Letters to a Marketing Student. Part Four: Study the Greats

Ad Legend Bill Bernbach

This is the fourth and final posts in a series called ‘Letters to a Marketing Student’. (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3)

I’m willing to wager that you’ll make it through your entire marketing degree without hearing the names of the great marketing minds of the past.  Given how potent of a learning tool it can be, I’m amazed at the lack of emphasis marketing degrees place on marketing history.

Very little of what we do as marketers is new.  Point me to a new ad you love, and I’ll point you to a masterpiece of the past where it was first done.  The vehicle may be different, but the principle strategy, content and direction will be the same.

My fourth and final challenge to you this school year is to become a student of the greats.  Collect their writings, study their masterpieces and then look through a lens of history when observing and critiquing the ads you see everyday.

A few books to start with:

• Confessions of an Advertising Man – David Ogilvy
• Scientific Advertising – Claude Hopkins
• Bill Bernbach’s Book – A History of Advertising that Changed the History of Advertising – Bob Levenson and Bill Bernbach

Also check out Adage Magazine’s Top 100 People.  Read the overviews and use it as a springboard into their books and work.

I encourage you to make this year a powerful inflection point in your career by setting aside 10 hours a week and applying the four pillars from this series:

1. Invest in yourself: Understand how you spend your time and commit 10 hours a week to self learning
2. Do marketing: Help a small business or charity, lead a group, start a small business
3. Listen: To blogs and social media.  Learn from those who are out there doing marketing everyday
4. Study the greats: Read their books, study their work, learn from their mistakes.

Don’t wait.  Start today.  Good luck.

Tagged as: ad legends, marketing student