Raffi's Round Up - w/c 20th January 2024
The five best Marketing-related nuggets across my desk this week
Welcome to the latest edition of my weekly Round Up!
Greetings from an even gloomier day in London! Here are the five best Marketing-related nuggets that came across my desk this week:
ONE (if you want the lowdown on how Figma has taken over Marketing and Design Departments, read this one)
Kevin Kwok’s timeless piece unpacks the power of cross-side network effects. What I love most about his writing? The simplicity with which he unpacks the simplicity of Figma’s approach:
“The core insight of Figma is that design is larger than just designers. […] Building for everyone in the design process and not just designers is also the foundation of Figma’s core loop, which drives their growth and compounding scale.”
It’s a long read, but it packs a punch — arguably essential if you want a free peek inside what a top-tier start-up growth loop looks like.
TWO (if you foundational Marketing advice, listen to this one)
I listen to this podcast between Mark Ritson and Louis Grenier at least once a year because it grounds me back in the spirit of “what it really takes”. One anecdote that always lands is that 9 times out of 10, David doesn’t beat Goliath, he loses quite miserably. Setting up a brand is an exercise is being the 1 in 10 chance…
Topics covered include:
What does the long and the short of it mean?
Start with what you’ve got
How to start a business that maintains
Why you should ask yourself what it is you can do that most other people can't
Why small brands can take risks that the bigger brands can’t
Why you should stand up and be counted as the founder of your business
How the birth of his first child forced him to start Mini MBA
Why scalability is such an important word
What’s so fantastic about shitting your pants
Full pod can be found here.
![[BEST OF] Mark Ritson: How to Grow a Company From Nothing](https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CT6r!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fa87408e2-3ff4-4faa-9d92-d9cc5b321d08_800x800.webp "[BEST OF] Mark Ritson: How to Grow a Company From Nothing")
THREE (if you’re following the Attention Economy, read this one)
Nick Magguilli’s Of Dollars and Data blog is full of gems and his latest piece doesn’t miss… The “New Currency of Attention” zeroes in on the journey of both the $TRUMP coin and $LUIGI coin, with a healthy reminder that the “only recommendation is to stay the course and focus on the things that create actual value for people.”
FOUR (if you have been having Sonos problems too, read this one)
I spent New Year’s Eve at a house with Sonos, wrestling to get my phone connected properly. In my mind it’s a premium brand, but the struggles were a good reminder that product experience (especially when it’s poor!) trumps even the best Marketing.
Turns out I’m not the only one… This piece in The Verge shines a light on what’s going on with their internal struggles:
“As it relates to marketing, some Sonos employees have expressed their dismay to me over just how much money the company dumped into advertising last year even amid the app controversy. Those big spends included an expansive New York City subway campaign for the Sonos Ace headphones and a holiday elves campaign that cost a staggering amount. The Ace headphones, which I maintain are a very good product, were quickly forgotten when the gravity of Sonos’ app problems came into focus, so the marketing had little effect.”
FIVE (if you need a read to undo those January blues, try this one)
This piece has a quite awkward title (“How to like everything more”) but it had some nice self-help on how to get a bit more out of the small moments. Maybe you’ll get something out of it too… and if you like Sasha’s writing, and you like chess, his book looks worthwhile.
