Mavens of Modern Marketing

Dana VanDen Heuvel is compiling a list of the 50 Greatest Thinkers in Modern Marketing and he’s asking us for help in compiling the list. The first one to contribute was Todd Sattersten from 8cr, second to contribute was me, and third to contribute will be YOU.

So if I’m adding the following modern marketing thought-leaders to Dana’s & Todd’s list, who are you adding?

---

Scott Bedbury ... we gotta include the marketer who has helped to make Nike & Starbucks the brands they are today

---

Stephen Brown ... a stupendous contrarian marketing thought leader

---

Joe Calloway ... his writings on transcending commoditization are brilliant

---

Marc Gobe | his two books, Emotional Branding and Citizen Brand, are modern marketing classics

---

Jeffrey J. Fox ... so many great books and so many great ideas!

---

Naomi Klein ... sure, she bullies brands but Naomi helps to keep all us marketers in check with her "No Logo" marketing musings

---

Philip Kotler ... this professor ushered in modern marketing thought from the world of academia

---

Andy Morgan ... a super-smart voice from the advertising agency foxhole

---

Douglas Rushkoff ... this clairvoyant’s profound pontifications extend well beyond marketing

---

Michael Silverstein ... his "Trading Up" thesis supports the go-to-market approach of modern marketing success stories like Starbucks, Apple, and Whole Foods Market

---

Tom Peters ... Hello! “The Brand Called You” anyone????

---

Sergio Zyman ... the “Ayatollah of Coca-Cola” deserves to be on this list

---

Comments

[Lewis Green]

Can someone explain to me what Naomi Klein has contributed modern marketing thinking. She is anti-marketing. Is that a contribution?

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Lewis ... Naomi has helped this marketer better recognize and understand the importance of acting smaller to get bigger. I've always been able to learn more from reading/hearing the perpsectives of others that I do not necessarily agree with. Naomi challenges me to think differently about the purpose and the processes of marketing. NO LOGO is a great book for marketers to become better marketers by learning why some people find "marketing" offensive.

And as I continue down my path of understanding how and why growing businesses become viewed as "bad business," I must thank Naomi Klein for contributing to my learning.

Now, I'm not sure we can classify Naomi Klein as anti-marketing. After all, she certainly has marketed herself well. Dig?

However, she certainly has been quiet since NO LOGO was published in 1999.

[Kevin Behringer]

I've gotta say I'm a bit frustrated by this. I submitted a couple, I know of other people that submitted some.

I've even emailed people with higher blog readership than me to help promote it.

Guess, what, mine and others ideas didn't show up. That really limits the options for people.

Sure, if they want to whittle it down later, that's fine, but to me the value from this comes from people's finding someone they have never heard about.

A bit disappointing.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

To thwart comment spam, it looks like Dana has to approve comments. I also submitted a few names for consideration and haven't seem them show up in the comments section. I reckon Dana is busy with other things, like maybe paid work, to approve the comments we've made.

[Lewis Green]

Thank you, John. I don't disagree with reading those with different perspectives, and we can all learn from them. However, in a list dedicated to the 50 greatest thinkers in marketing today, I think Naomi, while having written a helpful book, does not qualify as a great maketing thinker. Just one person's opinion, but I wanted to share it.

On another candidate, although in different but complimentary departments, I worked with Scott Bedbury during his tenure at Starbucks, and I think we need to be careful about how much credit we give to anyone person who worked there during the growth spurt, unless their names are Howard Schultz, Howard Behar or Orin Smith.

That said, Scott is a good candidate for the category and certainly taught me a lot.

[Mitch Caplan]

You simply cannot ignore the agency folks:

Lee Clow, Phil Dusenberry, Linda Kaplan Thaler, and Alex Bugusky.

[Rob Fields]

One person who definitely has to be on the list is Don Schultz, the acknowledged "godfather" of integrated marketing. He named it and championed it back when no one was even thinking about it.

[Chuck Nyren]

I'm a big snob. As big a snob as everybody here.

But we must all lower our noses: Ron Popeil.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Chuck ... great call on Ron Popeil.
Robb ... I gotta do some background work on Don Schutlz.
Mitch ... yeah, ad folks should be on Dana's list.

[James Shewmaker]

Chuck and John Moore,

This list is not for the 50 greatest marketers but for the fifty greatest thinkers. Ron Popeil may (concession for argument's sake, only) be one of the greatest marketers in his market, but in what way has he been a "thought leader" in marketing?

For some reason although I logged into Typekey, the Typepad comment feature refused to accept my Typekey identity. Weird.

[Chuck Nyren]

Ron Popeil pretty much ‘thought up’ and popularized immediate response marketing. Adapting it from print and some earlier radio (call this number), with television it was showing the product in action, along with “Call this number NOW.” It created immediate excitement about a product, and was a forerunner of WOM. People watching the shows would call up their friends and tell them to turn it on.

If you do not recognize this as one of the most brilliant, revolutionary, successful, and influential marketing ideas in history, then I would advise you to stick that nose of yours even higher up in the air – until you fall over backwards.

[James Shewmaker]

Chuck,

Now that I understand your reasoning, I accept the validity of the argument. However, my asking the question that I asked does not merit your rudeness.

[Chuck Nyren]

You're right. I apologize.

[johnmoore (from Brand Autopsy)]

Nice to see comment civility has been restored. As for the merits of Ron Popeil in the discussion of Modern Marketing Masters, I recommend those unfamiliar with Popeil's contribution to read Malcolm Gladwell's profile of "THE PITCHMAN." It's a way worthy read.