Blog | Recent Posts
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Surviving Paranoia
I don’t like Paranoia. Excessive fear of other people is a major social problem and encouraging it is just plain wrong. We need to concentrate on getting past it, surviving paranoia. Do Only The Paranoid Survive? Thus I’m not a fan of Andy Grove’s “Only the Paranoid Survive” (Grove 1996). It is not that there…
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Are We Good Decision Makers?
An interesting debate in the decision-making field is: Are we good decision-makers? The Debate: Are We Good Decision Makers? This debate occurs most contentiously between supporters of Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman and those in Gerd Gigerenzer’s camp. Supporters of Tversky and Kahneman argue that in the 1970’s the core assumption in social science was…
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A Taxonomy Of Nudging
One of the most popular ideas in the behavioural sciences at the moment is “nudging”. This is applying a light touch to encourage people towards certain actions. People often are a little unclear on what a nudge is. As such it is helpful to have a taxonomy of nudging. What Is A Nudge? What Then…
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Marketing And The Republican Autopsy
The Republican’s recently issued an interesting competitive analysis of how the party’s marketing operations stack up. [Published in 2013]. The Growth and Opportunity Project has been dubbed the “Republican Autopsy”. This basically accepted that the 2012 national elections were a disaster for the party. So what can we learn from marketing and the Republican autopsy? Criticism…
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Customers As Liabilities
In marketing we often talk about customers being assets. The relationship a business holds with its customers is a key source of profits. As such it was a deliberately provocative move when the editor of Marketing Science described some loyalty schemes — including the classic stamp based programs — as seeing customers as liabilities. Why…
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CLV And Limited Capacity
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a great thing to calculate. It encourages marketers to take the numbers seriously. It helps finance people see the numerical basis of marketing. Calculating CLV encourages you to treat customers well; they are valuable and you have the numbers to prove it. Finally marketing’s influence probably increases when people think…
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Defaults Matter
There is a wonderful 2003 Science article about how people react to default choices. The conclusion? Defaults matter. Why Does This Matter? The article impresses for a number of reasons including: In Organ Donations Defaults Matter So what does the article say? In organ donations the default option matters. When people must opt-in (explicitly consent)…
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The Politician’s Fallacy
Yes Minister, a British TV show, explained a logical mistake called The Politician’s Fallacy. The politician sees a problem and feels that “Something must be done”, They find an approach and say “This is something”, Then they make a logical leap, “this must be done”. Measuring National Culture Numerical analysis of culture in business reminds…
