The culture of Ted Talks has been on the rise for the past few years and if you haven’t looked into these yet, you are missing out on a lot!
Life is too short to experience everything yourself so sometimes, the best way to boost your learning is to get lessons from what others have already experienced.
Ted Talks are all about sharing thought-provoking presentations on anything from business to art creativity and much more. Bibliographies can get boring, especially if you have to read them through. The audience can now hear the experience of the speakers as they narrate it themselves!
This is particularly helpful in the world of marketing since both the means, digital and conventional, continue to evolve. As a beginner, it would be a great practice to listen to some of the innovative ideas presented by people who have experienced this change first-hand.
Following are the top 9 Ted talks that you must listen to if you wish to learn a thing or two for developing marketing skills.
Let’s have a look.
i. Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness, and Spaghetti Sauce
The first Ted talk on our list comes from a Canadian journalist and the best-selling author, Malcolm Gladwell. The main idea here was to convince the audience that buyers often do not know what they want or what will actually make them happy.
The world of marketing has revolved around delivering what customers wish to buy. However, Malcolm Gladwell argued that they are not well aware of their “want” either and it all depends on the choices that are given to them.
He used the famous story of a psychophysicist, Howard Moskovitz who wanted to discover the best spaghetti sauce but ended up believing that the perfect one does not exist.
Although the talk centered on food as an example, the concept can be expanded to marketing in general. Brands often design their campaigns based on what customers want but in reality, it is something else that influences the happiness of the customers the most.
The take-home message was that, in a marketing context, different products are often suitable to different customers and different individuals cater to different job tasks well. Not everyone is fit to be a manager. Similarly, one product may not be a hit with the general population but still become a necessity for a smaller set of customers.
ii. Morgan Spurlock: The Greatest Ted Talk Ever Sold
If you have not heard about Morgan Spurlock because of this commendable Ted talk, you must know him as a crazy director from Super Size Me who survived 30 days on junk food only.
That’s right! He has been comfortable with his crazy, out-of-the-box approach to life and, via this talk, he suggests that brands should do the same with their marketing techniques now.
The Greatest Ted Talk Ever Sold revolved around the idea of how brands should work towards innovative and transparent means of marketing even if they incur some degree of risk. Morgan delivers that book-based marketing strategies are a thing from the past now that might not do any good for the growth of small startups, online stores, or blogging businesses.
In his Ted talk, he talked about how certain brands refused to sponsor his film because they were not sure about how it would help them with their product/service advertisement or even if it would help at all. Since the idea carried a non-zero chance of ruining a brand’s reputation, they turned it down.
Morgan raised one important question “Why fear transparency and risk?” He encouraged brands to embrace risks and fear. He also delivers that instead of designing a “perfect marketing campaign by book” the brands should be honest, open, and ready for new experiences.
iii. Rory Sutherland: Life Lessons From an Ad Man
There was once a Great King, Prussia Fredrick, who dealt with famine by encouraging his people to consume more potatoes instead. This was a challenge to him since they disliked potatoes for their taste and look.
Instead of explaining the value of this product to the population, he used another strategic approach instead. The King grew potatoes in his yard, guarded them, and declared that it was food for elites only. Soon afterward, masses in the country were comfortable paying for the commodity they had hated before.
This story was the center of Rory Sutherland's talk who established that the value we attach with intangibles does more than the physical value of a product. In short, people don’t buy a product they like, they buy a product that makes them feel good.
In a nutshell, he suggested that marketing should focus more on the value of a product being subjective. The campaigns should pursue buyers by placing value on things like health and love. Personally, I have seen really great marketing campaigns by financial institutions like Capital One, Celtic bank & more. They launch new offers every so & forth which attracts their customers a lot.
iv. Dan Cobley: What Physics Taught Me About Marketing
Physics and marketing; what’s the link?
Dan Cobley explains the relationship between these two in his latest Ted talk.
Although most of the laws of Physics had been established years ago, it is only recently that they were applied to designing marketing campaigns as well. Cobley further elaborated this by discussing some of the basic physics laws and how they can be applied to practical situations in a developing business.
For example, he talked about Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and its relevance to current marketing techniques. This principle states that there is no correct way of measuring a particle because the act of measuring changes it automatically. Similarly, group surveys that brands carry out are not precise since the answers by customers vary depending on how the survey is conducted. Therefore, the team should actually figure out the shopping trends that their visitors follow instead of asking them what they like or don’t.
Other than that, Dan Cobley also talked about the scientific method. It says that no amount of data can conclusively prove a hypothesis but a single data point can disapprove it. Learning from this, especially the sales teams can fine-tune their scoring methods and continuously refresh them in real-time. This might not be foolproof but it would take into account subjective estimations so the results are more reliable.
v. Shawn Achor: The Happy Secret To Better Work
This Ted talk encouraged the use of “positive psychology” when promoting a business. For example, people often draw the line of best fit by considering only the point on the average. The outliers are ignored where in fact, the positive outliers can be used to move the line upwards.
In a marketing context, positive outliers can be of huge help. Let’s say, a brand working on improving its product may focus more on finding out what they can do to make people like them instead they should spend time figuring out what factors keep the previous customers happy and polishing these.
Shawn Achor also emphasized changing habits by utilizing the “21-day” technique. He explains that perceiving something positively is a habit that can be developed much like any other habit, i.e. practicing it for 21 days till it becomes part of your routine.
vi. Dan Pink: The Puzzle of Motivation
In his Ted talk, Dan Pink challenges the business firms by focusing on the importance of employee engagement. He pointed out that the incentives they often offer to their employees are not helpful in improving their job performance.
