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# Marketing Thought

Clarifying marketing and sustainability

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Blog](https://neilbendle.com/blog/)
- [Defying Financial Gravity](https://neilbendle.com/defying-financial-gravity/) - Eric Ries’ book, Incorruptible, centers around the challenge of mainitaining a purpose. The (mostly) villain of the piece is the way business is currently done, specifically how it is funded. He calls this financial gravity. So how do we go about defying financial gravity without having to watch dubious movies? Financial Gravity What then is
- [Shareholder Primacy Is Baffling](https://neilbendle.com/shareholder-primacy-is-baffling/) - I must confess I wasn't sure when I approached the new Eric Ries book. From what I had seen he seemed a bit like a self-help guru for entrepreneurs. My assumption was completely unfair. He has an important book, Incorruptible, aimed primarily at founders. it details how they can create and, critically maintain, great companies
- [Advice On Running A More Sustainable Business](https://neilbendle.com/advice-on-running-a-more-sustainable-business/) - David Grayson, Chris Coulter, and Mark Lee have a useful guide which provides advice on running a sustainable business, predictably called The Sustainable Business Handbook. It covers a wide range of issues relevant to making business better. One of the most helpful features were the large number of practical lists. This should be useful for people wanting
- [EVs Are Politically Divisive](https://neilbendle.com/evs-are-politically-divisive/) - One challenge with moving to more sustainable technology is that EVs are politically divisive. In the US whether you drive an electric vehicle (EV) is seen as a political statement. Nicole Sintov and colleagues investigated this back in 2020. Symbolic Attributes Matter It is important to understand, as pretty much every marketer does but occasionally
- [Evaluating Evaluations Of Evaluations](https://neilbendle.com/evaluating-evaluations-of-evaluations/) - Stark and Freishat (2014) are pretty negative about student evaluations of teaching. To be fair the more you study evaluations the more problems you see. I agree that we have a problem with bias in student evaluations of teaching. Still many of the criticisms of evaluations, however, seem to be about the general problems of
- [Business And Social Progress](https://neilbendle.com/business-and-social-progress/) - At its heart this blog is about business and social progress. Business is part of society, so we should want business to be making the world better. It can do so, but that isn't the same as saying it does so and will always do so. My final post on Kate's Marvel's Human Nature book
- [Geoengineering And Climate Change](https://neilbendle.com/geoengineering-and-climate-change/) - When positing about a topic, here geoengineering and climate change it is helpful to share your expertise. Why should anyone listen to me on this topic? The good news is that the answer is simple -- you shouldn't. I have absolutely no relevant experience about geoengineering. That I lack knowledge is quite true in a
- [The Science Behind Climate Change Is Old](https://neilbendle.com/the-science-behind-climate-change-is-old/) - Kate Marvel is a climate scientists. Her book, Human Nature, discusses appropriate reactions to climate change. A number of things that I took from the book was that the science behind climate change is old. Climate Change And Lots of Digressions This isn't a hard science book on climate change. Kate Marvel seeks to make
- [People, Buses, And Another Complaint About Jim Collins](https://neilbendle.com/people-buses-and-another-complaint-about-jim-collins/) - Jim Collins’ books are well written but often readers, and probably Collins himself, may think Collins' books contain "scientifically proven" advice. At best, Collin's work should only suggest approaches. What is the complaint about Jim Collins? A Complaint About Jim Collins Many scholars criticize Collins' methodology. I sympathize with many of the critics. Here, however,
- [Systems Matter In Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/systems-matter/) - Donella Meadows was the lead author on The Limits To Growth, a highly influential book in the world of sustainability. I am not a huge fan of that book, as I worried the book was over-ambitious in its conclusions which may have helped creating a panic about population. The danger being that some nasty bigoted
- [Recognizing Trade-offs Is Critical To Progress](https://neilbendle.com/recognizing-trade-offs-is-critical-to-progress/) - Progress isn't always without costs. It is great when it is, but sometimes it won't be. You can't be paralyzed by the presence of a downside when you see a much bigger upside. One of the major public policy books of 2025 has been Ezra Klein's and Derek Thompson's Abundance. This argues that liberals need to embrace
- [Cliches About Disruption Aren't Public Policy Advice](https://neilbendle.com/writing-about-disruption-brings-the-worst-out-of-people/) - In my last post I noted that I worked at the Labour Party during Tony Blair's time. He is easily the best UK prime minister of my lifetime, so I really wanted to be positive about his institute's report on climate change. The approaches outlined are quite sensible, but the overall report is just plain
- [Strong States Help Markets To Thrive](https://neilbendle.com/strongstateshelpmarketstothrive/) - Rebecca Henderson, a Harvard business professor, writes about the need for business to become better than it is currently. She has a great book from 2020 on this. (The book is well worth a read, apart from a strange metaphysical bit at the end which was badly in need of an editor to say, "no
- [Social Change Will Always Face Setbacks](https://neilbendle.com/social-change-will-always-face-setbacks/) - It is hard to improve the world even when it should be obvious that the world needs to improve. When things look bad it may be helpful to look at history to observe people fighting injustices that most of us can, thankfully, only imagine. Campaigners in history saw plenty of occasions when it seemed like
- [Is Now A Good Time To Give Up?](https://neilbendle.com/is-now-a-good-time-to-give-up/) - David Suzuki, the famous Canadian environmentalist, just gave a pretty gloomy interview. According to Suzuki in respect of climate change, "it's too late". It led me to the question: Is now a good time to give up? It Is Too Late? I've never said this before to the media, but it's too late. David Suzuki
- [Intuition Can Be Good Or Bad](https://neilbendle.com/intuition-can-be-good-or-bad/) - Gerd Gigerenzer has made some important contributions to the study of decision-making. As someone who has been educated in the US system (at least for my PhD) I find it interesting that he largely rejects that approach. He, often correctly, makes the point that a lot of tests of decision-making set those being tested up
- [Ambition To Improve The World](https://neilbendle.com/ambition-to-improve-the-world/) - Rutger Bregman's book, Moral Ambition tells us to aim higher. Why not have an ambition to improve the world? People have achieved amazing things in the past and there is no reason why we can't make stunning progress again. Ambition Isn't Bad In making the world better it helps to have ambition. That ambition needs
- [Being Part Of A Big Team](https://neilbendle.com/being-part-of-a-big-team/) - I have a confession to make. I think it is a bit odd when people click their fingers in appreciation of a comment. In some ways I get the basic notion -- you don't want to disrupt the speaker making the point. Still, making a meaningful show of support is what we have clapping for.
- [Leapfrogging Towards A Better World](https://neilbendle.com/leapfrogging-towards-a-better-world/) - One concern that people who care about the environment typically have is that developed nations tend to create massive harm to the planet and life on it. That concern is often hard to argue with. A valid concern has led some -- let us call them the shitty wing of environmentalism represented by Paul Ehrlich
- [Academics Can Be Biased Too](https://neilbendle.com/academics-can-be-biased-too/) - Academics are human beings. Pick a human flaw and they have it. Of course, human beings are better at seeing the flaws in arguments that they don't approve of than those they nod along to. This holds for academics. After all academics can be biased too. Allen Mendenhall and Daniel Stutter, two senior scholars one
- [Creating Social Impact](https://neilbendle.com/creating-social-impact/) - The reason why business exists is to make the world better. This purpose, making the world better, can be more often honored in the breach than the observance. (I am using the common meaning of the phrase -- doing something less than it should -- not whatever Shakespeare is supposed to have meant.) That said,
- [Polarization And Brand Preference](https://neilbendle.com/polarization-and-brand-preference/) - For pretty understandable reasons people worry about political polarization in the world. The US seems to be a classic example of this. It is easy to see strong tensions between people with radically different views. Given this, it makes sense that marketing researchers have studied the topic of political polarization and brand preference. How does
- [Is Devolving Or Centralizing Power Better?](https://neilbendle.com/is-devolving-or-centralizing-power-better/) - Is devolving or centralizing power better? This is a central question at the heart of Marc Dunkelman's book, Why Nothing Works. Dunkelman worries that those people in the US who believe in the power of government to make the world better, basically the center and left, have set the rules to prevent themselves from achieving
- [Social Media Calls For Boycotts](https://neilbendle.com/social-media-calls-for-boycotts/) - Social media calls for boycotts are relatively common. While many calls are not especially impactful few brand managers want to be facing a bunch of people shouting about boycotting their brand. Like a lot of social media engagements call for boycott can get pretty intense. Interestingly, and I guess this is predictable from the way
- [Owners Often Care About Beer, Housing, God, And National Identity](https://neilbendle.com/owners-often-care-about-beer-housing-god-and-national-identity/) - Milton Friedman's idea that owners of, and managers at, companies should only care about the owner's wealth is pretty odd when you think about it. Owners have long cared about much more because they are human beings. A book on the Guinness family suggests owners often care about beer, housing, God, and national identity. What
- [A (Very Badly Done) Illustration Of Accounting For Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/badly-done-illustration-aacounting-marketing/) - I am not an artist in any way. Given this I'm not an ideal person to illustrate ideas. That said, I wanted to quickly (sadly not as quickly as it looks) get across the message that accountants really aren't doing enough on the reporting of marketing assets. Considering how financial accountants report on marketing assets
- [A Holmesian Dual Process Model](https://neilbendle.com/a-holmesian-dual-process-model/) - Dual system approaches are all the rage in psychology. A popular book suggests a Holmesian dual process model. Dual Process Models The idea is that our brains use two separate processes to come to decisions. I don't think anyone literally thinks there are just two separate systems as such. The brain is massively complex with
- [Too Much Information](https://neilbendle.com/too-much-information/) - Peter Shawn Taylor's article in the July issue [2014] of Canadian Business tackled an interesting issue. Can we give consumers too much information? The Problem Of Too Much Information In Disclosures Consumers need adequate information to reward marketers offering a good a deal. As such, information is generally a good thing. That said, long legal disclaimers
- [Canada's Top Brands](https://neilbendle.com/canadas-top-brands/) - Like a doughnut the survey in Canadian Business magazine that placed Tim Hortons as Canada's Top Brand is enjoyable. That said, it is not necessarily the most nutritious thing in the world. What do we know about Canada's Top Brands In 2014? Loving Tim Hortons We find out that Canadian's love Tim Hortons' coffee and
- [Barriers To Implementing CLV](https://neilbendle.com/barriers-to-implementing-clv/) - A lot of the early work on customer lifetime value (CLV) comes from the world of direct marketing. This makes sense given an obvious use of CLV is to manage a customer base. Using CLV you can help decide who to try and acquire, what your retention efforts should be, and who might be good
- [The Denseness of Social Networks](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Reference Dependence In Primary Elections](https://neilbendle.com/reference-dependence-in-primary-elections/) - Reference Dependence involves comparing outcomes to what we are focused on rather than an absolute scale. Thus higher pay after a cut may make us less happy than lower pay after a raise. Comparison to the reference, here past earnings, helps explain behavior. What then can we deduce about reference dependence in primary elections? Reference
- [Empirical Laws](https://neilbendle.com/empirical-laws/) - Byron Sharp is a pugnacious writer. He outlines what he describes as the empirical laws of marketing. This allows him to talk about those who give bad advice. Basically, this is anyone who gives a recommendation that does not follow the empirical laws he describes. I appreciate the forthrightness. Too many academics aren't willing to
- [Sustainable Marketing And Commerciality](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-and-commerciality/) - My regular collaborator, Jonathan Knowles, has a new piece in the Journal of Sustainable Marketing. He tackles the idea of sustainable marketing and the role of marketers in the world of for-profit companies. What then does he have to say about sustainable marketing and commercialism? For-Profit Organizations And Social Progress Knowles starts by arguing that
- [The Gauntlet Of Attacks On Behavioral Economics](https://neilbendle.com/the-gauntlet-of-attacks-on-behavioural-economics/) - Richard Thaler's Misbehaving may be one of my favorite academic books. The author packed the book with interesting thoughts, covers numerous important ideas, and even is amusingly candid about his colleagues. Over the coming months, I'll occasionally cover his key points (see here and here). In this post I'll discuss "the gauntlet"; a list of predictable
- [Improving Measurement With Big Data](https://neilbendle.com/improving-measurement-with-big-data/) - The data being used by managers is becoming increasing messy. Unstructured data lacks the nice organization of traditional data. Of course, the profusion of such unstructured data (text, videos, music) makes analysis complex but also brings considerable opportunities. Big data brings big headaches and big possibilities. We have some advice on improving measurement with big
- [Messaging About Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/messaging-about-sustainability/) - Jason Hickel wants a fundamentally changed world which he discusses in Less is More. Other posts have noted technical and historical challenges in his work. For this post let us consider how Hickel thinks his ideas can be implemented. What is his messaging about sustainability? For the sake of argument let's assume that you think
- [Run By Engineers Or Lawyers](https://neilbendle.com/run-by-engineers-or-lawyers/) - Is it better to be run by engineers or lawyers? Dan Wang poses this question in his book Breakneck which tracks how China is confronting the future. The horrors of being run by engineers suggest that we really need lawyers, but is the US overdoing it? The Rise Of China One of the challenges with
- [Stakeholder Management As A Threat](https://neilbendle.com/stakeholder-management-as-a-threat/) - For my second and final post on Vivek Ramaswamy's Woke Inc. I want to discuss his view of stakeholder management. Especially, the idea of stakeholder management as a threat (specifically to democracy). Stakeholder Management And Woke As I mentioned in a prior post part of the challenge with definitions is that people aren't clear what
- [Woke As A Magical Term](https://neilbendle.com/woke-as-a-magical-term/) - It is (nearly) always useful to read books that you don't expect to agree with. Woke Inc. by Vivek Ramaswamy is one of those. (Plus buying it means Amazon is now sending me lots of different recommendations for books by Ron DeSantis etc... which is a fun change). Ramaswamy is running in the Republican primary
- [Evolutionary Thinking in Business](https://neilbendle.com/evolutionary-thinking-in-business/) - Evolutionary thinking in business can be a fascinating topic. A key thing to bear in mind is that business evolution is a little different from biological evolution. Market competition is not the same as competition in nature. This is, not least, because business has much more rapid timeframes. Business changes regularly. On the other hand,
- [Competitor Orientation And The Evolution of Business Markets](https://neilbendle.com/competitor-orientation-and-the-evolution-of-business-markets/) - My first major article was on Competitor Orientation And The Evolution of Business Markets. I think it is a fun one. Even though it took years and years to publish. Some may have agreed. it was fun That said, it is a bit mathy at times. Aiming To, Is Not Maximizing Profits When people envisage
- [Marketing Accounts For Managers](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-accounts/) - Xin Wang and I published a piece in the International Journal of Research in Marketing. We called the article Marketing Accounts. This discusses marketing accounts for managers. The full text of this research article is available free of charge. See the link below. (We would like to thank SSHRC/the Canadian government for this. They provided
- [Greenhushing By Private And Public Companies](https://neilbendle.com/greenhushing-by-private-and-public-companies/) - It is easy to conclude that companies totally changed with the election of Donald Trump. I'm pleased to say that isn't true as Neil Hawkins and Kelly Cooper, writing last fall in the Harvard Business Review, showed late last year. Of course, some business leaders abandoned what were previously said to be deeply held commitments
- [Consumer Value And Breakage](https://neilbendle.com/consumer-value-and-breakage/) - You may well be ending the festive season with some gift cards. Some cards you might never imagine yourself using. Even well targeted gift cards can sometimes not be fully used. A balance might remain after the recipient buys what they want, or the card might get lost. To a retailer one of the potential
- [Upselling, Cross-selling and Reliable Data](https://neilbendle.com/upselling-cross-selling-and-reliable-data/) - There are two themes to today's post. One is the difference between upsell and cross-sell. The other theme considers citations supporting claims. Upsell And Cross-sell Alex Turnbull in a blog post defends the value of upselling. He differentiates between upselling and cross-selling. (Before choosing to lump them together for the rest of the blog). Defining
- [The Accountability Of Accountable Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/the-accountability-of-accountable-marketing/) - Michiel van de Watering has a book on the accountability of accountable marketing. In this, he analyses some of the pitfalls of current marketing planning. He also outlines some potential for improvement. The State Of Accountability In Marketing It gets right into the action with the foreword (by Guy Powell) asking an extremely pertinent question.
- [Understanding The Value Of Customers](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-the-value-of-customers/) - Before CLV had become a big thing in marketing strategy Francis Mulhern looked at the challenge of understanding the value of customers. There are a lot of good points in the article. Measurement Problems In Understanding The Value Of Customers One of the most obvious challenges is that the data to allow us to understand
- [The Problem Of Noise](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-of-noise/) - Three major names in the field of decision-making teamed up to write about the problem of noise. Daniel Kahneman, who won the Nobel prize in economics despite not being an economist, Oliver Sibony, apparently a knight in the French Order of the Légion d’Honneur, and Cass Sunstein of Barack Obama's White House and Nudge fame,
- [Implementing Marketing Analytics](https://neilbendle.com/implementing-marketing-analytics-2/) - 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
- [Misunderstanding Political Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/misunderstanding-political-marketing/) - Bruce Philp's article in the July [2014] issue of Canadian Business criticizes political marketing for being "hollow and disingenuous". I think this is misunderstanding political marketing. Political Marketing Is Not Just Political Communications I wasn't impressed. Firstly, I think Philp is equating political marketing with political communications. This is a strange thing for a brand strategy consultant
- [Better Business Meets Politics](https://neilbendle.com/better-business-meets-politics/) - Better business meets politics somewhat inevitably which needs to be managed. Better business also needs to manage the balance between inclusiveness and rigotr.
- [Hiding Their Good Works](https://neilbendle.com/hiding-their-good-works/) - There is plenty of bad environmental news and even worse news about environmental policy. (And not just in the US but that is the epicenter). Still, there are reasons for optimism which are often worth holding onto and sharing. Andrew Winston, a prolific writer on sustainable business, gave his views on 2025's Climate Week in
- [Demonstrating Value From Sponsorships](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Defaults Matter](https://neilbendle.com/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: Saving lives matters. While it is not a theory paper the theoretical implications are substantial. What are people's preferences -- what they say or
- [An Ineffective Defense Of Degrowth](https://neilbendle.com/an-ineffective-defense-of-degrowth/) - One of the most interesting divides in the sustainability field is around degrowth. The idea of degrowth is hard for many business people to embrace. I must confess, as you will see, I find that the logic of the degrowth people often eludes me. As such, I was interested to see what Christopher Marquis had
- [Numbers Don't Lie, But People Frame Decisions](https://neilbendle.com/numbers-dont-lie-but-people-frame-decisions/) - Vaclav Smil's book -- Numbers Don't Lie -- is a helpful approach to understanding the world. He is able to layout what numbers mean answering a number of important questions around transportation, food, energy etc... The numbers are very helpful. That said, even though he mostly just outlines numbers you can see his perspective coming
- [Double Jeopardy In Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/double-jeopardy-in-marketing/) - My second post on Byron Sharp's How Brands Grow focuses on an excellent point he highlights that it is easy to forget. All those interested in marketing metrics should be aware of the challenge of double jeopardy in marketing. Sharp explains this and the impact it has on marketing metrics. This impact can confuse those
- [Who Are The Vital Links In A Network?](https://neilbendle.com/who-are-the-vital-links-in-a-group/) - 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
- [Must Firms Maximize Shareholder Value?](https://neilbendle.com/must-firms-maximize-shareholder-value/) - What is the purpose of a firm? Given we have so many firms and business schools are such a sizable chunk of many universities, you might think that we all agree what firms are for. You would be wrong. There is a surprising amount of disagreement as to the purpose of firms. What are they
- [A Framework For AI In Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/a-framework-for-ai-in-marketing/) - At the risk of stating the obvious artificial intelligence (AI) is a subject of great interest in marketing. Indeed, beyond marketing too at the moment. There is a lot of discussion of how companies can take advantage of the opportunities (and avoid the downsides). Raj Venkatesan and Jim Lecinski have a new book that sets
- [Who Thinks Brands Should be Involved in Social Issues?](https://neilbendle.com/who-thinks-brands-should-be-involved-in-social-issues/) - YouGov is a survey firm and [in 2018] they uncovered what consumers think of firms getting involved in social issues. What was the result? Who thinks brands should be involved in social issues? Political Involvement From Brands I think this is a fascinating topic. I would expect more and more political involvement from brands. If
- [Audio Mining And Marketing: Great Potential](https://neilbendle.com/audio-mining-and-marketing-the-potential-for-analysis/) - We have a recent article on audio mining and marketing, see here. It is an exciting topic. Unstructured data is increasing being analyzed. Audio data, a key type of unstructured data, has great potential to give insight. People Use Their Voices To Persuade People often use their voices to persuade. This can be positive or
- [The Tyranny Of Random Facts](https://neilbendle.com/the-tyranny-of-random-facts/) - BCG have a new piece on measuring marketing results: Making Sense of the Marketing Measurement Mess. There is a lot to like in it. They discuss the tyranny of random facts. Questions To Ask About Marketing Metrics The authors describe a number of questions to ask about marketing metrics. "Do the metrics and tools capture
- [Character And Impacting Politics From Retirement](https://neilbendle.com/character-and-impacting-politics-from-retirement/) - David Brooks' book The Social Animal was fascinating. We saw a Conservative commentator engaging well with social science. The Road to Character is a rather different book. What then does Brooks tell us about character and impacting politics from retirement? Brooks As Biographer It is a collection of biographies designed to encourage more moral behavior.
- [The Inevitable Transition To EVs](https://neilbendle.com/the-inevitable-transition-to-evs/) - Mike Colias' book, Inevitable, tracks the rise of EVs (electric vehicles). Unsurprisingly given the title his theme is very much, the inevitable transition to EVs. In the US, you could be forgiven for thinking that EVs are in trouble, but that requires thinking that a clearly superior technology, which is only getting better, will fail
- [Sustainability Must Be Socially Focused](https://neilbendle.com/sustainability-must-be-socially-focused/) - Dan Wang’s Breakneck delves into the transformation of China in recent generations. He moved to Canada when he was young and had a very different life than he would have had if he stayed in China. In a personal assessment, he gives examples good and shocking of how China changed over time. In doing so
- [Why Not Test?](https://neilbendle.com/why-not-test/) - People love appearing to have knowledge. Often they are less careful about working out whether what they are saying makes sense. A concern I have is that we often claim to know much more than we actually know. We have some hunches or ideas and these gain the status of facts in our minds. Clearly this influences
- [Do Generalists Triumph?](https://neilbendle.com/do-generalists-triumph/) - I am a marketing professor, who has been an accountant working in politics, and who was educated as an ancient historian. As such, it is perhaps no surprise that I am naturally drawn to the arguments in Range. In this David Epstein lays out his case for having a diverse range of skills. His argument
- [A Total Q Mystery: Understanding Academic Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/a-total-q-mystery-understanding-academic-marketing/) - I was disappointed to read Du and Osmonbekov's 2020 paper in the International Journal of Research in Marketing, see here. The authors clearly don't mind hard work and I'm sure they have useful empirical skills. Still they aren't young researchers making errors or rushing a paper to the market. They can do better. It is
- [Marketing Is An Essential Part Of Positive Change](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-is-an-essential-part-of-positive-change/) - To change the way commerce works requires good business practice -- in all senses of the word good. Marketing is an essential part of positive change. It isn't good enough to want to do good things for the world with your company, you also need to be a good marketer. To make a positive change
- [Change Brands](https://neilbendle.com/change-brands/) - Chris Baker has a great book, called Obsolete, which focuses on Change Brands. The book discusses how these innovative small brands can help drive towards a more sustainable society. Change Brands The idea of a change brands is similar to a challenger brand but with added purpose. The change brand is a small player attempting
- [Why Even The Best Economists Don't Get Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/why-even-the-best-economists-dont-get-marketing/) - George Akerlof and Robert Shiller have good points, excellent stories, and a clear aim in Phishing for Phools. The aim is to convince economist colleagues that all market outcomes aren't perfect. I applaud their aim. That said, their conceptualization assumes consumers (and others) are robots with a monkey on our backs. The monkey prevents us from being "fully rational". I'd say, however, that we
- [Creating Discussions Between Marketers And Accountants](https://neilbendle.com/creatingdisussionsbetweenmarketersandaccountants/) - In a piece for my accounting body (ACCA) I discuss the problem of what to do in respect of brands on the balance sheet. My intention is to help foster a dialogue between (financial) accountants and marketers. I am all about creating discussions between marketers and accountants. A lot of this website speaks to that.
- [Progress Exists And Is A Good Thing](https://neilbendle.com/progress-exists-and-is-a-good-thing/) - Matt Ridley is an interesting writer. A popular science/ideas writer he gives you his thoughts on a wide variety of subjects. I do admire his willingness to adopt an overarching narrative. To be honest, at times it can seem a bit too much for my tastes. His libertarian-esque views tend to see him damning a
- [What Can The Marketing-Finance Interface Tell Us About Witchcraft Trials?](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-finance-research-and-witchcraft-trials/) - Edeling, Srinivasan, and Hanssens have a useful new review paper on the Marketing-Finance Interface. The Value Of Review Papers Review papers, such as this, play a vital role in helping frame the field. They give Ph.D. students a way to get up to speed on prior contributions. Review papers also give more seasoned academics a
- [Improving Stakeholder Involvement In Government Decision Making](https://neilbendle.com/improving-stakeholder-involvement-in-government-decision-making/) - In this blog post I discuss our work on improving stakeholder involvement in government decision making. The Journal of Business Ethics published this in July 2020. Understanding The Views of Stakeholders A major problem in government is understanding the views of its stakeholders. A stakeholder is those who are impacted by, or can impact, the
- [The Problem with Lay Rationality](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-with-lay-rationality/) - I haven’t written about rationality for a while but I’ll return to note a recent paper by Xilin Li and Christopher Hsee. In it they look at the impact of lay views of rationality and raise a problem with such lay rationality. It is a fun paper and, broadly speaking, I agree that their conclusion
- [Some Notes On Intangible Value](https://neilbendle.com/notes-intangible-value/) - The GIFT Report (Global Intangible Financial Tracker) 2016 is a really useful piece. A collaboration by Brand Finance (a brand valuation firm), CIMA (the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants), and the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising). It contains some notes on intangible value. It highlights major factors and trends in the reporting of this
- [Valuing Not-For-Profit Brands](https://neilbendle.com/valuing-not-for-profit-brands/) - Valuing a for-profit brand is a significant challenge. This is despite the fact that there exists a stream of profits you can use as the basis for the valuation. Valuing not-for-profit brands takes the challenge to a whole new level. As such it is not surprising that most people might instinctively reject putting a financial
- [A Year of Marketing Thought](https://neilbendle.com/a-year-of-marketing-thought/) - On 13th of December 2012 I launched this Marketing Thought blog. Over 50 articles later I hope it has proved useful to students and colleagues alike. The greatest success has been "Behavioral Economics For Kids". Thanks to Phil Chen's cartoons many found it a helpful way to understand decision-making. A year of marketing thought has
- [Ron Paul's Marketing Lesson](https://neilbendle.com/ron-pauls-marketing-lesson/) - Politics can teach us a lot about marketing. Ron Paul's story teaches us more than most. I'm not a Ron Paul follower but that doesn't mean we can't learn from what he has done well and his problems. What is Ron Paul's marketing lesson? The Marketing Concept When we teach marketing we suggest trying to
- [Shopping For Votes](https://neilbendle.com/shopping-for-votes/) - Susan Delacourt's Shopping For Votes is an enjoyable read. Lots of nice detail helps illustrate some interesting events in Canadian politics. The Political Marketing Literature I, of course, have a couple of quibbles. 1) Firstly I feel that her main thesis wasn't well developed or supported. She has clearly become familiar with the political marketing
- [Are We Good Decision Makers?](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Marketing And The Republican Autopsy](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Measuring Competiton 1 The Herfindahl Index](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-competiton-1-the-herfindahl-index/) - The competitiveness of any industry matters. One way to measure competitiveness is the Herfindahl Index, also known as the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index. Competition Changes Market Outcomes Consumers usually get a bad deal in "concentrated" markets. This is because markets with fewer significant players usually mean less competition. This matters to managers too. If you are considering entering
- [Reference Dependence In A Squash And A Squeeze](https://neilbendle.com/reference-dependence-in-a-squash-and-a-squeeze/) - I'm interested in how to explain tricky ideas in simple language. (This was the intention of Behavioural Economics For Kids). Julia Donaldson is an useful place to start looking for ideas to help with this. She, an exceptionally successful children's author, is excellent at conveying engaging stories with interesting messages in few words. There is
- [Romance, Fear And Self-Knowledge](https://neilbendle.com/romance-fear-and-self-knowledge/) - Marketing theory often starts with the assumption that we know what we want. That marketers serve consumers' preferences underpins the marketing concept. Unfortunately, there is quite a lot of research that suggests that we don't know our own preferences that well. This is illustrated at the intersection of romance, fear, and self-knowledge. A Valentine's Day
- [Simple And Smart Solutions](https://neilbendle.com/simple-and-smart-solutions/) - People often view complex as synonymous with brilliant. Only a genius could invent something with a huge number of moving parts. Such thinking misses the point. The real challenge comes to simplify. To reduce complexity by focusing on what is important. There is much to be said for simple and smart solutions. The Problem of
- [Models Of Marketing Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/models-of-marketing-strategy/) - In North American academic marketing the area of strategy research seems to be losing its place. [Written in 2015 some are a bit more positive now]. We need to ensure strategic thinking is rigorous. Critically, it also need to be seenas rigorous by managers and fellow academics. One way to do this is by forming
- [Market Driving (And Being Just Really Good)](https://neilbendle.com/market-driving-and-being-just-really-good/) - Some firms don't seem to follow the market. Instead, they chart their own course. They are market driving. Who Drives The Market? The classic example of such a firm might be Apple. It looks to many that Apple is able to influence tastes in the market rather than just serve the consumers' tastes. Whether this
- [Bad Arguments](https://neilbendle.com/badarguments/) - A lot of arguments simply don't make sense. Spotting bad arguments is a vital, and I'd guess, rare skill for academics and business people. Ali Almossawi has a fun little book on bad arguments. They are all illustrated to make them more memorable. I don't completely endorse all the descriptions. Still, he raises important things to bear in mind
- [Data Without Small T Theory](https://neilbendle.com/data-without-theory/) - Standard Deviations Gary Smith's impressive Standard Deviations book concerns an important point. Statistically inclined people often seem to miss that theory small t matters. Smith is keen to note that data isn't enough on its own. "Data without theory... is treacherous" (Smith, 2014, page 233). Smith describes a case of a cholera outbreak. This outbreak
- [Accounting For Brands](https://neilbendle.com/accounting-for-brands/) - In a 2003 piece Tony McAuley discussed the history of accounting for intangible values. He interviewed Michael Schurch, CFO of RHM (Rank Hovis McDougall). They discussed the company's decision to add the value of brands to the balance sheet back in 1988. This created a bit of a stir at the time, and has influenced accounting for
- [Artificial Intelligence And Its Challenges](https://neilbendle.com/artificial-intelligence-and-its-challenges/) - Artificial Intelligence (AI) has thrown up all sorts of questions for business and society. What then of artificial intelligence and its challenges? What To Do With It One of the first problems was recognizing what to do with it. Nowadays we can see AI making considerable impacts on the world but that this would happen
- [A Unified Theory Of Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/a-unified-theory-of-marketing/) - One of the challenges with marketing is that there are so many bits that don't fit together. As such let me put on record that I appreciate the potential for customers to be put at the center of all the marketing approaches. CLV, the value of a customer to the firm, has potential for a
- [Measuring Competition 2: The Bendle Panda Index](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-competition-2-the-bendle-panda-index/) - The Herfindahl Index covered in the prior post is an excellent way of measuring competition. Sadly it involves squaring market shares. This seems too much math so in the spirit of simple metrics I'm suggesting a new measure of competitiveness; the BPI or The Bendle Panda Index. It makes Net Promoter look complex and Gigerenzer
- [Market-Based Assets: An Important Idea](https://neilbendle.com/market-based-assets/) - 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
- [Good And Bad Profits](https://neilbendle.com/good-and-bad-profits/) - Fred Reichheld is best known for his (over) exuberant advocacy of the Net Promoter Score. Introducing Net Promoter he suggests a difference between good and bad profits; an interesting, though theoretically imprecise, idea. Are All Dollars In The Same? Short of outright fraud, isn't one dollar of earnings as good as another? Certainly, accountants can't
- [What Is Marketing?](https://neilbendle.com/what-is-marketing/) - Many issues in management seem to cause confusion. The first I see as a business school professor is the simple question "What is marketing?" This can be surprisingly difficult. (Interestingly if you look the discipline seems to have changed quite a lot since the early days). What Is Marketing Not? Let's get rid of some
- [What Drives Customer Equity?](https://neilbendle.com/what-drives-customer-equity/) - Around the turn of the millennium, there was a lot of interest in the idea of customers as financially relevant. Thus work started to concentrate on the idea of customer equity. Customer equity was sometimes equated with the idea of customers as assets. This is an important aim (even though I have some measurement quibbles).
