full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Dan Cobley: What physics taught me about marketing

Unscramble the Blue Letters


So next, the scientific method — an axiom of physics, of all science — says you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation, you can only disprove it. What this means is you can gather more and more data around a hypothesis or a positioning, and it will sgtrtenhen it, but it will not conclusively prvoe it. And only one contrary data point can blow your theory out of the water. So if we take an example — Ptolemy had dezons of data points to sppruot his theory that the planets would rotate around the eatrh. It only took one robust observation from Copernicus to blow that idea out of the water. And there are parallels for marketing — you can invest for a long time in a brand, but a sligne contrary observation of that positioning will destroy consumers' belief. Take BP — they snpet millions of pounds over many years bdnliiug up its clnaredetis as an environmentally friendly brand, but then one little accident. Think about Toyota. It was, for a long time, revered as the most reliable of cars, and then they had the big recall incident. And Tiger Woods, for a long time, the perfect barnd ambassador. Well, you know the story. (Laughter) So the pcsihys is that you cannot prove a hstyphoies, but it's easy to disprove it — any hypothesis is shaky. And the marketing is that not matter how much you've ivetensd in your brand, one bad week can undermine decades of good work. So be really careful to try and avoid the screw-ups that can uirdenmne your brand.

Open Cloze


So next, the scientific method — an axiom of physics, of all science — says you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation, you can only disprove it. What this means is you can gather more and more data around a hypothesis or a positioning, and it will __________ it, but it will not conclusively _____ it. And only one contrary data point can blow your theory out of the water. So if we take an example — Ptolemy had ______ of data points to _______ his theory that the planets would rotate around the _____. It only took one robust observation from Copernicus to blow that idea out of the water. And there are parallels for marketing — you can invest for a long time in a brand, but a ______ contrary observation of that positioning will destroy consumers' belief. Take BP — they _____ millions of pounds over many years ________ up its ___________ as an environmentally friendly brand, but then one little accident. Think about Toyota. It was, for a long time, revered as the most reliable of cars, and then they had the big recall incident. And Tiger Woods, for a long time, the perfect _____ ambassador. Well, you know the story. (Laughter) So the _______ is that you cannot prove a __________, but it's easy to disprove it — any hypothesis is shaky. And the marketing is that not matter how much you've ________ in your brand, one bad week can undermine decades of good work. So be really careful to try and avoid the screw-ups that can _________ your brand.

Solution


  1. spent
  2. physics
  3. credentials
  4. hypothesis
  5. earth
  6. invested
  7. building
  8. dozens
  9. prove
  10. support
  11. strengthen
  12. undermine
  13. brand
  14. single

Original Text


So next, the scientific method — an axiom of physics, of all science — says you cannot prove a hypothesis through observation, you can only disprove it. What this means is you can gather more and more data around a hypothesis or a positioning, and it will strengthen it, but it will not conclusively prove it. And only one contrary data point can blow your theory out of the water. So if we take an example — Ptolemy had dozens of data points to support his theory that the planets would rotate around the Earth. It only took one robust observation from Copernicus to blow that idea out of the water. And there are parallels for marketing — you can invest for a long time in a brand, but a single contrary observation of that positioning will destroy consumers' belief. Take BP — they spent millions of pounds over many years building up its credentials as an environmentally friendly brand, but then one little accident. Think about Toyota. It was, for a long time, revered as the most reliable of cars, and then they had the big recall incident. And Tiger Woods, for a long time, the perfect brand ambassador. Well, you know the story. (Laughter) So the physics is that you cannot prove a hypothesis, but it's easy to disprove it — any hypothesis is shaky. And the marketing is that not matter how much you've invested in your brand, one bad week can undermine decades of good work. So be really careful to try and avoid the screw-ups that can undermine your brand.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations




Important Words


  1. accident
  2. ambassador
  3. avoid
  4. axiom
  5. bad
  6. belief
  7. big
  8. blow
  9. bp
  10. brand
  11. building
  12. careful
  13. cars
  14. conclusively
  15. contrary
  16. copernicus
  17. credentials
  18. data
  19. decades
  20. destroy
  21. disprove
  22. dozens
  23. earth
  24. easy
  25. environmentally
  26. friendly
  27. gather
  28. good
  29. hypothesis
  30. idea
  31. incident
  32. invest
  33. invested
  34. laughter
  35. long
  36. marketing
  37. matter
  38. means
  39. method
  40. millions
  41. observation
  42. parallels
  43. perfect
  44. physics
  45. planets
  46. point
  47. points
  48. positioning
  49. pounds
  50. prove
  51. ptolemy
  52. recall
  53. reliable
  54. revered
  55. robust
  56. rotate
  57. science
  58. scientific
  59. shaky
  60. single
  61. spent
  62. story
  63. strengthen
  64. support
  65. theory
  66. tiger
  67. time
  68. toyota
  69. undermine
  70. water
  71. week
  72. woods
  73. work
  74. years