I could use your advice...
Listener survey + podcast recommendations for you
Some fun personal news! My family welcomed our third daughter. She's happy, healthy, and thankfully, the easiest newborn we’ve had. As you might imagine, this means I didn’t have time to edit and publish a podcast episode this week.
No need to worry: I have several episodes already recorded so I’ll resume the usual publishing schedule soon.
It felt wrong to go a whole week without sharing anything with you. So, I’m including two things in this newsletter:
1) Listener survey — help me make the show better!
2) Podcast recommendations — learn marketing history with episodes from some of my favorite podcasts!
Share your advice
First up is the listener survey.
I’d love your advice on what you enjoy about the podcast and what you’d like to see more of in the future. Like any good marketer, I want to do audience research to make the podcast better and more valuable to you.
Side note: I'm stealing a tip from my interview with Robert Cialdini, who insists that “advice” is a more powerful word than “opinion” or “feedback.”
If you substitute the word advice for opinion, you get significantly more favorable responses… They give you better input into how to improve it, to change it or to emphasize features within your idea. Because they're one of you now. The word advice asks for collaboration, partnership, unity.
How you generate unity is not to ask for an opinion. And the newest research shows that's exactly the same thing as asking for feedback, which is the other thing we typically say. No, ask for ‘advice’ and you get a better outcome.
Here’s a time-stamped YouTube link to this segment. The survey is short and sweet so I’d appreciate you sharing your advice with me!
Podcast recommendations
While you wait for the next 'A History of Marketing' episode, I wanted to share some other podcasts that explore similar themes of marketing, history, and innovation. I hope you might find a new favorite among them!
I’m a big fan of Rick Rubin’s podcast, Tetragrammaton. He has an earnest, direct interview style and he gets guests who don't appear on many other podcasts.
This episode features Mel Ziegler, co-founder of Banana Republic and Republic of Tea. Mel describes himself as a marketer and shares how Napoleon Hill’s book “Think and Grow Rich” inspired him.
I’ve been thinking a lot about marketing gurus, and I have a forthcoming episode that covers them. At first I was dismissive of them. I’ve seen too many cringe-inducing LinkedIn posts from self-described gurus and a book title like “Think and Grow Rich” sounds like a self-help scam.
But Mel Ziegler is proof that gurus serve a purpose too. He co-founded two highly successful businesses, thanks in part to Napoleon Hill.
Rick Rubin himself is something of a guru and master marketer. His book, “The Creative Act: A Way of Being” feels like a descendant of “Think and Grow Rich.” Both have themes of the power of mindset, belief, persistence, intuition and a connection to a larger source. Rubin successfully markets his podcast and his paid online community. Of course, he built his career in music launching artists like System of a Down, revitalizing careers like Johnny Cash, and shaping early hip hop with Run-DMC and the Beastie Boys.
Cautionary Tales: Darwin’s Grandpa and the Art of Sex Appeal
Tim Harford’s podcast, Cautionary Tales, looks at historical mishaps to draw contemporary lessons. This episode is a fun one, and despite what the title suggests, it’s about early entrepreneurship and marketing.
"Darwin’s Grandpa" was Josiah Wedgwood, the English potter and entrepreneur who founded Wedgwood in 1759 – a company still producing fine china and luxury goods today. The episode draws from biographies of Wedgwood and covers how he pioneered modern branding techniques, like elevating the status of his his tea set by labeling it as "Queen's Ware."
Founders: David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising)
David Senra’s Founders podcast features biographies of entrepreneurs and shares summaries with his top takeaways. This episode is the first of several podcasts Senra has published about David Ogilvy.
I’ve barely mentioned Ogilvy on "A History of Marketing" so far, but I suspect he’ll come up more often in the future. I haven't prioritized covering Ogilvy in part because there’s already so much existing material out there about him.
Ogilvy was a master of promotion, known for classic campaigns like “The Man In The Hathaway Shirt.” He was as successful at promoting his clients as he was at promoting himself and his agency.
Oglivy’s books, Confessions of an Advertising Man and Ogilvy on Advertising, were among the first I read when I began my marketing career. They’re fun, witty, quotable, and full of good ideas. Senra’s episode is a great introduction if you’re not familiar with Ogilvy, and a good refresher if you haven’t read his work in a while.
Internet History Podcast: Yahoo’s Master Brand Builder Karen Edwards
Brian McCullough’s Internet History Podcast was a big inspiration for “A History of Marketing.” It ran from 2014 to 2018, with infrequent episodes from 2019-2021. McCullough covers all aspects of the internet's evolution and eventually used this material for his excellent book, How the Internet Happened: From Netscape to the iPhone.
This 2015 interview with Karen Edwards is all about Yahoo, which McCullough describes as “the web’s first great company.” Yahoo gained mass appeal partly due to its zany, distinct brand. Edwards shares how Yahoo was the first dot-com company to advertise on TV, featuring its ubiquitous Yahoo yodel.
One of the things I appreciate about history podcasts is their long shelf life. In this case, Karen Edwards's stories are just as entertaining and insightful today as they were when published nearly a decade ago.
Acquired is a well-researched podcast that tells the stories of great companies. Each episode is a conversational audiobook. This one on Hermès is over four hours long.
There are so many marketing lessons in Hermès, even though the company famously doesn’t have a marketing department and barely advertises.
Luxury marketing is a strange alchemy of product, brand, scarcity, distribution, and company history that drives consumers to pay irrational premiums for goods.
I’ve been an Acquired listener since 2015, and even sponsored their podcast when I led marketing for a startup. (The ads worked great!) Seeing hosts Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal build Acquired into the success it is today is an inspiring feat of marketing in itself.
Thanks for the podcast recommendations, Andrew. These are useful.