As the name implies, biomimicry is the discipline of designing products by mimicking phenomena that already exist in biology and nature. The best-known example of this approach is Velcro, which was developed in the 1940s by engineer George De Mestral when he noticed burrs clinging to his dog’s fur after a walk in the woods. It…
CMOs make a strong case that marketing should represent the “voice of the customer” for their companies but, in my opinion, that doesn’t go far enough. We need to represent the voice of the market. Howard Schultz, founder of Starbucks Coffee famously said: “Customers don’t always know what they want. The decline in coffee-drinking was…
If want to hear lots of specific details about a TV show you missed, you may be better off asking a shy person rather than a loudmouth talking about it in the break room. According to Dutch scientist Camiel Beukeboom, introverts use more descriptive and concrete language than extroverts. Extroverts are far more likely to…
When you ask someone to do something, be sure to include the statement that they are free to choose to do it or not. Adding this phrase doubles the likelihood they will do it. A detailed analysis of more than 22K subjects in 42 separate psychology studies demonstrates this startling result. The simple act of…
What was the first fast food company?What was the first credit card company? Most people probably don’t know the correct answers are White Castle and Diners’ Club. While both companies still exist, they now have relatively small share in what has turned out to be very large markets. As I’ve previously argued, the benefits of first mover…
In a recent post, I urged CEOs to view marketing as a strategic partner, the glue that binds the different parts of an organization together to deliver a consistent, cross-channel consumer experience. A 2012 report from Forrester and Heidrick & Struggles concluded that marketing is “moving from the outskirts to the core of the enterprise”…
The phrase ‘fiscal cliff’ was clearly trending in 2012. I’ve been meaning to renew my annual practice of blogging about LSSU‘s list of banished words but I guess I kicked the can down the road. Since I’m passionate about the subject, I doubled down on a recent flight. Fueled by boneless wings (my Superfood of…
Remember the invisible gorilla video? In an experiment popularized by the book of the same name, volunteers were told to keep track of how many times a basketball was passed between players. While the ball was being tossed, someone in a gorilla suit walked between them in plain view. Very few people noticed the gorilla because…
We all know that consumers are disrupting companies’ business models. One visible example is the increasingly popular practice of “scan and scram” (a.k.a. “showrooming”), in which customers browse in brick-and-mortar stores but use their mobile devices to find better prices online. According to comScore, four out of ten consumers “showroom” first then purchase online. Some…
The science of subtle signals suggests what you say is less important than how you say it. Mark Buchanan is a theoretical physicist who writes about how physics can be used to understand biology, economics, psychology and other social sciences. His book, “The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught and Your…