Peter Shawn Taylor discusses price discrimination and seniors. He argues for the abolition of seniors’ discounts. There is probably a discussion worth having over where to target government benefits. Do rich seniors get benefits that might be better targeted at younger people? I think this can be the case (although senior poverty remains a major…
Author: neilbendle
Neil is an Associate Professor Marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. He investigates the measurement of marketing performance, the accounting/marketing interface, and the impact of non-standard decision making in commercial and political markets.
Neil is the Chair of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board advisors. He is co-author of Marketing Metrics: The Manager’s Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance (3rd edition) Wharton School Press and is co-author of a cartoon book: Behavioural Economics for Kids.
Mapping Social Networks With NodeXL
Today I’m taking a slightly different tack. I’m recommending software. This allows researchers and managers to go about mapping social networks with NodeXL. The good news is that this is software that is an add-on to Excel. (Sadly it only works with the Windows version). It is easy to use, and if you already know…
Who Are The Vital Links In A Network?
When studying a social network one interesting question concerns: Who are the vital links in a network? Who connects everyone together compared to who could you remove without much difference to the network? Vital go-betweens may not be the most important in terms of their own characteristics or achievements. Yet, they take on greater importance…
The Denseness of Social Networks
What can we find out from the denseness of social networks? Individual Versus Network Characteristics Researchers often study questions focused upon the individual. For example, we might want to know if a consumer has been influenced by an advertisement. Alternatively, we might assess what sort of skills are useful for a salesperson to possess? There…
Sales And Consumer Protection
Peter Shawn Taylor discusses sales and consumer protection. He criticizes the Canadian Competition Bureau “for going after retailers for discounting too often” (Taylor, 2015). The piece was interesting. Sadly, Taylor’s arguments were unconvincing. Sales And Consumer Protection I’ll focus upon the general arguments rather than the specific cases. I cannot comment on the specific details…
Antifragility
Nassim Nicholas Taleb is clearly worth listening to. His idea of antifragility is useful. But he seems determined to alienate people. His book, Antifragile, is sprawling and confrontational. He uses it to settle a long list of scores with famous names. Those who disagree are not merely wrong. Instead, they are portrayed as cartoon villains…
Is Reliability A Good Thing?
Reliability in analysis is widely valued. Reliability is returning the same result whenever we test the same thing. I’m not against reliability. Still, it can be overrated as Scott Armstrong explains. We need to ask occasionally: Is Reliability A Good Thing? Or more accurately, how much are we willing to sacrifice at the altar of…
Implementing Marketing Analytics
Cesar Brea’s book, Marketing and Sales Analytics, is a practitioner’s take on analysis. He discussed implementing marketing analytics. Conversations With Experts Indeed, a full third just details his conversations with practitioner experts. The work has several points that are worth considering. Brea also includes elements that I would have avoided. The division of marketers into…
Creating Impatience
Many of us have a general tendency towards impatience. This means we overweight the importance of the present over the future. It isn’t challenging to think of examples of this. People consume calories that their future selves will regret. They drink and smoke now gaining modest pleasure. In return, they will suffer massive pain later…
Framing And Product Experience
Framing is an important topic in marketing. At its simplest, research in framing and product experience investigates the impact of information packaging. The same information can have different effects depending upon presentation choices. Of course, as with any important idea, each researcher has their own precise definition. Framing As Description Levin and Gaeth (1988) use…
