Mark Ritson on Personal Branding, B2B Marketing and His Journey with Mini MBA

E235
59:31
March 26th 2025

Joining Shahin and Vinnie is marketing legend, Mark Ritson, Founder of the Mini MBA.

From almost buying Kylie Minogue's house, to consulting, and building a global brand, Mark shares with us the journey of his Mini MBA.

🎥 Prefer to watch the conversation?

We've got a link for you: https://youtu.be/FEVkez18g44

This episode also covers...

Why small brands struggle
Why "trust" doesn't actually matter for strong branding
How pricing is the real key to profit (not revenue)
The 95-5 rule
Why salespeople should not create content (and who should)
Mark's take on personal branding

About Mark...

Mark has a PhD in Marketing and spent 25 years working as a marketing professor. He was an Assistant Professor at London Business School and the University of Minnesota, an Associate Professor and then Adjunct Professor at Melbourne Business School, and Visiting Professor at MIT and SMU.

He’s also worked as a global brand consultant for clients that include Baxter, Loewe, McKinsey, Subaru, Donna Karan, Westpac, Shiseido, Flight Centre, Johnson & Johnson, De Beers, Sephora, Benefit, Amgen, Ericsson, Penfolds, Jurlique, Cloudy Bay and WD40.

For thirteen years, Mark served as the in-house brand consultant for LVMH - the world's largest luxury group - working in Paris with senior executives from brands like Louis Vuitton, Dom Perignon and Hennessy.

He’s been a columnist for 20 years, writing a weekly column for Marketing Week. On five occasions, he’s been voted Columnist of the Year at the PPA Press Awards, the highest award for magazine journalism in the UK. Mark’s also been the British Society of Magazine Editors Business Columnist of the Year in 2018, 2022 and 2023. More scholarly publications include articles in the Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, the Journal of Advertising and the Journal of Consumer Research.

These days, Mark focuses on his Mini MBA courses at his home base in Tasmania.

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APAC's B2B Growth Podcast

APAC's B2B Growth Podcast (formerly Growth Colony) is a bi-weekly interview show unpacking trends, busting myths and delivering insights B2B marketing and sales leaders across Asia-Pacific can put to work today.

Each episode, host Shahin Hoda sits down with a marketing leader, sales leader, founder or operator who has a real point of view, not a generic take.

Guests bring specific stories from inside their own companies: what worked, what failed and what they'd do differently.

We cover what's actually driving B2B growth in the region: account-based marketing built for APAC rather than adapted from a US or UK playbook, sales and marketing alignment, and founder and operator commentary from people doing the work, not just talking about it.

If you're a B2B marketing or sales leader in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore or anywhere else in Asia-Pacific trying to build pipeline from strategic accounts, this show is for you.

Hosted by Shahin Hoda, founder of xGrowth. xGrowth is an account-based marketing and go-to-market agency helping global B2B technology companies improve customer acquisition, build qualified pipeline and win strategic accounts across APAC.

The agency works with regional sales and marketing teams to identify priority accounts, develop coordinated campaigns and turn commercial opportunities into measurable growth.

With specialist regional expertise and hands-on execution support, xGrowth gives lean marketing teams the strategy and capacity needed to enter new markets, reach enterprise buyers and grow valuable customer relationships.

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