Mark Ritson is a professor, columnist and brand consultant, and the creator of the Mini MBA in Marketing, the online programme that has put evidence-based marketing training in front of tens of thousands of practitioners worldwide. A former adjunct professor at Melbourne Business School with a PhD in marketing, he spent years as a weekly columnist for Marketing Week, where his columns became required reading for anyone who wants marketing decisions grounded in evidence rather than fashion. He was the inaugural guest on Boringly Effective, recorded at Cannes Lions 2026.
Key ideas
- Pricing is the most under-used lever in marketing. Ritson argues that marketers obsess over communication while treating pricing as someone else's job: "Pricing is a lever of the whole company profitability."
- The industry talks long-term and acts short-term. "Every time we say companies should be more long-term, they get more and more short-term."
- Creativity amplifies investment; it rarely replaces it. "Creativity will amplify it, but it has to amplify what has already been invested. If you multiply by zero, there you go."
- Brands can reinvent themselves without losing themselves — he points to BMW and Chanel as proof, and suggests Apple may be decades into becoming a luxury brand.
- The mediated persona is a real persona. Invoking Baudrillard, he accepts that the public "Mark Ritson" seen on stage — "the video version of me is the real me" — has become inseparable from the person.
Appears on Boringly Effective
- Mark Ritson on Madonna, Baudrillard and the Boring Work of Marketing Effectiveness — Episode 1 — recorded at Cannes Lions 2026: effectiveness, pricing, creativity, luxury and the gap between what marketers say and what companies do.