To perceive is to act
Perception is all about action. What we perceive is not just based on input from our senses, but also based on our expectations in a specific context or situation. Our senses work very well, but our brain integrates, interpolates and interferes with the information coming from the senses to fit the data to pre-existing models of what it thinks should happen (based on a vast databank of previous experiences). For example, our brain expects that two towers going up into the sky away from us should converge following the laws of perspective, and when they don’t (as above) this can cause unintended effects in how we perceive the world. Read more »
On autopilot
Imagine a busy housewife, with impatient kids in tow, walking through the supermarket to find fishcakes and chips (or perhaps noodles and vegetables) for the evening meal. Her mind is focused on the task in hand and finding the right items, along with trying to listen to descriptions of the school day just gone. All of us do many things (arguably most things) in our day via an internal autopilot. Whether it’s brushing our teeth, driving to work, or buying our evening meal, much of our behaviour is learnt and unconscious. Read more »
A new mindset for research
Advances in neuroscience, psychology and related fields such as behavioral economics have changed our understanding of our minds over the last 10-20 years. Over the next 12 articles, I would like to build a complete picture of what makes us what we are, and what this means for marketing and market research, incorporating the latest understanding from these fields. The material is taken from a two-day training workshop, and if you want to learn more about these ideas, then please join us here. Read more »
I can’t think why
After facilitating two fun-packed days on consumer psychology last week, I picked up the latest edition of Newsweek which had a lead article on the very same topic written by Sharon Begley (link below). Sharon Begley focuses on the impact of the ‘Twitterization’ of culture, arguing that our brains are sometimes so overloaded with information that they simply freeze. The story is backed up by neuro-imaging studies of brian activity during decision making, which show that when overwhelmed with information our conscious brains sometimes literally ‘switch off’. More importantly, with too much information, our decisions can make less and less sense. Read more »
“Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.” - Aaron Levenstein Read more »
Insight or foresight?
We have written previously about the important role of seeing the future in evaluating the value of insights, and about Prometheus as a role model for foresight with a name and values who embodies the best characteristics of market researchers. So should we replace the word insight with foresight? And apart from insight, what more is needed to inspire truly breakthrough ideas and innovations? Read more »
Is Market Research the iceberg that keeps the Titanic afloat?
At the APRC and JMRA annual conference in Tokyo yesterday, Hatsunori Kiriyama of Procter & Gamble gave a thoughtful keynote speech on “My expectation from research”. Although Kiriyama-san comes from a sales background, he clearly values research, as do his company, placing it at the heart of the business he runs in Japan, or as he described it, “our brand stories always start with the consumer”. Read more »
The World Wide Web is 18 years old and after some rebellious teenage years is about to mature into a very different adult than we all expected from its youthful promise. With adulthood, comes the yearning to leave home and become independent, and that’s exactly what’s happening to the web.
Read more »
“My object all sublime, I shall achieve in time, To let the punishment fit the crime.” - W.S.Gilbert (The Mikado)
“One death is a tragedy; one million is a statistic.” - Joseph Stalin
Read more »
“No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as any manner of thy friends or of thine own were; any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind. And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.” - John Donne
Read more »
