Physics And Marketing Movie Review Samples

The video of the speech of the Google marketing director, Dan Cobley, was filmed in July 2010, and is now available at ted.com. In his performance, he reveals the idea of how branding is intertwined with the famous physics laws. He explains that, like in physics “a larger particle needs more force to change its direction; it’s the same with brands, the more massive a brand, the more baggage it has, the more force it needs to change its positioning” (1:21). He gives the example of the partition of the huge company Unilever to the small brands like Knorr, Sunsilk and Lipton. This judgment corresponds to Newton’s law and proves Cobley’s theory. The spectator sees that “the bigger a brand, the more difficult it is to reposition it” (2:12).
Another brilliant example given by Cobley is Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle – in marketing, the message sounds like “try to measure what consumers actually do rather than what they say they’ll do or anticipate they’ll do” (4:03). To prove the connection with this law, Cobley reminds the audience the typical situation: the group of mothers always talks about healthy food and never about the junk food – nevertheless, MacDonald’s makes millions every year.
What really impressed me most was Cobley’s last example – the scientific method that “you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation. You can only disprove it” (4:12). We all remember the big recall incident which happened to Toyota, the most reliable of cars. “No matter how much you invested in your brand, one bad week can undermine the decades of good work” (5:38). I cannot but admire Cobley’s presentation of the material because in simple words, he explains the algorithm and the basis of marketing which rules the world and determines fates of the biggest companies. Dan Cobley helped me feel closer to the global market through understanding it.

Works Cited

Cobley, Dan. ted.com. Jul. 2010. Web. 3 Feb. 2015 https://www.ted.com/talks/dan_cobley_what_physics_taught_me_about_marketing#t-25171