He highlights this concept by discussing the well-known “The Candle Problem”. This was a physiological test that asked the participants to find a way to stick the candle to a wall using tacks and matches.
They tried a number of ways but the majority failed to reach a viable solution which was to empty the box of tacks and pin it to the wall so it could safely hold the candle.
Dan Pink argued that finding such solutions is only possible if the participants are given the right bait. Similarly, he pointed out that employees are not motivated by increased wages, perks, bonuses, etc. Instead of extrinsic motivators, workers need to be given the freedom to perform, a feeling of achieving something meaningful and fulfilling a larger purpose.
At the end of the talk, Dan concluded that at least 20% of the worker’s time should be spent on creative projects. In fact, he made the audience realize that this was the initiative that led to the launch of big hits such as Google and AdSense.
vii. Astro Teller: The Unexpected Benefit of Celebrating Failure
Ever heard of a firm that decides what it’s working for on the go?
Well, the speaker of this Ted talk, Astro Teller, happens to be a captain for one such venture, Moonshot Factor. This team consists of astronauts, food specialists, fashion designers, content writers and creators, architects, doctors, and professionals from many other fields working together with one basic aim: find a problem that affects millions of people around the globe and then look for a viable solution that is both realistic and innovative.
In his talk, Astro Teller explains how many of their projects are a complete failure. He discussed an example of growing lettuce with vertical farming to deal with undernourishment around the globe. However, although the plan was a success, it could not be applied to staple crops so the idea had to be discarded.
He then elaborated that not every failed plan is a waste of time and resources. Failure often puts you on a more productive path by showing which ideas won’t work out.
viii. Dan Ariely: Are We in Control of Our Own Decisions
Dan Ariely’s Ted Talk may sound like nothing related to the world of marketing where, in fact, it deals with one of the most basic questions: Do customers really decide what they buy? In other words, are they in control of their decisions?
Ariely explains how the surveys designed as part of marketing and collecting customer feedback by a company/brand shape how buyers give their answers. They are only under the illusion of being in control where there are other factors pressing the final button here.
In agreement with many psychologists in the US, Dan Ariely concluded that contextual changes in a product will cause predictable changes in the customer’s behavior. The best part? They wouldn’t even realize it’s there!
The example he presented in his Ted talk really surprised us! He discussed a company that offered 3 subscription plans: $59 online subscription, $124 print subscription, and $125 for both. 84% chose the first option and 16% chose the third one.
Since no one opted for the print subscription plan, it was eliminated. However, when the survey was repeated again, the numbers changed! We might be wondering that, since no one chose the second option, it shouldn’t matter whether it is included in the list of subscription plans or not. The results, on the other hand, pointed differently as now 68% chose the first option and 32% chose the second one.
The main idea of the presentation was that humans often do not know their preferences if the consequences were changed. Therefore, the final decision depends on given options, not the actual “want of the customer”.
ix. Barry Schwartz: The Paradox of Choice
Barry Schwartz highlights how businesses and markets now present a range of choices to their customers with the hopes of improving their experience. “Giving them a lot to choose from lets them decide what is most suitable” they argue. However, Barry explains that the reality is, in fact, the reverse.
More choice does not equal more freedom. Instead, it leads to paralysis as the buyers get confused about their final choice. Moreover, even if they draw a final verdict, the satisfaction level will never be too good. “What if the other choice was better?” Unfortunately, you can’t try all the moisturizers on the shelf but you will always wonder if the other product was “better”.
In contrast, if they are presented with lesser options to choose between, the decision would be more solid and hence you will get a “happy customer”.
Marketing Skills Summary
That’s it, folks! These are some of the Ted talks that wanted you to know about especially if you are just stepping into the world of marketing and entrepreneurship. After you learn a lot from this event, you can try to join the critical thinking test.
Here’s a list of everything we have gathered so far:
- Buyers often do not do what they want and mostly, the innovative ideas can prove to be more successful than the products based merely on customer feedback.
- Marketing strategies have higher chances of success if they take the risk of stepping outside the box. “Bookish” marketing has to be discouraged and brands should step more towards risk and transparency.
- People buy products that make them feel good. Marketing campaigns should focus on attaching value to intangibles instead of the physical benefit of a product.
- There is no foolproof marketing or digital content strategy therefore the team must fine-tune their scoring models and refresh them in real-time for reliable results.
- In a marketing context, positive outliers can be of huge help. Brands should focus less on finding out how to make customers happier and working more on studying what keeps previous customers satisfied.
- Extrinsic motivators are not long-lasting for the employees. For better performance, workers should be taught to develop a sense of purpose in their work and given the freedom to perform their tasks.
- Not every failed plan is a waste of time and resources. Failure often puts you on a more productive path by showing which ideas won’t work out.
- Humans often do not know their preferences if the consequences were changed. Therefore, the final decision depends on given options, not the actual “want of the customer”.
- Giving a lot of options does not improve the welfare of the customers. Few choices are better than an explosion of choices.
Though we agree that the post might not do justice to the actual Ted talk, we tried our best to bring out the most important and helpful tips that we could gather from the session. If a particular talk interests you, take out some time and listen to the whole of it. Also, let us know if we have missed out on anything useful in the comments.
Additional Resource: How to Use & Advertise on Google Adwords
Author Bio
Faisal Rehman is a Freelance Systems Administrator and a writer at softwarespice.com. With 10 years of technology and systems experience, he writes about small business hosting and digital payment platforms.