Why Mark Ritson is wrong

Why Mark Ritson is wrong

I don’t know Mark Ritson, but I understand his marketing courses are very good. He obviously knows a great deal about marketing. However, he has helped creat a debate on education and training within the industry which is based on a logical fallacy. Here is why:

1. The Ipsos survey to which he refers in recent posts is a test of recall of a number of marketing industry acronyms. It is not a test of marketing ability. It presumes marketers will have completed one or more industry training packages which use these acronyms. If you don’t recognise them you will fail the test and contribute to the argument there is a lack of training in the industry. These acronyms are by no means Terms of Art, for example, “Excess Share of Voice” (ESOV) has no quantitative element. That is why my preferred term is “Punch above your weight”. It is a commonplace expression which conveys the appropriate meaning without resorting to jargon or acronyms.

2. The Mark Ritson Mini MBA is one of a number of training courses. It appears the strategy in use is, “The industry as a whole suffers from low rates of training. This leads to a lack of return. Something needs to be done. I sell training, which is something, therefore the marketing industry needs my training courses are the answer”. This is a logical fallacy. There are other providers, I have used some of them myself and by subjective and objective measurement, they are competent. I don’t mean to diminish his work in any way, but this is a flawed strategy.

Marketing has moved on in many ways since I started working in it in 1977. The skills required of a marketer have increased. The essence of the task has not. The creation of numerous attempts to quantify the measurement of concepts has created a plethora of specialities. In many cases, the raw data behind these measurements cannot be wholly relied upon. 

Getting people to understand the concepts, so they can find their own way around the numbers and apportion confidence is a good thing. Sharing a commonly understood taxonomy helps with this. These are good things which can and should be learned. Claiming the industry is failing to deliver for its clients, based on research which evidences nothing of the sort, is not the way to reach this goal.

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