- [Valuing Customers As Investments](https://neilbendle.com/valuing-customers-as-investments/) - I think of Sunil Gupta and Don Lehmann’s 2005 book, Managing Customers As Investments, as the third of the valuing customers books. (After Rust and colleagues Driving Customer Equity and Blattberg and colleagues, Customer Equity). It was written a few years after the others and I think that probably helps it read more cleanly. It
- [Three Principles To Guide Decision-Making](https://neilbendle.com/three-principles-to-guide-decision-making/) - Alex Edmans, a finance professor, is having a bit of a moment at the moment. His book Grow The Pie that I’m discussing in two posts is a very useful addition to the field. This post will outline the core points of Edmans' work. The other post will get into a few more finicky points
- [Using A Pie-Growing Mindset](https://neilbendle.com/using-a-pie-growing-mindset/) - Alex Edmans’ Grow The Piece is a useful book trying to refocus business on being beneficial for society. I have noted the key points on this before, see here. Here I’ll tackle a grab bag of points related to Edmans' book and using a pie-growing mindset. Maximizing Shareholder Value Is Nebulous Often people like the
- [Gaining And Using Power](https://neilbendle.com/gaining-and-using-power/) - Jeffrey Pfeffer's Power is a classy version of a self-help book. I know self-help book sounds a bit insulting but I don't mean it to be. The idea of giving practical advice that is informed by good research is central to what academics should be doing. There are enough complete nonsense self-help books to show
- [Regulation And Business Responsibility](https://neilbendle.com/regulation-and-business-responsibility/) - What can business history tell us about regulation and business responsibility? The Purpose Of Business Looking at business history gives an interesting perspective. The idea that businesses are only there for the benefit of shareholders (see here) is not the only view that exists by a long way. One set of people who had a
- [Don't Expect Perfect, Go For Better](https://neilbendle.com/dont-expect-perfect-go-for-better/) - I have written before about B Corp. Today I am looking at the B Corp Handbook. This is a how-to (and why-to) guide to getting registered as a B Corporation. The authors have a number of suggestions that could prove useful. One of the most important should be shown in big lights whenever people discuss
- [Math And The Presidency](https://neilbendle.com/math-and-the-presidency/) - 2020 was a US Presidential election like no other. Covid was a major factor both in policy terms but also in how it impacted the very act of campaigning. Still, what didn't change was that looking at some basic numbers can help us understand what happened. What then can we say about Math and the
- [Beyond the Bottom Line](https://neilbendle.com/beyond-the-bottom-line/) - Why Your Performance Metrics Might Be Measuring the Wrong Thing We have a problem in business. We talk about purpose, stakeholder value, and long-term thinking—but when it comes to measuring success, we default to the same old financial metrics. It's like saying you care about health while only ever stepping on a scale. The issue
- [What Market Research Can Teach Politics](https://neilbendle.com/what-market-research-can-teach-politics/) - Polling and market research are twin disciplines. Polling is a crucial way of understanding what the public thinks. This is obviously central to developing any strategy to give the voters what they want. Yet, we all know that asking people questions can be tricky. We need to get questions right or else we risk supplying
- [Hopeful Teaching About Climate Change](https://neilbendle.com/hopeful-teaching/) - An interesting challenge with teaching about the problems in the world is that you don't want it to get too depressing. Listing off a bunch of problems doesn't really do much to help anyone but it can be pretty miserable. We need ways that the world can get better. We need hopeful teaching, that emphasizes
- [Sustainability, Simple Models, And Business Schools](https://neilbendle.com/sustainability-simple-models-and-business-schools/) - Tima Bansal and Valen Boyd have a new paper on business school challenges with teaching sustainability. It seems clear that business schools haven't got it right yet, how can we be better? What do the authors have to say about sustainability, simple models, and business schools? Teaching Sustainable Business Business schools want to make a
- [The Overreaction of NPS](https://neilbendle.com/the-overreaction-of-nps/) - NPS (Net Promoter Score or System) remain arguably the most popular marketing metric. It is widely used by managers, and I know many practitioners who love it. That said, academics are rarely in the 'loving it' camp. John Dawes is certainly not. In an article in the International Journal of Market Research lays out where
- [The Tragedy of Common Sense Morality](https://neilbendle.com/the-tragedy-of-common-sense-morality/) - Joshua Greene uses the Tragedy of Common Sense Morality as a central theme in his book -- Moral Tribes. His suggests that our brains are actually surprisingly well adapted to solve the tragedy of the commons. In the tragedy of the commons, our personal incentives to behave uncooperatively cause disaster for everyone. Greene calls this
- [Value Others When You Are Powerful](https://neilbendle.com/value-others-when-you-are-powerful/) - Today's blog looks back to a classic text in ancient history which is also used in international relations. The message often taken is a brutal one, that the powerless must submit. Another way of looking at is more positive; that you should value others when you are powerful. When Athens Was Powerful Thucydides was an
- [Design For Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/design-for-sustainability/) - Mark Shayler's You Can't Make Money From a Dead Planet looks at how to run a sustainable business. He talks about how sustainable businesses can make money and do better for the world. There are various pieces of advice and useful ideas. A key idea he emphasizes is that you must design for sustainability. Always
- [How Can Sustainability Win Commercially?](https://neilbendle.com/how-can-sustainability-win-commercially/) - John's Elkington's Cannibals with Forks is a major book in the field of sustainable business. This drove adoption of the idea of the Triple Bottom Line -- managing businesses with a concern for the economic, social, and environmental consequences. Elkington, as a consultant, has a pragmatic attitude. He is all about companies winning commercially by
- [Better But Sadly Not Perfect](https://neilbendle.com/better-but-sadly-not-perfect/) - Can we become more sustainable as we grow the economy? This hope of 'green growth' is appealing but to some it seems too good to be true. As I'm relatively optimistic about our chances of doing better socially and environmentally while also growing the economy it is helpful to read more downbeat views. A paper
- [The Positive Power Of The Sun](https://neilbendle.com/the-positive-power-of-the-sun/) - One story that isn't getting enough attention is how much progress has been made by solar power. Bill McKibben's most recent book -- Here Comes The Sun -- tells an upbeat tale of how we can harness the positive power of the sun. To be clear, when I talk of the positive power of The
- [You Are What You Buy](https://neilbendle.com/you-are-what-you-buy/) - A lot of people worry about increased polarization in society. The concern is that as we share fewer common experiences we are less likely to be empathetic to the needs of those who we share less common ground. This can be seen in politics but it echoes in business. Why would you want to buy
- [Growth Can Come From Climate Action](https://neilbendle.com/growth-can-come-from-climate-action/) - The Stern Report (2006) was a milestone in the UK's action against climate change. Commissioned by the Labour government at the time they, and their immediate Conservative successors, took much of report's advice to fight climate change. And they gave the economist author a peerage -- he is now Lord Stern -- but that is
- [Bigotry In Marketing Academic Research](https://neilbendle.com/bigotry-in-marketing-academic-research/) - People often think academics are progressive or "woke". Don't worry though, we have plenty of bigotry in marketing academic research too. Today I'll look at a 2021 article on the religious affiliations of CEOs and the impact of their religion on advertising decisions and, through this, firm financial performance. If you are thinking I hope
- [The Benefits And Limitations Of Business](https://neilbendle.com/the-benefits-and-limits-of-business/) - I am positive about the impact that business can have on the world. Business already does some useful things and could do much more. That said, sometimes people think too much of the power of business, for good or ill. We should think through the benefits and limitations of business when it comes to sustainable
- [Development And Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/development-and-sustainability/) - The world is a complex place. Countries all have their own histories, and these have intersected in the past creating some positive and other, often more noticeable, negative interactions. These feed into modern discussions. People in richer countries forget that it wasn't always the way it is now. Sometimes they romanticize poverty in a way
- [Understanding The World](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-the-world/) - Hans Rosling was truly admirable. He started as a doctor but moved to being a public figure who worked on driving greater understand of the world, especially related to health. His Gapminder Institute has some excellent resources for teaching. Indeed, they are useful for everyone whether you are in education or not. His aim was
- [Effective And Strategic Altruism](https://neilbendle.com/effective-and-strategic-altruism/) - A few years ago William MacAskill was all the rage. His effective altruism movement was riding high. Many of the rich and powerful endorsed his views. Things have gone off the boil a bit since. So, with an eye for being behind the trend today I'll look his Doing Good Better ideas. I'll also set
- [The Problem Of Moral Licensing](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-of-moral-licensing/) - If we do one thing that we think is good, does that make us more likely to do a bad thing next time? The logic being that we have earned moral credit in the bank, so we don't need to be as good next time to retain our self concept as a decent person. There
- [Waiting For The End Of The World](https://neilbendle.com/waiting-for-the-end-of-the-world/) - I'm not a fan of doomsday cults. It always seems so arrogant to think that of all the people who have been born, and will be born, you will happen to have secured a seat at doomsday. It seems unlikely. Remember, the guy running the cult in your hometown isn't going to usher in the
- [Teaching About Climate Change](https://neilbendle.com/teaching-about-climate-change/) - Teaching about climate change is a significant problem in modern universities. Ahmed Afzaal has a book that addresses university professors who are teaching, in what he calls, our Predicament. The title, Teaching at Twilight, suggested a more downbeat view of the world than I have but that is an excellent reason to read a book.
- [Wonderful Progress Brings New Challenges](https://neilbendle.com/wonderful-progress-brings-new-challenges/) - Today I'm discussing a book about possibly the most amazing progress achieved by the human race. A series of battles against sickening infectious diseases have been waged, and the outcome has been incredible. Success hasn't been evenly distributed; health outcomes are very obviously still not equitable across the world. Still, success has been very real.
- [Learn About Business Before Discussing Business](https://neilbendle.com/learn-about-business-before-discussing-business/) - Businesspeople can often think they know more about the world than they do. CEOs share their barely coherent thoughts on current affairs. It is annoying. People involved in sustainability are right to be irritated when they hear such nonsense. Yet, the opposite is also true. If you don't know anything about business, it is not
- [Are You Tyrannized By Metrics?](https://neilbendle.com/are-you-tyrannized-by-metrics/) - Are you tyrannized by metrics? Are you a tenured professor who feels that other people should respect your judgment and not expect any strong evidence to back up your opinion? Do you not care about people who aren't you and don't see why we should even bother trying to understand how other people are doing?
- [Beware Binary Thinking About Politics](https://neilbendle.com/beware-binary-thinking-about-politics/) - A group of scholars have tackled what is a significant problem in much of the research in the field of marketing. They note that the previously published research predominately sees political ideology in binary terms. There is a Conservative (or Republican) bucket and a Liberal (or Democratic) bucket. This causes problems. Their message is simple,
- [Information Is Key To Recognizing Progress](https://neilbendle.com/information-is-key-to-recognizing-progress/) - Hannah Ritchie's Clearing The Air is a must read for anyone interested in the challenge of greenhouse gases. She answers fifty common questions about how the world can make progress addressing climate change. Almost everyone can learn something from the book. You may have been able to answer some of the questions, but few people
- [Applying The Genetic Fallacy To The Carbon Footprint](https://neilbendle.com/applying-the-genetic-fallacy-to-the-carbon-footprint/) - I have just finished Hannah Ritchie's Clearing the Air. More on that later -- spoiler, it is a great book. As such, I was interested to see what a review that appeared in The Guardian newspaper had to say about it. The writer overall liked the book, which makes sense. But he didn't stop there.
- [What If I'm Wrong?](https://neilbendle.com/what-if-im-wrong/) - The Population Bomb shared Paul Ehrlich's predictions about the future. After his doom-laden warnings about mass starvation and the need for population control, by compulsion if necessary, Ehrlich asked, "What if I'm wrong?" What if his Malthusian thinking is a mistake? (See here for Malthus). The author was trying to make the point that it
- [Hopeful News About People's Perceptions](https://neilbendle.com/hopeful-news-about-peoples-perceptions/) - The news can be pretty awful between, wars, natural disasters, and government actions. At times like this it can be useful to take a step back and look at the big picture. There is hopefully news about people's perceptions. This isn't just a story of how much progress the world has made in the last
- [Explaining The Economy](https://neilbendle.com/explaining-the-economy/) - Kyla Scanlon has a book explaining the economy. There are some nice parts, and some things I wasn't too sure about. (At least one graph seemed really odd as did a couple of comments but, being a popular book, the references were a bit too limited to check properly). Mostly she does a good job
- [Do Computers Distract Us? Of Course They Do](https://neilbendle.com/do-computers-distract-us-of-course-they-do/) - One of the challenges with university teaching in the 21st century is that the students all have laptops and phones. Laptops, especially, can be invaluable tools for study. Yet, they can also be major distractions. Try and have a discussion when students have their laptops up. It often is pretty disheartening. Occasionally students will tell
- [Improving Management In Politics](https://neilbendle.com/improving-management-in-politics/) - In a democracy every few years a new bunch of people get to run the country. The advantages in bringing fresh ideas, fighting corruption, and truly representing the diverse views of people are clear and compelling. (Those of us who live in democracies should be grateful). That said, a challenge occurs that people who weren't
- [Considering Stakeholder Psychology](https://neilbendle.com/considering-stakeholder-psychology/) - An important book in the world of sustainable business is Leveraging Corporate Responsibility by CB Bhattacharya, Sankar Sen, and Daniel Korschun. It was published in 2011, so things have moved on, not least the terminology. In 2025 they might well have decided to use the term sustainable business rather than corporate responsibility. Still, their basic
- [Do Americans Believe In Climate Change?](https://neilbendle.com/do-americans-believe-in-climate-change/) - Today I'll look at some data from the Pew Research Center. Pew is a wonderful resource for understanding public attitudes. They even make a lot of their data available for additional research. It is a center I admire. One of the things they do investigate is the US public's views of science, including what they
- [Greenhushing Is A Big Problem](https://neilbendle.com/greenhushing-is-a-big-problem/) - The Economist recently highlighted the phenomenon of greenhushing. This is when firms keep quiet about their genuine sustainability achievements. This is the opposite of greenwashing -- which is when firms trumpet dubious claims to sustainability. At first glance greenhushing doesn't really seem to be a big problem. After all the firm is doing the good
- [A New Type Of MBA](https://neilbendle.com/a-new-type-of-mba/) - The people at LIFT Economy offer a new type of MBA. (Lift Economy includes Ryan Honeyman who co-wrote the B Corp handbook, see here). This Next Economy MBA aims to provide a different/better type of business education. MBA Advice The team covers some standard issues like pricing. The book rightly points out the problem that
- [Can Virtuous Capitalism Be Sustained?](https://neilbendle.com/can-virtuous-capitalism-be-sustained/) - Can virtuous capitalism be sustained? That is one of the questions that motivated James O'Toole and David Vogel in their discussion of the conscious capitalism. They are mostly positive -- but being academics they have to have some reservations. New Lanark And The Challenge of Sustaining Virtuous Capitalism The authors discuss Robert Owen. Two hundred
- [Using Rationality To Combat Nonsense](https://neilbendle.com/using-rationality-to-combat-nonsense/) - Steven Pinker is a well-known academic and public intellectual in the US. I appreciate much of Pinker's writing. He seems relatively optimistic about what we have achieved and can achieve. He is a big promoter of rationality and using rationality to combat nonsense. You might think that was what all academics are doing, but that
- [Can Any Single Country Make A Difference?](https://neilbendle.com/can-any-single-country-make-a-difference/) - Can any single country make a difference to climate change? I could make this a short post by just saying, YES. That said, I will give a few more details. Bad Reasons To Do Nothing The other day I was hearing about someone who was relatively well-informed talk about how the US couldn't really achieve
- [Lower Cost Is Not Always Better](https://neilbendle.com/lower-cost-is-not-always-better/) - One of the big challenges for sustainable business is that sometimes it costs more. Although higher costs driven by sustainable decision-making is not always the case, if you are providing higher quality, paying your workers or suppliers more, or reducing pollution from your products then sometimes this costs more. While it is beneficial to ensure
- [Bad Businesses Can Get Better](https://neilbendle.com/bad-businesses-can-get-better/) - A lot of businesses have done bad things in their past. Andre Hoffman, Roche's Vicechair and heir to the founding family, has a book, written with Peter Vanham, on a better approach to business. Amongst other things he notes how bad businesses can get better. (I doubt he would say that Roche was at the
- [Understanding Money Really Does Matter](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-money-really-does-matter/) - Jacob Soll's The Reckoning looks the history of financial accountability. He starts from early accounting and makes the point that tracking how the finances works has been central to the success (and failure) of many nations. The key point is that understanding money really does matter. Various potentates have over the years decided that financial
- [Believing In Responsibility And Systemic Problems](https://neilbendle.com/believing-in-responsibility-and-systemic-problems/) - It is popular, particularly in left-wing circles, to note the presence of systemic problems. When you know a bit about how humans behave this makes a lot of sense. We tend to adapt to the situation we are in. Economic models help drive action. Similarly, you will often see organizations "dictating" the way people in
- [What To Do About Climate?](https://neilbendle.com/what-to-do-about-climate/) - I was Finance Director of the Labour Party when Tony Blair was Prime Minister. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, it was a more optimistic time. There were notable problems of course; but at the least the mood music was positive. The Labour Party was proudly European, it wasn't trying to
- [It Isn't Good Enough To Be Just Against Things](https://neilbendle.com/it-isnt-good-enough-to-be-just-against-things/) - Ezra Klein's and Derek Thompson's Abundance tackles how those who believe that the world can be better have to achieve more. It isn't good enough to be just against things, i.e., stopping things getting worse. To make the world better, you need to be for positive progress. What you want also needs to be deliverable on a
- [What Type Of Green Are You?](https://neilbendle.com/what-type-of-green-are-you/) - Today I'm writing about a blog post. It seems a bit strange to blog about a blog but the classification it presents is very helpful and I've found many who don't know about it. Alex Steffen's classifications of people's attitudes to environmental sustainability seeks to explain divides within the green community. So, what type of
- [IRS Agents Deserve Our Thanks](https://neilbendle.com/irs-agents-deserve-our-thanks/) - The USA has a history of not liking taxation much. There are plenty of reasons not to like the way the US does its taxation. US taxes appear complex, unnecessarily time consuming, and occasionally a bit random. And that is without considering the more controversial issue of whether they are 'fair'. The US government, and
- [Positive Results From Mixed Motives](https://neilbendle.com/positive-results-from-mixed-motives/) - One challenge I see in the world of sustainability is the assumption that only perfect motives will lead to good results. While perfect motives are a great thing, if we wait around to find them we won't get very far. We should welcome positive results from mixed motives. After all, it is really the positive
- [Unexpected Friends to Innovation](https://neilbendle.com/unexpected-friends-to-innovation/) - Businesspeople like to complain about things, a lot. To be fair they are people, and that is something we people like to do. As such, it is always interesting to see when things that may seem like complaints to some turn out to be boons to innovation. What then are a few unexpected friends to
- [A Broad Or A Narrow Church](https://neilbendle.com/a-broad-or-a-narrow-church/) - One of the big challenges in any movement is whether to aim to be a broad or a narrow church. Should you form a tight bond with only those who perfectly agree with you, or link up with those who you share some overlap but far from perfect alignment? There is no universal answer to
- [Tangibilizing Sustainability's Value For Stakeholders](https://neilbendle.com/tangibilizing-sustainabilitys-value-for-stakeholders/) - A major challenge in sustainable business is that many of the good things we want simply can't be seen. The electronics equipment you are considering may have be made by people being paid a decent wage, or it may not have been. You don't really know the difference from just looking at the product. Gregory
- [Should Firms Advertise Their Good Deeds?](https://neilbendle.com/should-firms-advertise-their-good-deeds/) - How do you get credit for your good deeds? A 2015 paper considers this problem. The authors suggest that informing people of your good deeds can backfire. People attribute impure motives to anyone who draws attention to their good deeds. A similar issue occurs for companies. So, should firms advertise their good deeds? A Moral
- [Will Consumers Actually Pay For Sustainability?](https://neilbendle.com/will-consumers-actually-pay-for-sustainability/) - There are many ways that sustainable business can be financially successful. One of the first things that comes to mind is that consumers might be willing to pay more for products that are produced in a responsible way. Most consumers would prefer their products not to be made by child labor or to pollute the
- [Can Political Advocacy Be Profitable?](https://neilbendle.com/can-political-advocacy-be-profitable/) - You often see people saying things such as 'can't they just stick to business?' You even see claims that business will be more successful if they just cut out the politics. But is this correct? Can political advocacy be profitable? Corporate Political Advocacy And Negativity Bias Corporate Political Advocacy (CPA) is when a firm takes
- [Small Differences And Critical Junctures](https://neilbendle.com/small-differences-and-critical-junctures/) - Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson wrote "Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty" just over a decade ago. It is a great book. Admittedly they don't really need my opinion given they were given the Nobel Prize for their work, so I doubt that they were sitting around worrying what I thought about
- [Does Doing Good Generate Loyalty?](https://neilbendle.com/does-doing-good-generate-loyalty/) - One of the big questions in sustainable business is whether doing good can actually pay. This is often really tricky to establish. In an ideal world, we can run an experiment where we randomly assign some companies to do bad stuff and other identical companies to do good stuff and see what happens. Obviously, we
- [A Challenge With Managerial Articles](https://neilbendle.com/a-challenge-with-managerial-articles/) - I'm a big fan of accessible research. People, rightly, get put off by a piece of work where the footnotes are longer than the main text. It is horrible to have your ability to concentrate on the 'story' that the researcher is trying to convey being constantly interrupted by intrusive footnotes. (The worst is when
- [Do You Really Need A Dodgy Historical Example?](https://neilbendle.com/do-you-really-need-a-dodgy-historical-example/) - I initially trained as a historian (my Master of Arts is in Hellenistic Studies — the period just after Alexander the Great). As such, I’m fascinated by appeals to history to justify ideas in modern life. They can often be fun to read about; after all there are some great stories in history. The challenge
- [Limits And Self-Limits](https://neilbendle.com/limits-and-self-limits/) - Giorgos Kallis, a proponent of Degrowth has a paper on limits. He links this to the work of Malthus (see here). Indeed, to my mind, one way to see Kallis' work is an attempt to distance ecologists from Malthus. I don't blame him for that aim. Kallis also investigates the nature of limits. He rejects
- [Win-Wins Are Good For Stakeholders](https://neilbendle.com/win-wins-are-good-for-stakeholders/) - A theme I see in some writing about sustainable business is that we need to get beyond win-wins. Although I get the point -- business cases won't deliver everything -- I worry that this isn't the right message. Win-wins are good for stakeholders, and we haven't found all the win-wins yet. As such, I'm not
- [Measuring Impact On Climate](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-impact-on-climate/) - Mike Berners-Lee just over a decade ago wrote a book measuring the impact on climate of various goods, activities, and spending. (Mike is the brother of Tim Berners-Lee -- who invented the World Wide Web. I feel a bit sorry for Mike, it would be really hard not to feel like a failure in that
- [The Danger of Data Mining](https://neilbendle.com/danger-data-mining/) - Is data analysis leading to bigotry? It is a sensitive subject. Data enthusiasts (and I'd probably be in this camp) hope analysis can get rid of silly ideas. After all when we get better information we will be able to combat old prejudices. I am genuinely optimistic. Still there is a major problem where your
- [Mapping Corporate Sustainability Research](https://neilbendle.com/mapping-corporate-sustainability-research/) - How has marketing strategy research focused on sustainability changed over time? This is an important question for researchers that also matters for those who use academic research but aren't academics themselves. (Often there are not as many of these non-academic users of research as we'd like but one can always hope). To better understand marketing
- [A History Of Conservation](https://neilbendle.com/a-history-of-conservation/) - Michelle Nijhuis has written a history of conservation, Beloved Beasts. There are 1) many interesting characters and 2) fascinating ideas concerning species and their preservation. Unfortunately, these two features of the book seemed to conflict to my mind. The stories of the colorful characters' lives kept getting interrupted by digressions about ideas. Still, none of
- [Being Fair To People You Don't Agree With](https://neilbendle.com/being-fair-to-people-you-dont-agree-with/) - Being fair to people you don't agree with is a really challenging task. After all, from your viewpoint, they are wrong. It can be pretty easy to see the holes in their arguments. Indeed, we can be really great at that. Although we are generally not so talented at taking apart our own arguments. When
- [Time Prices Are Useful But Not Everything](https://neilbendle.com/time-prices-are-useful-but-not-everything/) - Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley have a book, Superabundance. This discusses how prosperity has increased and what this means for pessimistic views of the world. The book is published by the Cato Institute. This is a right-wing think tank in the US, although the institute did not endorse Donald Trump's view of the US in
- [Is It Marketing? Who Cares?](https://neilbendle.com/is-it-marketing-who-cares/) - Women traditionally face disadvantages in business. These can be especially pronounced in some societies. There is good reason to want to change this, not least the moral argument. That said, it is often helpful to go beyond the moral argument. What impact does empowering/hiring female micro-entrepreneurs have on society? Is it a zero-sum game, where
- [Have You Got A Causal Effect?](https://neilbendle.com/have-you-got-a-causal-effect/) - Causation is a tricky thing. I remember discussing different conceptions of causality in undergrad and can't say I've grasped it yet. In some ways, it seems like an easy question -- we have lay theories of what causes something else everyday. Still, push harder and things get murky pretty quickly. Giving up isn't an option
- [Agreeing And Disagreeing At The Same Time](https://neilbendle.com/agreeing-and-disagreeing-at-the-same-time/) - A second post on Conscious Capitalism. Reading John Mackey and Raj Sisodia's book I found myself agreeing and disagreeing at the same time. As I said in the last post, I agree with the general idea and found much to like about concepts in the book. That said, I have to say that the tone
- [Friedman's Ethical Joker](https://neilbendle.com/friedmans-ethical-joker/) - In 1970 Milton Friedman produced perhaps the most influential popular article by an economist, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Its Profits. Admittedly 43 years late is not the snappiest comeback. (I wrote this in 2013). Still Friedman's argument has flaws. Many have already tackled major weaknesses. Here I will concentrate on a
- [Conscious Capitalism As Stakeholder Management](https://neilbendle.com/conscious-capitalism-as-stakeholder-management/) - John Mackey's book, Conscious Capitalism (written with Raj Sisodia) gives some interesting stories. It has inspired a movement so that is wonderful. The core idea in the book, mainly that stakeholders matter, is a great message. Next post I'll explain that some things Mackey says don't work for me. That said, if it does persuade
- [Changing Marketing To Be Sustainable](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Academics Must Do Good Work To Be Relevant](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [How To Make Your Company Relevant?](https://neilbendle.com/how-to-make-your-company-relevant/) - Some companies are successful and some brands play an integral part in their customers' lives. What sets the successful apart from those that aren't? Andy Colville, in her book of the same name, argues that it is relevance. The company/brand needs to break through the clutter and mean something to the customer. This leads to
- [Environmental Strategy And Competitive Advantage](https://neilbendle.com/environmental-strategy-and-competitive-advantage/) - Daniel Esty and Andrew Winston's Green To Gold is a detailed look at the link between environmental strategy and competitive advantage. It is an ambitious book, seeking to reframe green issues as a way for businesses to drive success. This contrasts with green choices being things that are done out of a sense of duty.
- [Razorblades In Apples: Halloween Sadism Isn't Real](https://neilbendle.com/razorblades-in-apples/) - 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
- [Lawyers Debating What Corporations Are For](https://neilbendle.com/lawyers-debating-what-corporations-are-for/) - Are you interested in lawyers debating what corporations are for? If so, I have just the historical reference for you. The Harvard Law Review in the early 1930s saw a series of debates about what firms are there to do. This was discussed by Joseph Weiner a generation later in the Columbia Law Review. It
- [Are We Making Any Progress On Sustainability?](https://neilbendle.com/are-we-making-any-progress-on-sustainability/) - I recently discussed Christopher Marquis's HBR article "In Defense of Degrowth", see here. As seems to happen in work from a degrowth perspective, Marquis' article spent some time implying that we aren't making any progress on sustainability. It was pretty depressing stuff. The idea seems to be that to motivate radical change we need to
- [Research Shows Not To Believe Claims That Science Shows](https://neilbendle.com/research-shows-not-to-believe-claims-that-science-shows/) - A second and final post on Alex Edmans' May Contain Lies, looks at some advice he gives and highlights some of his useful stories. The key thing the general reader might want to take from the book is that claims such as 'science shows' are nonsense. Remember, research shows not to believe claims that science
- [Understanding How We React To Evidence](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-how-we-react-to-evidence/) - We often like to see ourselves as objective observers of reality. This isn't really how we see the world, nor is it how we describe the world to others. Alex Edmans has a book that helps us in understanding how we react to evidence. Evidence For The Benefits/Challenges Of Sustainable Business Alex Edmans is best
- [Total Q Measures Investment Opportunities Not Firm Value](https://neilbendle.com/total-q-measures-investment-opportunities-not-performance/) - Papers in finance can sometimes get a hefty citation count boost when they get picked up in marketing. Peters and Taylor's 2017 paper on Total q is a nice paper. They make the very reasonable assertion that their Total q measures investment opportunities better than current Tobin's q approximations. While I'm not a finance person
- [Benefiting Owners And Much More](https://neilbendle.com/benefiting-owners-and-much-more/) - Ed Freeman is one of the most significant figures in the world of stakeholder business. (I had Ed as a professor when I did my MBA at Darden. This was more than 20 years ago and he was already a well-known figure). A few years ago he joined with a couple of colleagues to write
- [Are Only Stupid People Positive?](https://neilbendle.com/are-only-stupid-people-positive/) - Andrew McAfee has a positive view of where we are going as humans. This he outlines in his 2020 book, More from Less. It is worth emphasizing that the positive tone isn't because McAfee doesn't see the problems in the world. Indeed, he finishes with a list of seven issues he thinks should be prioritized
- [Points Of Parity And Points Of Difference](https://neilbendle.com/points-of-parity-and-points-of-difference/) - Marketing theory contains the idea of points of parity and points of difference. In some ways, these are very logical. A point of difference is where you have an attribute of the product that is different from the competition. A point of parity is when you match the competition. Balancing Points Of Parity And Points
- [The Cool Kids Love Marketing Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/the-cool-kids-love-marketing-metrics/) - I recently read an article from 2005 on marketing metrics. It was interesting to see what was being said nearly twenty years ago. Interestingly, one message I took was that the cool kids love marketing metrics. Apparently, in 2005 everyone was experimenting with marketing metrics. The Cool Kids Love Marketing Metrics 2005 was when the
- [You Can Differentiate Anything](https://neilbendle.com/you-can-differentiate-anything/) - 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 --
- [People Are Generally Reasonable Decision-Makers](https://neilbendle.com/people-are-generally-reasonable-decision-makers/) - An interesting discussion in behavioral science is the nature of humans as decision-makers. There often seems to be an assumption in the literature that people are terrible decision-makers. Consumers, members of the public, and voters are seen as battered by a host of errors and biases. This is partly because papers showing people making a
- [Bias And Public Policy Discussions](https://neilbendle.com/bias-and-public-policy-discussions/) - Reading Zeke Hernandez's excellent book, The Truth About Immigration, makes clear some challenges we experience given bias in public policy discussions. All of us have -- to a greater or lesser extent -- a skewed view of the world. This can impact public policy when enough of us have the same skewed views. We might
- [A Positive Case For Immigration](https://neilbendle.com/a-positive-case-for-immigration/) - Zeke Hernandez's book The Truth About Immigration tackles one of the most contentious topics in modern politics. He examines the impact of immigration on society. Critically, he advocates for a view based upon a better understanding of the impact of immigration on the societies that receive people. In doing so he makes a positive case
- [Denial, Doom, Or Informed Optimism](https://neilbendle.com/denial-doom-or-informed-optimism/) - Hannah Ritchie, lead researcher at Our World In Data, has a new book on the world's environmental problems. It is a great read packed full of lots of interesting information. There are a few things I wouldn't have done but the book is impressive and has a clear theme. Ritchie wants us to know that
- [Negative Externalities Reduce Public Welfare](https://neilbendle.com/negative-externalities-reduce-public-welfare/) - Christoper Marquis has a follow-up to his book on the B Corp movement, see here. This has many of the same qualities I admired in the earlier book. The best bits explain how business can be better. He has some excellent examples where businesses are making a positive contribution to the world. That said, the
- [Choosing Between Spending Points And Cash](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [The UN SDGS And Consumer Research](https://neilbendle.com/the-un-sdgs-and-consumer-research/) - The UN SDGs (sustainable development goals) are 17 goals members of the United Nations suggest that we need to achieve to deliver a better planet. These goals are not just environmental; they reflect the fact that to have a sustainable planet we need to make it better for all people. We need peace and prosperity
- [Can There Be Sustainable Marketing?](https://neilbendle.com/can-there-be-sustainable-marketing/) - Sustainable Marketing is a goal for many in the field nowadays. Michelle Carvill, Gemma Butler, and Geraint Evans, in their 2021 book, Sustainable Marketing, aim to help this become a reality and not the oxymoron that some might assume the term to be. Can there be sustainable marketing? Yes, but it won't just happen. We
- [Cancel Culture And Being Better](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Machine Learning Deployment](https://neilbendle.com/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.
- [Criticizing Your Own Side](https://neilbendle.com/criticizing-your-own-side/) - Political books can be a bit predictable. The challenge is often that right-wing people criticize the left-wing or left-wing people criticize the right-wing. This means you know where it is going before the book even starts. Depending upon your views, some comments might resonate more with you than others but the comments aren't at all
- [The ROI Of Customers](https://neilbendle.com/the-roi-of-customers/) - I am pleased to report that we have a new paper in the Journal of Interactive Marketing. My coauthors -- Paul Farris, Raj Venkatesan, and Andrew Petersen -- and I looked at the challenge of assessing the ROI of customers. One problem we saw was that marketers were getting misleading ROIs (returns on investment) for #
- [Managing Across Business Disciplines](https://neilbendle.com/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.
- [Experts Need To Take Public Policy Interventions Seriously](https://neilbendle.com/experts-need-to-take-public-policy-interventions-seriously/) - Public policy recommendations are one way academics seek to influence the world. That said, I fear we often don't give our recommendations much thought. They are tacked onto the end of papers to make the years of work done on the problem seem important enough to publish. This week, rather than look at a paper
- [How To Make The World Better](https://neilbendle.com/how-to-make-the-world-better/) - Sustainability is about not infringing upon the future while delivering for those here now. The good news is that there isn't necessarily a conflict between the two. Just because people get richer (current generation) doesn't necessarily mean they need to do more damage to the future generations. Progress can happen without stealing from the future.
