Intro
We started the FINITE podcast in Q1 of 2019, after feedback from our community during our events. Over the last 7 months or so since we began running FINITE events, we have had some quality talks from experienced B2B marketers, and the vision for the podcast is for a wider audience of ambitious B2B marketers to keep up to date with current trends.
Each episode of the FINITE podcast will feature a Senior B2B marketer talking about topics on which they have a deep level of experience, whilst also finding out about their journey to this stage of their careers.
Whether it’s aligning sales and marketing departments, balancing data & creativity or making sense of attribution, all aspects of the FINITE platform is designed for B2B marketers to be able to go back to their place of work, and take actionable insights. This is a bit of a different episode this week, as we invite Programme Director
Listen to the Podcast:
Listen to the episode with Sven by clicking here.
About Our Guest
Dr Sven Molner joined the Institute of Management Studies as a lecturer in marketing at Goldsmiths University in 2016, and is currently the programme director of MSC in consumer behaviour and also in marketing technology. We thought Sven’s perspective of marketing, as someone who works in education would be insightful for our audience of B2B Tech marketers.
Sven on the Value of Marketing theory In an ever-changing World
I believe as an academic that Theory has a big role to play to those investing in their education. More and more students are dismissing marketing theory, mainly due to economic pressures and the need to get a job quickly these days.
That’s the main asset of learning at University. We as academics are heavily involved in research-based activity. We are constantly challenging theory, testing theory, refining theory. When I meet with practitioners they are very open-minded to the relevance of theory and helps them change their minds on certain situations, because that’s the whole point of it – Theory guides your search for meaningful solutions or explanations to a certain problem.
Sven on Expectation management to his students
If there is a specific skill that you are looking for, for a particular job then University perhaps isn’t the right environment for you. Moving forward, with my students, I plan on communicating the value of theory from a very early stage in order to get students into the mentality of seeing the value of theory.
Sven on his research into Technology Push Innovations
What I found in my research was that when a technology has been created through curiosity over a market need, such as what occurs more often in Universities, there is a big difference in the success of uptake of that technology depending on how early the inventors or scientists have decided to shoehorn that tech into a particular industry.
I.E Those who wait on developing the technology before striving for a particular market, tend to succeed more than those who rush to market.
Sven on blending both Marketing Theory with Practical Projects
As we’ve already discussed, in the classroom we predominantly teach theory, but we like to add practical projects as coursework.
So I normally invite companies to suggest a project in marketing strategy. For instance, students are expected to develop a marketing plan for a product that is about to be launched into the market by a certain company in new market creation.
It’s mutually beneficial because the companies get fresh ideas at no risk, and the students get to apply their knowledge to a real-world problem, which is hugely motivating for a marketing student.
Sven on Turning This Into a Platform
Having seen this initiative with companies thrive, I felt like I could take this to the next level.
So I’m wanting to create now this platform where companies can sign up.
So I devloped this, recruited a couple of companies where they can sign up and propose projects for different modules and only for market strategy and new market creation – the things we teach in the classroom.
Now, all our core modules of our programs, masters programs like digital marketing, creating customer experiences, social media, analytics are also available for companies who face challenges within these topics. So companies who face challenges with the guts of these topics, they can then propose a project and then students in the course work address this problem.
It’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned, and it’s something I am looking at scaling up.
So if anyone listening is one of those companies do get in touch with Dr Sven Molner, or search for him on the University of Goldsmiths website here.
