What can marketers learn from a poker player, a jazz musician, a tennis player and a dancer?

Abstract

This paper examines six legends from different fields and how marketers can learn from them. The first section focuses on things that do not change and the relationship between effectiveness and communication, drawing on the works of Peter Drucker, the leading management thinker, and Claude Hopkins, a successful advertising copywriter. Drucker’s concept of the effective executive — time management, set priorities, build on strengths — were born in the mid-1960s, while Hopkins’ concepts of effective copywriting — it is about the customer, be specific, tell a story — revolutionised advertising a century ago. In both cases, these principles provide as much guidance now as they did when first created. The second section emphasises two of the keys to competitiveness — anticipation and decision-making. The paper shows how Roger Federer’s mentality — don’t dwell on the past, think one step ahead, spend more time preparing — applies just as much to marketing as it does to tennis. The paper then takes the example of world champion poker player Annie Duke to show how ‘thinking in bets’ can lead to better decisions. Duke argues that the outcome is not the best way to evaluate how successful a decision was — luck sometimes gets in the way and turns a good decision into a bad outcome and vice versa. This mentality ties into the learning not to dwell on past performance, especially if it is negative: make the decision, feel good about it and move on, regardless of the result. The final section brings together creativity and innovation through the examples of Twyla Tharp, Broadway choreographer, and Miles Davis, jazz musician. The paper discusses how Tharp literally collects her ideas in box as a way to contain her inspirations without confining her creativity. It also discusses how Miles Davis revolutionised modern jazz simply by encouraging his band members to trust their instincts. The foundation for this paper is Steve Jobs’ view that you cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. The key takeaways can be summarised as follows: look outside your industry for examples from which to learn; connecting learning from different disciplines provides new ideas; trust your instincts when connecting dots and don’t worry if they seem to conflict.