- [Distribution Of Preferences Matters](https://neilbendle.com/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,
- [Sludges And Nudges](https://neilbendle.com/sludges-and-nudges/) - Cass Sunstein is a law professor who worked in the Obama White House. He dealt with matters of regulation, and has a keen interest in how (generally bad) program design and administration prevents action, e.g., sludge. He also is an expert on behavioral economics -- he wrote Nudge with Richard Thaler. The idea of sludge
- [Corporate Social Responsibility](https://neilbendle.com/corporate-social-responsibility/) - Managers at firms have a long history of seeing their role as more than just making money for their owners. Indeed, many business owners don't just see business as only a source of profits. One way of discussing the obligations of firms is to discuss Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Today I'm looking at a history
- [Getting Beyond Text In Unstructured Data](https://neilbendle.com/getting-beyond-text-in-unstructured-data/) - Unstructured data has massive potential in marketing that is already somewhat being fulfilled. Text analysis has proved a fruitful resource. Using text mining, marketers can seek to uncover messages hidden in massive amounts of words. A typical usage would be attempting to uncover the themes in online reviews written about a product. Yet, unstructured data
- [Profound Market Shifts Towards Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/profound-market-shifts-towards-sustainability/) - John Elkington is a leading thinker in business sustainability. He is likely best known for advancing the idea of the Triple Bottom Line, see here. He has a somewhat positive take on where humanity is going regarding sustainability. He sees profound market shifts towards sustainability coming. He calls these Green Swans. Green Swans, Black Swans,
- [Recommendations Are Complex](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Helping Experts Perform Consistently](https://neilbendle.com/helping-experts-perform-consistently/) - I have recently read Atul Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto. It is a few years old now (2009) but it still has a lot to say about the way the world works as well as Gawande's aim of helping experts perform consistently. Do Experts Really Need Checklists? Gawande is a doctor and his main area of
- [The Benefits Of Simple](https://neilbendle.com/the-benefits-of-simple/) - There are many papers on the mechanics of NPS (the Net Promoter Score) across various disciplines. In many ways they are easy to write. Fred Reichheld's original claim was a bold one. Namely, that NPS was the one number you needed to know to grow. It was clearly a sales claim. It was pretty absurd
- [Roots Of Unsustainability](https://neilbendle.com/roots-of-unsustainability/) - A major paper in the history of sustainability is Lynn White Jr's The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis. This sought to describe the roots of unsustainability. His conclusion zeroed in on religion -- specifically Western Christianity -- as the culprit. Start By Putting Off The Reader Academic writing has changed a lot in the
- [Net Promoter And Lessons For Academic Research](https://neilbendle.com/net-promoter-and-lessons-for-academic-research/) - I value academic work that speaks to the issues of managers and others outside of academia. The Net Promoter Score/System (NPS) is widely used by managers and so it can be valuable when academics look into this metric. What then can we say about Net Promoter and the lessons for academic research? Reviewing The Literature
- [Managers and Academics](https://neilbendle.com/managers-and-academics/) - I think one the great rifts between managers and academics in marketing has been caused by NPS. To be fair there is blame on all sides. Asking Questions As researchers and teachers we have a responsibility to advance the practice of marketing. This isn't just about teaching technical skills. Knowing how to discount a cash
- [Cool Result: What Next?](https://neilbendle.com/cool-result-next/) - Adam Alter's Drunk Tank Pink is a fun book. It follows in a long tradition of behavioral books -- some by psychologists, some by marketers -- that describe interesting quirks found in academic research. Much of Alter's focus is on the subtle influence of color on us. Unfortunately some of the influences seem too subtle
- [Improving Forecasting](https://neilbendle.com/improving-forecasting/) - Philip Tetlock's book on expert political judgment was a classic. That said, he clearly thinks that the message taken from that book was too strong. Previously he suggested that experts just aren't that good at forecasting. He still retains that theme in his new work -- but now he is more interested in improving forecasting. Improving Forecasting
- [NPS And Casino Patrons](https://neilbendle.com/nps-and-casino-patrons/) - I really appreciate when academic papers seek to address issues that matter to non-academics. Sanghee Kim and Tom Gruca looked at the use of Net Promoter Score (NPS) to predict customer retention and spending a topic important to many business people. What do they find about NPS and casino patrons? Casinos And Net Promoter A
- [Virtue Signaling And Balancing Reasonable Perspectives](https://neilbendle.com/virtue-signaling-book-publishing-and-balancing-view-points/) - Geoffrey Miller's Virtue Signaling is a compilation of some of his work. All pieces are relatively popular and accessible. In addition to sexual selection this tackles problems related to virtue signaling and balancing reasonable perspectives in speech. The Coddling of the American Mind was a clearly written thesis. Miller's book is a little different to
- [Understanding And Using The Customer Asset](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-and-using-the-customer-asset/) - My new book with Shane (Xin) Wang covers the use and meaning of Customer Lifetime Value (CLV). Being clear on the nature of the customer asset allows us to understand CLV. What Value Are We Looking At? The book starts with the basics. For example, what value are we looking at when we talk of
- [Change For The Better](https://neilbendle.com/change-for-the-better/) - A new year post about change for the better. Finton O'Toole tells a personal history of Ireland. This starts with his birth in 1958 and goes to the present. He is an excellent writer and there is a lot of interesting information. In this post I'll just look at the core themes of his country
- [A Defense Of Enlightenment Thinking](https://neilbendle.com/a-defence-of-enlightenment-thinking/) - Steven Pinker's Enlightenment Now is a wonderful book. Pinker's work is precisely the sort of thing that we need more of. I.e. writing from knowledgeable people able to see the big picture. The big picture in Enlightenment Now is about the biggest picture one can have. It is a defense of enlightenment thinking. The Enlightenment:
- [The Pope And The Climate Crisis](https://neilbendle.com/the-pope-and-the-climate-crisis/) - In October 2023 a new letter was added to the discussion around what we should be doing to protect the environment. The author had spoken on the topic before so in many ways it wasn't a surprise. Still, the text is very useful and has potential to reach people who don't always pay attention to
- [Population As A Disaster](https://neilbendle.com/population-as-a-disaster/) - Paul Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb in 1968. I read a version printed in 1988 which had a 1978 update. It is a gloomy book that makes bold claims of famine and crises. There have certainly been problems in the last 55 years but nothing like Ehrlich predicted. It is an over-the-top book written by
- [History Of Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/history-of-sustainability/) - Jeremy Caradonna wrote a history of sustainability in his book, Sustainability. (I read the revised edition from 2022). This work draws linkages from early ideas of sustainability and looks at where we are now. Things have moved forward, and back, on the sustainability front. There is some interesting history. As someone who lives in Georgia,
- [Benefit Corporation Versus B Corp](https://neilbendle.com/benefit-corporation-versus-b-corp/) - There are two related terms for coporations that are seeking to do good in addition to doing well. Both terms often apply to such corporations but this isn't always the case. As such, it is useful to distinguish between them. So lets look at Benefit Corporation Versus B Corp. B Corp A B Corp is
- [Eliminating The Concept Of Waste](https://neilbendle.com/eliminating-the-concept-of-waste/) - In their book Cradle to Cradle, sustainability writers William (Bill) McDonough and Michael Braungart argued that we should be thinking not in terms of Cradle to Grave -- birth to death -- for products. Instead, we should be thinking of reuse. Their second book along those lines, Upcycle, goes further. Their basic argument is that
- [Environmental Impact Equation](https://neilbendle.com/environmental-impact-equation/) - Ray Anderson is a bit of a legend in sustainable business circles. He was from Georgia and even played American football for Georgia Tech to which he later bequeathed a Center in Sustainable Business. Today I'll look at his book -- Mid-Course Correction, and highlight the way he saw the role of technology in an
- [Faulty Sums and Accounting](https://neilbendle.com/faulty-sums-and-accounting/) - I enjoy a good polemic and Keron Bhattacharya's book on Accountancy is certainly that. A generation old now but many of the points remain. (Although the acronyms for the UK accounting standards and accounting bodies have all changed). As an accountant himself (member of CIMA) he isn't very happy with the way accountants were doing
- [Just Say No](https://neilbendle.com/learning-to-say-no/) - Vanessa Patrick is a marketing professor at the University of Houston. She used to be at the University of Georgia, where I now am, but that was before my time. (One of her stories in her book, The Power of Saying No, does involve an Athens, Georgia restaurant. The restaurant was meaty, so not really
- [The Path To 2050](https://neilbendle.com/the-path-to-2050/) - How can the world get to carbon neutral by 2050? This is the date the Paris Agreement specified for getting away from the activities that produce greenhouse gasses (see here). Many would argue that that the Paris agreement was not ambitious enough. Still, we don't currently have a clear plan to reach carbon neutral by
- [The Future Is Abundance](https://neilbendle.com/the-future-is-abundance/) - Peter Diamandis & Steven Kotler's book Abundance is a great read. It argues that the future is abundance. The world will be able to produce what we need to give everyone in it a decent life. The book is a valuable antidote to pessimism. The Future Is Abundance, Innovation, And Progress Whenever they see discussions
- [Zero Sum Thinking](https://neilbendle.com/zero-sum-thinking/) - Heather McGhee has a popular book on the problem of zero sum thinking. Her specific focus is on racism in the US. The argument is quite simple. Racism prevents policies that would benefit everyone. Zero Sum Thinking People often have a tendency to think of the world as having a fixed amount of a certain
- [Some Advice on Calling BS](https://neilbendle.com/some-advice-on-calling-bs/) - There are lots of reasons to like Bergstrom and West's book Calling Bullshit. There is just so much BS available to anyone who wants to consume it. Calling BS is a skill we all need. Calling BS BS can pose a threat to democracy if people choose their leaders based upon things that just aren't
- [Zombie Statistics & Other Advice on Dealing with Nonsense](https://neilbendle.com/zombie-statistics-other-advice-on-dealing-with-nonsense/) - A second post on Bergstrom and West's enjoyable book, Calling Bullshit. They tackle the problems we face with the amount of nonsense around in the information age. The book contains much useful advice on spotting problems in black boxes and avoiding zombie statistics. You Can Spot Nonsense Even In Black Boxes I liked their advice
- [University Pricing](https://neilbendle.com/university-pricing/) - In The Price You Pay For College, Ron Lieber, a journalist with expertise in financial advice, looks at issues around sending a child to college. It is a wide-ranging book full of helpful advice. The advice is mainly for parents confronting the massive financial decision in the US that is their kid’s college attendance. The
- [Epidemiological Transition](https://neilbendle.com/epidemiological-transition/) - A second post on Angus Deaton's The Great Escape. Here I discuss the epidemiological transition that he notes. There is a general movement in the way disease tends to afflict a country (and indeed across the whole world). The problems of disease, what the diseases are, and who they target, have a distinct pattern. Epidemiological
- [Market Research Lessons](https://neilbendle.com/market-research-lessons/) - Alex and Mike Sherman have a book of market research lessons. This is a nice little book of sensible ideas. I liked it and will highlight a few of the points that stood out for me. Aims Of The Research Should Impact What You Study This seems obvious, and it is really. Still, it is
- [Explaining Clustering Simply Has Real Value](https://neilbendle.com/explaining-clustering-simply-has-real-value/) - I was impressed by Annalyn Ng's and Kenneth Soo's short book Numsense. I have already discussed it in a prior post, see here. Today I will note how they discuss clustering. This is central to a lot of marketing analyses. Numsense Covers A Lot Of Basic Data Science The subtitle Data Science for the Layman
- [Marketing Response To Stock Market Pressure](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-response-to-stock-market-pressure/) - What is the marketing response to stock market pressure? Myopic Management Myopic management/marketing is the tendency to focus on short-term gains at the expense of long-term profits. It can occur for a number of reasons. Yet, at its heart, pressure from Wall Street appears to drive myopia for public companies. Certainly, many scholars subscribe to
- [NPS And Potential Customers](https://neilbendle.com/nps-and-potential-customers/) - The Net Promoter Score/System (NPS) remains an outlier in marketing metrics. NPS is undoubtedly focused on 'marketing' issues but is very widely used across business. Senior managers often know NPS, indeed, they are often the ones promoting it. Is it any good though? The evidence for such a widely used metric is far from overwhelming.
- [Behavioural Insights, Policy Policy, and the OECD](https://neilbendle.com/behavioural-insights-policy-policy-and-the-oecd/) - The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have a fascinating new initiative. (I wrote this in in 2017 and just edited since). “Behavioral Insights and Public Policy: Lessons from Round the World.” The book which accompanies the initiative has extensive case studies. The case studies outline how behavioral insights have been deployed. This has advanced
- [Not Aiding An Opposing Group](https://neilbendle.com/not-aiding-an-opposing-group/) - The fact that we form groups, alliances even, is fundamental human behavior. Working together allows us to achieve things that we couldn't do independently. Sadly, almost inevitably, being in a group brings conflict with other groups. Much work is done on how we react to group-based conflict. What do we know about whether we are
- [Signaling And Selection](https://neilbendle.com/signaling-and-selection/) - As I have discussed before there seems a lot to learn about social interactions, and that includes markets, from biology. Scientists in that area have long thought about problems that concern markets. For example, how can selection work to change a population? Or how can you interpret messages when those sending the messages have an
- [The Failure Of Science](https://neilbendle.com/the-failure-of-science/) - Stuart Ritchie in Science Fictions looks at the failure of science. To be fair it is hard to argue with a lot of his points. Ritchie rightly points out that there is fraud but probably more common and alarming is bad practice. Scientists don't mean to do anything too bad but lots of skimming here
- [Nudging: Calm Down It Really Is Not The End Of Freedom](https://neilbendle.com/nudging-calm-down-it-really-is-not-the-end-of-freedom/) - Mark D. White has written an ominously titled book “The Manipulation of Choice: Ethics and Libertarian Paternalism”. He really doesn’t like the sort of Nudging proposed by Thaler and Sunstein in their book, Nudge. I think that he needs to chill out. He gets excited about minor philosophical issues while ignoring big social issues. Nudges
- [Escape From Poverty And Disease](https://neilbendle.com/escape-from-poverty-and-disease/) - Angus Deaton, a famous economist, has a book, The Great Escape. This outlines humanity's escape from poverty and disease. He outlines the progress that we, collectively, have made and gives his thoughts on what needs to be done. The Great Escape The title of the book is well chosen. It probably works better if you
- [Comprehensive Guide To Drawdown Solutions](https://neilbendle.com/comprehensive-guide-to-drawdown-solutions/) - Drawdown is a New York Times Bestseller and you can see why. The book, by a large team led by Paul Hawken, has a profusion of detail on ways that the impacts of climate change can be alleviated and ultimately reversed. It provides a guide to drawdown solutions. The book gives an optimistic view of
- [People Aren't Getting Worse](https://neilbendle.com/people-arent-getting-worse/) - Ever since I was in secondary school (high school in US terms) I have thought it is bizarre that people think that humans are getting worse. Adam Mastroianni and Dan Gilbert wrote a paper in Nature on this phenomenon which they call The Illusion of Moral Decline. In many ways, they have written the paper
- [Triple Bottom Line](https://neilbendle.com/triple-bottom-line/) - John Elkington gave us the idea of the Triple Bottom Line (TBL) in 1994. In 2018 he proposed that the idea be recalled for a retooling. Things hadn't worked out as he hoped. The Triple Bottom Line The idea behind the Triple Bottom Line is simple. Rather than fixating on financial performance alone, the bottom
- [Clear Data-Driven Stories](https://neilbendle.com/clear-data-driven-stories/) - Scott Galloway has a book on where the US is currently. He provides a useful example of clear data-driven stories. A Famous Marketing Professor Galloway is a marketing professor and as such I am naturally supportive. It is great that he is famous and appears in the media so much. I'm all for it. We
- [Random Forests and Machine Learning](https://neilbendle.com/random-forests-and-machine-learning/) - Scott Hartshorn has some useful accessible advice on all things analytics. Today I'll look at his advice on random forests and machine learning. Machine Learning He starts by giving us a clear intuitive, rather than a formal, view of what machine learning (ML) is. He says that at their heart a lot of different ML
- [What Has Been Studied In Academic Sustainable Marketing Research?](https://neilbendle.com/what-has-been-studied-in-academic-sustainable-marketing-research/) - It is (almost) always interesting to go back and discover what has been studied in the past. Academic journals in the marketing field have been with us for many generations so we have a large sample to look at. Brian Chabowski and colleagues in 2011 reviewed what had been studied in academic sustainable marketing research.
- [Competitive Advantage And Social Purpose](https://neilbendle.com/competitive-advantage-and-social-purpose/) - How should firms approach competing using their commitment to social and environmental purpose? This was the challenge tackled by Omar Rodríguez-Vilá and Sundar Bharadwaj in their 2017 article published in the Harvard Business Review. (Sundar is a colleague of mine at the University of Georgia). The approach they outline seeks to show a clear way
- [The Environmental Impacts Of Foods](https://neilbendle.com/the-environmental-impacts-of-foods/) - There are many things that can impact a person's, and a community's, impact upon the environment. Some things we might be able to stop doing. That is not the case with eating food. We have a large number of people on the planet and we all have to eat. As such, an important question is
- [Do People Vote With Their Wallets?](https://neilbendle.com/do-people-vote-with-their-wallets/) - One of the classic problems in understanding voter behavior is whether people vote with their wallets. Bascially, do voters make choices that depend heavily upon their own economic self-interest? Like almost any social science question you are never going to get 100% compliance with any idea. One can almost certainly find someone who calculates what
- [Working In the Doughnut](https://neilbendle.com/working-in-the-doughnut/) - Kate Raworth has a popular book on sustainability and economics. In it, she argues that economics needs an overhaul. It is an admirably ambitious book with some flaws but with excellent parts to more than makeup for them. What does Raworth say about working in the doughnut? How To Understand Working In the Doughnut Raworth
- [GMOs Forget The Science](https://neilbendle.com/gmos-forget-the-science/) - Scientists including biologists, medical doctors, and geneticists have many wonderful qualities. Yet, if the public policy response to Covid-19 taught us anything it was that some people who are great in their scientific fields have communication problems. This isn't just a shame. It often undermines everything that they are trying to do. I see a
- [The Matthew Effect: Who Gets Rewards](https://neilbendle.com/the-matthew-effect-who-gets-rewards/) - Today I'll talk about a classic article. Robert Merton's "The Matthew Effect In Science". This is an important and useful idea. You can tell it is has been successful as it has gained its own Wikipedia page, here. The Matthew Effect There are many things in life where perceptions drive success. This is often true
- [What Customers Are Worth](https://neilbendle.com/what-customers-are-worth/) - Allison Hartsoe's book -- The Age of Customer Equity -- looks at customer-based strategy. She highlights examples of firms successfully using customer centric strategy. The examples are interesting and there is much to learn from the discussions. I should note that this is not an academic book. The concepts are much looser than I would
- [Branding For A Purpose](https://neilbendle.com/branding-for-a-purpose/) - David Aaker’s The Future Of Purpose-Driven Branding is written by a true legend in the field of branding. What is more, his message is a good one. Branding for a purpose is on the up. It has a great future. The Two Jobs Of Purpose-Driven Branding Purpose-driven branding has a great future because branding expertise
- [Sustainability And Grand Historical Sweeps](https://neilbendle.com/sustainability-and-grand-historical-sweeps/) - One way of arguing for the value of sustainability is to suggest that we (humans, westerners, whatever) have declined from a past that was more in touch with nature. Jason Hickel does this by combining ideas about sustainability and grand historical sweeps. History Is Very Much In The Past This isn’t the approach I would
- [Modern Business And Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/modern-business-and-sustainability/) - I was disappointed by Jason Hickel’s Less Is More. I had a number of concerns that fit under three headings, lack of economic/business understanding, lack of historical understanding, and divorce from political reality. Today I'll discuss the technical business elements of my complaint about Hickel’s book. Let us discuss modern business and sustainability Modern Business
- [Using Data In Decisions](https://neilbendle.com/using-data-in-decisions/) - It is important to have good intuition when using data in decisions, and this intuition can be improved. This is a central message of a book that recently emerged from teaching these topics at Columbia University. The message makes a lot of sense and is likely, if anything, to make even more sense as time
- [The Case Against: Is Education A Waste](https://neilbendle.com/the-case-against-is-education-a-waste/) - I have mixed feelings on Bryan Caplan's books (see also here). I must confess to appreciating that he tackles hard to discuss, important topics. Is education a waste is certainly one of those. I also don't want to be the sort of person that, just because I don't have a similar perspective to Caplan, I
- [The Brussels Effect](https://neilbendle.com/the-brussels-effect/) - The Brussels Effect is a phenomenon whereby regulations created by the EU (European Union) become global standards. A key point is that this is something that the EU can do on its own. It isn't about expanding regulation through multilateral treaties whereby Brussels attempts to get other states to adopt the EU rules. Instead, the
- [Finance For The Long-Term](https://neilbendle.com/finance-for-the-long-term/) - Stephen Davis, Jon Lukomnik and David Pitt-Watson have a book that focuses on problems in finance. This includes the critical question, why does your pension fund charge such high fees? The authors have advice how we could recreate finance for the long-term. We need a financial system that has at its center a purpose that
- [The Pseudo Profound Statement](https://neilbendle.com/the-pseudo-profound-statement/) - I have previously written about how disappointed I was by Jerry Muller's The Tyranny of Metrics, see here and here. Today I will look at a broader problem that his book exhibits. Namely 'The Pseudo Profound Statement'. I see this in a lot of places not just in Muller's work. Be Careful With A Pseudo
- [Anecdotal Evidence Is Problematic In Justifying Arguments](https://neilbendle.com/anecdotal-evidence-is-problematic-in-justifying-arguments/) - Jerry Muller's book on The Tyranny of Metrics argues that metrics are overused. (I have discussed other frustrations with the book here). Muller, however, very neatly illustrates the problem with his approach. Anecdotal evidence, by this here I mean stories not rigorously detailed, is problematic in justifying an argument. Basically he throws some numbers into
- [Social Influence And German Soccer Referees](https://neilbendle.com/social-influence-and-german-soccer-referees/) - One of the most interesting aspects of social life is how crowds influence us. We may even end up doing something that isn't in our best interests. To examine this Thomas Dohmen looked at social influence and German soccer referees. Referees Want To Be Impartial Dohmen suggests, reasonably enough, that referees really do want to
- [Governing The Commons](https://neilbendle.com/governing-the-commons/) - Elinor Ostrom had a profound impact on research about institutions. She got the Nobel Prize in Economics. This was for her work thinking about how social affairs could be governed: Governing The Commons. Common Pool Resoruces This goes much wider than corporate governance. It speaks to how communities deal with the control of their valuable
- [Fairness and Channel Coordination](https://neilbendle.com/fairness-and-channel-coordination/) - Fairness matters in life. People are motivated to achieve fair outcomes. (Although people are generally quicker to notice shares that are unfair to them than to other people.) Given business is a human social endeavor it shouldn't be a huge surprise that fairness matters in business too. Adding fairness concerns to models of how business works
- [In Praise Of Redundant Capacity](https://neilbendle.com/in-praise-of-redundant-capacity/) - I think evolutionary thinking has a lot to offer strategic discussions. We shouldn't be too simple and expect perfect matchings from biology. Still, good ideas can carry over neatly to give things to consider. Here I examine a piece in the Harvard Business Review that looks at firm strategy in unpredictable times. I want to
- [Communicating Numbers](https://neilbendle.com/communicating-numbers/) - Chip Heath and Karla Starr have a book on communicating numbers. It makes a lot of sensible points. Some might seem obvious but it is easy to get these sort of things wrong. I certainly have in the past, so the advice is worth paying attention to. They even put a mention into their book
- [Consumer Reactions To Shipping Charges](https://neilbendle.com/consumer-reactions-to-shipping-charges/) - Shipping charges are a vital consideration for online marketers. They are most interested in understanding consumer reactions to shipping charges. Consumer Reactions To Shipping Charges Academic marketers haven't done as much work on the topic as one might expect. As Lewis, Singh, and Fay note, "Shipping charges are an important but under-researched element of the
- [Proving The Value Of Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/proving-the-value-of-marketing/) - Over the next couple of weeks I will consider ideas from a paper coming out in Marketing Science. [This post was written in 2018]. I wrote the paper with a former PhD student, Moeen Butt. This looks at the use of a metric called Tobin's q. This has been used in papers claiming to be
- [In Defense Of A Really Silly Idea](https://neilbendle.com/in-defense-of-a-really-silly-idea/) - One the silliest things that academics do is compare the number of 'A' publications people have. Who thinks that a career can be summarized by a single number? It is clearly an absurd idea. Even if research publications are all that count (and I think that is obviously nonsense) 'A' publications aren't all the same.
- [Another Total Q Mystery](https://neilbendle.com/another-total-q-mystery/) - I am fascinated by attempts to replace Tobin's Q as a firm performance metric with Total Q. Both metrics are not fit for purpose. One of the most interesting things is just how terrible the arguments in favor of Total Q as a firm performance metric are. I recently highlighted problems in Du and Osmonbekov‘s "Direct effect of
- [Customers As Liabilities](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Word Of Mouth And Movie Piracy](https://neilbendle.com/word-of-mouth-and-movie-piracy/) - Marketers are confident that word of mouth helps stimulate demand. This perhaps isn't too shocking. It seems reasonable that recommendations can encourage people to purchase. One area where this is likely to be the case is in movies. Reviewers pick over movies and give their thoughts. Normal people often are happy to share their views
- [Prejudice Against The Machine: Impact Of Chatbot Identity Disclosure](https://neilbendle.com/prejudice-against-the-machine-impact-of-chatbot-indentity-disclosure/) - Whenever technology progresses a major question arises: What can technology do as well, or better, than humans? Since the luddites, and probably before, people reacted to technology with hostility. This raises the question whether machine learning algorithms can replicate (or outperform human behavior) but still be unpopular due to human reaction. A group of authors
- [The Right Metric Depends Upon Its Planned Use](https://neilbendle.com/the-right-metric-depends-upon-its-planned-use/) - Sometimes I worry that marketing academics have a bit of an inferiority complex. We seem to have an aversion to anything developed in marketing. Instead, we look back to psychology (if we are consumer behavior scholars). Or we look to economics (for more quantitative scholars). This means that we often see citations to other disciplines
- [A Roadmap For Marketing Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/a-roadmap-for-marketing-metrics/) - Paul Magill and Christine Moorman shared a roadmap for marketing metrics in April's Harvard Business Review. Their overarching aim is to elevate the way marketers look at metrics. The authors don't want marketing assessed only at the campaign level -- "did this ad campaign work?" Better to focus at higher levels, "what is marketing delivering
- [Thinking Differently About Business School Cases](https://neilbendle.com/thinking-differently-about-business-school-cases/) - Bridgman, Cummings, and McLaughlin in their 2016 paper about the case method tell us that the conventional history of the development of business case teaching is missing some vital elements. Cases nowadays come from the perspective of management. There exists a management objective that the students are trying to deliver. This excessively managerial perspective is
- [Managing For Stakeholders](https://neilbendle.com/managing-for-stakeholders/) - My second post on Paul Polman's (former Unilever CEO) and Andrew Winston's great book, Net Positive, covers a random bunch of advice and ideas that they give on managing for stakeholders. How best to manage a firm with more than just the shareholders in mind? Better Business Practice Can Lead To Better Opportunities Many in
- [Planning For Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/planning-for-sustainability/) - Bill Gates has a really useful book about what we might call planning for sustainability. It is a practical approach on what we can hope to achieve. The book has a lot of critical information conveyed in a relatively easy-to-understand form. I'd certainly recommend it. Before we start it is worth noting that some people
- [Signaling And Education](https://neilbendle.com/signaling-and-education/) - Why do people pursue academic courses that in no way set them up with the skills needed for their future careers? One obvious answer might be because they enjoy the topic they study. Education is a good thing in itself. I'm all for that. Yet, that seems to be far from a complete explanation. Maybe
- [Customer Centricity And Customer Equity](https://neilbendle.com/customer-centricity-and-customer-equity/) - Customer centricity is a very good book. It is short and has an excellent point. You could read it in a long bath despite there being much to learn from it. So what then can we learn about customer centricity and customer equity from Peter Fader's book? A Strong Start And Clear View Of Customer
- [Customer Centricity And CLV](https://neilbendle.com/customer-centricity-and-clv/) - Peter Fader is a major figure in the study of customers. Specifically, he is closely linked to the idea of how companies value customers and focus on serving the customers that are most important to the firm. His 2019 book with Sarah E. Toms, The Customer Centricity Playbook, looks at customer centricity and CLV. The
- [Net Positive Business](https://neilbendle.com/net-positive-business/) - In the world of sustainable business Paul Polman seems to be the nearest thing to a superstar. Hence his book with Andrew Winston, Net Positive, will get a big audience which is a very good thing. It seeks to give Polman's view of business which was central to his tenure as Unilever CEO, a net
- [Solving Problems Upstream](https://neilbendle.com/solving-problems-upstream/) - Dan Heath has a book on solving problems upstream. The central idea is that it is better to solve a problem nearer its source than try and solve the problem once it has fully manifested. Heath's hard-to-disagree with advice is that it is better to stop the horror movie monster being conjured rather than having
- [What's With The Alexander Stuff?](https://neilbendle.com/whats-with-the-alexander-stuff/) - There is a cottage industry of people writing about business using the lessons of Alexander the Great. I have only one question: What's with the Alexander Stuff? The Macedonian king was a terrible bloke, and there are plenty of easier, and much more novel, ways to illustrate business situations. Business As War: Not Really Business
- [Value-Based Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/value-based-marketing/) - In 2000 Peter Doyle started the abstract of his paper, Value-Based Marketing with the sentence. "Marketing has not had the impact on the boardroom that its importance justifies" (Doyle, 2000, page 299.) Doyle made a fair point. Marketing's Lack Of Influence It is very common for academic marketers to bemoan marketing's lack of influence. Many firms
- [Double Entry Bookkeeping](https://neilbendle.com/double-entry-bookkeeping/) - It is helpful for marketers to understand accounting. The phrase double entry bookkeeping has a tendency to put people off but that is unfortunate. The idea that each event is represented by two entries is an elegant one. Marketers can learn a lot from the strengths of such an approach. Double Entry Bookkeeping Aids Understanding
- [Rationality And The Republican Autopsy](https://neilbendle.com/rationality-and-the-republican-autopsy/) - Political marketing is about giving voters what they want so one must have some notion of how voters think. With a colleague, June Cotte, I wanted to uncover how political marketers think voters think. The specific question we looked at was: "do political marketers think voters are rational?" What can we say about rationality and the Republican autopsy? Lack Of Clarity
- [The Marketing-Accounting Interface](https://neilbendle.com/the-marketing-accounting-interface/) - There is a lot of work linking marketing and finance. Unfortunately, at least from my perspective, nearly all of this has focused on linking marketing to financial markets. Such work is useful but I would like more looking at more diverse linkages between marketing and accounting. Sidhu and Robert's article is an exception. They look
- [Marketing And A (Very Old) New Technology](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-and-very-old-new-technology/) - Technology changes constantly. In recent centuries, at least, people have become used to marvels appearing that they couldn't imagine when they were growing up. People encounter new technology. How do they react? How did they react to (very old) new technology? Early Movies: A Major Innovation I read an interesting paper on reactions to early
- [The Challenge of Not So Simple Marketing Performance Measures](https://neilbendle.com/the-challenge-of-not-so-simple-marketing-performance-measures/) - Bruce Clark reviewed the history of marketing performance measures in 1999. He saw three main themes. "[T]he movement from financial to non-financial output measures, the expansion from measuring only marketing outputs to measuring marketing inputs as well, and the evolution from unidimensional to multidimensional measures of performance" (Clark, 1999, page 711). This raised the challenge
- [Teaching CLV Badly](https://neilbendle.com/teaching-clv-badly/) - Ex-Ivey PHD student and now University of Calgary professor, Charan Bagga, and I have just published an article. This focused on the teaching of CLV (Customer Lifetime Value). We surveyed the state of case-based teaching materials related to CLV and found them a pretty shoddy bunch. Teaching CLV badly seems to be the default way to teach
- [Academics As Thinkers, Managers As Doers](https://neilbendle.com/academics-thinkers-managers-doers/) - In an interesting interview Gary Bridge, Managing Director of Snow Creek Advisors, shared his thoughts on the managerial/academic divide. He is pretty critical about academia but I think he is largely right. What does he have to say about academics as thinkers, managers as doers? Thinkers, Doers & Academic Gamesmanship Bridge starts with the comforting thought
- [Putting Finance And Marketing Together](https://neilbendle.com/putting-finance-and-marketing-together/) - Dave Stewart has written a book packed with details of the financial impact of marketing. He surveys a large number of topics extremely connected to what I write about in this blog. (This probably isn't too surprising. Dave is chair of MASB, which I am heavily involved in). What then is good advice for putting
- [Measuring Performance In Multistakeholder Firms](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-performance-in-multistakeholder-firms/) - Jonathan Knowles and Tom Hunsaker have an article in the MIT Sloan Management Review that considers the change in thinking needed when a firm is managed for multiple stakeholders. How then to go about measuring performance in multistakeholder firms? When Money Is All that Matters For the past generation or two firms have often been
- [The WAITA Model -- How To Decide Upon Marketing Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/how-to-decide-upon-marketing-metrics/) - I recently published a short piece for WARC Best Practice on "How to set marketing metrics effectively". The basic idea behind the piece is an explanation of how to decide upon what marketing metrics to use. This work introduces a new acronym that I've produced called the WAITA model. Hopefully, this is easy to remember. Why call
- [Are American Minds Coddled?](https://neilbendle.com/are-american-minds-coddled/) - The Coddling of the American Mind, Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt's book, is a great read. It is full of interesting stories about where society, and universities in particular, are going wrong. I have a decent amount of sympathy with their arguments. It is important that we preserve free speech. The cost being that sometimes
- [The Data Gender Gap](https://neilbendle.com/the-data-gender-gap/) - Caroline Criado Perez's book focuses on the challenges facing women in a world where the primary gatherers of data have been/usually still are men. It highlights the problem of data heavy systems not being as fair as the idea of impartial 'math' might imply. (See also here). The problem of what Perez calls the data
- [Weird Versus Non-WEIRD](https://neilbendle.com/weird-versus-non-weird/) - Joe Henrich's book on the WEIRDest people in the world is ambitious and packed with ideas and data. To be honest it isn't my sort of thing but you have to admire what he has done. He is looking at the psychology of weird versus non-weird people. Weird being western, educated, industrialized, rich & democratic.
