To prepare for the upcoming holiday shopping season, I’m reading ‘Priceless: The Myth of Fair Value (and How to Take Advantage of It)‘ by William Poundstone. Poundstone references a wide variety of psychology studies which show consumers are unable to accurately estimate fair prices and are “strongly influenced by the unconscious, irrational, and politically incorrect.”…
Next week I’ll be in China for our second annual customer meeting. One of the things that makes this event special is we didn’t try to export the US version to China but rather built an event ground up for China. As Chinese consumers gain affluence, we expect them to act like Westerners and are…
I’ve never worked in the food service industry but I’m fascinated by the psychology of tipping. In the U.S. tipping is voluntary but expected; partly due to social convention and partly because food servers depend on tips to make a living. Because U.S. food servers are required to pay income tax on the value of…
Have you ever noticed that you rarely see a gas station by itself? Instead multiple gas stations seem to be clustered close to each other. Wouldn’t it be better if they were more spread out? Presh Talwalkar noticed this phenomenon and used game theory to explain why it’s a rational decision for the gas stations,…
When is the best time to buy an airplane ticket? As a frequent traveler, experience has taught me that the best time to buy a US domestic ticket is mid-week. Flights always seem to be more expensive when purchased on the weekend. I tend to book flights on Tuesdays. A Wall Street Journal article seemingly supports my intuition….
Co-workers can be good for your health. A 2011 research study from Tel Aviv University suggests having nice co-workers improves employee health. The researchers closely monitored 800 adults over twenty years, repeatedly interviewing them on a wide range of topics from the conditions in their workplace, the behavior of their bosses, and the niceness of…
In 1948 David Ogilvy founded the agency that would later become Ogilvy & Mather. Ogilvy, who is often called the father of advertising, emphasized that the goal of advertising is to sell products and that successful advertising is based on information about the end consumer. Two of Ogilvy’s most famous campaigns are “The man in…
The abstract for ‘When Consumers and Brands Talk: Storytelling Theory and Research in Psychology and Marketing’ caught my eye: Storytelling is pervasive through life. Much information is stored, indexed, and retrieved in the form of stories. Although lectures tend to put people to sleep, stories move them to action. People relate to each other in…
What’s with all of the ice? The question bothered me after a recent trip to Whole Foods Market, an upscale market near my home. The container of hummus I bought hadn’t been refrigerated; it was displayed in a large barrel of ice. In fact, lots of other food and drinks items were stored in ice barrels…
Have you ever made dinner reservations at multiple restaurants and then forgotten to cancel the ones that you didn’t use? While multiple reservations might be convenient for diners, no-shows cost restaurants thousands of dollars per month. The most common way to reduce these losses is to take customers’ credit card information at the time of…