We continue analyzing the dark side of marketing by studying the Opioid Crisis of the 1990’s and 2010’s. Ethical marketers can take lessons about segmentation, targeting, and focus from this case study and radically improve their results with their products and services.

The villains in this tragedy, Purdue Pharma, executed a joined-up marketing and sales plan that led to untold suffering. Listen in as we uncover the strategic principles that they put to use against dark intentions. We want our listeners who are marketing highly-valuable — and sometimes even life-saving products — to put these approaches to use for good purposes!

In this episode you will learn:

  • How stakeholder management and segmentation were keys to Purdue’s (unfortunate) success
  • What the “Magnetic Effect of Focus” is, and why it works even better for ethical marketers than it did for Purdue
  • Why failure galvanizes focus and how you can take advantage of this lesson without having to fail!

Here’s some quotes from the team’s discussion:

“When it comes to the dark side, ethical marketers have to view themselves as a sort of ‘Intellectual Robinhood'”

“The Magnetic Effect of Focus works better for the good guys because they don’t run into an ethical wall.”

“Here’s why failure can help galvanize a focused and coordinated effort that leads to great success — and why you don’t have to fail first to learn these lessons.”

We hope you learn some valuable strategies from this podcast!