A classic idea in marketing is differentiation. Underpinning this is the thinking that you don’t want to be selling the same thing as someone else in the same place at the same time. If everything is the same, the only thing a firm can compete on is price. When this happens price will drop —…
Category: Understanding Marketing
Demonstrating Value From Sponsorships
A major challenge exists in sponsorships. They are typically long-term and don’t lead to immediate sales, so how can a marketer demonstrate value from sponsorships? MASB, the Marketing Accountability Standards Board, tackles this problem in their new book — Sponsorship Accountability. Demonstrating Value From Sponsorships One of the challenges with sponsorship accountability is that there…
Choosing Between Spending Points And Cash
Our recent paper in Psychology and Marketing looked at whether people prefer to use loyalty points or cash for various types of purchases. How does what the consumers are buying influence them when choosing between spending points and cash? The central questions answered in this research are, “For what, and when, do consumers prefer to…
Academics Must Do Good Work To Be Relevant
Sustainability reporting is a major, and contentious, topic. I wholeheartedly encourage academics to engage in topics like this — they matter. In theory, such engagement makes academic work extremely relevant. Consultants produce reports but sometimes these are over-optimistic, biased, or just plain wrong. This means academics can have an important place in improving the quality…
Cancel Culture And Being Better
If you liked Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt’s The Coddling of the American Mind you will like Lukianoff’s new book (with Rikki Schlott this time) The Cancelling of the American Mind. I can say this with confidence, as it is a bit of a re-tread. To quote, the 90s English band Pulp, it’s “Like the…
Changing Marketing To Be Sustainable
Sustainability requires changes on several fronts. In business changes to supply chains are an obvious area to address. Marketing is another discipline with a key role in creating a more sustainable future. This is not least because it can help persuade towards both sustainable and unsustainable behavior. So how might we go about changing marketing…
Machine Learning Deployment
Eric Siegel has a book devoted to getting the best out of AI; specifically its prediction-related branch, machine learning. He gives lots of practical advice on machine learning development. How then to get the best out of your algorithms? Practical Advice On Machine Learning Deployment Siegel gives a way of thinking about machine learning development….
Managing Across Business Disciplines
One of the big challenges of running an organization is managing across business disciplines. That is one of the many insights shared in Stephen Diorio and Chris Hummel’s book Revenue Operations. Managing Across Business Disciplines The book I wrote with Shane (Xin) Wang — The Customer Asset — looked at the problem of customer valuation….
Distribution Of Preferences Matters
In marketing, we often refer to averages. Indeed, the average does matter. “What does the average person think?”, is often a reasonable enough question to start. Plus, higher average preference is usually better than lower. Unfortunately, this can risk obscuring the fact that the distribution of preferences also matters. Polarizing Brands Xueming Luo, Michael Wiles,…
Recommendations Are Complex
Christina Stahlkopf looked at the Net Promoter Score (NPS) in a short 2019 Harvard Business Review article. The upshot of the work was that recommendations are complex. We want consumers to be simple but they consistently (and inconsiderately) do things to mess up the metrics that describe them. NPS As A Compass Stahlkopf takes a…
