There is a chasm between market want and corporate can.

In this episode we dissect company core competency and the impact misunderstanding this has on marketers.

If you’ve ever felt there is some invisible architecture that dictates success or failure in your organisation, but can’t quite put your finger on why, it might be due to a deficit in core competence.

Forget chasing trends. We discuss why superficial market appeal is a fool's errand without the intrinsic capability to deliver.

From the nuanced dichotomy of breweries and pubs to the audacious (perhaps reckless) expansion of titans like Netflix, we leave no sacred cow alive…..well, almost none.

We discuss:

• The "Adjacent Market Mirage":
  Listen to the story of an outsourcing company's growth mistake chasing “easy” expansion.
  
  
• The danger for companies lacking self-awareness:
  Listen to us discuss why a brewery can’t be a pub, and why there isn’t a damn thing a marketer can do about that.
  
  
• When Good Intentions Lead to Bad Investments (The Software Service Dilemma):
  Listen to us share a story of how a B2B software company's forays into adjacent services, one a surprising win, the other a costly failure, reveal the often-invisible lines of core competence that must be identified prior to expansion.
  
  
• Why Overestimating Your Capabilities Can Lead to Costly Failures:
  Listen to us talk about a Branding Agency's expansion problems after it mistook its capabilities and tried to enter the wrong market.
  
  
• The power of knowing your lane:
  Listen to us discuss how McDonald's deep understanding of what they do allows them to grow year after year, decade after decade.
  
  
• Fuel Strategic Growth by Discovering Your True Core (A Charity's Smart Pivot):
  Listen to a story how a laundry charity identified their fundamental strength to strategically expand into a different, but related service, substantiating a strong model for growth.

This episode was cohosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

and

Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart.

Find Jack and Alex online at the links below:

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

In this episode of the podcast we dive into a fascinating concept that could explain why your marketing job feels misaligned or difficult.

We explore the idea of company "orientation," how a company’s focus and cultural direction can shape your experience as a marketer.

From sales-focused companies to product-driven organisations, we'll break down 4 distinct orientations and how they impact everything from internal communications to strategic decisions.

Plus, we’ll discuss how understanding your company's orientation can help you thrive, or decide if it’s time to move on.

We cover:

• The concept of every company having an orientation
• The 4 main orientations
• Why marketers should be aware of their company's orientation to decide if they can work within it or if it's time to move on.
• The orientation Jack believes marketers thrive in and why
• The misuse of AI in products, often leading to complications rather than solutions.
• Why Google Plus as a product was too internally focused and ultimately failed.
• How Zappos was customer-oriented, a marketer’s delight, and focused on customer service rather than the product.

This episode is co-hosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

and

Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

In this fun and insightful episode, we dive into a "Not-So-Rapid-Fire" Q & A session with senior marketers Alex and Jack.

While the aim was to keep it quick, they got talking….and…well, it didn’t end up being that quick 😂

Alas, there are a lot of laughs as the entertainment factor is high!

Questions include:

- What is the best marketing advice you’ve ever received?

- What is the best sales advice you ever received?

- What’s your biggest frustration as a marketer?

- What is the most important skill a marketer will need in 2025?

- What is your biggest frustration with marketers?

- What career advice would you give your newbie marketing self?

Amongst others.

Interesting quotes from the episode:

"You can’t control your buyers; you can only influence them.”

"You can’t make someone buy, but you can create the perfect environment for them to choose to."

"People don’t like to be sold to, but everyone likes to buy."

"Marketing isn’t about fancy tactics—it’s about cutting through the noise and getting to the truth."

This episode was co-hosted by Jack Ferguson and Alex Urquhart.

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

We all know the goal is the same—drive results.

But when it comes to promoting products versus services, the game changes. In this episode, we dive into the differences with real life examples to draw upon.

After all, we all know it’s not just about the product or service—it’s about how you approach the messaging, and the strategy behind it.

What we cover:

• A story of a software developer rebranding as an education app developer, and how that led to more sales.
  
  
• Why we believe industry experience helps sell to clients but doesn’t make a marketer better at their job.
  
  
• Different marketing strategies we’ve utilised for professional services versus product-based businesses, using an engineering company as an example.
  
  
• Challenges we’ve witnessed promoting service based businesses which have a broad range of offerings.
  
  
• Examples of successful marketing strategies for service-based businesses

This episode is hosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

and

Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart.

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

In this episode….we’re going to pull teeth….wait, wait, we mean manage up as a marketer.

What is actually going on when your boss is disagreeing with you? Let's explore this oh-so familiar situation and take a look at what's really going wrong, and what we can do about it.

Get ready for:

- A marketer trying to expand a CFO’s view beyond PPC.

- A lesson from Trevor Noah in understanding your boss

- Strategies for bridging the gap between your marketing expertise and your boss's belief system

- Several points of view on how to influence your boss

- A discussion on your boss’s belief system and when it is too deeply entrenched

- The reality of changing belief structures. How to do it and your likelihood of success.

This episode is hosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

And

Product Marketer Alex Urquhart

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

Can you truly market a subpar product and come out on top?

On this episode we explore the realities of marketing a product that simply doesn’t deliver.

From Crocs to Google to Santorini, we’ll explore real-world examples of brands attempting to win with a product that falls short.

We will explore:

- Why marketers should always be asked about product

- How a bootstrapped company did very little promotion yet found success by addressing a defined market need.

- How Jack shaped a product for a SaaS company, and helped it pivot from a code quality platform to a finance platform.

- How a terrible product (Crocs) became popular

- Why Google has failed at over 250 products

- The nuances of product quality when comparing B2B to B2C customers

This episode is hosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

And

Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

In this episode, we talk about how to sell yourself as a marketer!

We’re giving you tales, tactics, and frameworks!

Marketer's have unique challenges when it comes to selling our services and expertise. We are going to discuss why this happens, and strategies to overcome this!

This episode is hosted by:

Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

and

Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart.

This episode covers:

- The challenges of selling marketing services due to inherent uncertainty in marketing outcomes.

- Common challenges faced by both internal marketers and external consultants.

- The difference between deterministic and non-deterministic services and why these matters to you as a marketer.

- How cake theory applies to marketers

- The challenges of working with clients and stakeholders who don't understand the complexity of marketing.

- The problem with marketing PDs in 2025

- Where 90% of your success will come from as a marketer

- How marketing is 80% intangibles and 20% great tangibles, and the inherent challenges that arise with that

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s personal website here

In this episode, we are talking about employer/employee break ups (or client/contractor break ups).

The key question we are looking is: When should a marketer leave an employer or client?

Specifically, we discuss:

- The importance of leaving a job at the right time

- Personal stories of staying in the wrong job for too long

- Signs that it’s time to leave

- Tribalism in the workplace

- The importance of leadership in shaping company culture and how it affects you

- The catch 22 of keeping professional distance from clients/employers vs caring enough to do a great job as a marketer

And

- Why it's useful to think about culture as the personality of leadership

This episode was co-hosted by:

- Brand Strategist Jack Ferguson

and

- Product Marketing Specialist Alex Urquhart

Find Jack on LinkedIn here

Find Alex on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on YouTube here

Follow The Push on LinkedIn here

Follow The Push on TikTok here

Follow The Push on Instagram here

Visit The Push website here

Visit Jack’s personal website here

Visit Alex’s website here