Lessons from the Master of Deduction
“Tell me to what you pay attention, and I will tell you who you are.” – W.H. Auden In Mastermind, Maria Konnikova uses the stories of Sherlock Holmes to lay out best practices for deduction,...
View ArticleThe Right Tool for the Right Job
One of the most famous quotes in marketing, and one that a friend of mine is very fond of repeating, is Ted (Theodore) Levitt’s comment that “People don’t want a quarter-inch drill – they want a...
View ArticleAdvertising, Persuasion, Seduction and Noise
In Seducing the Subconscious, Robert Heath argues that existing models of how advertising works are misguided, mistaken and misleading, especially about the role that attention, liking and persuasion...
View ArticleWhat marketing can learn from search engines
A recent article by Neil Perkins at OnlyDeadFish, talking about the future of search, is well worth reading for any marketer or researcher. For me, the most interesting part of the article discusses...
View ArticleBuilding Emotional Brand Experiences
Recent work by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA; Binet & Field, 2012) has reinforced the difficult truth that emotions are key to long-term brand success, outperforming the...
View ArticleNeuromarketing – Brainwave or Brainwash?
The title of the first chapter of Brainwashed, ”Losing Our Minds in the Age of Brain Science”, sums up the main thread of this readable new book. Brain science is a powerful new tool to help us...
View ArticleAdvertising for the Long Term
For those who want to understand how to make their marketing campaigns effective, there is no better read than The Long and the Short of It by Les Binet and Peter Field last year. The 80 page booklet...
View Article11 Brand Colours and their Meanings
“There is no model; there is only colour” - Paul Cezanne Earlier this month, Cadbury lost the fight to fully trademark their distinctive purple colour (although it is uniquely theirs for chocolate)....
View ArticleBrand Identity and Signal Detection
“Turn up the signal, wipe out the noise” – Peter Gabriel, Signal to Noise Successful marketing builds the physical and mental availability of a brand. Robert Woodruff, former Chairman of Coca-Cola once...
View ArticleWhat Marketing Can Learn From Brain Science
Many of our intuitions about behaviour are now being confirmed by some of the latest findings in neuroscience and psychology. Although market research is making great strides to incorporate this new...
View Article30 Ways to Connect with your Customers
How does your brand show its true identity? Many brands focus on their visual appearance and most especially their logo, against an already cluttered and over-crowded visual environment. There are huge...
View ArticleIs your Brand using the right Symbols?
Our world is full of symbols, and we are all surrounded by symbols and signs every hour of every day. Our brains constantly use signs and symbols to access mental shortcuts. These shortcuts allow us to...
View ArticleDoes Market Research Need Reinventing?
Many market researchers lack the ability to integrate information, fail to connect research results with business outcomes and have not learnt the skill of turning complex data into clear narratives....
View ArticleThe Colour of Business
When you see a pink ribbon what do you immediately think of? If you’re like me, you will make a connection to the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign, which has made a pink ribbon its own unforgettable...
View ArticleDoes your Brand have the Right Emotional Profile?
Has the marketing world finally caught on to the importance of emotion in advertising and branding? I’ve read a flurry of articles recently, and finally in the mainstream marketing press, discussing...
View Article14 Principles For Pricing Everything
“They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” - Oscar Wilde Priceless is a great read for anyone who wants to explore the psychology behind pricing (and currently only one of two books...
View ArticleBrand Experience and Placebos
“We expect small things to be lighter than big things, to get smaller as they move away from us, and to grow larger as they get nearer … Though seeing and hearing and touch seem simple and direct, they...
View ArticleContext Matters
What do brain science and semiotics have in common? Semiotics and cultural studies reveal the systems of signs that exist in culture and other belief systems, where cultural context matters....
View ArticleFinding Your Brand Story: Marketing with the Right Emotions
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou Sadly Maya Angelou died at the end of May,...
View ArticleReview of Decoded by Phil Barden
Decoded is one of the very first books to fully embrace Daniel Kahneman’s view of human decision-making and apply this to marketing and market research. It is full of examples of the practical...
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