Simply Better Marketing: Why Customers Don’t Care About Your ‘Unique’ Features

Professor Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing at London Business School, joins us to discuss his influential book Simply Better: Winning and Keeping Customers by Delivering What Matters Most, which challenges much of today’s conventional marketing wisdom. Drawing on rich evidence from companies like Toyota, Procter & Gamble, and Orange, he explains why customers rarely buy because of unique features and instead choose brands that consistently deliver the basics a bit better than competitors. In this conversation, he distinguishes between “narrow” marketing focused on communications and “broad” marketing focused on the entire customer experience, showing that real advantage lies in operational excellence, reliability, and meeting fundamental needs. He also offers practical guidance for leaders, especially CEOs, marketers, and entrepreneurs, on using customer dissatisfaction data, 360-degree feedback, and direct time with customers to build a learning culture that relentlessly improves what matters most. This podcast is brought to you by Global Management Consultancy. For more information, please visit www.globalmanagementconsultancy.com. Disclaimer: A. The background music incorporated in this video is the intellectual property of its respective developer and is protected under applicable copyright laws. Notwithstanding that it is a free-to-use version, Business Talk, Global Management Consultancy, and Deepak Bhatt do not own, and expressly do not claim, any rights, title, or interest in or to this music. B. Dr. Patrick Barwise shared valuable insights from his book ‘Simply Better: Winning and Keeping Customers by Delivering What Matters Most’, during an engaging episode of the Business Talk podcast. The uploaded video contains copyrighted content, so changing any graphics, music, or on-screen appearance of the author or host is not allowed.