First, I think the idea of product life cycle being analogous to Kepler’s law is right on, especially in the context of something like a movie series. I would include the second part of that orbit as possibly the release to video that pulls the person back around toward the pending release of the next item in the series. In the music world, U2 serves as an example of how this is done well. They release an album, tour, make a movie, engage in charitable acts, lay low, reinvent themselves, and repeat.

One thing that strikes me with Kepler is that he insisted on “Getting it Right.” Close enough was not good enough for him. He was constantly trying to improve his thinking, which meant disproving many of his own beliefs. It takes huge courage to think this way.

As for the product, I would place the product as an important element. If there were to be something in the center of the universe for Marketers, I might instead choose the customer. The product will vary, but the need to deliver what the customer wants with regularity is central to what marketing is all about. Anticipating demand, amplifying it, and delivering the goods, measuring results, and doing it all over again. No customer, no sales, no business. Certainly product quality is important, but that quality metric is driven by the market place. I can build a car that lasts for 500 years and never breaks, but at what price. Does the customer even want this? It might be enough to build one that lasts 5. The customer decides, not the marketing department. Just my take. Great comments from all. Please keep them coming.

The central point of marketing is the product.

Everything else revolves around the product.

Consumers being the biggest planet, and probably be the furthest out from the product (sun). All other planets or heavenly bodies – like advertising – marketing efforts — PR – focus groups etc. revolve around the product. Their orbits are certainly elliptical, and held in orbit by a central force like Marketing (gravity). Note also the Four P’s of marketing, AND hence the Planets.

Then there is the product life cycle – without which there would be no planets… and THE PRODUCT is always the central point of the universe. Without a good product – and quality of same, there are no orbiting bodies and then the product dies. There is no gravity then and therefore all marketing ceases to exist…

Solar systems, comets, asteroids etc. are all anomalies to the basic premise? I am sure your group can theorize more from here!

Bob VL

I have to tell you the example that keeps coming to mind in my mind is Harry Potter. Maybe it’s because you said “witch” in your blog, but I think it really has more to do with the whiplash-like effect Kepler showed mathematically in planteray orbits as they neared the sun. This whiplash-like effect always reminds me of the Harry Potter “series” release strategy.

Each product release (book or movie) is the epicenter (Kepler’s sun), whereas the media and public reaction is the orbit — increasing and decreasing in fervor in relation to that epicenter.

It started with the success of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Book one of seven. And predecessor to movie one of seven. Like clockwork (almost every six months…sometimes longer, much to the fan’s chagrin) the release of books or movies became like a cyclical marketing event (to your point David).

To illustrate, I want to switch metaphors so that it isn’t visual but auditory. Think of Kepler’s law like sound. The farther away the object is from the epicenter, the softer and lower it sounds. As it nears the epicenter it increases volume and pitch (I hear you science buffs accusing me of switching to the Doppler Effect, but the two are related in that they have to do with increasing velocity and spatial area from a set point).

So using sound, Harry Potter book is released in month 0. The volume and pitch of marketing is high and the book a success. As time passes the fervor wanes and the volume and pitch decrease slowly. As the movie release begins to approach (usually month 6–9) the volume and pitch again increase to fever pitch.

It’s important to note that the series marketing strategy used in this example only works if the epicenter (in this case the release of the products) remains strong (so each book/movie must stay at least as strong as the original).

Note: this last point was later proven, physically, by Newton’s law of gravity. If the sun’s gravitational pull decreased, the orbits of the planets would widen and eventually float off.

Well, now that I’ve introduce Newton and Doppler into your physics lesson (although Newton has appeared here before), I think I need a Jaeger!

I love this blog!