- [Is The Leadership Industry Just Nonsense?](https://neilbendle.com/is-the-leadership-industry-just-nonsense/) - I'm pretty cynical about "Leadership". A such, I enjoyed Jeffrey Pfeffer's attack on the Leadership industry. He suggests that the leadership industry is built on un-researched platitudes. What is more every retired leader who writes a book doesn't necessarily tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. So is the leadership industry just nonsense? Testing
- [Not Very Thoughtful Thought Leadership](https://neilbendle.com/not-thoughtful-thought-leadership/) - I love terrible visuals, especially when they are used by consultants. Alex Usher (@http://higheredstrategy.com/) is brutal in criticizing a recent Deloitte report doing "big thinking" about the future of the workforce. (Post written in 2017). The report seems to be a great example of not very thoughtful thought leadership. Not Very Thoughtful Thought Leadership Usher
- [Showing A Problem Does Not Equal Demonstrating A Worsening Problem](https://neilbendle.com/showing-a-problem-does-not-equal-a-worsening-problem/) - Cathy O'Neil has a great book on big data, Weapons of Math Destruction, but one with a fundamental flaw. The flawed claim is made in the book's subtitle and permeates throughout the book. The subtitle is: "How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy". I could find no significant evidence of big data increasing inequality in the book. She shows
- [CEOs And Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/ceos-and-sustainability/) - Alan Murray (CEO of Fortune Media) has a book on how business is engaging more with social issues. There are a lot of good points in there that help to illustrate business in 2022. So what can he tell us about CEOs and Sustainability? First, The Bad Points Broadly speaking I am on board with
- [Why Would You Go Test Optional?](https://neilbendle.com/why-would-you-go-test-optional/) - In 2020 many universities decided to become: "test-optional" for entrance, see here. This was an interesting development. My worry is that test-optional isn't always the benevolent response from universities that it might seem to some. I was reading about this in a chapter by Sheila Slaughter and Gary Rhoades. I would want to know more
- [Universities Don't Seem Completely Toxic To Me](https://neilbendle.com/universities-dont-seem-completely-toxic-to-me/) - If you like your angst with lashings of the phrase neoliberalism John Smyth's book, The Toxic University, is for you. The title with its references to Zombie and Rock Stars is fun. Unfortunately, you get the impression that the title is where the fun ends. Smyth makes a number of criticisms of universities and many
- [The Problem Of Understanding Others](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-of-understanding-others/) - A second post on Gad Saad’s, The Parasitic Mind. I’m not sure this was his central aim but he did make me think about the problem of understanding others. Is Society Really Collapsing? I really wanted to know why he thinks society is collapsing. I have never known why people think this. It is not
- [Scientific Thinking Is Hard (Especially For Academics)](https://neilbendle.com/scientific-thinking-is-hard-especially-for-academics/) - I must confess to being disappointed with Gad Saad's The Parasitic Mind. Before purchasing the book I knew I would disagree with many of his points given his robust public profile. (For background, Saad is the sort of evolutionary psychologists your mother warned you about. Lots of sex differences in consumption). That I would disagree
- [The (Perfect?) Mess That is US Higher Education](https://neilbendle.com/perfect-mess-us-higher-education/) - Want a review of the (perfect?) mess that is US higher education? The State of US Higher Educations David Labaree assesses the state of US higher education in his interesting book -- A Perfect Mess. I enjoyed his take on higher ed. It seemed like he had an appreciation for the complexities of it. He
- [Confusopoly](https://neilbendle.com/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.
- [Not All Papers Must Feature Firm Performance](https://neilbendle.com/not-all-papers-must-feature-firm-performance/) - Today I'm discussing another paper that uses Total Q. I won't spend too long on that. I have said plenty elsewhere about how bad Total Q is as a measure of firm performance. In this post, I want to somewhat sympathize with the authors of a paper that uses Total Q. I will tell a
- [Two-Part Tariffs and Disneyland](https://neilbendle.com/two-part-tariffs-and-disneyland/) - Interesting questions often precipitate (good) academic research. A great question is “why does Disneyland not make you pay for each ride”. This is the setup for Walter Oi’s examination of pricing back in 1971. Oi asks “If you were the owner of Disneyland, should you charge high lump sum admission fees and give the rides
- [Bold And Full Of Hope](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Ideology, Persuasion, And Going Green](https://neilbendle.com/ideology-persuasion-and-going-green/) - A major challenge is persuading members of the public with very different worldviews to take actions aimed at the common good, such as recycling. An appeal that works for a conservative might not work on a liberal, and vice versa. What then do we know about ideology, persuasion, and going green? People Differ In What
- [Marketing Journal Co-authorship](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-journal-co-authorship/) - What do we know about marketing journal co-authorship? Marketing Journal Co-authorship Why do people co-author? This question surely occurs to every academic. Who hasn't waited for a particularly tardy co-author to return a paper that you really must submit now. It is natural to think, 'why'. Or maybe 'WHY'. It is useful that scholars have investigated the reasons
- [Cynicism About Data](https://neilbendle.com/cynicism-about-data/) - Tim Harford's latest book targets cynicism about data. The villain of the piece is Darrell Huff. Huff is the author of a fun book on lying with statistics, see here for more. Harford argues we are in danger of writing off the value of statistics. Instead, we need to develop clearer ideas for understanding statistics.
- [The Limits Of Math Models](https://neilbendle.com/the-limits-of-math-models/) - The Limits To Growth is a fascinating piece of scientific history. It was a 1972 report by the Club Of Rome. Yes, they did seem to actively want to fuel conspiracy theorists' fantasies with their enigmatic name. (They still exist by the way and seemed to have moved to Switzerland, which seems a little odd
- [Measuring Research Quality](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-research-quality/) - One of marketing academics' favorite recommendations is to measure outcomes. Still, measurement problems make it hard for academics to take our own advice. Let's give academics the benefit of the doubt and assume they genuinely want to measure their achievements. How then do we go about measuring research quality? Measuring Research Quality A major part
- [The Responsible Company](https://neilbendle.com/the-responsible-company/) - Patagonia are well-known as a company with a mission. You have to admire that even if you don't subscribe to the mission. Being known for something is vital to effective marketing. The founder, and his nephew, give their thoughts on what the responsible company means. What does it look like? How does it act? Responsible
- [Building Allies For Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/building-allies-for-sustainability/) - Paul Hawken's The Ecology of Commerce has many elements of a classic. It influenced a lot of future thinking, and indeed action. For example, Interface Carpets moves to sustainability were informed by Hawken's arguments. One of the things that struck me about Hawken's book (I read the revised 2010 edition) is how he has positive,
- [Regulation for Conservatives](https://neilbendle.com/regulation-for-conservatives/) - How much the government should involve themselves in the lives of the public? This was been the theme of 2020 and the Covid crisis. Whatever your views it is unlikely you were totally happy. Die hard libertarians were not happy. Even in the most conservative of jurisdictions they could object. They could point to plenty
- [Who Doesn't Want Nudges And Competent Government?](https://neilbendle.com/who-doesnt-want-a-competent-government/) - The idea of nudging, structuring decisions to encourage people to make good choices, is surprisingly controversial. An example of a nudge might be to encourage those who are qualified to take up a social benefit or to get a tax break to do so. The nudge might be as simple as creating an easy to use application
- [Why Are Coronavirus Maps On The News So Unhelpful?](https://neilbendle.com/better-data-visualization-why-are-coronavirus-maps-on-the-news-so-unhelpful/) - This was a topical post on data visualization and population. I have refreshed it a little. While the specific maps have changed, As of late 2020 the maps are better now. E.g., they often show cases per 100k of the population rather than simple totals. That said, the point is still relevant. When showing maps
- [Tipping And Discrimination](https://neilbendle.com/tipping-and-discrimination/) - In the US servers' tips are often treated as part of their pay. Although technically voluntary the servers rely on the tips so one needs an astonishingly good reason not to tip. Despite it being a social obligation different servers do get different levels of tips so what do we know about tipping and discrimination?
- [Viewing Customers As Investments](https://neilbendle.com/viewing-customers-as-investments/) - Every now and then it is worth looking back at how earlier generations thought of marketing. (Or anything else really). There can be a lot to learn -- although you often have to cope with some old-fashioned ideas and terminology. An interesting early piece is by Edward C. Bursk which was about viewing customers as
- [Why B2B Pricing Is Interesting](https://neilbendle.com/why-b2b-pricing-is-interesting/) - This post will tell you why B2B pricing is interesting, at least to me. (B2B being business to business marketing). I'll point to some useful advice. That said, the advice also illustrates the conceptual challenges with pricing in channels. The challenges are so significant that it is sometimes hard to keep clear what is being
- [Sustainable Corporate Responsibility](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-corporate-responsibility/) - Caroline Ditlev-Simonsen has a guide to Sustainable Corporate Responsibility. This covers much of what anyone could hope to read as a summary/introduction to the topic. The author covers the ethics of sustainability, the UN Sustainable Development Goals, stakeholder management, and ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) reporting amongst other things. There is a lot of interesting
- [Management Accounting Ideas In Business](https://neilbendle.com/management-accounting-ideas-in-business/) - It is always interesting to see where ideas come from. Therefore, I was interested to read Johnson and Kaplan's history of management accounting; Relevance Lost. This noted how a few important accounting ideas in business developed. Du Pont Return On Investment Model F. Donaldson Brown developed one of the most impressive views of business that
- [Management Accounting For Marketers](https://neilbendle.com/management-accounting-for-marketers/) - Marketers often want to make the case that accounting does not treat marketing well. I have good news for marketers, there is a major group of accountants who (should) agree with you. There are accountants who feel that financial accounting standards have subverted their discipline. Managerial accountants, whose job it is to deal with internal
- [The Impact Of Sustainable Business](https://neilbendle.com/the-impact-of-sustainable-business/) - One of the big problems in life is understanding achievements. We often find it fairly simple to look at the resources devoted to some activity. This isn't always a terrible thing to look at because a pretty good correlation can exist between resource input and good things happening. Yet, this connection is far from perfect.
- [Time To Get Past Malthus](https://neilbendle.com/time-to-get-past-malthus/) - When reading pieces on sustainability you often see references to Thomas Malthus. He was an 18/19th century English economist and clergyman. Weirdly, it is often people who would class themselves as progressive who seem to cite him most. Why? It seems like a bad habit that people can't quit despite the fact that it really
- [Marketing State Of Mind](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-state-of-mind/) - Marketers often brag about understanding external customers. They often do this while ignoring internal customers. To be a great marketer understanding the end consumer isn't enough. Having a "marketing state of mind" means trying to solve the problems of your internal customers. Why is that? Internal Customers Of Marketers Imagine a simplified firm: the accountants
- [Natural Monopoly And The Beer Store](https://neilbendle.com/natural-monopoly/) - A natural monopoly occurs when an industry gives the best social outcome if it is run by a single firm. For instance, building two railways lines to a small town wastes resources. the two lines, therefore, don't increase public welfare. What can we say about natural monopoly and the Beer Store? The Problem Of Monopoly
- [Penalty Kicks and Mixed Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/penalty-kicks-and-mixed-strategy/) - As we move into the knockout stages of the World Cup [written in 2014] the specter of penalty kicks raises its ugly head. Penalty kicks are awarded as punishments during the game. They are also used to break ties at the end of the game. Penalty kicks are especially interesting for researchers. They represent an excellent chance
- [The Aura Of Inevitability](https://neilbendle.com/the-aura-of-inevitability/) - Many markets have characteristics different to those of the "standard" products. By which I mean the apples and oranges one learns about in introductory economics. One of the more interesting facets of the information economy is that some markets can tip. This means success leads to future success. Winners get more. This can create the aura of inevitability.
- [Price Discrimination And Seniors](https://neilbendle.com/price-discrimination-and-seniors/) - 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
- [What Do Marketing Researchers Research?](https://neilbendle.com/what-do-marketing-researchers-research/) - It is an important question, at least for academics. What Do Marketing Researchers Research? Doctor Know Thyself Academics love studying themselves. To this end, Cho, Fu, and Wu have dissected what academic marketing researchers have been up to for the past twenty years (1995-2014). They wrote up their results in a recent paper in the
- [Misunderstanding Economics](https://neilbendle.com/misunderstanding-economics/) - Leiser and Shemesh consider the problem that the public makes a lot of judgments that rely on economic knowledge. Still, it isn't always clear that the decisions are made with great knowledge of economics. Indeed I would go as far as to say that the authors are disappointed in the rest of us. They show
- [Scarcity Theory: A Hammer, But A Good Hammer](https://neilbendle.com/scarcity-theory-a-hammer-but-a-good-hammer/) - Mullainathan and Shafir's new book Scarcity [written in 2014] explains that people make some debatable decisions when a resource is scarce because of the stress the shortage causes. They introduce Scarcity Theory: a hammer, but a good hammer. Poverty Leads To Worse Decision-Making The authors help explain poverty sometimes encourages people to take decisions that
- [The ROI Of Customer Engagement](https://neilbendle.com/the-roi-of-customer-engagement/) - One of the biggest challenges in marketing and associated fields is measuring the ROI (Return On Investment) of an activity. Trying to find a meaningful number for the ROI of customer engagement is a Herculean task. Maybe they'll be a prize at the end but you'll have to clear out a lot of shit before
- [The Growth Rate Of Modern Science](https://neilbendle.com/the-growth-of-modern-science/) - How has modern science progressed? This is a tough question to answer for the last few generations. It is even harder if you have aspirations to go back a lot further. Lutz Bornmann and Rudiger Mutz certainly don't lack for ambition. They look at the growth of science since the 17th Century. The growth rate
- [A Call to Action](https://neilbendle.com/a-call-to-action/) - Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith (with Carlye Adler) have a new book, The Dragonfly Effect. This is an interesting short book that is an easy read. The book is a practical guidebook to using social media to enact change. It contains lots of useful how-to lists. For instance, they highlight the need for a call
- [Explaining Omitted Variable Bias](https://neilbendle.com/explaining-omitted-variable-bias/) - Charles Whelan's Naked Statistics is an enjoyable and informative read. He does a very good job of simplifying statistics. He explains what statistical methods can do but also the problems that people get into using statistics. Here I'll focus on him explaining Omitted Variable Bias. Whelan tackles this problem very clearly. Explaining Omitted Variable Bias Omitted variable bias sounds like
- [Problems In Academic Research](https://neilbendle.com/problems-in-academic-research/) - Writing in the Journal of International Business Studies Klaus Meyer and his colleagues outline some problems in academic research. The authors tell us how they suggest dealing with the problem. Familiar Problems In Academic Research The problems they outline will be quite familiar to anyone following recent controversies in academia. The file drawer problem is
- [Engaging With Other Disciplines](https://neilbendle.com/engaging-with-other-disciplines/) - Has the way we think changed recently (on an evolutionary timescale)? Marlene Zuk suggests that as change is constant, the way we think will also have changed. This conflicts with evolutionary psychologists. They assume human brains are products of adaptation to the distant past. In one sense the evolutionary psychologists' assumption is wrong. Like any
- [What Do Business People Think Research Rigor Is?](https://neilbendle.com/what-do-business-people-think-research-rigor-is/) - A common theme in this blog is the problem of the connection between practitioners and research rigor. So what do business people think research rigor is? The Academic/Practitioner Divide It is hard not to notice that what academics do doesn't seem to impact managers much. Indeed rigorous research often doesn't seem to have any obvious
- [Customer Equity Statements And Financial Reporting](https://neilbendle.com/customer-equity-statements-and-financial-reporting/) - Think of a brilliant move in soccer. The player shows great vision, and excellent passing. There is some fantastic build up play where lots of people are involved. The movement shows amazing promise and then someone slips and blasts the ball miles away from the goal. To my mind that is where we are in
- [Natural Does Not Equal Right](https://neilbendle.com/natural-does-not-equal-right/) - New year's resolution time so I'll discuss Marlene Zuk on our adaptation to diets. Zuk's book was interesting and entertaining. I do have some issues which I'll discuss next post. For now, I'll note she enjoyed herself critiquing evolutionarily inspired diets and made useful criticisms. The headline is natural does not equal right. Just because
- [Spock And Kirk And Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/spock-and-kirk-and-marketing/) - Rutherford and Knowles (2008) highlight the tensions between finance and marketing. Their book goes by the title of "Vulcans, Earthlings and Marketing ROI". The central thesis being that finance people are steady and logical, Vulcan in Star Trek, while marketers exciting and emotional, Earthlings. What can they tell us about Spock and Kirk and Marketing?
- [Business Ideas Change](https://neilbendle.com/business-ideas-change/) - Reading history gives you an understanding that things change. (Often for the better, see here and here, but that isn't the point of today's post). Here I just want to note how business ideas change. This is important to remember. What we advocate now might be thought weird, quaint, or barbaric in the future. The
- [A New Marketing Metric, Earned Growth](https://neilbendle.com/a-new-marketing-metric-earned-growth/) - Fred Reichheld brought us the Net Promoter System/Score. As such, he certainly knows how to popularize marketing metrics. He has now introduced a new marketing metric, earned growth. I need to think about it more but it seems to have some potential. Plus, the introduction seems to have avoided some of the problems of NPS
- [Understanding What Companies Are Spending On Marketing. SG&A Isn't Great.](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-what-companies-are-spending-on-marketing/) - I often discuss marketing assets. Specifically, I worry about that the way marketing assets are accounted for in financial reports. This does not help us understand marketing effectiveness. For example, see here and here and here. This results of financial accounting choices creat a significant problem in understanding what marketing does. It means we can’t
- [Accounting For Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/accounting-for-marketing/) - Accounting for marketing deserves more consideration. Neither accountants nor marketers seem to give it much thought. That is a shame. It is a key area for understanding business. Yet, few are experts in it. Accounting For Marketing I think that there is a desperate need for marketers to understand accounting. Indeed, I think a lot
- [The History of Reporting on Brands](https://neilbendle.com/the-history-of-reporting-on-brands/) - Roger Sinclair shows the value of experience when he surveys the history of reporting on brands. (Roger made a large number of contributions to the field of marketing accountability. I had the honor of presenting Roger's family with the Blair Award for Marketing Accountability at the 2019 MASB Summit see here). When Firm's Reported Their Brands
- [Marketing ROI, Heartbeats And Breaths](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-roi-heartbeats-and-breaths/) - Clarity is important to effective language use. If our words all mean different things it is hard to communicate. It is often surprising that marketers, who often claim to be communication experts, are sometimes terribly imprecise about what they mean. We need to be clear about marketing ROI, heartbeats, and breaths. Marketing ROI James Lenskold
- [Net Promoter](https://neilbendle.com/net-promoter/) - One of the most interesting discussions about marketing metrics in recent years concerns the Net Promoter System/Score, (NPS). Net Promoter Net Promoter is very simple. It compares % of customers who give high scores on "would you recommend to a friend?" with % of customers who give low scores. The Net Promoter is just the
- [Why Aren't Academics More Relevant?](https://neilbendle.com/why-arent-academics-more-relevant/) - Much academic research is not connected to any immediate practical outcomes. This isn't necessarily bad. Some research can have value to society more broadly or over a longer period. Saying that will happen can be a bit of a cop-out however. 'This will be extremely valuable a long time after I die so give me
- [Whose Problem Is It When Accounting Is Challenging?](https://neilbendle.com/whose-problem-accounting/) - New business possibilities create conundrums for traditional systems. How will traditional methods cope? Whose problem is it when accounting is challenging? Accounting for the Marijuana Business Canada is in the process of legalizing marijuana (written in 2018). This has a whole host of interesting public policy implications. Still, I'm going to use this big change
- [Alexander The Great Man?](https://neilbendle.com/alexander-the-great-man/) - One way I judge people is how they see Alexander the Great. This is a very helpful approach to judging others. Invariably any celebration of the Macedonian king gives insight into the flaws of the person doing the celebrating. There is one rather obvious weakness with my approach to judging character. You might be surprised
- [Ostriches, Eagles, And Leadership Storytime](https://neilbendle.com/ostriches-eagles-and-leadership-storytime/) - I am a historian by initial training and I love a good story. Though the great man (gender deliberate) of history approach has had its day there are still things that we can learn from stories of notable individuals. JB Steenkamp's Time To Lead is the archetype of old-fashioned history-based leadership work. When you think
- [Laziness Is A Sustainable Resource](https://neilbendle.com/laziness-a-sustainable-resource/) - People can be lazy. We often don't find out all information relevant to the decision we are making. It is hard work to find information. Our decisions based upon limited information can lead to personally or environmentally destructive outcomes. People wouldn't make these decisions if they thought a little harder. This is a problem. What
- [Stopping Undervaluing Customers Through Measurement](https://neilbendle.com/stopping-undervaluing-customers-through-measurement/) - Rob Markey at Bain has had an interesting career. He clearly has done a lot right. He is an advocate for the importance of marketing in the c-suite. As such it is welcome when he weighs in to support important ideas. In a 2020 piece in the Harvard Business Review he laid out a plan
- [Evolutionary Psychology And Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/evolutionary-psychology-and-sustainability/) - Academic research isn't always immediately applicable. This is not a bad thing, part of the aim of academic research is to wander into new territory. It is not surprising if often this isn't directly applicable today. It is interesting, however, when academics try and bring their perspectives to more practical problems. Vladas Griskevicius, Stephanie M.
- [Certification And Better Business](https://neilbendle.com/certification-and-better-business/) - One challenge with stakeholder/better business ideas is that there are so many things to be good (and bad) at. Is it enough to be good for the environment if you are awful to your employees? If you give money to your local community does that absolve other sins? Opinions might reasonably differ. As such we
- [Points Pressure Versus Rewarded Behavior](https://neilbendle.com/points-pressure-versus-rewarded-behavior/) - There are various different ways that loyalty programs can be effective. We looked at how a specific program, Air Miles Cash in Canada, impacted the behavior of its collectors. We compared points pressure versus rewarded behavior to see which drove most of the collector activity. This allowed us to suggest how to increase the program's
- [Dimensions of Morality](https://neilbendle.com/dimensions-of-morality/) - Jonathan Haidt believes he can bring people of different political approaches together. To do this it is important to understand the dimensions of morality. Understanding Others Haidt's is an admirable goal. He is surely right when he notes that differences are not simply because "some people are good and others evil" (Haidt, 2012, page 370).
- [Marketing Should Matter To Finance People](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-should-matter-to-finance-people/) - Chris Burggraeve shares his experience of the marketing finance interface in his new book Marketing is not a black hole. (Why black hole? There are a lot of science fiction references. I must say that I appreciate that even if the rocket ship veers towards cheesy). His main point is a good one, that marketing
- [What Is Tobin's Q Useful For?](https://neilbendle.com/what-is-tobins-q-useful-for/) - I am not a fan of Tobin's q (as it is currently used). I have a Marketing Science paper on the misuse of Tobin's q in marketing. As such, I was fascinated to see a SSRN working paper with a very similar title in the field of finance/economics. The authors Robert Bartlett and Frank Partnoy,
- [Lost For Good And Always A Share Markets](https://neilbendle.com/lost-for-good-and-always-a-share-markets/) - I found Barbara Bund Jackson's book through a citation in an old article. The book seems to be now out of print. The book was published in 1985, so being out of print is understandable given it is a bit dated. The examples tend to be about what IBM did in the 60s and 70s
- [A Business Case For Marketing Budgets](https://neilbendle.com/a-business-case-for-marketing-budgets/) - Christine Moorman and Jennifer Veenstra have a piece in the Harvard Business Review explaining how to make a business case for marketing budgets. It contains very sensible advice that CMOs and other senior marketers should heed. Working With Finance Perhaps one of the most important themes in this work is the idea that marketers need
- [Machine Learning And Retailing](https://neilbendle.com/machine-learning-and-retailing/) - Joseph Ryoo, Xin/Shane Wang, Praveen Kopalle and I have an article available now in the Journal of Retailing. This focuses on machine learning and retailing. It is a major question how new technology will change retail. Our work therefore tries to get a grip on this. Reviewing Machine Learning And Retailing In The Literature We
- [Academics And Political Conclusions](https://neilbendle.com/academics-and-political-conclusions/) - We all have political opinions. (Having no opinion is a stance in itself). What can we say about academics and political conclusions? Academics Have A Role In Political Discourse Academics have an important role to play in political discourse. Yet, we have to try to rid ourselves of bias and use appropriate evidence. It is therefore disappointing
- [Spoilers And Movie Box Office](https://neilbendle.com/spoilers-and-movie-box-office/) - What is the relationship between spoilers and movie box office? It is easy to tell a story that spoilers reduce anticipated enjoyment and so lower attendance at movie theaters. (I write during times of Covid so it is hard to imagine how anything reduces attendance further but you get the general idea). Is this the
- [Adding Customers To Ratios](https://neilbendle.com/adding-customers-to-ratios/) - Marc Marshing has published a short book on using customer data in financial analysis. (I am assuming it was a dissertation or similar as it is closer to a paper than a traditional book). He talks about adding customers to ratios, specifically adding a measure of customer value to the price to book ratio. This
- [Sage Advice On Positioning](https://neilbendle.com/sage-advice-on-positioning/) - Kim Whitler, author of Positioning for Advantage, has had a fascinating career. This has taken her through senior marketing roles at some notable companies. She is now at Darden, the University of Virginia (my MBA alma mater). Her book brought back a lot of memories. She has managed to distill the spirit of academic advice,
- [Comparing Text Classification Methods](https://neilbendle.com/comparing-text-classification-methods/) - Marketing research, especially academic research, now assesses a lot of unstructured text data. (Unstructured data is that which does not come in neat database/spreadsheet form of rows and columns). Classifying such text is a task that computers excel at. So, how do we go about comparing text classification methods to find which one best fits
- [CLV And Limited Capacity](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [The Right To Donate: A Critical View](https://neilbendle.com/the-right-to-donate-a-critical-view/) - Every now and then it's useful to read something you have no clue what the author is talking about. I don't mean you don't understand the terminology or math. I mean you look at what they are saying, you register their meaning, and say, 'huh?' This is the reaction I got to Gordon Boyce's 'Valuing
- [Linking Biology To Behavior](https://neilbendle.com/linking-biology-to-behavior/) - Many people buy into the idea that we shouldn't have the bright line between biology and psychology that we do. That said it is challenging to try linking biology and behavior. Here consumer behavior. Not least because we have few scholars who have enough knowledge of both domains. Hormones To Help Linking Biology To Behavior?
- [Should Marketing Models Change As Consumers Work Out Marketer’s Tactics?](https://neilbendle.com/should-marketing-models-change-as-consumers-work-out-marketers-tactics/) - The Lucas Critique is a well know argument in economics that challenged many traditional results. The critique suggests that economic agents (here consumers) are forward looking. Consumers adapt their expectations and behavior given the marketers’ actions. Successful promotions tend to train consumers to expect promotions. This can mean the promotions may become less successful going
- [Confusion In Attribution](https://neilbendle.com/confusion-in-attribution/) - Attribution is one of the most important topics in marketing. How does one give credit for a sale to the medium that caused it? Did the TV ad generate the sales, or the online advert, or even a sales clerk in a physical store? There is much confusion in attribution. Last Touch Attribution Last touch
- [The Impact Of Conformity And The Need For Uniqueness](https://neilbendle.com/the-impact-of-conformity-and-the-need-for-uniqueness/) - Analytical models are fascinating ways to look at what happens in markets. They can look a bit odd from the outside. These models tend to have a ton of strong assumptions which might lead to questions about their value. They can, however, help us think through some commonly observed phenomenon in markets. What then can
- [Personalization In A World Of Artificial Intelligence](https://neilbendle.com/personalization-in-a-world-of-artificial-intelligence/) - V. Kumar and his colleagues examine what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is doing to the world of marketing in their recent piece in the California Management Review. What is the future of artificial intelligence and personalization? Artificial Intelligence And Personalization Versus Customization Central to their analysis is the idea of personalization. They distinguish this from customization.
- [Bidding For Candy](https://neilbendle.com/bidding-for-candy/) - My Easter post on candy bars leaves me pondering where academia would be without chocolate. Many experiments over the years have entailed giving experimental subjects, mostly students, candy. You give them this either as compensation or as part of the experiment. Then you often see them bidding for candy. Why Candy? Interestingly candy may work
- [Leadership, Power, And Morality](https://neilbendle.com/leadership-power-and-morality/) - One of the things that struck me about Jeffrey Pfeffer's Power was its amorality. Generally speaking, I agree with him but even I was left a bit uncomfortable at times. Pfeffer clearly sees power as something you gain in order to achieve things with it. Power isn't really anything to do with morality. Leadership, power,
- [The Endowment Effect For Renting And Borrowing](https://neilbendle.com/the-endowment-effect-for-renting-and-borrowing/) - Charan Bagga, a former Phd student now a professor at Calgary, June Cotte, an Ivey colleague, and myself, have a recent paper in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science on the Endowment effect. Specifically what happens to the endowment effect when you rent or borrow. What then is the endowment effect for renting
- [Internal Measurement Of Brand Value](https://neilbendle.com/internal-measurement-of-brand-value/) - As regular readers will know I do a lot of work with MASB (the marketing Accountability Standards Board). Some of my colleagues at MASB wrote a paper about brand valuation. I want to highlight and reinforce their message. A key part of this is that the internal measurement of brand value is crucial to bringing
- [Who Do Consumer Researchers Study?](https://neilbendle.com/who-do-consumer-researchers-study/) - To celebrate its 40th anniversary the Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) is publishing a couple of articles that look at what consumer behavior researchers study. The first is by Justine Rapp and Ronald Paul Hill which considers who do consumer researchers study? The second is by a team I was part of. More of which
- [Academic Life In The 18th Century](https://neilbendle.com/academic-life-in-the-18th-century/) - As a bit of variety today I will make some notes on academic life in the 18th century. The source is a book on the friendship between two of the great figures of the enlightenment, David Hume and Adam Smith. Dennis Rasmussen outlines their friendship. It is clearly remarkable that such great thinkers were such
- [Marketing Standing On Its Own Feet](https://neilbendle.com/marketing_standing_on_its_own_feet/) - People like to ask "where are we all going?". Marketing academics are no different. A recent editorial in JAMS (a major marketing journal) examines the future of marketing. Overall, I agreed with the author, Jan-Benedict Steenkamp, on most things in this article. (Although I hated his book Time To Lead with a passion, see here and
- [Role Of Customer Equity](https://neilbendle.com/role-of-customer-equity/) - Daniel McCarthy and Fernando Pereda have a paper on the role of customer equity in corporate valuation. It is on SSRN so a working paper and yet to be formally published, see here. Still, it has been downloaded a lot. So, I think it reasonable to take a look and comment as many have already
- [The Value Of Any Metric](https://neilbendle.com/the-value-of-any-metric/) - The are any number of marketing metrics. (We said 50+ in the first edition of our book. That worked for us. After all, we couldn't be bothered to count them. There are much more than 50). An obvious question is, therefore, which metrics should we bother to calculate? What is the value of any metric?
- [What Is Antisocial Punishment?](https://neilbendle.com/antisocial-punishment/) - Why do people punish others when it costs them to do so? This is one of the most important questions in social life. We tend to do the right thing when we are confident that we can't cheat without being punished by bystanders. This helps hold society together. People who punish despite there being no
- [Do Facts Matter To Persuasion?](https://neilbendle.com/does-fact-matter-to-persuasion/) - One of the major debates in marketing is: Do Facts Matter To Persuasion? The good news is that it will never be finished. Sometimes they do, sometimes less so is probably the answer. Still, it generates debate. Understanding People Who Don't Think Like Us I really wanted to like Scott Adams' Win Bigly. What was
- [Adaptive Market Hypothesis: Evolution And Financial Markets](https://neilbendle.com/adaptive-market-hypothesis-evolution-and-financial-markets/) - Andrew Lo has a number of interesting works attempting to link evolutionary thinking and financial markets. See here for his 2006 piece in the Harvard Business Review, entitled Survival of the Richest. Lo shows how evolutionary thinking can be applied to financial markets and explains the idea of the Adaptive Market Hypothesis. Irrationality And Financial
- [Treating Customers As Assets](https://neilbendle.com/treating-customers-as-assets/) - There were several papers, and a book, that followed but Sunil Gupta and Donald Lehmann had a really interesting 2003 piece in the Journal of Interactive Marketing. This was about treating customers as assets. Much of the best ideas in this field are already on show there in this early paper. Marketing And Firm Value
- [Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB)](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-accountability-standards-board-masb/) - Marketing has an accountability problem. This is widely accepted even by marketers. The Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB) is working on this. Trust Me, I'm A Marketer Marketers argue that their actions are vital to their organization's success but often the proof offered ends up being: "trust me, we need to do this". It isn't hard to see why
- [Curse Of Knowledge: Academic Edition](https://neilbendle.com/curse-of-knowledge-academic-edition/) - Nooshin Warren and her colleagues had the excellent idea to give advice to academics on making their writing intelligible. You may (or may not) be surprised to learn that a lot of academic research isn't understood but you shouldn't be shocked. One problem is the curse of knowledge. Academics Are Specialists: Which Makes Communication Hard
- [Omni-Channel Distribution](https://neilbendle.com/omni-channel-distribution/) - At times marketing seems like it is only getting harder. Omni-channel distribution means more ways to communicate and sell to the customer. There is just some much to worry about. Showrooming New technology often drives new ways to communicate with and reach consumers. It also means many more opportunities. It also means many more challenges.
