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…
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…
There’s no such thing as a free lunch. In English, this is a popular phrase that suggests you can’t get something for nothing. (Readers, is there a similar saying in other languages?) Like many common phrases, its origin is shrouded in mystery. At the heart of the phrase, the concept of a “free lunch” refers…
Why are unimportant decisions so hard for people to make? The conventional wisdom is people don’t make decisions due to the fear of being wrong. However, in “Decision Quicksand: When Trivial Choices Suck Us In,” research suggests excessive information and extraneous choices trick our brains into thinking a decision is more complicated than it really…
The Mae West attributed quote “flattery will get you everywhere” may be good advice. Sometimes. Research published in the Journal of Marketing Research demonstrates flattery leaves a lasting and positive impression of the flatterer, even when people believe it is insincere. In the experiment, participants were shown a flyer from a fictitious clothing store complimenting…
After a week during which I spent a lot of time discussing organizational design, I thought it might be amusing to update a classic comic which describes how different parts of an organization interpret customer needs. Like all humor based on stereotypes, it doesn’t reflect reality but we can’t help but cringe at a small…
During the holidays, I had the chance to re-read one of my favorite marketing books: The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Ries and Trout. While many people seem to think that the book is no longer relevant, I was more than a little surprised by how of much of the book I remembered and…
After poking fun at Marketing, several people forwarded me this classic joke about the communication issues between Marketing and Engineering: A man is flying in a hot air balloon and realizes he is lost. He reduces his altitude and spots a man down below. He lowers the balloon further and shouts, “Excuse me. Can you…
If you’re not in software development, you may not be familiar with an agile software development framework called scrum. Scrum is an alternative to the traditional waterfall approach and attempts to simplify complex projects by structuring them in short cycles of work called sprints. Each sprint is based on prioritized customer requirements such that the highest value features…
It’s pretty common for people (and Dilbert) to poke fun at Marketing. The jokes typically come in three flavors: 1. Product Marketing and Public Relations often have amusing conversations as we try to describe products in colorful, but believable, ways. 2. Marketing sometimes has to use a little artistic license to get people interested in…