‘For a long time, we leveraged demographics because it's easy. It's right there. It's the hardware. We can see the hardware. And we would then rationalize behavior based on that hardware as the antecedent. “All men do this, all women do that.” Until we realized that that's just not true.
So 1950-1960s marketers started using psychology to better understand how people cognate in an effort to understand their consumption behavior. If you take something like a pregnancy test, who uses pregnancy tests? Demographics are a good way to do that. But then psychographically speaking, people who use a pregnancy test, there is a mindset of hopefulness and a mindset of fear. And you talk to them differently. Our psychographics are byproducts of who we are and how we see the world. It's the software that gives a better understanding of what people are going to do rather than the hardware.’
Marketer extraordinaire, Marcus Collins is a clinical professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan. A former advertising executive who worked on iTunes + Nike sport music initiatives at Apple, Marcus contends that what we wear, what we eat, where we work, who we date, and just about every facet of our social living is informed by our underlying culture. And the primary goal of all industries is to “get people to move”, whether it is to buy, to click, to watch, vote, or subscribe.
In this intriguing conversation with Steve Goldbach of Deloitte and Stuart Crainer of Thinkers50, Marcus discusses his latest book, For the Culture: The Power Behind What We Buy, What We Do, And Who We Want To Be, and explains that his work is really just about connections - “connecting things that are normally disparate, so they come together and create new and novel things.”
He also describes how he came to lead digital strategy for Beyoncé, the influence of Émile Durkheim on his ideas, and the power of collective effervescence.
Marcus is the recipient of the Thinkers50 2023 Radar Award and his book, For the Culture, features on Thinkers50 2023 Best New Management Booklist.
This episode will be available on 27 March 2024.
#TheProvocateurs
Learn more about the Provocateurs podcast, the hosts, and access all episodes here: thinkers50.com/provocateurs/
🔊 Listen to the Provocateurs 🔊
Soundcloud: / thinkers50
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/4qS1pZv...
Apple Podcasts: podcasts.apple.com/pl/podcast...
Google Podcasts: podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0...
Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/show/the-pro...
Amazon Music: music.amazon.com/podcasts/1ab...
Audible: www.audible.com/pd/The-Provoc...
Learn more about Thinkers50: thinkers50.com
Learn more about Deloitte: www2.deloitte.com/us/en.html
The executive’s participation in this podcast is solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This podcast should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.