- [Bibliometric Citation Analysis and Understanding Brand Relationships](https://neilbendle.com/bilbliometric-citation-analysis-and-understanding-brand-relationships/) - Bibliometric citation analysis is an interesting way to study a field. It is more objective than a traditional literature review type analysis. Through citations we can see what papers were especially influential in the field. There is a, not outrageous, assumption. Namely that more influential papers are cited more. It is particularly appropriate for fields
- [Non-GAAP Disclosures and Implications for Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/non-gaap-disclosures/) - An interesting phenomenon has emerged over recent years in financial accounting which could prove relevant to marketing. This is non-GAAP reporting by companies. What is, could be, the relatonshp between marketing and Non-GAAP disclosures. GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles The rules of external financial reporting, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, are known as GAAP. Non-GAAP reporting
- [The Flutie Effect](https://neilbendle.com/the-flutie-effect/) - Brand building advertising invests money into creating goodwill with a customer. Without further spending such goodwill declines. There are other ways to create goodwill. For example, US universities do so through the funding of sports. Such funding has its payoff through things like the Flutie effect. The Flutie Effect Doug Chung looked at the impact
- [Ranking Business Schools' PhD Programs](https://neilbendle.com/ranking-business-schools/) - I am probably more positive about rankings than most professors. How then can we go about ranking business schools' PhD programs? Rankings: An Apology For Not Being More Angry It is not that I don't see the weaknesses of rankings. They have tons of problems. My view on ranking is, however, influenced by the fact that the
- [The Three Purposes Of A Purpose](https://neilbendle.com/the-three-purposes-of-a-purpose/) - One of the big excitements of business at the moment involves discussions of a company's purpose. Lots of firms think they should have one but where do you find a purpose? How do you know if you have a good one? What if no one believes you when you say you have a purpose? Jonathan
- [Being Wiser Through Less Happy Talk](https://neilbendle.com/being-wiser-through-less-happy-talk/) - Sunstein and Hastie in Wiser have produced a useful book. They discuss being wiser through less happy talk. Group Decision-Making Many elements of their text will be familiar to those who read popular decision-making books. That said, the ideas are well explained and practically applicable. The added interest is that Sunstein served in the Obama
- [The Marketing Of Better Business](https://neilbendle.com/the-marketing-of-better-business/) - How is the marketing of better business going? The Marketing Of Better Business In his book, Better Business, Christopher Marquis makes a fascinating claim. The B Corp movement is the most important social movement you’ve never hear of. Marquis, 2020, preface Assuming this is true it is both exciting and a bit of a concern.
- [Academics Need To Seriously Engage With The World](https://neilbendle.com/academics-need-seriously-engage-world/) - There are few things in the world more frustrating than people who list problems but offer no meaningful solutions. Such people often seem to be drawn to academia. I think academics need to seriously engage with the world. Citicism But No Solutions This brings us to Lawrence Busch's Knowledge for Sale. Busch makes many good
- [Comparing Canadian And US Consumers](https://neilbendle.com/comparing-canadian-and-us-consumers/) - Comparing consumers in different countries can be challenging. I must confess to having doubts about a lot of cross-cultural research, see here for lots of grouchy comments on cross cultural measurement. I worry it is what nice middle class people do when they want to stereotype while still seeing themselves as free of prejudice. Suffice
- [Star Wars, The US Constitution, And The Dangers Of Not Rewriting When Necessary](https://neilbendle.com/star-wars-the-us-constition-and-the-dangers-of-not-rewriting-when-necessary/) - Cass Sunstein’s book -- The World According to Star Wars -- is a must for Star Wars fans who are also interested in behavioral economics/law/public policy. This is probably a surprisingly big intersection. What do we find out about Star Wars and the US constitution? Star Wars: Why? I must confess to not seeing the appeal of
- [The Perils Of Empathy (And Definitions)](https://neilbendle.com/perils-empathy-definitions/) - A special holiday post on why empathy isn't necessarily a good thing, the perils of empathy. Paul Bloom's book Against Empathy argues that empathy isn't the panacea that it is sometimes held up to be. Definitions Matter At its heart Bloom makes a relatively plausible argument seem outrageous. He does this by relying on our
- [Learning From A Case Study Of Harvard Business School](https://neilbendle.com/learning-case-study-harvard-business-school/) - I see much value in opinionated books, they are great at starting conversations. Bearing that in mind I will say that I enjoyed Duff McDonald's The Golden Passport. He describes the history of Harvard Business School (HBS) and he isn't afraid to give his thoughts. What then can we learn from a case study of
- [Some Excellent Advice](https://neilbendle.com/some-excellent-advice/) - Dan Ariely clearly has a lot of fun writing his newspaper column. He has an edited volume of his advice, Irrationally Yours, which contains some excellent advice. Today I'll share some of this. Next week I'll explain why I don't like the book's title. Advice Columns Firstly, advice columns are challenging. As an academic, I
- [Should We Get Rid Of Irrationality? Perhaps, What Is Irrationality?](https://neilbendle.com/should-we-get-rid-of-irrationality-perhaps-what-is-irrationality/) - Dan Ariely is a very enjoyable writer and an excellent researcher. That said I find his central theme of "irrationality" a problem. It is hard to know what people mean when they talk about irrationality. My central question is: What Is Irrationality? Advice To The Irrational In his advice book, Irrationally Yours, readers ask Ariely
- [Marketing Implications Of Financial Accounting](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-implications-of-financial-accounting/) - A book chapter I wrote with Jonathan Knowles and Moeen Butt has recently come out in the Review of Marketing Research (vol 18). In our chapter, we sought to give marketers a better understanding of accounting, specifically financial accounting. What then are the marketing implications of financial accounting? Keeping Score Marketers are trying to work
- [Judging The Performance Of Marketing Academics](https://neilbendle.com/judging-the-performance-of-marketing-academics/) - I enjoy measures of academic productivity. Many of my colleagues are suspicious. To be fair, they often have reasonable concerns. Judging the performance of marketing academics is hard. Many measures are of debatable accuracy. Still, I don't see that as a reason to give up on them. Without measures, we are left with subjectivity. The Problem
- [Price Wars](https://neilbendle.com/price-wars/) - The problem of price wars is a significant one for businesses. The Problem of Price Wars Consumers generally love price wars. It is possible for such conflicts to hurt consumers long-term but in the short-term lower prices share more of the value created by the business. This makes consumers happier. Managers can more easily see
- [Understanding What A Fallacy Is](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-what-nonsense-is/) - Formal logic makes for elegant research. It can help us in understanding what a fallacy is. Formal And Informal Logic With formal logic there is a right answer and so researchers can be confident that some choices are simply wrong. Unfortunately, formal logic has relatively limited application in the real world. Gerd Gigerenzer has argued that some flaws in
- [How Do We Determine Author Order?](https://neilbendle.com/how-do-we-determine-author-order/) - Academics enjoy splitting into obscure little groups. What is more they rarely agree about what is interesting. Perhaps the only thing we can agree on is that academics, and the problems facing academics, are fascinating. A major problem for academics is determining author order on joint works. Academic Teams Most academic articles are created by teams. Given that, in marketing
- [What Metrics Do Managers Use?](https://neilbendle.com/what-metrics-do-managers-use/) - Mintz and Currim examined what metrics do managers use? What drives metric use? And how does this tracks to performance? These are fascinating questions. The paper has two aims I'd say. Firstly, academics will be interested in the model that the authors use to try and tease out the "why" behind the metrics. Secondly, managers might
- [Managerial Advice From The Trolls In Frozen](https://neilbendle.com/managerial-advice-from-the-trolls-in-frozen/) - I recently read the following: "People often regret not getting rid of problem staff soon enough". This struck me as emblematic of everything wrong with business advice. It was glib, unsupported by evidence, and designed to resonate with our biases. Better to take managerial advice from the trolls in Frozen. Regret Sure some managers will
- [Value of a Like](https://neilbendle.com/value-of-a-like/) - Valuing social media likes is an enormous challenge. We should be somewhat forgiving of problems in the methods. It is surely better to be addressing difficult challenges than ignoring them entirely. It is, however, also important to be explicit about what we are claiming and not claiming. This is a problem with Value of a
- [Web Scraping For Marketers](https://neilbendle.com/webscraping-for-marketers/) - MSI (the Marketing Science Institute) issues working papers on issues of interest to marketers. The institute's purpose is to bring together academics and practice. As such MSI advice aims to be of importance to both academics and practitioners. I recently read an interesting offering on web scraping for marketers, written by Johannes Boegershausen, Abhishek Borah,
- [Kahneman's Gripe](https://neilbendle.com/kahnemans-gripe/) - Marketing draws heavily on psychology and economics. I feel that both disciplines have much to offer (as well as weaknesses). So it is without any specific agenda that I agree with Daniel Kahneman's "gripe". Kahneman's Gripe Agreeing with Kahnema might not seem brave. Kahneman is a Nobel prize winner. I'd say a good rule of thumb
- [How Do Academic Marketers Choose Their Objectives?](https://neilbendle.com/how-do-academic-marketers-choose-their-objectives/) - I think one of the great problems in marketing academia is that we spend a lot of time thinking about our models and very little time on our data. We have increasing clear views of how things connect up but we don't really know what it is that we are connecting up. Deciding what objective
- [What Performance Outcomes Do Marketers Use?](https://neilbendle.com/what-performance-outcomes-do-marketers-use/) - A question I think should be asked more in academic marketing research is "how do we define performance?" Lots of people do analysis that aims to show what creates good performance. Still, there is surprisingly little attention paid to what good performance means. What performance outcomes do marketers use? What Performance Outcomes Do Marketers Use?
- [Big Data And The Academic Practitioner Divide](https://neilbendle.com/big-data-and-the-academic-practitioner-divide/) - What do we know about Big Data And The Academic Practitioner Divide? Is there cause for hope? I think so. At least a bit. The Big Divide I find the divide between academics and practitioners fascinating. It is clearly very large. More strangely, I find it amazing how easily many people on both sides accept
- [Marketing, Cash Flow and Shareholder Wealth](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-cash-flow-and-shareholder-wealth/) - Marketers have traditionally been pretty poor at showing why marketing matters to shareholders. In my experience marketers often just assume that marketing is important. They then just expect everyone else to believe it. Instead we really need to consider marketing, cash flow and shareholder wealth and how these fit together. Marketing Impact On The Firm
- [What Are Marketing Doctoral Programs Like?](https://neilbendle.com/what-are-marketing-doctoral-programs-like/) - A key question for marketing academics concerns the nature of doctoral programs. As such I highly value academic service papers like Elbeck and Vander Schee (2013). They undertook an in-depth look at what is happening in marketing PhD programs. So what are marketing doctoral programs like? Consumer Behavior Is On Top Firstly, they confirmed the dominance of consumer
- [Valuing Firms Through Their Customers](https://neilbendle.com/valuing-firms-through-their-customers/) - The basic idea of valuing a firm through its customers is an excellent one. There was a collection of works looking to do this early in the millennium. This was partly motivated by the challenges of the dot-com boom. In this boom firms had high valuations but low profit (or more likely losses). The valuation
- [Beating Rivals Should Not Be Your Goal](https://neilbendle.com/beating-rivals/) - Is the goal of business to do the best you can or to beat others? A surprising number of people seem to think business is about beating others. The technical term is competitor orientation -- when your ultimate objective is to beat your competitors. The point is that pretty much whatever your view of business,
- [The Benefits And Challenges Of Customer Valuation](https://neilbendle.com/benefitsandchallengesofcustomervaluation/) - V. Kumar is probably the most published author in marketing (strategy). (2021 update, he is in the premier journals see here). He was editor of the Journal of Marketing (JM) until recently and is best known for his work in customer-based marketing analysis. In a piece in JM he outlines a number of ideas and
- [Variety Seeking And Halloween Candy](https://neilbendle.com/variety-seeking/) - Variety Seeking Behavior Has A Large Literature My Halloween post is about variety seeking. This is an active topic in consumer psychology. There is a strain of research that asks why some people embrace variety more than others. I generally am less excited by work on the stable differences between people, traits. People do differ
- [The Perils Of Status](https://neilbendle.com/the-perils-of-status/) - Most people worry about being low status. That makes sense. It really isn’t great to be low status. Academia is so status-obsessed it often makes me laugh. Doctor this, and professor that. I’m just waiting for carpets that non-doctors can’t walk on and we’ll have gone full-on House of Lords. This reminds me of the
- [Eras of Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/eras-of-marketing/) - My first degree was in history and I am always interested in how people classify history. Time is continuous, it just keeps on coming. Yet, human beings often find it hard to make sense when something is continuous. It is much easier to operate with items grouped in some ways. We like to see things
- [Defining Customer Experience And Its Role In Customer Journey](https://neilbendle.com/defining-customer-experience/) - Customer experience is one of those phrases that crop up in marketing that seems important but it isn't always 100% clear what people mean by it. As such a key task taken on by Katherine Lemon and Peter Verhoef in a 2016 piece was defining customer experience. They then note how this relates to the
- [Customer Accounting, Thanks But](https://neilbendle.com/customer-accounting-thanks-but/) - It is great that accountants are looking at the idea of valuing a firm through its customers. I very much welcome this. That said, I do worry that people bringing ideas from outside their field often bring back bad habits with them. (To be clear I am sure I do this when looking at non-marketing
- [Basking In Reflected Glory](https://neilbendle.com/basking-in-reflected-glory/) - My final World Cup-related post illustrates a psychological phenomenon. People like to proclaim their allegiance to groups. They are basking in reflected glory. Who Are Your Team? Interestingly, the groups we choose to associate with change depending upon how the groups perform. This is because people associate with achievements that are not their own but that
- [Simplification, Oversimplification, And Competitive Advantage](https://neilbendle.com/simplification-and-competitive-advantage/) - There are many ideas to learn in strategy. It is helpful to convey them in a clear and easy-to-understand manner. Yet I have concerns about oversimplification and competitive advantage. Simplifying Competition Bruce Greenwald's and Judd Kahn's book has great cases and it is easy to see why managers might find the certainty they communicate useful. They suggest simplifying
- [The Origins Of Customer Equity](https://neilbendle.com/the-origins-of-customer-equity/) - Customer equity is a concept that seems to have had its day in marketing. It arose, and it seems to me somewhat went away, relatively quickly. A 1996 article on the Harvard Business Review by Robert Blattberg and John Deighton lays out the idea of managing by a customer equity test. In many ways, this
- [Gift Giving](https://neilbendle.com/gift-giving/) - Gift giving has been studied by a variety of marketing researchers. Some researchers use survey methods to understand how consumers think about gifts and why they make the choices they do. Others try and analyze secondary data. They look at retailers' point of sale systems to capture details of gift sales. Today, therefore, in the
- [Customer-Based Corporate Valuation](https://neilbendle.com/customer-based-corporate-valuation/) - I think the idea of using customer information in corporate valuation is a great one. As such, I am very receptive to work on customer-based corporate valuation. A 2005 paper in Management Decision I think well illustrates some of the challenges I have seen in this field. Lots of good ideas, some reasonable points, but
- [Emulating Alexander The Great](https://neilbendle.com/emulating-alexander-the-great/) - It is popular to gain "advice" from historical characters about management. The logic seems to be that the higher the body count of the historical character the more wisdom they have to impart. There are various approaches, Robert's take on Attila the Hun goes for humor. Leandro Martino's book on Alexander the Great takes a
- [What Caused The Classic Polling Disaster?](https://neilbendle.com/what-caused-the-classic-polling-disaster-presidential-election-polling/) - In presidential election polling 1936 stands out as a uniquely bad disaster. What caused the classic polling pisaster? 1936, The Worst Ever Polling Disaster? In 1936 The Literary Digest made a prediction that Republican Alf Landon would beat the incumbent Democratic president Franklin Delano Roosevelt in a landslide. This rates as arguably the biggest disaster
- [Taste and Categorization](https://neilbendle.com/taste-and-categorization/) - Tom Vanderbilt examines the problem of taste and categorization in his book: "You May Also Like: Taste in an Age of Endless Choice". He examines the way taste matters in modern life. His focus is mostly on business. He discusses food, music, art, beer.... Vanderbilt details such things as how recommendation agents work to suggest
- [Constructing Academic Research Questions](https://neilbendle.com/constructing-research-questions/) - How academics come up with research questions is an interesting and important topic (at least to academics). Sandberg and Alvesson study the creation of Academic Research Questions. They look at how academics in organizational studies describe the way they came up with research questions . The journals reviewed were major journals: Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Management
- [What Is Wrong With This CLV Formula?](https://neilbendle.com/what-is-wrong-with-this-clv-formula/) - Peter Fader and Bruce Hardie are experts in understanding the value of customer relationships. They have offered advice on problems with CLV calculations, especially those taught in MBA programs. They ask: "What’s Wrong With This CLV Formula?" Five Issues They outline five issues. Many of these are things to bear in mind that we might
- [Nudges Are Not Magical (Just in Case Someone Thought They Were)](https://neilbendle.com/nudges-are_not-magical-just-in-case-someone-thought-they-were/) - The idea of nudging, designing choices to help people make better choices, has become popular for good reason. Yet, nudges aren't magical, which some people seem disappointed about when they find this out. Nudges Or What? A nudge is a well-designed attempt to guide the decision-maker towards a beneficial outcome. The alternative seems to be random,
- [Crossing Chasms and Anecdotal Evidence](https://neilbendle.com/crossing-chasms-and-anecdotal-evidence/) - Geoffrey Moore's book, Crossing the Chasm, has been a hugely popular book in the marketing strategy area. I can see why. Moore has a clear thesis, the examples are interesting, and the topic important. Unfortunately Crossing the Chasm has a plausible story but no more. Crossing the chasm is just an anecdote, a good anecdote
- [Winning And Political Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/winning-and-political-marketing/) - Winning and political marketing go together like curry and naan. You can have one without the other but it isn't ideal. As a former political party Finance Director I would have cried if someone had suggested deliberately not using the best techniques we could to win. (More robust staff would probably have washed the person's
- [Boring Positioning Maps](https://neilbendle.com/boring-positioning-maps/) - I often discuss mistaken thinking. This post is a little different. I'm discussing something worse than being wrong and that is being boring. Specifically, producing boring positioning maps Not Wrong, Just A Boring Positioning Map A positioning map illustrates marketing strategies. Here I discuss the axes of which there are two generic types. Where there
- [Listening Versus Leadership](https://neilbendle.com/listening-versus-leadership/) - One of the most interesting problems in marketing is how much to listen to consumers. There are certainly challenges with listening to consumers. Sometimes it is probably fair to say that consumers don't have a great idea what they want. That said, in for profit businesses there rarely is a good reason to ignore consumers'
- [Marketing Metrics Must Add Up](https://neilbendle.com/adding-up-marketing-metrics/) - Marketing metrics can get a bad reputation. This sometimes for good reason. A key, unsurprising, idea is that marketing metrics must add up. To Build Trust Marketing Metrics Must Add Up Kevin Lindsay discussed why this is: why do marketers (and people working with marketers) sometimes lack trust in the numbers they are being given?
- [Uncovering The Message In The Mess Of Big Data](https://neilbendle.com/the-message-in-the-mess-of-big-data/) - This week I'm focusing on research that I've co-authored with Xin Wang in Business Horizons. We called this 'Uncovering the Message in the Mess of Big Data'. Our article aims to explain to managers how they can work out what the messages are in large amounts of data. What Data Should You Look At? The classic application
- [Mapping Social Networks With NodeXL](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Evolutionary Metaphors](https://neilbendle.com/evolutionary-metaphors/) - In his 2003 HBR article Tihamer von Ghyczy discussed the use of metaphors in strategic planning. (Full disclosure in 2003 I took his course at Darden.) Specifically, he is most interested in the use of evolutionary metaphors. How we might describe business ideas in biological terms. Evolutionary Metaphors Aren't 'Correct' One overarching point he makes
- [Framing And Product Experience](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Creating Impatience](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Researchers, Teachers, And Incentives](https://neilbendle.com/researchers-teachers-and-incentives/) - What do we know about researchers, teachers, and incentives? Market For Stars Roger Martin, former Dean of the Rotman School at the University of Toronto, worries about the future of business schools. I absolutely believe that if business schools don’t take action in the next five years, we are looking at a GM scenario. Some 90% of
- [Understanding Canadian Electioneering](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-canadian-electioneering/) - Tom Flanagan's Winning Power is an impressive piece of writing. This is because it combines academic research with practical knowledge of campaigning. Flanagan worked for a variety of "Conservative" parties. This is in addition to being a professor which has given him great experience to draw upon in helping with understanding Canadian electioneering. Positioning And
- [How Managers Decide](https://neilbendle.com/how-managers-decide/) - My second delve into Richard Thaler's Misbehaving concerns managerial decision making. How managers decide is a massively important topic. Equilibrium Conditions Don't Describe Any Point In Time Economic models often study equilibrium conditions. These apply where no manager will want to change their decision. Given they model this some academics seem to think that this describes
- [The Problem Of Researchers Giving Advice To Managers](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-of-researchers-giving-advice-to-managers/) - Translating academic research into advice for managers is a tough skill. I really don't think we value the skill enough. We hope that researchers will effortlessly translate quality research into quality managerial advice. There seems little reason to believe this. Many otherwise excellent researchers giving advice to managers are not at their best. Researchers Giving Advice To Managers Barbara Kahn's Global
- [Does WEIRDness matter?](https://neilbendle.com/does-weirdness-matter/) - There is a debate in psychology and consumer behaviour. This concerns the generalizability of results from western university laboratory experiments. Lab experiments can be great at isolating causes. Yet, what you discover may not apply outside the specific context. Experiments, a criticism goes, tend to use a specific pool of subjects, so called WEIRD subjects.
- [Artificial Intelligence, AI, And Marketing's Future](https://neilbendle.com/artificial-intelligence-ai-and-marketings-future/) - Thomas Davenport and his colleagues have a recent piece in the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science on Artificial Intelligence, AI, and Marketing's Future. This is an eminently readable piece, which I appreciate. It lays out some issues with AI and where the marketing discipline may go. AI And Human Beings I am fascinated
- [Fitting Marketing Messages To The Circumstances](https://neilbendle.com/fitting-marketing-messages-to-the-circumstances/) - Fitting marketing messages to the circumstances is a critical skill. There isn't a perfect message irrespective of context. People Hate Marketing As a marketing professor, it is always fun to hear how people hate marketing. Sometimes people: A) simply only really hate bad marketing. B) don't appreciate that marketing is broader than selling/advertising/communications. Of course,
- [A Bias Towards A Bias To Action?](https://neilbendle.com/a-bias-towards-a-bias-to-action/) - Phil Rosenzweig likes criticizing other people. He is usually correct. Still, at his worst, he is highly selective in his criticisms. Rosenzweig seems starstruck by CEOs and their dodgy pronouncements. He happily agrees with dubious advice from top managers. He shows a bias towards a bias to action. Yet, he gets out his microscope when
- [Decision-Making In The Real World](https://neilbendle.com/decision-making-in-the-real-world/) - Phil Rosenzweig is a contrarian. You can tell he enjoys disagreeing with people. The Halo Effect was a great read that targeted strategy researchers. His new book , Left Brain, Right Stuff, is an attack on decision research. It focuses on decision-making in the real world. Positive Comments The book has many good points and
- [Antifragility](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Avoiding Decision Traps](https://neilbendle.com/avoiding-decision-traps/) - How can we go about avoiding decision traps? Decision Traps The book Decisions Traps is a generation old now. Still, it remains a useful book on decision making. Occasionally it veers a bit too far with its claims. For instance, it has "brilliant decision making" in the title. Yet, I can forgive that as it may
- [Sales And Consumer Protection](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Selfishness And Business](https://neilbendle.com/selfishness-and-business/) - Selfishness, and the absence of selfishness, is a fascinating issue. Simple models typically start with the idea that selfishness is a universal quality. This is termed unbounded selfishness. The evolutionary logic of this is superficially appealing. Sacrificing for others without a payback seems doomed. (Assuming selection pressure is strong). Thus, selfishness and business are assumed
- [Canadian Voting Behavior](https://neilbendle.com/canadian-voting-behavior/) - Canada votes in a general election on Monday. It seems a good time to consider what drives voter choice. What do we know of Canadian Voting Behavior? What Drives Canadian Voting Behavior? There are multiple explanations and most have at least some support. One popular theory is that people vote for the leaders of parties.
- [When Is Too Much Success A Bad Thing?](https://neilbendle.com/when-is-too-much-success-a-bad-thing/) - Social Psychology, and the related field of Consumer Behaviour, relies on laboratory experiments. This has great benefits. Lab experiments give the flexibility to investigate causation and test interesting ideas. They have been very successful. When is too much success a bad thing? Lab Experimentation Given the benefits of lab experiments Consumer Behavior scholars doing experimental work have come to dominate marketing. I'd
- [What American Football Can Tell Us About Management](https://neilbendle.com/what-american-football-can-tell-us-about-management/) - One problem in studying managerial behavior is that firms aren't very open about their failures. Still, a scholar trying to show that managers make mistakes won't have many volunteers to serve as examples. This can, therefore, leave the perception that most organizations run smoothly. This has always seemed improbable to me. I've worked in several fields. I've encountered numerous committed, hardworking people
- [The Last Mile: Implementing Your Wonderful Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/the-last-mile-implementing-your-wonderful-strategy/) - Dilip Soman's The Last Mile is an excellent book. It reiterates fascinating points that are commonly found in behavioral (economics) books. What sets the book apart? The effective structure put to the insights. There are plenty of classifications and tables. These help us better understand the vast number of behavioral insights that the book contains. Test Your Ideas Other interesting points
- [Experimenters And Economists](https://neilbendle.com/experimenters-and-economists/) - Advocates for more behavioural approaches to understanding economics often use experiments. These typically show people acting in strange ways. Or at least that violate the principles of traditional economics. (Maybe the people are normal and the principles weird). A key thing is that experimenters and economists can be the same people. There is much potential uniting these
- [Are Free Markets Discovered Or Created?](https://neilbendle.com/are-free-markets-found-or-created/) - A key social science question is: Are Free Markets Discovered Or Created? This has surprisingly large political consequences. For example, what is the role of government? How much does it create the conditions for prosperity, or should it just get out of the way? Market Design Market Design is the study of what makes for
- [Bringing Accountability To Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/bringing-accountability-to-marketing/) - Peter Rosenwald shares his experience bringing accountability to marketing. He describes trying to account for the success of marketing campaigns in his book Accountable Marketing. This examines many ideas that are critical to quantitative marketing and covers a vast range of industries. No One Is Average He gives some great perspectives -- such as "Average: The Most
- [Predictive Analytics And Vast Search](https://neilbendle.com/vast-search/) - Eric Siegel has an excellent book on predictive analytics and vast search. As his title suggests these involve lying, buying and dying as well as a few things that don't rhyme. Applying Analytics The center of his book is a table of applications of predictive analytics. The marketing examples (Table 2) give a number of interesting
- [A Reason To Be Cheerful](https://neilbendle.com/a-reason-to-be-cheerful/) - This post from 2013 is a hopeful one about declining overt bias found in polling. While we have had reasons to worry in the intervening years I still stand by the idea that declining overt bias is a good thing. We may not be perfect. I think this is pretty obvious to all, but, at
- [The Flat Maximum And Data Science](https://neilbendle.com/the-flat-maximum-and-data-science/) - Steven Finlay has a useful book on Data Science, (Predictive Analytics, Data Mining and Big Data). He has lots of helpful practical advice in an easy to access form. He highlights the idea of the flat maximum. The Flat Maximum This is a general recommendation to read the book. I will also highlight a point Finlay makes.
- [Simpson's Paradox: Data can be very confusing](https://neilbendle.com/simpsons-paradox-data-can-be-very-confusing/) - One of the strangest things in statistics is Simpson's paradox. The paradox happens when two sets of data each show the same result. Yet, when you combine the data into a single data set the combined table gives you a different result. Data Can Be Confusing Smith explains this using a click data example. In the data, he shows when you look at
- [A Secret To Being Productive?](https://neilbendle.com/a-secret-to-being-productive/) - Charles Duhigg's book are always entertaining. The central thesis make me dubious. That isn't important though as the stories are full of interesting observations. This is true of Smarter, Faster, Better. Duhigg shares a secret to being productive. Great Stories I'm not a fan of some of the literature at the basis of the book. As such, it
- [A Common Marketing Language](https://neilbendle.com/a-common-marketing-language/) - A major problem in marketing is that one often has only a general idea of what another marketer is speaking about. “Unfortunately, marketing still does not have that commonality of terminology” (Farris, Reibstein, and Scheller, 2016, page 46). We need a common marketing language. We Lack Shared Meanings A marketer will talk of loyalty and
- [The Long-Term Impact Of Advertising](https://neilbendle.com/the-long-term-impact-of-advertising/) - One of marketing’s greatest challenges is that its benefits are often long-term. Spend now, gain later. What is the long-term impact of advertising? Measuring The Long-Term Impact Of Advertising Long-term benefits can be very tough to measure. This is especially true when lots of other activity is happening at the same time. For an analogy
- [The Red Queen And Implications For Best Practice](https://neilbendle.com/the-red-queen-and-implications-for-best-practice/) - It is hard to spend any time at a business school without hearing the phrase best practice. We teach students best practice. Junior professors seek hints from senior folk on best practice. Even schools regularly go through bouts of benchmarking to see if they are adopting best practice. Best practice essentially is something that gets the most
- [The Marketing Finance Partnership](https://neilbendle.com/the-marketing-finance-partnership/) - Jim Meier, (an executive at MillerCoors), is an expert on getting marketing and finance to work together. Let's call this the marketing finance partnership. He has written a fascinating chapter on the problems of doing this. Perceptions Of Marketing The portrayal of marketers through the eyes of finance people is amusing. Still, it isn't pretty.
