Marginal Improvements - What Marketing Can Learn from Jannik Sinner

Third Grand Slam and second Australia Open title.

As Italian, I am proud of Jannik Sinner, probably the least stereotypically Italian of all Italians. And just because he is so unconventional, I like to think there is much we (the Italians) can learn from him — not only to improve as individuals but perhaps even as a nation. Yes, I know, I’m such a dreamer…

?There is one very remarkable aspect about him, that we (not just the Italians…) can take inspiration from. It’s his attitude towards self-improvement and his philosophy about it. Yes, of course, there is the great talent he was born with. This is undeniable. But there is something else. And probably, this “something else” is the element making the difference. He is an ardent believer in something we can define as “total offense on marginal improvements”. ?

?Tennis: A Complex and Cruel sport

?“I don’t lose. I learn”, he has said repeatedly after tough matches.

Tennis – despite it doesn’t look like – is a complex sport. The player. The opponent. The fundamentals, strategies, and tactics. Training routines. Physical and mental resilience. The equipment, racquets, balls, shoes, even clothing. The arena, the court surface. The umpires. The fans. The weather. Nutrition. The coaching staff. The whole staff. Media. Social media. Sponsors.

Every one of these elements impacts the game and the results. Literally everything. He knows that. And he works tirelessly to influence every possible detail about that.

He hasn’t invented anything to become #1, a new style or a game-changing strategy. He is just obsessed with improving in every aspect of the game. In and off the court. Day by day. Game by game. Tournament by tournament. Incremental improvements, everywhere.

?Tennis is also cruel sport, brutally unforgiving. Success isn’t just about winning more points than your opponents. It is about winning the right points.

Roger Federer, in his 2024 Dartmouth Commencement speech, noted: “I only won 54% of points. Even top ranked tennis players win barely more than half the points they play”.?

This is where Sinner’s focus lies. As losing points is inevitable and not all the points are equal, the obsession is about being ready to play and win the right points (a break point, a tie-break point, a set point, a match point), when mental and physical strengths align, to make sure that all the statistics of the game are slightly in his favour. That’s crucial to gain the competitive edge he needs against his ATP Tour’s colleagues, the world’s best tennis players.

?The Power of Marginal Gains

?In his book “Total Competition”, Ross Brawn – former Team Principal of Ferrari, Honda, Brawn Mercedes and key architect of multiple Formula World Championships – describes how his teams achieved success by focusing on incremental gains. By improving each component of the car by just a few hundredths of a second, they aggregated enough marginal improvements to make a decisive difference on race day.

This process involved every part of the ecosystem — drivers, mechanics, strategists, engineers, sponsors, suppliers, and beyond — working together to maximize performance. It was a relentless pursuit of improvement(s), recognizing that other top teams were striving for the same edge. This culture of marginal gains became their competitive advantage.

?Marketing as Total Competition

?I like the culture of sport in many perspectives. I get inspired by it, also when dealing with Marketing. Like Al Pacino’s character said in his pep talk in “Any given Sunday”: “The inches we need are everywhere around us…”, in marketing we are surrounded by an ocean of inches, by a huge amount of potential marginal gains. Like tennis, marketing is a game of total competition — against aggressive and skilled competitors — to win the right consumers.

?It’s a simple game, like tennis or basketball or any other sport based on a scoreboard. Yet terribly complex to play. It requires discipline and obsession with learning, testing, adapting, changing and improving in a landscape influenced by billions – literally - of variables.

?The Rules of the Marketing Game

?The marketplace is the arena. The other brands within the category (and even some outside it) are the opponents. Consumers are the points we need to win.

And the rules of the game? Too many, yes, mainly driven by probabilities, psychology … and luck (yes, that matters too – a lot – and is a variable totally out of control, so let’s park it aside for today). As Paul Dervan wisely described in?“Run with Foxes”: “We are in the probability and memory-making business.”

The journey to build the mental and physical availability, defined “sophisticated mass marketing” – so well studied and researched by Byron Sharp and the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute – is mainly a complex interplay of probabilities and psychology, built on 4 macro-variables, all intertwined: Reach, Memory, Access to Product, Usage of the product.

?Reach: given a certain budget, we have to “reach” the highest possible number of consumers across heavy buyers, buyers, light buyers and non-buyers. Possibly, more than the previous year. Possibly, the highest number of “right” consumers (light buyers and non-buyers). Because the more of them we reach, the more probabilities we create for our brand and product to be purchased. Therefore, the definition of category matters, consumer segmentation matters, targeting matters, the budget matters, long and short matter, the choice of the media matters, the choice of the right mix helps, the timing matters, the market share matters, the penetration matters etc.

?Memory: once consumers are reached, we need to deliver the most effective message, able to be remembered and able to trigger our brand in people’s mind when the decision of a purchase is in the making. Therefore, narrative matters, creativity helps, sense of humour and emotions may help, dynamic vs than static visuals matter, copy matters, branding matters, distinctive assets matter, events matter, ambassadors/celebrities/influencers matter, repetition matters, etc.

?Access to product: once we reach consumers and the memory triggers our brand in their mind at the moment of truth, the purchase must be easy, frictionless and the experience should be pleasant, seamless, and positive. Therefore, the architecture of the journey matters, the funnel matters, the number of stores matters, the location of store matters, the store design matters, the experience in the store matters, the quality of the staff matters, the payment system matters, the price matters, the assortment matters, the availability of stock matters, the logistic matters etc.

?Product and product experience: post-purchase experiences must create satisfaction, reinforcing positive memories, encouraging repurchase and eventually optimizing the retention rate, so we don’t lose the people we have attracted with so much effort. Therefore, the product matters, the design matters, the quality matters, the simplicity of use matters, the customer service matters, the user manual matters, the referrals matter, etc.

?And that’s just a tiny part of what matters…

?The Never-Ending Cycle of Improvements

?It's a gigantic enterprise that should be managed through a never-ending cycle of improvements. To be repeated. Again. And again. And again…

?In each of these areas, opportunities for marginal gains are endless. This is why the creation of a process that frames, ideates, develops, implements, collects and measures permanent marginal improvements in those four areas is vital. Balancing priorities, aggregating results, and assessing their impact on overall performance requires focus and discipline.

?Data surely helps. Because anything that can be measured, can be improved. But the obsession should be on the marginal incremental improvement(s) you want to achieve, not the data.

?Innovation may help. Because it may accelerate the improvement on certain dimensions of the marketing strategy. But – again – the obsession should be on the marginal improvements and the aggregation of all the marginal improvements, not on innovation to chase trends for the sake of hype and novelty.

?At its core, it’s about increasing probabilities. For Jannik Sinner, it may be eventually crucial to win one more “right” point vs his rivals. And another Grand Slam title. For marketers, to win one more “right” consumer vs all the other brands.

?Massimo Giunco

CMO/Brand Strategist/Human Being