Blog | Recent Posts
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Razorblades In Apples: Halloween Sadism Isn’t Real
One of my favorite academic articles is “The Razor Blade In The Apple” by Joel Best and Gerald T. Horiuchi. This fascinating piece investigates the idea of Halloween Sadism. Did the authors find extensive evidence of random strangers sadistically harming children? At the risk of spoiling the story; no of course they didn’t. Searching For…
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Voters And Consumers
I recently read an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (a major Canadian paper). This talked about the political marketing techniques used by Canadian parties. The journalist asserted that “Canadian politics have moved into an era where voters no longer think of themselves as citizens, with duties and obligations and longer-term perspectives….” (Simpson 2013).…
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Confusopoly
In the UK the agency responsible for promoting competition and generally getting consumers a good deal was the Office of Fair Trading, the OFT. (Written a few years ago this UK regulators have since changed). Interestingly this government agency used a concept from Scott Adams (of Dilbert fame) to illustrate a major problem in competition.…
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Bold And Full Of Hope
Business academics sometimes aren’t very bold. Too often we concentrate on achieving something doable rather than trying something that is a stretch. I always think that if no one thinks you’ll fail there isn’t much point in what you are doing. So I appreciate it when plans are bold and full of hope. Even if…
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Accounting For Profits And Decisions
Marketers, and business people more broadly, often use accounting profit to measure success. This isn’t too surprising. Often firms claim to be profit maximizing. Report something as profit and this sounds like something that should be maximized. That said, profits using in accounting and managerial decision-making are not really the same thing. Decisions taken to…
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Market-Based Assets: An Important Idea
The concept of Market-Based Assets was introduced to tackle a major marketing (indeed business) problem. Many managers too often see marketing simply as an expense. By this logic marketing does not deliver, or at least is not expected to deliver, any long terms benefits. Being treated as an expense makes marketing a prime candidate to…