- [Financial Information And Stock Prices](https://neilbendle.com/financial-information-and-stock-prices/) - For the next few weeks I'll discuss Lev and Gu's new book on the problems of financial accounting, The End of Accounting. Here the authors discuss financial information and stock prices. Basically, the relevance of accounting information to investment decisions. Financial Information And Stock Prices: Little Connection This book sets out the case that financial accounting
- [Hovis And The Valuation of Brands](https://neilbendle.com/hovis-and-the-valuation-of-brands/) - Today we turn to a history lesson on brand valuation. The story is of Hovis and the valuation of brands. Hovis And The Valuation of Brands Rank Hovis McDougall, a big U.K. food manufacturer in the 1980s decided to record the value of its brands on its balance sheet. This included its internally generated brands. (These are
- [How Long Will We Be Unhappy?](https://neilbendle.com/how-long-will-we-be-happy/) - A fascinating line of research tackles the problem of affective forecasting. Such forecasting involves questions such as: How Long Will We Be Unhappy? Affective Forecasting This area of research studies our predictions of how we will feel when events happen. We typically aren't very good at affective forecasting. .. expectations are often important and often wrong. They are important
- [Marshmallows And Your Future](https://neilbendle.com/marshmallows-and-your-future/) - Walter Mischel's The Marshmallow Test is a really enjoyable book. His is a long career and he has numerous studies to draw upon. The whole area has suffered a few attacks (written in 2021 but there are still ideas one should know. (Of course, never get too obsessive about details of out work as our understanding, hopefully,
- [The Failure Of Markets](https://neilbendle.com/the-failure-of-markets/) - I very much enjoyed John Cassidy's How Markets Fail. It is an ambitious piece in which he tries to describe how economic thought has impacted real-world markets. He has a special focus on the collapse of the financial markets in 2007/8 and the economic thought behind the failure to regulate the markets properly. What does he say about the failure
- [Food Lessons From An Economist](https://neilbendle.com/food-lessons-from-an-economist/) - Tyler Cowen's "An Economist Gets Lunch" is pretty self-indulgent. In this book we get food lessons from an economist. Self-Indulgence Firstly, Cowen really loves his food and is happy to share his enthusiasm for high-quality meals. The second sense of self-indulgence is of an academic doing what he loves. I don't mean to imply this negatively. When people do
- [Causation And The Post Hoc Fallacy](https://neilbendle.com/causation-and-the-post-hoc-fallacy/) - Today's post looks at causation and the post hoc fallacy. Types Of Fallacy There are generally two types of fallacy. The first is nice and clean. These are formal fallacies. These are clearly wrong by the rules of logic. The classic is the well-known fallacy that: If p then q, does not mean that if q
- [Motivation For The New Year](https://neilbendle.com/motivation-for-the-new-year/) - Let us start the new year thinking about how motivation works. What encourages us to action? How can knowledge help us with motivation for the new year's resolutions? Simple Views Of Motivation Dan Ariely has a new book on this topic. And to motivate you to read it I'll say it is a very short book. Ariely
- [Why Don't Businesses Experiment More?](https://neilbendle.com/why-dont-businesses-experiment-more/) - One puzzle for academics, myself included, is why businesses don't experiment more? Why Don't Businesses Experiment More? Experiments have great potential to improve business outcomes. Often businesses don't seem to do much experimenting. Companies pay amazing amounts of money to get answers from consultants with overdeveloped confidence in their own intuition. Managers rely on focus
- [Smoothing Data](https://neilbendle.com/smoothing-data/) - Excel can be a very useful tool. Though it cannot easily do the most advanced statistical tasks. Excell can tackle most everyday business analytics. Today we see how a business advisor discusses a range of challenges including smoothing data. Balanced Scorecards Ron Person shows how to produce balanced scorecards in a book that is packed
- [Buying And Selling Attention](https://neilbendle.com/buying-selling-attention/) - Tim Wu's The Attention Merchants is an interesting book about buying and selling attention. History Of The Market For Attention I must confess I enjoyed the first half more than the end. The end of the book is a pretty conventional view of where we are now. I don't think anyone will be surprised to
- [Advertising Budgeting And Managerially Relevant Research](https://neilbendle.com/advertising-budgeting-and-managerially-relevant-research/) - Academic research occasionally desires to be practical. Various journals therefore often have sections that allow for the reporting of the results of practical work with managers. The journals publish such studies even where there aren't significant theoretical contributions. In the past the Marketing Science journal has published work under "Applications". In this vein Doyle and
- [Behaviourally Informed Government Policy](https://neilbendle.com/behaviourally-informed-government-policy/) - In a companion piece to the article published on the BEAR (Behavioural Economics In Action at Rotman) website Dilip Soman, Katie Chen, and myself have an article in the Spring issue of the Rotman Management magazine. This is an issue completely dedicated to behavioral insights. It has some major academic names in the field -- Richard Thaler, George
- [Tackling Big Problems With Behavioral Science](https://neilbendle.com/tackling-big-problems-behavioural-science/) - Jason Furman (former chair of the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers) discusses tackling big problems with behavioral science. He says behavioral studies can help address four major issues in the economy. Tackling Big Problems With Behavioral Science He isn't joking when he says they are major. They really are. The four he choose are: 1)
- [Understanding Brand Valuation](https://neilbendle.com/accountings-problem-with-acquired-versus-internally-generated-assets/) - Marc Fischer explains common methods of brand valuation. His work is useful in understanding brand valuation. Different Methods Of Brand Valuation One of the problems he highlights is that there are so many methods. Different companies have their own proprietary valuation systems. He groups these into three main approaches; a cost-based approach, a market-based approach, and an
- [Why Value Marketing Efforts Even When Perspectives Differ?](https://neilbendle.com/value-marketing-efforts-even-perspectives-differ/) - Jonathan Knowles notes that different disciplines often come at brand equity from different perspectives. For the sake of clarity, he lays out three ways of looking at brand. He uses exemplars from marketing, finance, and accounting. Although, of course, no discipline is monolithic -- many marketers might take the finance perspective, etc... Why value marketing
- [Optimal Distinctiveness And Social Influence](https://neilbendle.com/optimal-distinctiveness-social-influence/) - Jonah Berger's Invisible Influence is in the tradition of informative marketing books based upon behavioral research, think Dan Ariely, Sheena Iyengar, or Chip Heath. He concentrates on optimal distinctiveness and social influence. Some of the details people may know from elsewhere but all of which are interesting. Optimal Distinctiveness And Social Influence One of the
- [A Marketing Man's Thoughts On Ads And Information](https://neilbendle.com/a-marketing-mans-thoughts-on-ads-and-information/) - Following on from last week's blog I wanted to note a few other great features of Matthew Willcox's The Business of Choice. Let's hear this A Marketing Man's Thoughts On Ads And information. Too Much Information On a theoretical side, he discusses the problem of too much information. I found his take appealing. He notes
- [Marketers Are Human](https://neilbendle.com/marketers-are-human/) - Matthew Willcox's The Business of Choice: Marketing to Consumers Instincts won the AMA's Berry Book Award and I can see why. Willcox reviews many of the key points from the best academic books. For example, Daniel Kahneman's Thinking Fast and Slow and Vlad Griskevicius and Douglas Kenrick's The Rational Animal. Where Willcox adds value is
- [Meta-Analysis: Combining Many Results into One](https://neilbendle.com/meta-analysis-combining-many-results-one/) - How marketing impacts firm value is an important question facing for-profit businesses. In an ambitious paper Conchar, Crask and Zinkhan (2005) examined this. they did a meta-analysis: combining many results into one. Meta-Analysis Seem Like Hard Work The hard work involved in this paper is impressive. The authors looked at 88 studies of advertising and
- [Good Marketing And Social Missions](https://neilbendle.com/good-marketing-social-missions/) - Managers often have challenges understanding how to position their brands and companies when contentious public issues find them. More interesting in some ways are companies whose managers seek out contentious issues. It is very hard to measure the net impact of having a contentious social mission. Experiments are hard to run on social missions. Yet,
- [Marketing In The World Of Big Data](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-world-big-data/) - Arvind Sathi's book Engaging Customers Using Big Data has a number of interesting points about big data. What does he tell us about marketing in the world of big data? Marketing In The World Of Big Data Sathi is keen to point out that marketers now drive many technological needs in firms. The chief marketing
- [Using Non-Financial Indicators](https://neilbendle.com/using-non-financial-indicators/) - Using non-financial indicators to predict future profits. The problem of rewarding the right things Establishing the right reward structure is extremely challenging. O'Connell and O'Sullivan aim to help in this. They tackle the problem that traditional finance/accounting measures are quite backwards looking. (They can also be manipulated to reward those who prioritize short-term, over long-term,
- [Understanding Intuition](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-intuition/) - How can we go about understanding intuition and does it matter? Thinking Fast and Slow Daniel Kahneman's book, Thinking Fast and Slow, has undoubtedly had a significant impact on managerial thinking. In a recent piece for the ACCA (Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) Tony Grundy, an academic and consultant, discusses the perils of cognitive bias.
- [Measuring A Technological Revolution](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-technological-revolution/) - Some have begun to make the argument that there is a technological revolution. A move towards intangible assets. How does one go about measuring a technological revolution? A Problem With Accounting Corrado and Hulten highlight a major problem in the way accounts are created. This applies to both corporate and national accounts. A basic idea
- [Using The Language Of Business And Seeing Its Problems](https://neilbendle.com/using-language-business-seeing-problems/) - Accounting, and finance more generally, is the language of business. This means marketers can't get away from it. I recommend both using the language of business and seeing its problems. Engaging with Finance Language I think it is extremely valuable for people more broadly to understand the language of finance. Finance and accounting has challenges.
- [Do We Always Fall For Cons?](https://neilbendle.com/do-we-always-fall-for-cons/) - Maria Konnikova goes through an exciting review of a lot of psychological findings in her book -- The Confidence Game. At times I wondered, do we always fall for cons? Confidence Helps Konnikova is an engaging writer and her book is well informed by academic research. She has the fascinating story of a con man
- [Why Financial Statements Fail "Digital" Companies](https://neilbendle.com/financial-statements-fail-digital-companies/) - The way marketing features accounting statements is pretty awful. I have noted this often. Many of the issues raised are, however, applicable outside marketing. They occur with a wide range of intangible assets. Vijay Govindarajan and his colleagues, therefore, look at the providers of accounting for "digital" companies. They ask: Why Financial Statements Fail "Digital"
- [Big Data And Understanding Human Behavior](https://neilbendle.com/big-data-and-understanding-human-behaviour/) - What do we know about big data and understanding human behavior? New Data, New Insights The premise in Everybody Lies seems sound to me. Here we have an entirely new dataset that reveals things about people that they are not willing to reveal. Advice: don't listen to the audiobook in the car with kids. It
- [Research And Popular Advice](https://neilbendle.com/research-and-popular-advice/) - Daniel Levitin's The Organized Mind is a curious book. It is highly influenced by academic research (the author is an academic). Yet, I wouldn't say it was an academic book. It tells us something about research and popular advice and how they mix. Academic Self-Help Levitin's doesn't read like the standard academic book: "here --
- [Do You Trust Business?](https://neilbendle.com/do-you-trust-business/) - Movie villains are often business people. So do you trust business? Evil Business People The remake of the Magnificent Seven was understandably keen to change the villain from the, let's just say dated, villain portrayal in the original. The writer went for an evil businessman. Audiences seemed fine with it. They find it plausible that
- [Selling Solutions](https://neilbendle.com/selling-solutions/) - The first person who came up with the idea of selling solutions hit on a great idea. Rather than sell their products they would sell what their clients needed. Selling Solutions Can Be A Bit Of A Meaningless Term Unfortunately, it may now be a cliche. Selling solutions is a bit too generic. What was
- [Fixing Marketing's Perception Problem](https://neilbendle.com/fixing-marketings-perception-problem/) - Thomas Barta discusses marketing's perception problem. He is interested in fixing marketing's perception problem. Unaccountable Not Sleazy By the problem, Barta means more an internal perception problem within firms than an external view (of marketers as sleazy). Internally marketing is seen as unaccountable, it is a bit of a black hole for funds. As marketers,
- [Mathematical Thinking, Cons, And Finding Results](https://neilbendle.com/mathematical-thinking-cons-and-finding-results/) - Jordan Ellenberg tells us how to use mathematical thinking to "not be wrong". He tells us about mathematical thinking, cons, and finding results. Good Advice The advice is often very good. If he wants to call it as a result of mathematics that works for me. Following his advice will help us have better judgment.
- [Transformative Innovations, An Important Part of the Puzzle](https://neilbendle.com/transformative-innovations-an-important-part-of-the-puzzle/) - I value grand intellectual sweeps. if you are a tenured professor it seems wrong not to try and give the world your grand vision. So what can we say about transformative innovations? Transformative Innovations Tellis and Rosenzweig take a grand sweep in examining the role of transformative innovations in world history. The book moves from
- [SKUs, Market Share And Distribution](https://neilbendle.com/skus-market-share-and-distribution/) - An interesting question in marketing concerns the distribution that any particular SKU (Stock Keeping Unit) will receive. Generally, more distribution is better. Distribution simply allows more people the opportunity to buy your product. As such managers will fight for distribution. What then do we know about the relationship between SKUs, market share and distribution? Distribution
- [Why Gift Cards Are Interesting](https://neilbendle.com/why-gift-cards-are-interesting/) - In a special holiday edition I focus on why Gift cards are interesting. They are central to many retailers' strategies and yet economic theory often seems premised on the idea that they shouldn't exist. Why Give Gift Cards? The argument against them is that a gift card is a bit like cash, just worse. Closed loop cards, those
- [Success As A Marketing Academic](https://neilbendle.com/success-as-a-marketing-academic/) - People find interesting things that impact them. As a result, it probably shouldn't be surprising that I'm interested in Zamudio and Meng's work. It is after all on success as a marketing academic. That matters to me. Promotions The authors research which scholars got promoted. The promotions in question are from assistant to associate professor.
- [Primary Election Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/primary-election-strategy/) - I find primary elections endlessly fascinating. Partly because the decision is so tricky. We rarely have enough information to make an ideal choice, Yet, people still develop very strong opinions. In the 2008 Democratic primary it was hard to see significant policy differences between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. That didn't stop intense arguments. What
- [Story Spreadsheets](https://neilbendle.com/story-spreadsheets/) - Business school spreadsheets annoy me. I'm not anti-spreadsheet generally. Indeed, a good spreadsheet is a thing of beauty. What irritates me is the belief students have that a good spreadsheet is a complicated spreadsheet. Students sometimes think that the more they can jam onto a single worksheet the better. This fundamentally mistakes the purpose of
- [Thinking By The Numbers; Mostly Smart And Occasionally New](https://neilbendle.com/thinking-by-the-number-mostly-smart-and-occasionally-new/) - I enjoyed the book Super Crunchers. It is a couple of years old [in 2014] but it still reads well. Perhaps some of the surprise people might have had when it was published may have dissipated. In recent years things only the rare few knew about, e.g. metadata and data warehouses, have become staples of dinnertime conversation. It
- [QAnon and Political Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/qanon-and-political-marketing/) - Political Marketing aims to be relevant and may sometimes be more successful at this than some academic disciplines. If we want to be relevant it seems like there is a great opportunity to study QAnon and Political Marketing. QAnon And Academic Study If anyone does not know QAnon is a conspiracy theory popular amongst some
- [Hot Hands, Runs of Form and Perceptions of Randomness](https://neilbendle.com/hot-hands-runs-of-form-and-perceptions-of-randomness/) - World Cup [2014] post 2. It is hard to watch sport without screaming at the commentators: "what are you talking about". I don't say this to criticize commentators. Almost anyone forced to speak for 90 minutes straight will say a bunch of things that, to put it charitably, don't make a lot of sense. Much
- [Who Will Win The World Cup?](https://neilbendle.com/who-will-win-the-world-cup/) - With the World Cup about to start [written in 2014] it is an excellent time to consider what statistics can tell us about sport and how people think about probabilities. So who will win the world Cup? Soccernomics Stefan Szymanski has a series of books explaining the economics of sport. His book with Simon Kuper
- [Making Your Future Self Happy](https://neilbendle.com/making-your-future-self-happy/) - I'm traveling to my ten-year MBA reunion [written in 2014]. As such, it seems an appropriate time to consider how we predict the future. Ten years ago I would never have predicted that I'd be a marketing professor living in Canada [now in US]. Interestingly, I wonder whether I would even have wanted to become
- [What Makes Your Thinking Different?](https://neilbendle.com/what-makes-your-thinking-different/) - Tim Harford's books are always engaging even as he covers topics that many don't find the most stimulating. His latest book gives a lively introduction to macroeconomics. He notes how unique thinking can be powerful. So what makes your thinking different? The Phillips' Curve In this Harford is obviously enjoying himself when he describes the
- [Seeing The Big Picture Behind People's Attitudes](https://neilbendle.com/seeing-the-big-picture-behind-peoples-attitudes/) - An interesting psychological phenomenon is the tendency to ascribe stable attitudes to people rather than consider the context. I can only speak to where I've worked -- the UK, US, Canada -- but it seems pervasive to me. Seeing the big picture behind people's attitudes is important. Inferring Attitudes Despite Writer Having No Choice Early
- [David, Goliath And Malcolm](https://neilbendle.com/david-goliath-and-malcolm/) - It seems fashionable to denigrate Malcolm Gladwell. Academics moan; "he is conceptually loose and borrows ideas from other people". It reminds me of Louis in Casablanca. People seem shocked to hear that gambling is going on. What were the critics expecting? Of course, Gladwell popularizes other people's ideas. (For the record he can borrow and
- [Voters And Consumers](https://neilbendle.com/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).
- [Defining Concepts](https://neilbendle.com/defining-concepts/) - When examining any phenomenon you must properly define what you are examining. A good example of the problems that arise when not defining concepts is "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. Great Stories Firstly, let me say that I enjoyed the book. The author packed it with fascinating stories. The book is well written.
- [Valuing Brands In Accountancy](https://neilbendle.com/valuing-brands/) - Valuing brands in accountancy has been a challenge for a long time. The Challenge Of Valuing Brands In Accountancy Brand valuation is a challenging topic. Still, it is a critical one for marketers. It is hard to look at corporate accounts without noticing that marketing is poorly accounted for. The accounts largely omit the value
- [A Set of Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/a-set-of-metrics/) - The Canadian Marketing Association (CMA) have produced a set of metrics to capture performance. I would like to improve the definitions. In addition, the set more coherently presented. (For example, why squish retention and acquisition together in the list below?) Still, it is an interesting view on what marketers think. CMA Task Force The process
- [Academics And Managers](https://neilbendle.com/academics-and-managers/) - The application of research is a big topic in marketing and academics and managers would be well served by acting together more. Is Useful Important? We debate whether we are useful or relevant. And then we debate whether we should care about whether we are useful or relevant. I think of myself as an academic
- [Who Owns The Numbers?](https://neilbendle.com/who-owns-the-numbers/) - Numbers are vital to running any organization but who owns the numbers? Measurement And Judgment Pfeffer and Sutton's (2000) book chapter starts a bit too negatively for my liking. The title sets the wrong tone. "When Measurement Obstructs Good Judgement". To be fair their point isn't that measurement is bad. They really mean that bad
- [Controlling Your Political Brand](https://neilbendle.com/controlling-your-political-brand/) - One of the key challenges for any party or politician is controlling your political brand. Case studies are a useful tool. They show that has been done in the past. Political Versus Administrative Tension often arises between the political and administrative aspects of government in a democracy. Elected politicians set the strategy. This should (ideally) reflect
- [Big Questions](https://neilbendle.com/big-questions/) - One of my favorite popular science books is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel. Some didn't appreciate it as much yet it does a fantastic job of asking big questions. These are the questions most worth asking. The Importance Of Geography Guns, Germs, and Steel is packed with fascinating details, has a great tempo, and
- [The Mismeasure Of Man](https://neilbendle.com/the-mismeasure-of-man/) - Stephen Jay Gould could be a polarizing figure in academic circles. He is an evolutionary scientist quoted at the Creation Museum (which opposes the idea of evolution). Still, he was an interesting writer who did an excellent job of engaging the general public. His book rebutting the arguments of the Bell Curve, The Mismeasure of
- [US Individualism And A US Collective Identity](https://neilbendle.com/individualism/) - When I first moved to the US I couldn't get over the flags. (It was summer of 2002 and flags were at their apex.) There were all sorts of flags, small flags, big flags, really big flags and blocks out the sun size. This very visible adherence to the country, the collective group, was startling.
- [Not Real Is Not The Same As Hard To Measure](https://neilbendle.com/not-real-not-hard-measure/) - Haskel and Westlake's new book, Capitalism without Capital, is on my reading list for the new year. For now I'll just concentrate on comments made in The Economists' review of the book. The key point I want to make is that not real is not the same as hard to measure Intangible Assets Are On
- [Why Are Intangible Investments Different To Tangible Investments?](https://neilbendle.com/intangible-investments-differ-tangible-investments/) - Haskel and Westlake's main point in Capitalism without Capital is that the world is changing and that the predominant form of investment nowadays (investments in intangibles) is different from investment in tangible assets. Why are intangible investments different to tangible investments? The Four Ss of Intangibles The authors, in making the case for intangible investments
- [What Does Marketing Do?](https://neilbendle.com/what-does-marketing-do/) - What does marketing do? Many people really have little idea. Establishing what marketers do can be an important first step to a meaningful discussion. People Don't Necessarily Understand marketing Haskel and Westlake have a great new book -- Capitalism without Capital. In this they highlight a major problem that they see. The problem they note is
- [The Deadweight Loss Of Christmas](https://neilbendle.com/the-deadweight-loss-of-christmas/) - In a holiday theme I'm discussing the Deadweight Loss of christmas. The basic idea is that gift-giving destroys value for society. The Deadweight Loss Of Christmas When buying for myself I get what I most value with the money. When you buy something for me you don't know what I want so probably buy something
- [Understanding Numbers](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-numbers/) - Understanding numbers is vital to so many parts of life. It is a shame many otherwise sensible people don't seem to take numbers seriously. Numbers Allow You To Understand Magnitude When I managed the finances of a political party the BBC's political editor explained on TV that donations totaling 6 million pounds would run my
- [Storytelling: Not An Insult. But You Need Cogent Stories](https://neilbendle.com/storytelling-not-an-insult/) - Critics often label evolutionary psychology "just so stories"-- fanciful storytelling. This has become a popular criticism. "Just so stories" is a fantastic phrase. It is so evocative and damning. Serious scholars even use it to justify not reading evolutionary psychology. The critics sometimes have a point. I agree that some research relies on dubious arguments.
- [Inequality And Efficiency](https://neilbendle.com/inequality-and-efficiency/) - What do we know about inequality and efficiency? Inequality And Efficiency Is there an equality-efficiency trade-off? Is greater inequality just the price we pay for more efficiency? Economic theory has proven, one hears, that any but cosmetic modifications of capitalism in the direction of equality and democratic control will exact a heavy toll of reduced
- [Using Marketing Analytics](https://neilbendle.com/implementing-marketing-analytics/) - Two of my MBA professors, Paul Farris and Ron Wilcox, along with a newer Darden professor Raj Venkatesan, have a new book. This examines using marketing analytics through cases. (Raj also runs the marketing analytics initiative at Darden). Numbers-Based Marketing The cases describe scenarios relevant to numbers-based marketing. For example, they allow readers to see the
- [Understanding Data Analytics, And 'Competitive Advantage'](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-data-analytics-and-competitive-advantage/) - Anil Maheshwari's Data Analytics Made Accessible is a helpful book. Schools use it as a textbook and it has that feel. There is a lot of information there in a somewhat 'just the facts' sort of format. It should help with understanding data analytics. Useful Information To Aid In Understanding Data Analytics The book is
- [The Persistence of Academic Customs](https://neilbendle.com/the-persistence-of-customs/) - Recently I was reading Max Weber's thoughts on "Science as a Vocation" given in a lecture on November 7th, 1917. By science Weber means knowledge creation in the broader sense so pretty much all academics should be included as scientists. It can also tell us about the persistence of academic customs. The Persistence of Academic Customs There
- [Business Schools And The Teaching Of Political Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/business-schools-and-the-teaching-of-political-marketing/) - Paul Baines, an academic at Cranfield in the UK, has made the argument that business schools are not utilizing political marketing to its fullest. What do we know about business schools and the teaching of political marketing? What should they do? Why? What Do Business Schools Teach? Few business schools have courses on political marketing.
- [Measuring Brand Value](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-brand-value/) - Measuring brand value is a huge challenge. Even the best methodology available is far from perfect. (And there are many would argue I'm being too generous in that assessment). There are, however, a number of significant potential benefits if you know the value of your brand. Most obviously you have a better idea of your firm's
- [You're An Original](https://neilbendle.com/youre-an-original/) - The study of creativity seems worthwhile but challenging. Creativity seems hard to consistently measure. Given it is hard to assess what is actually creative, it must be even harder to work out what drives creativity. Adam Grant tries this in Originals. I doubt his is the last word on the topic but it is worth a read. What is the message: You're An Original. The
- [In Defense Of Robots And Their Judgments](https://neilbendle.com/in-defence-of-robots-and-their-judgements/) - A second post on the book, Noise, by Kahneman, Sibony, and Sunstein. For the first see here. The authors are experts in human judgment and they have a few useful comments in defense of robots and their judgments. Arguments Against, And For, Robots Noise is a book about the problems of variability in human judgment.
- [The Facts About Loyalty Programs](https://neilbendle.com/the-facts-about-loyalty-programs/) - Loyalty programs are an interesting marketing tactic. On the one hand, they have the potential to encourage consumers to stick with a provider. On the other hand, they can end up rewarding those who would have purchased anyway. At their worst one might say that the programs don’t so much create loyalty as feed consumers
- [More On Accounting's Failure To Deal With Intangibles](https://neilbendle.com/accountings-failure-deal-intangible/) - Accounting's failure to deal with intangibles is a major problem in business. Marketers, and others, need to engage with financial accountants to find a better way. Problems in accounting statements Feng Gu and Baruch Lev give more details on the problems with financial accounting in their recent piece for the Financial Analysts Journal. They argue
- [Nostalgia](https://neilbendle.com/nostalgia/) - Nostalgia is a major problem for human beings. No, things weren't better when you were a kid. You just didn't notice the problems. The Better Angels of Our Nature If the past is a foreign country, it is a shockingly violent one. It is easy to forget just how dangerous life used to be, how deeply brutality
- [The Language Of Leadership](https://neilbendle.com/the-language-of-leadership/) - Simon Lancaster's Winning Minds is a very pleasant read. He was a special adviser working in UK politics and wrote speeches for a living which comes through in the entertaining prose style that he uses. His book discusses the language of leadership. The Right Language Matters He talks about how important it is for leaders
- [Survey Methodology And The Future Of West Ham United](https://neilbendle.com/survey-methodology-and-the-future-of-west-ham-united/) - West Ham United, the English football (soccer) club I support, hasn't seen much recent success. (Written in 2014, as I revise this in 2021 things are better). The fans, in a fine example of optimism bias, expect the team to win while playing with a certain élan. In 2011, after a disastrous few years, Sam Allardyce was
- [Entertainment Science](https://neilbendle.com/entertainment-science/) - Thorsten Hennig-Thurau and Mark Houston published a comprehensive review of research in the entertainment industries. This book, Entertainment Science, gives more attention to movies than music, games and books, mainly for reasons to do with available research. It is still a fascinating look into all these industries and an amazingly comprehensive book. Nobody Knows Anything
- [Segments and Stereotypes](https://neilbendle.com/segments-and-stereotypes/) - Mark Ritson has a regular column in Marketing Week. He tackles a problem that is often skimmed over in marketing. Stereotypes are often painfully close to the way marketers construct segments. What then can we say about segments and stereotypes. Segments and Stereotypes A segment doesn't need to be based upon faulty generalizations. A segment
- [What Getting A Cab In The Rain Tells Us](https://neilbendle.com/what-getting-a-cab-in-the-rain-tells-us/) - In 1997 a collection of the great and the good on the behavioral side of economics investigated a seemingly minor question. What getting a cab in the rain tells us. Cleverly they used this minor question to consider the assumptions of traditional economics. The four authors, Colin Camerer, Linda Babcock, George Loewenstein, and Richard Thaler,
- [Costs Of Not Experimenting](https://neilbendle.com/costs-of-not-experimenting/) - Today I'll look at the work of Uri Gneezy and John List. Specifically their book, The Why Axis. These are very well respected scholars and they are strong proponents of more real-world testing. Today I most want to highlight the idea that there are very sizable costs of not experimenting. Business Managers Under-Experiment The authors
- [Is Reliability A Good Thing?](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [American Higher Education's Uncertain Future](https://neilbendle.com/american-higher-educations-uncertain-future/) - Moving to the US I thought I should get up to date with US higher education. Daniel Johnson's book, on American Higher Education's Uncertain Future, is a critique of where we are. I was expecting criticism of government funding levels, lack of appreciation of the benefits of academic thought, and maybe students themselves. It isn't
- [Word Clouds And Marketing Thought](https://neilbendle.com/word-clouds-and-marketing-thought/) - Word clouds are a useful way of condensing large amounts of text. Obviously, they don't perfectly describe complex ideas but they can highlight what a text is about in an easy-to-digest manner. Word clouds typically let the number of times a word is used dictate its size in the cloud. Interesting colors and exotic placement of the words allow for
- [A Couple Of Word Clouds To Better Understand Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/a-couple-more-wordclouds-to-better-understand-marketing/) - I thought it'd be helpful to share a couple of word clouds to better understand marketing. Word clouds are sometimes looked down upon by academics but they can be very simple visual ways to summarize text. Are they deep analysis, no, but they are a fun place to start. Word Clouds To Better Understand Marketing:
- [Rankings Matter For Good Or Ill](https://neilbendle.com/rankings-matter-for-good-or-ill/) - The copious detail in Ellen Hazelkorn's Rankings and the Reshaping of Higher Education makes it a useful read. A challenge with her approach is that she is able to give an excellent snapshot of higher education in 2011. Sadly, as things have moved on this leaves some bits dated. Still, I would think the key
- [Business School Academia And The Craft Guild](https://neilbendle.com/business-school-academia-and-the-craft-guild/) - Business schools are strange places to work. They are part of universities but it certainly seems like they never totally belong. What then do we know of business school academia and the craft guild? Business School Academia And The Craft Guild Other academics (indeed a fair number of business academics), rightly or wrongly, may see
- [Belief In Mythical Numbers](https://neilbendle.com/belief-in-mythical-numbers/) - The strategy setting process in any organization is always an interesting one. Given its centrality to the idea of managing an organization you might think people had the process down. You would be wrong. Vikas Mittal and Shridhari Sridhar look at the strategy setting process through extensive interviews and surveys. It isn't always a pretty
- [Social Network Analysis: Interesting But Still Limited](https://neilbendle.com/social-network-analysis-interesting-but-still-limited/) - "Connected" by Christakis and Fowler explains the benefits of social network analysis with fascinating and important stories. Social network analysis tells us who is most likely to catch a habit. This is just like how doctors can predict who is most likely to catch a disease from the person's place in a network. The analysis of networks helps illuminate a vast range
- [Behavioral Economics Sports Bingo](https://neilbendle.com/behavioural-economics-sports-bingo/) - A bit of an unusual post today. It being summer, therefore, here is a behavioral economics sports bingo card. Behavioural Economics Sports Bingo Game I'm looking for some help in assessing my new Behavioral Economics Sports Bingo game. The idea is that when you are watching sports you lookout for interesting comments from commentators, players,
- [A Sustainable Standard When Accounting For Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-standard-accounting-marketing/) - The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) seems to have been remarkably successful. They have recruited some well-known board members. These have included Michael Bloomberg, Mary Schapiro (former SEC chair), and Laura Tyson (former London Business School Dean). This has helped them raise their profile. They have been working on a sustainable standard when accounting for
- [Measuring Marketing In The Age Of Absolute Value](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-marketing-in-the-age-of-absolute-value/) - Itamar Simonson and Emanuel Rosen suggest that with greater access to information consumers can (and do) make much better purchasing decisions. They are, in effect, arguing that much academic work in marketing is too artificial when it shows decision-making problems. In the real-world consumers can solve problems that confound students in the laboratory. Too much choice can paralyze but this
- [Political Marketing And The Modern Age](https://neilbendle.com/politics-marketing-modern-age/) - How have election communciations been changing? What can we say about political marketing and the modern age? The US Presidential Election of 2016 With a couple of colleagues, Joseph Ryoo and Alina Nastasoiu, I wrote a chapter in a recent review of the US Presidential Elections in 2016. (We could have just published a one-word
- [Understanding The Topics In Consumer Research](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-the-topics-in-consumer-research/) - The Journal of Consumer Research (JCR) reached forty years old in 2015. To help the celebrations we conducted an analysis of the topics featured in the journal over the years. For many journals, you can use the keywords supplied by the authors. The downside of this is that authors may use fashionable words wanting to
- [The Science Of Spotting BS](https://neilbendle.com/the-science-of-spotting-bs/) - The authors clearly had a lot of fun writing their paper on the reception and detection of BS. They use the term "bullshit" more in the first few paragraphs than most people use their core term in the whole of any paper. That said, why not? It is an interesting and important topic. Do people
- [Regression to the Mean](https://neilbendle.com/regression-to-the-mean/) - Daniel Kahneman likes to explain an epiphany he had teaching decision-making. (The story is so good you realize you'll never come up with as perfect an illustration, but then comparing yourself to a Nobel prize winner is never good for the ego). Kahneman was instructing the Israeli Air Force. He announced that rewarding good performance
- [Experimental Philosophy](https://neilbendle.com/experimental-philosophy/) - Ruwen Ogien's book -- Human Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants --lays out a number of approaches to experimental philosophy. Much of the text involves descriptions of classic moral problems. These put to normal people and are often challenging by their nature. The most famous probably being trolley problems. These investigate what people think
- [Competition, Marketing, and the Common Good](https://neilbendle.com/competition-marketing-and-the-common-good/) - I really enjoyed Robert Frank's The Darwin Economy. What can this tell us about competition, marketing, and the common good? No Cash On The Table Frank emphasizes that "No Cash is On the Table" (Frank 2011, page 35) and "Markets Don't Ignore Profitable Opportunities for Long" (page 35). Traditional economic theory suggests all profitable opportunities
- [What Is First Mover Advantage?](https://neilbendle.com/what-is-mover-advantage/) - Information Rules by Carl Shapiro and Hal Varian is a classic business book. While today's post will be a bit cranky it isn't really about the book and I'll be appropriately positive next week. The book descriptions of business scenarios are dated but the ideas are relatively timeless. Plus the dated examples make you feel young -- battles
- [Capitalizing Spending On Intangibles](https://neilbendle.com/capitalizing-spending-on-intangibles/) - My final comment on Lev and Gu's The End of Accounting discusses their idea of how to improve financial reporting. This is a bit more controversial to my mind but worth considering. They suggest capitalizing spending on intangibles. Too Many Estimates? The authors argue that accounting uses too many estimates. As such, although the authors
- [Who Has An Interest In Changing Accounting?](https://neilbendle.com/whose-interest-is-changing-accounting/) - Baruch Lev and Feng Gu, accounting professors, ask a simple question. Why are managers and auditors so blasé about accounting for intangibles? Lev and Gu, 2016, page 90 Intangibles are a mess in financial accounting. Everyone knows there are obvious problems. So who has an interest in changing accounting? Intangible Assets And The Concept Of Matching
- [Banishing Bias in Audit](https://neilbendle.com/banishing-bias-audit/) - Humans beings behave in ways that do not show great decision-making. Auditors are human beings. They will have bias too. How can auditors improve their behavior? How can we go about banishing bias in audit? Bias in Audit People's decisions do not always correspond to the decisions of an optimizing robot. The same is true
- [Writing And The Curse of Knowledge](https://neilbendle.com/writing-and-the-curse-of-knowledge/) - This post looks at the problem of writing and the curse of knowledge. How what we know can limit our effectiveness in communicating. Following Rules Can Be Helpful But Don't Get Too Excited Sometimes it seems impossible to learn languages because there is often no logical reason for the rules that apply. What is worse,
- [Velocity Graphs, Multi-Channel Distribution and Managing Distribution](https://neilbendle.com/velocity-graphs-and-managing-distribution/) - My first blog as a University of Georgia professor (written in summer 2020). The blog post features an excellent new book on multi-channel distribution. This by my professor when I was at Darden, Paul Farris, and Kusum Ailawadi, another star academic. (She is at Tuck). Thinking Through Your Multi-Channel Distirbution The authors tackle multi-channel distribution.
