The Thinking
You can read 200 marketing books this year. You'll remember maybe three ideas from each. You'll use even fewer. And when a real problem hits — budget cut, repositioning, new market — you won't reach for Chapter 14 of anything. You'll reach for whatever mental model is already in your head.
This course puts the right ones there. And for the first time, the whole system clicks.
Not a textbook. Not a collection of tactics. A complete map of how brand communications actually work — the logic behind it, and the architecture that holds it together. Compact enough to finish. Durable enough to use for years.
In the age of AI, you can look up anything in seconds. What you can't look up is which question to ask. That's what this course builds: the instinct to recognize the moment and the vocabulary to think it through.
From business goal to campaign execution. Twice.
Part 1. How it works.
The logic of brand communications — from the business objective that funds everything, through audience, behaviour, and belief, down to the message that reaches people.
You'll learn how money turns into audience, how audience segments into behaviour, how behaviour is shaped by beliefs, and how beliefs are carried by messages. Not as theory — as a system where each layer constrains the next.
Covers: business objectives and KPIs · audience segmentation · consumer journey · behavioural models · archetypes · insights and barriers · message architecture.
Part 2. How to build it.
Now you step into the strategist's seat. A new brief lands — what do you do first?
You'll work through the planning architecture: how brand strategy becomes a communications platform, how a platform generates campaigns, and how campaigns break down into activity plans. The layer that turns strategic thinking into something a team can actually execute.
Covers: brand strategy and positioning · communications strategy · brand platform · campaign architecture · campaign planning · activity briefs and execution.
How I teach
- Understanding, not memorizing. Once you understand the system, you can control it.
- Make or break points only. There is so much information out there you'll not be able to study it in your lifetime. I'm boiling down to what really matters.
- Practice-first. The best way to learn is to act, so learn through doing. But also learn what you can actually apply afterwards.
- Ready for AI age, but properly. It's not prompts, it's just new paradigms of studying where knowing the right questions is more important than details you get in seconds.
Who it's for
If you're experienced but feel gaps — you know your corner well, but the bigger system feels fuzzy. You sit in meetings where people throw around "strategy," "insight," "platform" and you suspect everyone means something different. (They do.) This gives you the shared architecture.
If you manage a team or a brand — you don't need to do the work yourself, but you need to evaluate it, ask the right questions, and know when something is missing. This is the course for that.
What this is not
This is not a digital marketing course. Not growth hacking. Not a media planning course. Not about AI tools.
This is the strategic layer underneath all of that — the part that decides whether any tactic makes sense in the first place.
Format
How long is it? 20+ lessons released weekly over 8 weeks. Video with written guides.
Can I ask questions? Every lesson has a private comment thread. I read and respond to all of them.
About me
Ilya Petrov. 22 years in marketing — agency strategy, Nike (where I managed €60M+ budgets and strategic projects across Europe), now leading global marketing for developer tools at JetBrains.
I've taken the expensive strategy courses. I've taught at the other end too. This course exists because I kept seeing the same gap: people who are smart, experienced, and still can't see the full system. Not because it's complicated — because nobody shows it to you all at once.
The first version of this course has been running for 5 years. 200+ graduates. People still reference it in conversations — not because it taught them tricks, but because it changed how they see the work.
This is the new edition, rebuilt with my recent learnings.
Price
€349 — full course access, all materials, direct Q&A with me.
Team pricing available — if you're buying for 3+ people, get in touch for per-seat rates.
One course. The whole map. Everything else you can look up.