-cultural phenomenon, if you are not already watching RuPaul’s Drag Race (season 11 currently airing on VH1) then you should be. Not only are you in for a feast of the uniqueness, charisma, nerve and talent which the show expects of its competitors, but you are receiving a marketing masterclass. A reality television programme first aired in 2009, Drag Race has moved from a cult to an increasingly mainstream following. In 2016, 2017 and 2018 RuPaul won the Emmy Award for ‘Outstanding host of a variety, nonfiction or reality programme’. Spin-off shows are available through traditional and new media channels. Associated live shows and conventions tour the globe. The premise of Drag Race is to be crowned ‘America’s next drag superstar’ by the eponymous RuPaul. Each week this seasoned drag artiste and a panel of critics, judge contestants’ skills at particular challenges, celebrity impersonation for examp...

The Experience Economy in 2021

Last year I wrote a piece published in the Conversation (link to it here ) about the possible decline of the experience economy. Six months later and it seems like prospects have, if anything, got even worse. The experience economy involves events and activities that are intense, memorable and sociable. For example, live music gigs are a chance to share intense emotions triggered by listening together to a favourite band. However, Covid-19 restrictions have hammered such experience economy offerings. Theatres, nightclubs, galleries, theme parks... such places have frequently had to close. The question is whether they will reopen to the same extent as before the pandemic? This might seem overly pessimistic, but consumption patterns can change rapidly. Will lingering concerns for health and safety put people off returning to shared spaces? Music festivals have celebrated their unsanitary aspects as part of the authentic party vibe. Now they might just s...

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