What does 2012 hold?
In an uncertain world, it’s always good to hang on to someone else’s predictions of what lies ahead, and in that spirit here is a summary of some of the key trends outlined by trendwatching.com in their end of year report (link here). Some of these trends seem very similar to previous years perhaps, and some are less relevant for Asia, so I will focus on six that I find most relevant and intriguing plus a tip for which colour to wear to your New Year’s party on Saturday night. Read more »
“Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors.” - David Hume
“The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning.” - Stephen Jay Gould Read more »
A universal story
Although there are seven basic plots which have been the basis of storytelling for thousands of years (even if there have been some developments in recent years), the plots share many common trait. All the plots can ultimately be summarised as a single universal story, and share many common features such as a tension between light and dark and masculine and feminine, use of archetypal symbols, patterns and personalities, and an overarching theme of self realisation in their narrative structure and elements. Read more »
“Who are you going to believe: me or your own eyes?” - Groucho Marx
In About Face, Dan Hill makes a clear and compelling argument for the use of emotion in advertising and it’s power to drive changes in behaviour. The book is full of useful examples and anecdotes and some statistics too. In one study by Omnicom, emotional engagement with customers resulted in 20% higher return on investment than mere awareness in advertising. In another review by Pringle and Field (based on 880 case studies from the UK’s Institute of Practitioners Advertising Effectiveness Awards), ‘soft sell’ ads that inspire strong emotional responses in their audience make more money (almost twice as much as ‘hard sell’ ads with more fact-based and rational arguments). And more emotional ads also reduced price sensitivity, created greater differentiation and were more important in more mature markets. Read more »
“It is impossible for ideas to compete in the marketplace if no forum for their presentation is provided or available.” - Thomas Mann
“Always within an arm’s reach of desire.” - Robert Woodruff (former chairman of Coca-Cola)
Getting connected
In the final chapter of How Brands Grow, Byron Sharp focuses on the key to great marketing: making your brand easy to buy. There are two aspects to making brands available which are covered extensively throughout the book: mental availability (something discussed at length in this blog previously) and physical availability. He argues (based on empirical evidence) that product innovation only works when a brand is salient and well distributed, through distinctive and clear branding and breadth and depth of distribution. Read more »
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” - Chinese proverb
Connecting the dots
The tremendous advances in brain science (along with changes in the media landscape) mean we need to rethink how we engage customers, taking on board some of the lessons of neuroscience and behavioural economics, and sometimes going back to ancient wisdoms which preceded the rise of rational approaches to consumer behaviour, especially in the West. The truth is that most of our decision making is unconscious, emotional and highly context dependent (especially social context). Read more »
Questions, questions
After watching the world go by for a while, you may still have some unanswered questions which means it may be time to start a conversation with your customers. Although more than 90% of communication is non-verbal, there is a huge amount to be learnt from listening to consumers (and asking the occasional question), especially when this is done in the right way. Read more »
“All models are wrong, some models are useful.” - George Box
The flaw of averages
Market research reports are generally packed full of average scores and comparisons of means, and not often enough with distributions and extremes. In the real (business) world this is a mistake as, in the words of Sam Savage’s (f)law of averages, ‘plans based on average assumptions are wrong on average’. To put this another way, errors occur in the real world when we replace uncertain numbers by single (or simple) averages. Read more »
Over the past two weeks we have learnt 12 key insights into what makes us who we are, based on the latest understanding from neuroscience, behavioural economics, psychology, biology and the social sciences. They can be summarised in three (or perhaps four) key themes, but first let’s review the 12 lessons of human behaviour. Read more »
Sensory thinking
The senses inform much of our language, as the dominant source of our experiences. We all use words related to different senses to express ourselves (I can see your point, I hear you, I was touched by a thought), and some theories (eg NLP) claim that we have different preferences for the sensory modalities (I hear what you’re saying vs I see what you’re saying). Thus, the senses truly help us to create our everyday expressions. Read more »