- [Net Promoter, Do You Really Recommend?](https://neilbendle.com/net-promoter-do-you-really-recommend/) - I have mixed feelings about NPS (Net Promoter Score). It is rare for a marketing metric to be quite so successful. As such, I have got to admire how professionally it has been promoted. That said, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that it is over-hyped. It certainly isn't the one number you need
- [More On Evaluating Student Evaluations](https://neilbendle.com/more-on-evaluating-student-evaluations/) - Today's piece has more on evaluating student evaluations. Braga, Paccagnella, and Pellizari's (2014) article is a useful contribution to the debate about student evaluations. The Challenge Of Evaluating Evaluations This research does have limitations. For example, it is based on one school. Furthermore, the very strength of the article (random assignment of students to classes)
- [Improving Public Policy Through Testing](https://neilbendle.com/improving-public-policy/) - David Halpern is an interesting character. Originally an advisor to Tony Blair's Labour government he went on to establish the U.K.'s Behavioural Insights for David Cameron's Conservative government. His CV makes sense to me given what he specializes in. His aim is to make government policy better. The politicians decide what should be done and Halpern tries to ensure it
- [Credit Hours, Outcomes, Academic Missions And School Brand](https://neilbendle.com/credit-hours-outcomes-academic-missions-and-school-brand/) - Mark Garrett Cooper and John Marx have a lively take on the American research university in their book Media U. They discuss the linkage between academic missions and school brand. Popular Features Of Universities Allow The Intellectual The authors discuss how American research universities have always required an audience to deliver value. A key point
- [Surviving In The Misinformation Age](https://neilbendle.com/surviving-in-the-misinformation-age/) - David Helfand has written a book designed to illuminate thinking that will help spot problems in the public discourse. He gives a guide to surviving in the misinformation age. Big Issues Around Scientific Understanding He is aiming for a popular book, but not too much. He doesn't dumb it down. At times I felt he
- [Understanding Public Opinion: Oldie But Goodie Insights](https://neilbendle.com/understanding-public-opinion/) - In this post I look at classic book on understanding public opinion. Edward Bernays' Crystalling Public Opinion. Some Advice Has Stood The Test Of Time In Helping Understand Public Opinion Firstly, this book clearly has a decent amount of the material that has stood the test of time pretty well. As far as PR precepts
- [What Use Is An Evolutionary Definition of Rationality?](https://neilbendle.com/what-use-is-an-evolutionary-definition-of-rationality/) - Eyal Winter's book, Feeling Smart, is interesting but frustrating. There is much good content. Indeed, some of the stories are great. My biggest problem was the casual use of concepts. This was exemplified by the central idea of his book. He said that feelings/emotions can help you make smart decisions. I totally agree but the big problem was
- [Evolution And Jack Welch](https://neilbendle.com/evolution-and-jack-welch/) - While it is rarely explicitly acknowledged evolutionary thinking is central to business theory. People often believe selection pressures change populations competing in markets. (How exactly this happens is often a little vague). What is the connection between evolution and Jack Welch? Evolutionary Thinking In Economics Armen Alchian was an early proponent of evolutionary thinking in
- [Revenue And Valuing Likes](https://neilbendle.com/revenue-and-valuing-likes/) - Dan Zarrella, from HubSpot, has given a formula for valuing social media "likes". There are several interesting parts. For instance, he has tried to incorporate churn. Compared to most pieces of advice in the social media marketing world it is transparent. You can see what he was trying to do. His formula (although it looks
- [Measuring The Impact Of Marketing On Wall Street](https://neilbendle.com/measuring-the-impact-of-marketing-on-wall-street/) - Bernd Skiera, and a couple of colleagues, have a paper that considers a relatively recent wave of research in marketing academia. They tackle event studies. These look at the impact of specified “events” on the value of a firm. Measuring the impact of marketing on Wall Street. Marketing Events Clearly marketers tend to concentrate on marketing events.
- [Is Sustainable Competitive Advantage A Useful Goal](https://neilbendle.com/is-sustainable-competitive-advantage-a-useful-goal/) - I must confess to being a bit dubious about the idea of sustainable competitive advantage. It seems designed to allow people to pontificate with a pronouncement that sounds meaningful. Yet, speaking about sustainable competitive advantage often requires little actual evidence given the underlying idea is a bit vague. Sustainable Competitive Advantage A competitive advantage isn't
- [Angel And Demon Customers](https://neilbendle.com/angel-and-demon-customers/) - Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin had a book back in 2003 that made quite a stir. It introduced the idea of angel and demon customers. This was a catchy way of explaining the notion that not all customers are profitable. Indeed, Selden and Colvin argue that customers should not all be treated the same. What
- [A Customer Equity Balance Sheet](https://neilbendle.com/a-customer-equity-balance-sheet/) - The book, Customer Equity, is a bit of a classic in the marketing field. It is an early attempt to refocus companies from products to customers, specifically through measurement of the value of the customer base. The authors introduce a lot of interesting new ideas. They have many admirably big swings and, to be honest,
- [CLV In The CPG Industry](https://neilbendle.com/clv-in-the-cpg-industry/) - V Kumar (the editor of the Journal of Marketing) and student Sarang Sunder have undertaken a review of the use, and potential use, of Customer Lifetime Value, CLV in the CPG industry. (CPG being consumer packaged goods, think P&G, General Mills). Challenges For CPG Marketers The authors talk about the problems that CPG marketers face
- [The Top and Bottom Line](https://neilbendle.com/media-and-the-top-and-bottom-line/) - Preparing for class recently I came across a media report which illustrates the confusion and sloppiness that surrounds marketing metrics. I realized the problem we often have talking about the top and bottom line. Impact Of Social Media An important question is the bottom line impact of social media. How can you persuade the CFO
- [The Influence Of Marketing On Managers](https://neilbendle.com/the-influence-of-marketing-on-managers/) - The history of business, especially marketing, thought is an interesting topic to me. Modern text analytics techniques can help us get a better understanding of what has happened. If I understand correctly historians seem to be increasing using such techniques. What then can this tell use about the influence of marketing on managers? Changing Topics
- [Stereotyping And Market Entry Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/stereotyping-and-market-entry-strategy/) - I have a paper just published in Customer Needs and Solutions on stereotyping and market entry strategy. This paper has quite a history, with early versions arising from my dissertation (13 years ago). It was quite a journey. The final paper looks nothing like where it started. (For example, it contains a minor nod to
- [To Employ Marketing Metrics Consider User Needs](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-metrics-use-involves-considering-user-needs/) - One the basic ideas in marketing is that the consumer of whatever you are providing decides whether an offering is useful. You shouldn't just shout at your customers and tell them that they should appreciate what they are being given. I think a lot of marketers forget this basic idea when it comes to marketing
- [The Pragmatic And Principled Reasons For Political Marketing Research](https://neilbendle.com/the-pragmatic-and-principled-reasons-for-political-marketing-research/) - In a new paper in Customer Needs and Solutions Jennifer Lees-Marshment lays out why politics should matter to marketing scholars. She tells us the pragmatic and principled reasons for political marketing research. Why Study Political Marketing? Lees-Marshment argues that "the dominant research philosophy [in political marketing] is pragmatism, the methodology depends on the research question
- [Management Accounting and Customer Recording](https://neilbendle.com/management-accounting-and-customer-recording/) - At least one area of marketing metrics makes me positive. The future is bright. The area is what we might call management accounting and customer recording. This tends to work best where there are contractual relationships. With contracts or, at least, stable long term connections, we can go a long way to understanding the value
- [Adjusting For Unrecorded Intangibles Is Hard](https://neilbendle.com/adjusting-for-unrecorded-intangibles-is-hard/) - I have previously written about the good, and not so good, parts of Alexander Edeling's, Shuba Srinivasan's, and Dominique M. Hanssens' 2020 review paper on the marketing finance interface, see here. Here I will comment on a specific assertion they make that strikes me as misleading. It is important to highlight this as I fear
- [Marketing Metrics and the Value of Sponsorship](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-metrics-and-sponsorship/) - Message from September 2020 ***The new version of Marketing Metrics is out this month. Please rush out and buy your copies. Please leave us a review at Amazon or wherever you bought your copy.*** This post looked at changes for the 4th edition of Marketing Metrics. Specifically new sections on sponsorship metrics. Changes For The
- [Improving Political Management; Some Of It Is A Bit Dark Ages](https://neilbendle.com/political-management-some-of-it-is-a-bit-dark-ages/) - A co-author of mine, Jennifer Lees-Marshment, is a world expert on political marketing, (crudely put winning elections). In recent years she has turned her attention to improving political management. E.g., what politicians and their staffs have to do after they have won. Her new book, Political Management, is the result of years of painstaking work
- [Empirical Political Marketing Research](https://neilbendle.com/empirical-political-marketing-research/) - As part of our recent Customer Needs and Solutions political marketing issue Mitch Lovett, a professor at the University of Rochester, describes key issues in empirical political marketing research. Key Empirical Political Marketing Research Data Sources Lovett outlines key data sources. These include the (US) National Election Studies and polls. Voting behavior/intentions can be combined
- [Bias And Algorithms](https://neilbendle.com/bias-and-algorithms/) - As algorithms play greater and greater roles in our lives a reasonable question is: "are they fair?" The answer is often; "no, not really". To be clear that doesn't necessarily mean algorithms are making the world worse. If things were unfair before (and they were) then just knowing that things are unfair now can't tell
- [Political Candidate Brand Strength](https://neilbendle.com/political-candidate-brand-strength/) - Beth Fossen, David Schweidel and Michael Lewis published a paper on political candidate brand strength in Customer Needs and Solutions. They used inspiration from the idea of performance premium measures of brand strength. In essence, these measures consider how a brand should be doing given certain important features. Then they look at how it is
- [Marketing Strategy and Electoral Politics](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-strategy-and-electoral-politics/) - As part of our special issue on political marketing, Sridhar Moorthy wrote a piece explaining marketing strategy and electoral politics. This uses ideas from competition theory. He focuses on analytical models. These are models based on mathematical theory. (Empirical models, on the other hand, are based upon observed data). Spend Does Not Necessarily Deliver Results
- [Corporate Political Advocacy](https://neilbendle.com/corporate-political-advocacy/) - A fascinating question for corporations is how much they should get involved in politics. What is the role for Corporate Political Advocacy? Sometimes Politics Just Comes For You It can be hard to avoid politics sometimes; it just involves some companies by accident. I have no inside knowledge but I doubt Delta really had an
- [Stockpiling in Loyalty Programs](https://neilbendle.com/stockpiling-in-loyalty-programs/) - For several reasons I have spent a lot of time in the last few months thinking about loyalty points. There is one puzzle that has been noted by a number of scholars and practitioners. People often keep hold of their loyalty points; not using them when they could have used them to save money. A
- [Finding The Right Marketing Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/finding-the-right-marketing-metrics/) - It is extremely challenging to get marketing metrics pieces published at top marketing journals. Indeed, a piece on finding the right marketing metrics isn't a typical article. One challenge is that often journals want something "new". Investigating what managers do doesn't seem new enough. This is a real shame. I worry editorial decisions encourage the
- [Politics And Marketing Fit Together Very Naturally](https://neilbendle.com/politics-and-marketing-they-fit-together-very-naturally/) - On and off over the next couple of months I will blog about a special issue of Customer Needs and Solutions (CNS), I co-edited this with David Schweidel at Emory. The intention of Min Ding, the CNS editor, was to promote the linkages between marketing and politics. To show that politics and marketing fit together
- [Fairness In Business](https://neilbendle.com/fairness-in-business/) - A tricky problem in business research is understanding the role of fairness concerns. It is pretty obvious from just a cursory look at social interactions (of which business relations are a special type) that fairness matters to a lot of people a lot of the time. Often consumers and workers complain about lack of fairness.
- [Metrics that Marketers Muddle](https://neilbendle.com/metrics-that-marketers-muddle/) - From 2016: With Charan Bagga I have just published an article in the Sloan Management Review (see the article here). We called the article -- rather self-explanatorily -- Metrics that Marketers Muddle. Annoying Things That Marketers Do This central message is a bit cranky. Indeed we could have titled the paper, "annoying things that marketers do". We highlight:
- [The Balanced Scorecard](https://neilbendle.com/the-balanced-scorecard/) - Today's post is about a classic of business literature. The Balanced Scorecard from Robert Kaplan and David Norton is an approach to business strategy. It is hard to argue with the basic idea that businesses should regularly monitor a variety of success factors and report how they are succeeding on each factor. Four Perspectives In
- [Accounting For Profits And Decisions](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Classification And The Platypus: Imposing Rigid Structure On A Complex World](https://neilbendle.com/classification-and-the-platypus/) - Classification is fundamentally a problem. It is putting things that are different into categories to make us feel better. (Perhaps more fairly to allow us to cope with a complex world). Classification and the platypus tells us that we shouldn't do it more than we have to. Classifying Seems To Cheer Some People Up People
- [A Taxonomy Of Nudging](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Paranoia Doesn't Make Sense](https://neilbendle.com/paranoia-doesnt-make-sense/) - The most infuriating articles are written by otherwise impressive scholars. One such article is Roderick Kramer's When Paranoia Makes Sense. Written in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the Enron debacle it may have resonated at the time. Still, it is irredeemably flawed and socially malignant. Kramer should have known better. Paranoia Doesn't Make
- [Creating Stories With Data Visualizations](https://neilbendle.com/creating-stories-with-data-visualizations/) - Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic has a useful book -- Storytelling with Data. This contains lots of good advice on Creating Stories With Data Visualizations and generally improving data visualization. She tries to ensure the reader does not lazily follow the first thing a software (e.g., Excel) recommends. This is important, she gives many examples in the
- [Marketing And The Movies](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-and-the-movies/) - I want to do a long piece on marketing and the movies -- the good, the bad and the silly. Today isn't the day. For now I'll note that Jason Squire has compiled an extensive review of the movie business in a book. It has a 'does what it says on the tin' title of
- [Innumeracy And The Problems It Causes](https://neilbendle.com/innumeracy-and-the-problems-it-causes/) - John Allen Paulos' book Innumeracy tackles the fact that much of what is talked about in the public sphere shows an alarming lack of mathematical fluency. I had to agree with many of his points. (Though it might need a new edition; some of the writing seemed a bit dated, there were a frightening number
- [Successfully Managing At The Marketing Finance Interface](https://neilbendle.com/successfully-managing-at-the-marketing-finance-interface/) - Keith Ward in his great book Marketing Finance addressees success factors in managing at the marketing finance interface. The Future Is What Matters Ward starts by noting that historical analysis can't change the past. Okay, that is pretty obvious. The implication is important, however. Historical analysis is mostly only useful if it "can be applied to
- [Classifying Marketing Investments As Expenses](https://neilbendle.com/classifying-marketing-investments/) - For this week and next I will look at an excellent book - Marketing Finance - by Keith Ward. He has taught at Cranfield amongst other places. (There are later editions with new co-authors -- but reading different editions of the same book too close to each other is a bit too much even for
- [The Secret Axis: Label Your Axis So As Not To Lie](https://neilbendle.com/the-secret-axis/) - Gary Smith's advice on statistics, Standard Deviations, is a really useful and entertaining book. In this Smith points out a number of major problems with the way stats are used. Some problems arise from deliberate tricks played by researchers/managers describing data. Other problems arise through carelessness; the researcher/manager using the data doesn't realize they are abusing
- [Leadership In Politics](https://neilbendle.com/leadership-in-politics/) - Real-world examples often provide concepts that apply in business. I worked in politics for many years and I think that there are lessons for educational and commercial leadership. Good political leaders try and seize temporary opportunities. Their dramatic actions make for exciting highs when successful and dramatic lows when not. So what can we learn
- [The Trump Fallacy](https://neilbendle.com/the-trump-fallacy/) - Dixit and Nalebuff have great skill in popularizing game theory. Today I will detail a problem that I will call The Trump Fallacy. Theory And Understanding The World Their work is full of interesting examples and useful ways of looking at sometimes tricky concepts. They are strong believers in having theory to back up ideas
- [Reduce Sludge In Your Organization](https://neilbendle.com/reduce-sludge-in-your-organization/) - In this post, and the next, I will highlight some important ideas from The Behaviourally Informed Organization. (It is Canadian -- this is not just me reverting to UK spelling). The first point I want to touch upon are the barriers that hinder people from taking the actions you want them to take. Such barriers
- [What Are People Like? A Categorization](https://neilbendle.com/what-are-people-like-a-categorization/) - Before designing any intervention to influence them it is worth asking: What Are People Like? Derek Ireland in The Behaviorally Informed Organization presents what he calls a Boundedly Rational Complex Consumer Continuum, the shorthand being the BRCCC. (I am unsure why he thinks that is a pleasant and memorable acronym. I feel that I may
- [Surviving Paranoia](https://neilbendle.com/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
- [Risk, Uncertainty and Monty Hall](https://neilbendle.com/risk-uncertainty-and-monty-hall/) - I find Gerd Gigerenzer's grouchy attacks on other scholars entertaining and so I enjoyed his new book, Risk Savvy. In this he discusses risk, uncertainty and Monty Hall. Risk, Uncertainty and Monty Hall In Risk Savvy Gigerenzer brings a new perspective to the Monty Hall problem. Monty was a gameshow host famous for having a great prize
- [The Problem Of Overfitting](https://neilbendle.com/overfitting/) - Nate Silver's The Signal and the Noise has much to recommend it. It is about prediction generally, rather than being focused specifically on baseball or politics where he built his reputation. He also notes challenges with statistical models, specifically the problem of overfitting. The Problem Of Overfitting A problem Silver addresses is the overfitting of mathematical
- [Lying With Statistics](https://neilbendle.com/lying-with-statistics/) - While statistics can help us understand the world there is plenty of opportunity to abuse them to mislead. Darrell Huff wrote a short book that was first published in 1952 on lying with statistics. Some of the text shows its age (lots of male pronouns and references to gentleman) but many of the lessons remain applicable today. Reading Huff's
- [Field Guide to Lies](https://neilbendle.com/field-guide-to-lies/) - Daniel Levitin has an very enjoyable and informative popular science book in his Field Guide to Lies. He surveys how we know what we know, and how we communicate it to others. To be fair not all of it is about lies, for instance, he discusses how data is collected. A lot of the problems he
- ["Rational" Decision Making in Practice](https://neilbendle.com/rational-decision-making-in-practice/) - Behavioural Economics (and related marketing research) has great potential for practical application. There are a number of things that people reliably do that cause them problems. So advice can help improve this. Presh Talwalkar has a book on improving decision making -- The Irrationality Illusion -- that offers some tips for making decisions more rational.
- [Capturing Budget with Excess Share of Voice](https://neilbendle.com/capturing-budget-with-excess-share-of-voice/) - Now for a metric not yet in our Marketing Metrics book. I'm hoping that writing this means reading this blog post plus buying our book will give you every metric you could ever need. The metric I'm looking at here is excess share of voice. Excess Share Of Voice Today's metric is Excess Share of
- [Faking Market Share](https://neilbendle.com/faking-market-share/) - I enjoyed Peter Thiel's Zero to One which he wrote with Blake Masters. Thiel seems more interesting than most business leaders. The book spews out ideas in a slightly haphazard, but never boring, fashion. (To be clear I'm pretty sure I disagree with him on an awful lot of issues, but still think it is
- [Trying To Understand Market Share Theory](https://neilbendle.com/market-share-theory/) - I really enjoyed Richard Miniter's The Myth of Market Share. His first book criticizes market share goals. I would say there is a lot of value in trying to understand market share theory. (To be clear I use the term 'theory' quite broadly. I just mean a theory as something that provides a reason for
- [The Problem Of Goodwill And Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/the-problem-of-goodwill-and-marketing/) - Tony Tollington's book on Brand Assets is fascinating. The book is not an especially easy read. Indeed, it gets into some pretty detailed philosophical debates around the nature of assets and accounting which can be tough. That said it is good to think about these things and Tollington definitely made me think. There is a
- [The Politics of Accounting](https://neilbendle.com/the-politics-of-accounting/) - Tony Tollington's book on Brand Assets is fascinating. (Accounting rules have changed a bit since he wrote it. The acronyms and rule numbers aren't what are used nowadays but the ideas are similar). He makes fascinating notes on the politics of accounting. The Politics Of Accounting For Intangible Assets Tollington notes the problems with the
- [Marketers Prefer Contribution](https://neilbendle.com/marketers-prefer-contribution/) - A couple of years ago teaching introductory marketing I told my students they must have calculations in the final exam. They listened and gave me numbers. My students were mostly aim for investment banking. They thought finance had the "best" numbers and so used these. They gave me some marvellous numbers, e.g., EBITDA and NOPAT.
- [The Value Of Conventions In Visualizations](https://neilbendle.com/the-value-of-conventions-in-graphics/) - I must confess to having a mixed attitude to 'the way things are always done'. I am a big believer in trying new things. Why should we be constrained by what someone did in the past, often for completely idiosyncratic reasons? I find it quite bizarre that the UK and US use miles etc.. These
- [Rational Voters?](https://neilbendle.com/rational-voters/) - Whenever I hear someone say "rational" I worry. Everyone means a different thing. This is a problem as obviously you can't discuss rationality without knowing what it is. Bryan Caplan uses his view of rationality to criticize democracy in The Myth of the Rational Voter (Caplan 2007). The book left me with mixed feelings. I love
- [Selfishness and Rationality](https://neilbendle.com/selfishness-and-rationality/) - People often imply that selfishness is central to rational decision making. Yet this is wrong by any meaningful definition of rationality. Selfishness and rationality are not inextricably intertwined. Defining Rationality Definitions matter in the real world. Managers can believe they commit a business sin by considering others -- they are being irrational by not being
- [Attila's Leadership Secrets](https://neilbendle.com/attilas-leadership-secrets/) - Wess Roberts' Leadership Secrets of Attila the Hun was a great idea. Too many management writers seem to think boring is the way to go. A good message wrapped in an interesting package is likely to have more impact than the same message conveyed in turgid prose and indecipherable acronyms. As such, I'll confess to
- [Don't Use One Industry To Create Examples For CLV (Customer Lifetime Value)](https://neilbendle.com/cautions-about-using-one-industry-to-create-examples-for-customer-lifetime-value/) - Lloyd Melnick has a short and snappy book on customer lifetime value (which he terms LTV). At its best this is a useful insight into the games industry. There is a lot of detail there in a very easy to read form. For example, you will learn about ARPU (Average Revenue per User) and ARPDAU
- [Colleges And Universities](https://neilbendle.com/colleges-and-universities/) - Andrew Delbanco's discussion of college in the US is at its most interesting discussing the origins of college. He is keen to emphasize that colleges and universities are not the same things. He suggests that college, a place for undergraduate education, developed from early American Puritan ideals. This was a place for moral and intellectual
- [The Three Stages of Business Analytics](https://neilbendle.com/the-three-stages-of-business-analytics/) - Thomas Davenport is one of the best know voices in the field of business analytics. He has a book with Jinho Kim which discusses how individual business people can best manage their work in a world where analytics are a key part of many business strategies. The aim of the book is to enable managers,
- [A Positive View Of The World Using Facts](https://neilbendle.com/a-positive-view-of-the-world-using-facts/) - I thought Han Rosling's book (written with his son and daughter in law) 'Factfulness' was wonderful. It was engagingly written but the real joy was the author's ability to explain the world using data rather than hunches and pre-conceptions. It may come as a great surprise to many that Rosling's take on the world is
- [Improving How We See The World](https://neilbendle.com/improving-how-we-see-the-world/) - Today I'll share some advice from Hans Rosling's wonderful book Factfulness. (He founded the Gapminder educational not-for-profit, see here). This advocates that the world is getting better. Despite the obvious challenges remaining we need to understand this to see what is working and do more of it. Rosling shows a positive view from the data
- [Public Policy And Intangibles](https://neilbendle.com/public-policy-intangibles/) - Haskel and Westlake in their excellent book "Capitalism without Capital" point out the problems that record keeping has with recording assets. (My last comment on this book I promise). There is a big problem in respect of public policy and intangibles. Reporting Challenges They note the asymmetry of the rules around intangible reporting. Namely that intangibles
- [Deep Rationality](https://neilbendle.com/deep-rationality/) - Rationality is a topic which you can devote years of study to without making much progress. This is because one problem is that everyone means different things by rationality. It is not just marketers disagreeing with economists, who are disagreeing with psychologists. There are also major cleavages within disciplines. One perspective from evolutionary psychologists is
- [How Bad Metrics Help](https://neilbendle.com/how-bad-metrics-help/) - In this post, I will examine how bad metrics help. Something doesn't have to be perfect to be useful. Often the act of creating a metric, even a bad metric, creates debate/conversations which highlight what we do, or do not, know. Two Scenarios Consider the following scenarios: A) The plan was unveiled in the meeting.
- [Logical Problems](https://neilbendle.com/logical-problems/) - Logic is a challenge for all of us. To get through life we make a lot of leaps that are probably not justified. That said it is helpful to sit back and think through the leaps we are making. Bo Bennett has put together a compilation of logical fallacies. These range from some classic ones
- [Spurious Correlations: A Big Problem With Big Data?](https://neilbendle.com/spurious-correlations-a-big-problem-and-likely-to-get-bigger/) - Tyler Vigen has done great work popularizing Spurious Correlations. He has found an effective way to convey an important message. Namely, that correlation does not equal causation. Lots of things are correlated but that doesn't mean that they have anything to do with each other. Data Dredging To create his graphs Vigen indulges in: Data Dredging... a technique used
- [The Destiny of Accounting Measures of Customer Assets](https://neilbendle.com/the-destiny-of-accounting-measures-of-customer-assets/) - In an optimistic piece Keiningham, Aksoy, and Bejou outline what they think the future of customer asset management is. What should we expect for accounting measures of customer assets? How should we expect such assets to be treated in the future? Why Are Accounting Measures Of Customer Assets So Bad? They note three big problems.
- [How Might AI Change Business?](https://neilbendle.com/how_might_ai_change_business/) - In the excellent Prediction Machines Agrawal, Gans and Goldfarb take an economics-based view of the changes that will be brought on by Artificial Intelligence (AI). Essentially some basic economic principles can help us see what will change. Given this: How Might AI Change Business? AI Prediction Is Becoming Cheaper The argument is that AI can
- [Machine Learning And The End Of The World](https://neilbendle.com/machine-learning-and-the-end-of-the-world/) - This week I have a second (and last) post on Agrawal, Gans and Golfarb's Prediction Machines. This interesting books discusses the difference between machine learning and traditional statistics. The idea being machine learning is more functional, more concerned with a useful result than a precisely accurate one. The challenge is that machine learning predicts not
- [True But Useless](https://neilbendle.com/true-but-useless/) - The Heath brothers, Chip and Dan, have an entertaining style and together they have generated a number of readable, informative popular psychology/business books. I enjoy the books and generally agree with a lot of what they say. A nice addition to the language is True But Useless. The Problem Of Certainty The brothers do run into the problem facing a lot
- [What Is CLV For? Knowing Helps Decisions About CLV](https://neilbendle.com/what-is-clv-for/) - Customer Lifetime Value is an important metric and it has potential to be valuable in running a wide range of companies. One thing that is useful with any approach is to say what is it for? So what is CLV for? This seems like too simple a question to be valuable but often that isn't
- [RFM: Recency, Frequency, Monetary](https://neilbendle.com/rfm-recency-frequency-and-monetary/) - Database marketing has evolved over the years. Nowadays I would say that CLV (customer lifetime value) has surpassed RFM. CLV is certainly more often recommended by academics (including me) nowadays. (CLV certainly works best with predictable payments. It is a bit more challenging to know how to rank customers with less predictable payments patterns). An
- [Advice On Data Science, It Isn't Too Hard to Understand](https://neilbendle.com/advice-on-data-science-it-isnt-too-hard-to-understand/) - Marketers should understand the data science models that are increasingly being used in the discipline. We really need good advice on data science. As such it is helpful to find simple explanations of data science models. Numsence by Annalyn Ng and Kenneth Soo is an admirable attempt to clarify basic models used in data science.
- [The Practitioner-Research Divide Beyond Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/the-practitioner-research-divide-beyond-marketing/) - Neil Anderson and his colleagues have given a lot of thought to the divide between research and practice. They focus on this in Industrial, Work and Organizational (IWO) Psychology. I don't know much about this discipline. Still, a lot of the problems seem quite familiar. As such, they highlight the practitioner-research divide beyond marketing. In
- [Education Technology: The Blackboard](https://neilbendle.com/education-technology-the-blackboard/) - It is easy to forget that any new technology has to start somewhere. One of the best things about being an academic is the chance to read somewhat random things. Occasionally they turn out to be useful, mostly they are just interesting. Today I consider an article in the History of Education Quarterly on a
- [Marketers Have To Turn Up](https://neilbendle.com/marketers-have-to-turn-up/) - Koen Pauwels, a well-known marketing academic at Northeastern University, has a very useful book on working with marketing data. He focuses a lot on marketing dashboards and analyzing data. Rather than attempt to relay all the points, you can read it yourself, I want to focus on a little anecdote about the creation of the
- [Is Math Racist?](https://neilbendle.com/is-math-racist/) - Cathy O'Neil's book - Weapons of Math Destruction - is an entertaining and informative read. She has done a great job of highlighting the challenges with math models. (I have one massive problem with the book but I'll detail that next time, see here). First I'll address the question on everyone's mind: Is Math Racist? Math Models
- [Market Share is Malarkey](https://neilbendle.com/market-share-is-malarkey/) - Students, teachers, managers, and commentators all love market share. Many think a reasonable business goal is to increase market share. My only question is: Why? To use a Joe Biden word, Market Share is Malarkey. [This was written in 2012, but Joe Biden phrases still work now in 2021]. Market Share Is Not The Same
- [More On CLV: A Lot Of Bad Advice Out There](https://neilbendle.com/more-on-clv/) - Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is widely discussed in marketing. Unfortunately, given marketers rarely refer to anyone else's ideas this just leads to lots of people having their own view. This means when one looks up CLV online you are very likely to get a view of the metric that may, or may not, make sense. You want more on
- [Valuing Free Customers](https://neilbendle.com/valuing-free-customers/) - Two sided markets are an important concept in economics and business. They have some exciting characteristics and present some great problems in deciding on corporate strategy. One issue is: how much should a company pay to acquire a customer who isn't paying anything? How to go about valuing free customers? The Value Of Customers Who
- [Simple Marketing Metrics Good. Too Simple CLV Not So Good](https://neilbendle.com/simple-metrics-are-good-too-simple-clv-not-as-good/) - Let me start this post by saying that I have had good experiences with Qualtrics. I have used their survey panel services before, and would certainly do so again. (Assuming they want me as a customer after this blog post). Unfortunately their attempt to give advice on CLV is, let me use a technical British
- [Don't Expect Marketing Metrics To Be Magical](https://neilbendle.com/dont-expect-marketing-metrics-to-be-magical/) - Michael Schrage tells us that customer lifetime value is a problematic measure but to me his criticisms seemed to be unreasonable. I have one message for him: Don't Expect Marketing Metrics to be Magical. Overegging His Critique Firstly, I think he may be overegging his critique for effect. We might all have sympathy with that.
