Sources
The canon.
This is the literature the curriculum is built on. No AI faculty, no paid testimonials. The writers who have measurably advanced the discipline.
A curriculum is only as strong as its sources. Both/And is not a new theory — it is a discipline of reading well-established findings alongside each other rather than against each other. These sources are the foundation. Every lecture in every module traces back to these works.
We have grouped them by theme. Many of the authors work across multiple areas — Kahneman is relevant to consumer behaviour and to research, Ritson to strategy and to effectiveness. The grouping is a peg, not a box.
How brands grow
The empirical foundation of modern marketing thinking. Why penetration drives growth, why the loyalty myth does not hold up in practice, and why distinctiveness does more work than differentiation.
2010
Sharp, B.
How Brands Grow
The foundation. Sharp rewrote how we think about brand growth, building on Ehrenberg's empirical work. Required reading for anyone who wants to speak about marketing.
2022 (rev.)
Romaniuk, J. & Sharp, B.
How Brands Grow, Part 2
Extension into categories underrepresented in the first book — B2B, services, retail. The original laws hold.
1988
Ehrenberg, A.S.C.
Repeat-Buying: Facts, Theory and Applications
The primary source behind Sharp. Empirical work that has held up for decades on how consumers actually buy.
2018
Romaniuk, J.
Building Distinctive Brand Assets
The practical companion to distinctiveness — how to build, measure, and protect assets.
Effectiveness
The work that demonstrates what campaigns actually do, across years and categories. The basis for the brand/performance synthesis and the 60/40 rule.
2013
Binet, L. & Field, P.
The Long and the Short of It
The most-cited study of campaign effectiveness ever produced. Separates brand effects from activation effects, establishes the 60/40 rule of thumb.
2019
Field, P.
Effectiveness in Context
Follow-up to Long and the Short. Nuanced reading of purpose, crisis, and context.
2017
Binet, L. & Field, P.
The Long and the Short of It (Revisited)
Revised edition with new data and commentary on the popular misreadings.
ongoing
IPA
IPA Databank (Effectiveness Awards)
The primary dataset behind Binet & Field. Thousands of UK campaign case studies, systematically scored for effectiveness.
Consumer behaviour
How people actually decide, as opposed to how we assume they decide. The basis for the intuition/research synthesis.
2011
Kahneman, D.
Thinking, Fast and Slow
System 1 and System 2. Indispensable for any marketer who wants to actually understand how consumers make choices.
2019
Sutherland, R.
Alchemy
The best counterweight to excessive rationalism in marketing. Argues for creativity inside a rigorous empirical frame.
2008
Ariely, D.
Predictably Irrational
Accessible introduction to behavioural economics, rich with examples marketers can apply directly.
Brand strategy
The other side of the Sharp debate: why meaningful associations matter, how to structure brand identity.
1991
Aaker, D.
Managing Brand Equity
The canonical work on brand dimensions: awareness, associations, perceived quality, loyalty, proprietary assets.
2012 (4th ed.)
Keller, K.L.
Strategic Brand Management
The CBBE pyramid and the most complete handbook on consumer-based brand building.
2012
Kapferer, J-N.
The New Strategic Brand Management
The brand identity prism and the European counterweight to the American tradition of Aaker and Keller.
1981
Ries, A. & Trout, J.
Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Historically important, even where we have moved past it. Necessary for understanding the differentiation debate.
Media and attention
How ads actually work — in which channels and under which conditions. The basis for the digital/traditional synthesis.
2020
Nelson-Field, K.
The Attention Economy and How Media Works
Empirical work with eye-tracking and other attention research. Cuts down the claims on both sides of the channel debate.
ongoing
Ehrenberg-Bass Institute
Various working papers
The Australian institute continuing Ehrenberg's empirical work. Freely available to affiliated members.
Practice and strategy
Voices from practice that make the academic canon accessible and applicable.
ongoing
Ritson, M.
Marketing Week columns & Mini MBA
The most influential practitioner-commentator in marketing. Required reading for anyone in the field.
1954
Drucker, P.
The Practice of Management
Where it begins: 'The purpose of a business is to create a customer.' The function of marketing and innovation in the enterprise.
1960
Levitt, T.
Marketing Myopia (Harvard Business Review)
One article that still shapes how we think about category definition. The railroads who thought they were in the railroad business.
Ethics and society
Marketing as a societal practice — the frames within which the work is done.
various editions
Kotler, P. & Keller, K.L.
Marketing Management
The general textbook. Not always revolutionary, always thorough. Still the starting point other works build on.
2021
Polman, P. & Winston, A.
Net Positive
A serious voice in the purpose debate. Shows where purpose has substance and where it does not.
This list is not exhaustive. It is the canon the curriculum starts from. Every module adds its own primary sources, which are called out in the lectures and listed in the source sections at the bottom of every page.