Episode 79. How Understanding Culture Can Help You Build Influence, Your Personal Brand & Your Career – Professor Marcus Collins

What is Culture and how can understanding it help you build influence, your personal brand and your career. I discussed this, his best-selling book For The Culture and so much more with Professor Marcus Collins on Episode 79 of the Reframe & Reset Your Career podcast.

In this episode, we will learn about:

How Marcus got his big break running digital strategy for Beyoncé,

How he learnt that facilitating an existing community is more powerful than building it from scratch,

What is culture and the three systems of culture?

What is a congregation and how it can help spread the message?

Differentiating products and services through the feelings they evoke rather than value and function,

Moving your target audience through emotion,

How brands like Patagonia and REI put their values into action even if it may potentially cost them financially,

Find the “true believers”, who love you and your product and focus on cultivating a connection with them,

Strategies for cutting through the noise and stand out from the crowd, and

Creating content consistently over time and not focusing simply on what is popular as you never know who is viewing your content.

Marcus believes there is no external force more influential to human behavior than culture. What we wear, what we eat, where we work, how we vote, and just about every facet of social living is informed by our cultural subscriptions. So he studies cultural contagion and how it manifests in our consumption proclivities, organizational dynamics, and society writ large. He leverages his scholarly work as a clinical professor at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and the many years he spent in marketing as an advertising executive—most recently as the head of strategy at Wieden+Kennedy, New York—to bridge the academic-practitioner gap and use this knowledge to help people get people to take action.

Throughout his career, he has been acknowledged for his strategic, creative, and scholarly contributions (American Advertising Federation’s Advertising Hall of Achievement inductee, Thinkers50 Radar Distinguished Achievement Award, Cannes Lion Creative Strategy juror, Ad Age's 40 Under 40 recipient, and Crain’s Business 40 Under 40 recipient) as well as launched successful campaigns like “Cliff Paul” for State Farm, the Made In America Music Festival, and Google’s “Real Tone” technology—among others. Before his tenure in advertising, he worked in music and tech as a startup co-founder. Then he led iTunes + Nike sports music initiatives at Apple before running digital strategy for Beyoncé.

He is the author of the best-selling book, For The Culture, which examines the relationship between culture and human behavior. He has spent the last decade helping organizations—from Fortune 500 companies to startups and non-profits—use this knowledge to create culturally contagious ideas that get people to move. The book aims to do the same for readers.

He is a graduate of Temple University (DBA) and the University of Michigan (BSE in Materials Science Engineering and MBA with an emphasis in strategic brand marketing).

 

People & Resources Mentioned

The Alchemist – Paolo Coelho

Emile Durkheim

Raymond Williams

Brené Brown

Charles “C.C.” Chapman

 

Contact Marcus

Website: https://marctothec.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marctothec/

 

Reframe & Reset Your Career Resources & Contact Info

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YouTube Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/c/ReframeResetYourCareer 

LinkedIn Page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/reframe-reset-your-career/?viewAsMember=true

E-mail - [email protected]

Thank you for your continued support of Reframe & Reset Your Career, I do appreciate it. I now have a new website, see link above, please do check it out, I hope you find it helpful. 

It would be great to hear from you, the listeners, and your thoughts about the podcast, YouTube channel or anything else, it's always a pleasure to hear your views. I have had some great reviews but not had any way of responding. The next episode will be available on Weds 5th June with David Robson, the award-winning author of The Intelligence Trap, The Expectation Effect and his latest book The Laws of Connection.

 

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