- [Does Acquisition Cost Reduce CLV? No](https://neilbendle.com/does-acquisition-cost-reduce-customer-lifetime-value/) - Marketing suffers from serious definitional problems which undermine the communication function of metrics. For example, Does Acquisition Cost Reduce CLV? I therefore recommend a step forward; lets all exclude acquisition costs from customer lifetime value (CLV) calculations. CLV Is The Net Present Value Of A Customer Relationship Customer lifetime value is the net present value
- [Use Of Humor In Business](https://neilbendle.com/use-of-humor-in-business/) - I must confess to being a bit jealous of Jennifer Aaker and Naomi Bagdonas. They get to teach a course on the use of humor in business. It seems like they have a great time doing it. They meet a lot of fun people and do a lot of interesting activities. (As well as doing
- [Testing Psychic Powers](https://neilbendle.com/testing-psychic-powers/) - One of the most 'interesting' academic papers of recent times is Daryl Bem's paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (a reputable journal) on psi. (Yes, psychic phenomenon, he was interested in testing psychic powers). He purported to show that people had the ability to 'feel' the future and so predict it better
- [Good Practice In Undergraduate Education](https://neilbendle.com/good-practice-in-undergraduate-education/) - One of the strangest things about being a professor is that outsiders think this means you are primarily a teacher. As a researcher, you feel that you aren't primarily a teacher. (Some snooty colleagues even find being called a teacher a bit of insult). The particularly strange thing is the outsiders do have a sensible
- [The Marketing Common Language Dictionary](https://neilbendle.com/the-marketing-common-language-dictionary/) - I don't retell many biblical stories but the Tower of Babel is a useful one. I admit I am probably not getting it perfect but the general story goes that everyone spoke different languages. It was, therefore, all a bit of a disaster. Think herding cats or clearing people out of a bar at the
- [Catch 22 And Accounting For Employees](https://neilbendle.com/catch-22-and-accounting-for-employees/) - A theme of mine is the challenge that marketers have with financial accounting. Essentially most marketing spending is accounted for as an expense. This is even if it has the explicit intention to be an investment. This makes financial reports pretty poor for understanding the marketing of a firm. What about Human Resources (HR). We
- [TV Still Matters For Advertising](https://neilbendle.com/tv-still-matters/) - I am involved with the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB). An aim of this organization is to bring more rigor to marketing measurement. Top members of MASB took a lead in examining the effectiveness and efficiency of TV advertising. Their conclusion, TV still matters. Following Up On Past Research The authors followed up on prior
- [Bribery Works With Students](https://neilbendle.com/bribery-works-with-students/) - In what might be classed as a stunningly unsurprising result Michael Hessler and his colleagues did an experiment to demonstrate that bribing students with cookies helps with evaluations of teaching. The headline is that bribery works with students. Broadly speaking I have no doubt that they are right. I have seen a few criticisms of
- [Demonstrating the Financial Impact of Marketing Actions](https://neilbendle.com/demonstrating-the-financial-impact-of-marketing-actions/) - Paul Magill, Christine Moorman and Nikita Avdiushko raise a major problem in marketing. Demonstrating the Financial Impact of Marketing Actions Critical To Show The Financial Impact of Marketing Actions As the authors say When we asked over 300 marketing leaders in the U.S. to identify the activities they find most challenging, the number one thing
- [The Sokal Hoax](https://neilbendle.com/the-sokal-hoax/) - A fascinating event in academic history was the Sokal Hoax. A physicist reacted to the idea that reality is completely socially constructed and determined he would get published in a cultural studies journal. Satirizing Academic Publishing Before we celebrate Sokal's inter-disciplinarity it is worth noting that he was satirizing social studies. The text he sent
- [The Pain of Paying](https://neilbendle.com/the-pain-of-paying/) - An interesting topic in consumer behavior is that people experience 'pain' when paying for something. One can think of this as a good thing. We obviously do find joy from gaining the stuff that paying acquires. If, therefore, we didn't feel any pain when paying we would all end up spending too much. Thus, there
- [Frequency Dependence And Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/frequency-dependence-and-strategy/) - Here I'll highlight an idea from evolutionary biology that has profond implications for strategy. This is the idea of frequency dependence. I think people overlook thais concept, a lot. Whenever you see, "10 tips for success", or even stronger claims like "the five things you must do" remember whoever is saying this is either a)
- [Behavioural Economics And Policy In Canada](https://neilbendle.com/behavioural-economics-and-policy-in-canada/) - One of the most interesting things about behavioural economics is that it is quite practical. The findings can apply in the public sphere. Such application can often be very direct. Furthermore, many of the ideas generated in behavioural economics are simple tweaks. Tweaks can be very cheap to implement. This, therefore, can make the ideas popular
- [Pareto Efficiency In Markets](https://neilbendle.com/pareto-efficiency-in-markets/) - A key idea when analyzing markets is Pareto efficiency. This is also called Pareto optimality. Despite the name it is a simple idea. We see Pareto efficiency in markets whenever you can't make anyone better off without making someone else worse off. There is thus a number of optimal points. Each point involves a different
- [The Politician's Fallacy](https://neilbendle.com/the-politicians-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
- [Confusion About Individual Rationality and Market Outcomes](https://neilbendle.com/individual-rationality-and-market-outcomes/) - Amongst marketing scholars there is a lot of confusion regarding individual rationality and market outcomes. There is also plenty of blame to go around for the confusion. Marketing's Two Groups Who Politely Ignore One Another In marketing we have bifurcated into two groups. Psychologically trained scholars often suggest that economically trained scholars all believe in
- [Woke-Washing: A Big Deal?](https://neilbendle.com/woke-washing/) - I find the discussions of the role of social purpose in marketing fascinating. Unlike a lot of marketing discussions this can make it into popular debates. Owen Jones, a UK Guardian (left leaning) opinion journalist gave his view on brands and the culture wars. The open question -- Woke-Washing: A Big Deal? LGBT Sandwich Jones
- [Reference Group Neglect: Don't Gamble With Gamblers](https://neilbendle.com/reference-group-neglect/) - The problem of why entrepreneurs start up companies is an interesting one. Many fail but it doesn't seem to put new ones off. Colin Camerer and Dan Lovallo examined a possible reason for this. (They examine it in a lab so can't give definitive answers but it is still interesting.) The authors use a small game
- [Six Decision-Making Lessons From The World Cup](https://neilbendle.com/six-lessons-from-the-world-cup/) - Departing from my usual structure of analyzing a single topic I thought I'd illustrate decision making lessons with examples from the World Cup. (This post on the 6 decision-making lessons from the world cup was written in 2014). Three Decision-Making Lessons From The World Cup Firstly, regression to the mean is commonly not recognized. Spain had a very
- [How To Identify What Metrics Matter?](https://neilbendle.com/how-to-identify-what-metrics-matter/) - Having a lot of data is great but like pretty much everything in life that is a good thing it still brings its own problems. With a lot of data there are any number of metrics you can produce. Some even look pretty impressive in reports. Yet which ones are actually useful? How To Identify
- [Conducting Business Tests](https://neilbendle.com/conductingbusinesstests/) - We should be conducting business tests to have more confidence we are doing the right thing. Small And Big Decisions In business decisions are often taken "without having any real evidence to back them up" (Davenport, 2009, page 69). This is a source of great frustration to me, (and many academics). To be fair sometimes there
- [Improving Public Policy With Better Assumptions](https://neilbendle.com/improving-public-policy-2/) - Katie Chen (then at Western), Dilip Soman (of Rotman), and myself published a whitepaper. (I wrote this in 2017 and have edited since). This was through BEAR at the University of Toronto. We discussed moves towards improving public policy with better assumptions. Specifically the ideas about human behavior used in models. (More empiricially valid models in academic terms). By
- [The Role Of Budgeting In Organizations](https://neilbendle.com/the-role-of-budgeting-in-organizations/) - One of the problems managers face with budgets is that budgeting has a variety of different roles. These roles can all be important but the roles sometimes conflict. Barrett and Fraser writing in the Harvard Business Review more than 40 years ago distinguished between three types of budgets: Capital (major investment planning), Financial (cash flow/bank
- [How Sexy is Working With Big Data?](https://neilbendle.com/how-sexy-is-working-with-big-data/) - I think that academics should share their opinions widely. Some academics may believe that they have no opinions, they just relate what the data says. This is might be true for extremely empirical scholars, those who typically see themselves working with big data. Such scholars are kidding themselves. We must be willing to change with data but our experience helps
- [Programmatic Media Buying And Algorithmic Purchasing](https://neilbendle.com/programmatic-media-buying-and-algorithmic-purchasing/) - This post looks at art and science -- communications and analysis -- in the use of data. I also discuss programmatic Media Buying And Algorithmic Purchasing. Art And Science in Marketing Analytics Kevin Hartman, the Director of Analytics for Google, has a pleasant readable book on digital marketing analytics. (Which quite frankly you'd expect him
- [Predicting What Image Works For An Individual](https://neilbendle.com/predicting-what-image-works-for-an-individual/) - One of the central challenges of marketing is that people differ. Marketers would love to create marketing communications that work for everyone. While some communications do pretty well nothing has universal appeal. Some images work fantastically for some people but turn others off. How can we predict who will like what? What helps us in
- [Strategic Change And Stakeholders](https://neilbendle.com/strategic-change-and-stakeholders/) - A recent article in the MIT Sloan Management Review looks at how we can analyze strategic change. The model by Tom Hunsaker and Jonathan Knowles (a coauthor of mine) looks at the nature of change needed by firms. The model helps us focus on strategic change and how this fits with stakeholders. Specifically, the authors
- [Marketing And Finance Working Together](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-finance-working-together/) - Charlotte Rogers has a fascinating practitioner article on the Marketing/Finance interface published in Marketing Week. This is a positive piece. It outlines how marketing and finance groups are collaborating more. Much of the advice is sensible. For example, UKTV brought a finance person into the media review team. This meant the person was able to
- [Bayes' Theorem And Common Sense](https://neilbendle.com/bayes-theorem-and-common-sense/) - Today we look at Bayes' theorem and common sense highlighting the role of prior beliefs. How Should We Think About Probabilities? There is a big rift in the way people think about probabilities. (This is in addition to he normal challenges doing the math). Events either happen or they don't. We can think of probabilities
- [Catalysts And Persuasion: Changing Minds](https://neilbendle.com/what-does-it-take-to-change-a-mind/) - I enjoy a nice book on persuasion and Jonah Berger's on catalysts and persuasion is certainly one of them. (They make excellent gifts at any time of the year). His prior books were enjoyable and generally illuminating. The Catalyst follows in that tradition. (Although I do think it is funny when writing one of these
- [Being One-Dimensional](https://neilbendle.com/being-one-dimensional/) - In a positioning map there aren't many absolute requirements. A requirement that really must be kept however is that each axis represents a single dimension. This is the importance of being one-dimensional. Multiple Terms On One Axis Creates A Mess If you try to have more than one dimension on each axis it isn't so much

## Pages

- [Home](https://neilbendle.com/) - Clarifying Management & Marketing Theory I research marketing, pricing, and how people make decisions, with a focus on what actually works in practice. This site brings together my work, ideas, and writing in one place. Explore Blog About Me This Week's Post Systems Matter In Sustainability Donella Meadows was the lead author on The Limits
- [Data Visualization Advice](https://neilbendle.com/data-visualization-advice/) - This page just shares data visualization advice. For me one of the quickest ways to lose credibility is to create a graph that doesn't make sense. Language can be ambiguous. One can look at a sentence and think 'the writer doesn't understand the topic'. Still it can be hard to be sure. Words may have
- [Recommended Books](https://neilbendle.com/recommended-books/) - Here is a collection of recommended books in various topics. Note while I think these books are worth a read I'm not claiming they are "right". Some of these I broadly agree with. Others not so much but all may help get a conversation going. Recommended Books In Decision Making The area of decision-making has
- [B Corp Research Papers](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/b-corp-research-papers/) - There is a lot of work being done by academics on B Corp research papers, i.e., research related to B Corporations. The Challenge And Potential Benefit Of B Corp Research One of the challenges of such research is the fact that research cuts across disciplinary boundaries. (To be fair this is also a strength --
- [Strategy And Evolutionary Thinking](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy/strategy-and-evolutionary-thinking/) - I have written a number of posts and articles on evolutionary strategy see here, here, here, and here. In my marketing strategy advice I bring together some concepts and how we might want to think about strategy and evolutionary thinking. Biology And Business It is important to understand that there need not be a simple
- [Tobin's Q: Why Academics Should Listen To Managers](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/tobins-q-why-academics-should-listen-to-managers/) - Has A Manager Ever Used Tobin's Q? Ask an academic where they know Neil Bendle from and they might cite my work arguing that Accounting-based Approximations of Tobin's q (AATQ) should never be used as a performance metric. (I don't mean to imply that I think that I'm properly famous in the sense that normal
- [Profit Measurement: Choose Your Own Level Is Problematic](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/profit-measurement-choose-your-own-level-is-problematic/) - What could be more central to business than profits? For-profit businesses have a goal to make profits by definition. As such, you might think that we all had a pretty good shared idea of what profit is. Of course, you would be wrong. Profit measurement is surprising open to interpretation. You can often choose your
- [Behavioral Econ For Kids: The Cartoon Book](https://neilbendle.com/behavioural-econ-for-kids/) - The new (third) edition of Behavioral Economics for Kids. What Is the Aim of The Book? Firstly, this isn't the sort of book you just give to your five year old and expect them to digest it. In other words, I aimed the book at parents, students, and scholars. As a result of being a
- [Sustainable Business Reading List](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-business-reading-list/) - Here is a Sustainable Business Reading List which covers books in sustainability and the sustainable business field. Note I am not recommending all these. Some of them I don't like at all. (You will pick this up if you follow the links to my commentaries). Still, reading them helps give an idea of what discussions
- [Market Share: Always An Indicator Never A Target](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/market-share-always-an-indicator-never-a-target/) - A Popular Performance Metric But Why? Market share is a very widely used metric. It is often referred to as a specifically marketing metric because people in finance often don't use it as much. It is simple to create. One can use the units you sell and compare that to unit sales in the entire
- [About Me](https://neilbendle.com/neil-bendle/) - Hi, I'm Neil. I am a professor of marketing at the Terry College of Business, University of Georgia. In addition to this, I am a Director of the Marketing Accountability Standards Board (MASB). At MASB we promote making marketing more measurable, more scientific. Training My training involves a Ph.D. in marketing. (Technically business administration). This
- [Marketing Accounts: A Better Way To Measure Marketing Performance](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/marketing-accounts-a-better-way-to-measure-marketing-performance/) - You don't have to be in marketing long to realize that the way financial accounting treats it doesn't inspire much confidence. This is a topic I have noted a number of times in my blog, for example here, here and here. For this problem we have a solution, Marketing Accounts. Read Our Marketing Accounts Paper
- [Advice On Running A Conference](https://neilbendle.com/advice-on-running-a-conference/) - I have now run/been involved in running a few conferences, e.g., Marketing Science, Marketing Strategy Consortium, the Empirical and Theoretical (ET) Symposium. (Now called ETSYM because people thought ET Symposium was silly -- I thought it was funny). I've learned quite a bit and been surprised by a number of the things that I have
- [Marketing Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy/) - I have covered many ideas relevant to strategic marketing in my blog over the last eight years, e.g., here. I also teach this topic at Terry College, University of Georgia where I work, see here. There is, I believe, a lot of opportunity to improve the teaching of marketing especially on the strategy side. Given
- [Marketing Metrics, 4th Edition Book](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-metrics-4th-edition-book/) - Marketing Metrics, 4th Edition Marketing Metrics 4th Edition is now available. We like to think of it as the definitive guide to the metrics that marketers can, and often should, use in their jobs. We cover how the metrics are constructed. The book contains many formulas all written in simple ways. (There is no need
- [Marketing PhD Applications](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-phd-applications/) - Applying To A Marketing PhD This is my personal advice for those considering a marketing PhD. application. It is in no way meant to reflect the views of any school I have been involved with (e.g., Terry College of Business -- UGA, or the Ivey Business School, where I was when I initially wrote this).
- [Sustainable Marketing Strategy Cases](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy-cases/) - This page contains a number of free sustainable marketing strategy cases. These cover a variety of topics in business. For more on sustainable marketing strategy see here. Introductory Sustainable Marketing Strategy Cases These are simple cases designed to set the stage for discussions of business, purpose, and sustainability. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals This
- [Q&A On Sustainable Business](https://neilbendle.com/qa-on-sustainable-business/) - What Is Sustainability? The most common definition is from a United Nations report, (Our Common Future, the Brundtland Report from 1987). This informally defines sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” (https://www.un.org/en/academic-impact/sustainability). Is Sustainable Just Green? Note that the idea of meeting
- [Sustainable Marketing Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/) - This page gives advice to managers, teachers, and students on sustainable marketing strategy. There is a lot of material to read on the website, see here, as well as cases for use in teaching, see here. Definitions of Sustainability First, let me note that there are several definitions of sustainability that might come to mind.
- [Measuring Culture Is A Challenge, But Don't Be Silly](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy/measuring-culture-is-a-challenge-but-dont-be-silly/) - It is obvious to even the most casual observer that measuring culture is a challenge. This hasn't stopped people trying it. In many ways as a measurement person I appreciate this. Measurement challenges are great things to address. Yet.... My main problem with the activity is that the theory is silly, the methods employed seem
- [Marketing In The Movies](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-and-the-movies-advice-on-teaching-marketing-through-movies/) - Advice On Teaching Marketing Through Movies I would love to teach a course on marketing where the students just watch a movie before each session. We would then discuss them each class. Sad to say that I haven't managed to pull that off yet. I think those in charge of scheduling classes might think it
- [Advice For The Marketing Academic Job Market](https://neilbendle.com/advice-for-the-marketing-academic-job-market/) - As a tenured professor I have seen a bunch of people on the academic job market. I, unsurprisingly, have been on the market myself. This means I have advice which I hope will be useful. That said, I do not have 'the secret' and would never claim to have. I would love to be able
- [Customer Equity: Nice Idea, Bit Of A Mess In Execution](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/customer-equity-nice-idea-bit-of-a-mess-in-execution/) - In the 1990's/early 2000s great interest arose in how to understand marketing strategy and its financial impact in terms of customers. This was an extremely welcome occurrence. The concept of customer equity (CE) was developed. It is an interesting story, full of insightful comments. Sadly in some ways the whole thing became a bit of
- [How To Use, And Misuse, Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/how-to-use-clv-customer-lifetime-value/) - Or, You Could Do It That Way But Why Would You Do That? Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is a very useful metric. (Technically, prediction/estimate I guess). It is the dollar value of a customer relationship, based on the present value of the projected future cash flows from the customer relationship. That said, it has to be
- [Machine Learning (ML) And Marketing: What Should You Know?](https://neilbendle.com/machine-learning-ml-and-marketing-what-should-you-know/) - It doesn't take long nowadays before someone will raise the issue of machine learning (ML) and marketing. Here I try and explain some of the basic issues in respect of ML and marketing. Arguably the key one being machine learning is often used for prediction rather than explanation. A good ML model might predict excellently.
- [Popular Marketing Metrics: How Not To Mess Them Up](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/) - Make a search on the internet for popular marketing metrics. When you do so you will find a lot of advice on marketing metrics. This could, theoretically, be very useful to marketers and aspiring marketers. Sadly, often the advice given is pretty awful. As such I am creating this series of pages with my thoughts
- [Net Promoter Score: Sadly Not As Magical As Supporters Suggest](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/net-promoter-score-not-as-magical-as-sometimes-suggested/) - The Net Promoter Score is a strange metric. It has broken through in ways that no other marketing metric that I can think of has. It is a very popular recommendation metric. But recommendations are complex. Looking at the photo you can ask whether I would recommend summer holidays in Atlantic Canada? Maybe we need
- [Total Q, A New Improved Tobin's Q? Not By Much](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/total-q-a-new-improved-tobins-q-not-by-much/) - Total q is a new variant on Tobin's q. Possibly my best-known academic paper is a piece with Moeen Butt that was published in Marketing Science. This paper criticized the use of Tobin's q as a performance metric in marketing. I am not the only person who has concerns about the use of Tobin's q
- [Brand Valuation: Progress But Lots More Needed](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/brand-valuation-progress-but-lots-more-needed/) - Brand valuation is a challenging subject. There isn't a single formula I can give but it is an extremely important topic for marketers to understand. Hence it gets its own popular marketing metrics page. Brand Matters Brands clearly matter in marketing. There are any number of marketing sites that will explain this. Indeed, that is
- [Public Policy, Behavioral Economics and Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/public-policy-behavioral-economics-and-marketing/) - There have been interesting developments at the intersection of public policy, behavioral economics and marketing. Good public policy has always had an understanding of the people it applied to. Still efforts have been made in recent years to improve this further. To make public consideration more explictly central. To create policy with the foibles of
- [Rationality And Marketing Strategy](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy/rationality-and-marketing-strategy/) - Rationality and marketing strategy is an important topic for marketers to think about. I worry that many scholars and writers haven't given too much thought to the big picture of decision-making. This is important because securing consumer choice is at the heart of marketing. Yet views of the decision-making underlying marketer's discussions are often quite
- [Is ROI The Most Abused Term In Marketing?](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/is-roi-the-most-abused-term-in-marketing/) - Return on investment (ROI) is a good thing. It conjures up all sorts of positive connotations. As such it is understandable that marketers want to use the term. The challenge is that often it is used in a 'motherhood and apple pie' sort of way. If you can point to something good then you call
- [Measuring Competition With The Bendle Panda Index](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/measuring-competition-with-the-bendle-panda-index/) - Marketing Metrics And Understanding Markets Most metrics we discuss are related to the firm, or even the individual consumer. At some point in strategy discussions, however, a marketer will want to know what the market in general is like. Is this a very competitive market or not? How do we measure that? I have developed
- [Chapter of Marketing Metrics 4th Edition, Free Sample](https://neilbendle.com/marketing-metrics-4th-edition-book/sample-chapter-of-marketing-metrics-4th-edition/) - Here is a free sample chapter of Marketing Metrics. This is a PDF of a chapter from the 2020 (4th) Edition of Marketing Metrics: The Manager's Guide To Measuring Marketing performance. At the risk of not being modest we like to think that this is very much the definitive guide to measuring marketing performance. Want
- [Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning](https://neilbendle.com/sustainable-marketing-strategy/marketing-strategy/segmentation-targeting-and-positioning/) - STP And Marketing Strategy I've always found some of the ideas around STP (Segmentation, targeting and Positioning) a bit vague. For example, consider Wikipedia which says: Positioning refers to the place that a brand occupies in the minds of the customers and how it is distinguished from the products of the competitors and different from the concept of brand awareness.
- [A Plea About Language Used In Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/a-plea-about-language-used-in-marketing/) - This page outlines a number of phrases that are used loosely, or just plain wrongly, by marketers. As such you can see this as a plea for more discipline in the language used in marketing. This is mostly aimed at academic writers. Still, hopefully, the advice will be useful even more widely. It is very
- [Value Of A Like: Do Not Use For Budgeting](https://neilbendle.com/popular-marketing-metrics/value-of-a-like-do-not-use-for-budgeting/) - This post is specifically to combat claims made about social media measurement. It follows on earlier work I did, here. Specifically I am against the idea that 'the value of a like' is what marketers should be prepared to pay to gain a like. I'm optimistic that the number of such claims have rescinded in

## Categories

- [Marketing Metrics](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/)
- [Market Share](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/market-share/)
- [Management Theory](https://neilbendle.com/category/management-theory/)
- [Decision Making](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/)
- [Evolution](https://neilbendle.com/category/evolution/)
- [Evolutionary Psychology](https://neilbendle.com/category/evolution/evolutionary-psychology/)
- [Rationality](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/rationality/)
- [Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/category/sustainability/)
- [Culture](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/culture/)
- [Loyalty](https://neilbendle.com/category/loyalty/)
- [Assumptions](https://neilbendle.com/category/data-science/assumptions-decision-making/)
- [Accounting and Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/category/accounting-and-marketing/)
- [Understanding Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/category/understanding-marketing/)
- [Revenue](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/revenue/)
- [Innovation](https://neilbendle.com/category/innovation/)
- [Survey Methodology](https://neilbendle.com/category/understanding-marketing/survey-methodology/)
- [Sports](https://neilbendle.com/category/management-theory/sports/)
- [Optimism](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/optimism/)
- [Brand](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/brand/)
- [Leadership](https://neilbendle.com/category/leadership/)
- [Teaching](https://neilbendle.com/category/teaching/)
- [Public Policy](https://neilbendle.com/category/public-policy/)
- [Visualization](https://neilbendle.com/category/teaching/visualization/)
- [Market Research](https://neilbendle.com/category/understanding-marketing/market-research/)
- [Business Schools](https://neilbendle.com/category/education/business-schools/)
- [Zero Sum Thinking](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/zero-sum-thinking/)
- [Advertising](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/advertising/)
- [Marketing Accountability](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-accountability/)
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- [Data Science](https://neilbendle.com/category/data-science/)
- [Education](https://neilbendle.com/category/education/)
- [Numeracy](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/numeracy/)
- [CSR](https://neilbendle.com/category/sustainability/csr/)
- [History](https://neilbendle.com/category/history/)
- [ROI](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/roi/)
- [B Corporation](https://neilbendle.com/category/sustainability/b-corporation/)
- [Altruism and Gifts](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/altruism-and-gifts/)
- [Academics and Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/category/education/academics-and-marketing/)
- [AI and Machine Learning](https://neilbendle.com/category/data-science/ai-and-machine-learning/)
- [Consumer Behavior](https://neilbendle.com/category/consumer-behavior/)
- [Behavioral Effects](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/behavioral-effects/)
- [Modeling](https://neilbendle.com/category/data-science/modeling/)
- [Logic and arguments](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/logic-and-arguments/)
- [Planning for the Future](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/planning-for-the-future/)
- [Market and social evolution](https://neilbendle.com/category/management-theory/market-and-social-evolution/)
- [CLV](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/clv/)
- [Gender and stereotyping](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/gender-and-stereotyping/)
- [Competition and game theory](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/competition-and-game-theory/)
- [Retailing and B2B](https://neilbendle.com/category/retailing-and-b2b/)
- [NPS and satisfaction](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/nps-and-satisfaction/)
- [Political Marketing and polling](https://neilbendle.com/category/political-marketing-and-polling/)
- [Behavioral economics and nudges](https://neilbendle.com/category/behavioral-economics-and-nudges/)
- [Social Media and networks](https://neilbendle.com/category/social-media-and-networks/)
- [Morality and selfishness](https://neilbendle.com/category/morality-and-selfishness/)
- [Strategy and positioning](https://neilbendle.com/category/strategy-and-positioning/)
- [Trust and punishment](https://neilbendle.com/category/decision-making/trust-and-punishment/)
- [Tobins Q and market to book](https://neilbendle.com/category/marketing-metrics/tobins-q-and-market-to-book/)
- [Pricing and contribution](https://neilbendle.com/category/pricing-and-contribution/)

## Tags

- [axis](https://neilbendle.com/tag/axis/)
- [destructive outcomes](https://neilbendle.com/tag/destructive-outcomes/)
- [Laziness](https://neilbendle.com/tag/laziness/)
- [application](https://neilbendle.com/tag/application/)
- [Joseph Arvai](https://neilbendle.com/tag/joseph-arvai/)
- [Sustainable Resource](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sustainable-resource/)
- [Ivey Network for Business Sustainability](https://neilbendle.com/tag/ivey-network-for-business-sustainability/)
- [The Politician](https://neilbendle.com/tag/the-politician/)
- [Ron Paul](https://neilbendle.com/tag/ron-paul/)
- [Geert Hofstede](https://neilbendle.com/tag/geert-hofstede/)
- [Fred Collopy](https://neilbendle.com/tag/fred-collopy/)
- [market share](https://neilbendle.com/tag/market-share-2/)
- [Philip Kotler](https://neilbendle.com/tag/philip-kotler/)
- [Malcolm Goodman](https://neilbendle.com/tag/malcolm-goodman/)
- [marketing strategies](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-strategies/)
- [M.R.V. Goodman](https://neilbendle.com/tag/m-r-v-goodman/)
- [Kevin Lane Keller](https://neilbendle.com/tag/kevin-lane-keller/)
- [Bryan Caplan](https://neilbendle.com/tag/bryan-caplan/)
- [Caplan](https://neilbendle.com/tag/caplan/)
- [rationality](https://neilbendle.com/tag/rationality-2/)
- [Hofstede Centre](https://neilbendle.com/tag/hofstede-centre/)
- [default option](https://neilbendle.com/tag/default-option/)
- [Daniel Kahneman](https://neilbendle.com/tag/daniel-kahneman/)
- [Gerd Gigerenzer](https://neilbendle.com/tag/gerd-gigerenzer/)
- [CLV](https://neilbendle.com/tag/clv/)
- [loyalty schemes](https://neilbendle.com/tag/loyalty-schemes/)
- [loyalty programs](https://neilbendle.com/tag/loyalty-programs/)
- [Marketing Concept](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-concept/)
- [Republican Autopsy](https://neilbendle.com/tag/republican-autopsy/)
- [Opportunity Project](https://neilbendle.com/tag/opportunity-project/)
- [presentation](https://neilbendle.com/tag/presentation/)
- [marketing operations](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-operations/)
- [University of Toronto](https://neilbendle.com/tag/university-of-toronto/)
- [Rotman School](https://neilbendle.com/tag/rotman-school/)
- [Amos Tversky](https://neilbendle.com/tag/amos-tversky/)
- [Decision Makers](https://neilbendle.com/tag/decision-makers/)
- [Andy Grove](https://neilbendle.com/tag/andy-grove/)
- [Merriam Webster](https://neilbendle.com/tag/merriam-webster/)
- [Nate Silver](https://neilbendle.com/tag/nate-silver/)
- [Overfitting](https://neilbendle.com/tag/overfitting/)
- [mathematical models](https://neilbendle.com/tag/mathematical-models/)
- [political parties](https://neilbendle.com/tag/political-parties/)
- [Behavioral Economics](https://neilbendle.com/tag/behavioral-economics-2/)
- [Nobel prize winners](https://neilbendle.com/tag/nobel-prize-winners/)
- [Steven Pinker](https://neilbendle.com/tag/steven-pinker/)
- [Nostalgia](https://neilbendle.com/tag/nostalgia/)
- [NPS](https://neilbendle.com/tag/nps/)
- [Leonard Mlodinow](https://neilbendle.com/tag/leonard-mlodinow/)
- [unemployment rate](https://neilbendle.com/tag/unemployment-rate/)
- [Samuel Bowles](https://neilbendle.com/tag/samuel-bowles/)
- [economic equality](https://neilbendle.com/tag/economic-equality/)
- [political editor](https://neilbendle.com/tag/political-editor/)
- [Herfindahl-Hirschman index](https://neilbendle.com/tag/herfindahl-hirschman-index/)
- [Neil Bendle](https://neilbendle.com/tag/neil-bendle/)
- [Sam Bowles](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sam-bowles/)
- [economic analysis](https://neilbendle.com/tag/economic-analysis/)
- [Santa Fe Institute](https://neilbendle.com/tag/santa-fe-institute/)
- [internal customers](https://neilbendle.com/tag/internal-customers/)
- [Israeli Air Force](https://neilbendle.com/tag/israeli-air-force/)
- [Regression to the mean](https://neilbendle.com/tag/regression-to-the-mean/)
- [performance](https://neilbendle.com/tag/performance/)
- [internal measurement](https://neilbendle.com/tag/internal-measurement/)
- [Measurement Obstructs](https://neilbendle.com/tag/measurement-obstructs/)
- [measurement systems](https://neilbendle.com/tag/measurement-systems/)
- [financial accountants](https://neilbendle.com/tag/financial-accountants/)
- [net promoter score](https://neilbendle.com/tag/net-promoter-score/)
- [Good and Bad Profits Fred Reichheld](https://neilbendle.com/tag/good-and-bad-profits-fred-reichheld/)
- [Fred Reichheld](https://neilbendle.com/tag/fred-reichheld/)
- [Jared Diamond](https://neilbendle.com/tag/jared-diamond/)
- [Guns](https://neilbendle.com/tag/guns/)
- [Germs and Steel](https://neilbendle.com/tag/germs-and-steel/)
- [evolutionary psychologists](https://neilbendle.com/tag/evolutionary-psychologists/)
- [Robert Frank](https://neilbendle.com/tag/robert-frank/)
- [John Deighton](https://neilbendle.com/tag/john-deighton/)
- [Hopefully Frank](https://neilbendle.com/tag/hopefully-frank/)
- [Tim Ambler](https://neilbendle.com/tag/tim-ambler/)
- [Marketing ROI](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-roi/)
- [Vulcans](https://neilbendle.com/tag/vulcans/)
- [CMA Task Force](https://neilbendle.com/tag/cma-task-force/)
- [performance metrics](https://neilbendle.com/tag/performance-metrics/)
- [Charles Duhigg](https://neilbendle.com/tag/charles-duhigg/)
- [Target](https://neilbendle.com/tag/target/)
- [Marketing Rutherford](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-rutherford/)
- [Canadian Marketing Association](https://neilbendle.com/tag/canadian-marketing-association/)
- [predictive analytics](https://neilbendle.com/tag/predictive-analytics/)
- [accounting profit](https://neilbendle.com/tag/accounting-profit/)
- [International Accounting Standards Board](https://neilbendle.com/tag/international-accounting-standards-board/)
- [Office of Fair Trading](https://neilbendle.com/tag/office-of-fair-trading/)
- [Scott Adams](https://neilbendle.com/tag/scott-adams/)
- [Marketing Accountability Standards Board](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marketing-accountability-standards-board/)
- [MASB](https://neilbendle.com/tag/masb/)
- [Sustainability Accounting Standards Board](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sustainability-accounting-standards-board/)
- [SASB](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sasb/)
- [Financial Accounting Standards Board](https://neilbendle.com/tag/financial-accounting-standards-board/)
- [Facebook](https://neilbendle.com/tag/facebook/)
- [John Quelch](https://neilbendle.com/tag/john-quelch/)
- [brands](https://neilbendle.com/tag/brands/)
- [Richard Miniter](https://neilbendle.com/tag/richard-miniter/)
- [Niraj Dawar](https://neilbendle.com/tag/niraj-dawar/)
- [Marlene Zuk](https://neilbendle.com/tag/marlene-zuk/)
- [Sainsbury](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sainsbury/)
- [brand valuation](https://neilbendle.com/tag/brand-valuation/)
- [Malcolm Gladwell](https://neilbendle.com/tag/malcolm-gladwell/)
- [David and Goliath](https://neilbendle.com/tag/david-and-goliath/)
- [Julia Donaldson](https://neilbendle.com/tag/julia-donaldson/)
- [Squeeze](https://neilbendle.com/tag/squeeze/)
- [Duck Billed Platypus](https://neilbendle.com/tag/duck-billed-platypus/)
- [classification systems](https://neilbendle.com/tag/classification-systems/)
- [classification system](https://neilbendle.com/tag/classification-system/)
- [Bruce Greenwald](https://neilbendle.com/tag/bruce-greenwald/)
- [suspension bridge](https://neilbendle.com/tag/suspension-bridge/)
- [sexual imagery](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sexual-imagery/)
- [Simone Ahuja](https://neilbendle.com/tag/simone-ahuja/)
- [Jaideep Prabhu](https://neilbendle.com/tag/jaideep-prabhu/)
- [Navi Radjou](https://neilbendle.com/tag/navi-radjou/)
- [Eldar Shafir](https://neilbendle.com/tag/eldar-shafir/)
- [Fidel Castro](https://neilbendle.com/tag/fidel-castro/)
- [Edward E. Jones](https://neilbendle.com/tag/edward-e-jones/)
- [debatable decisions](https://neilbendle.com/tag/debatable-decisions/)
- [stress](https://neilbendle.com/tag/stress/)
- [Good Hammer Mullainathan](https://neilbendle.com/tag/good-hammer-mullainathan/)
- [scientific consensus](https://neilbendle.com/tag/scientific-consensus/)
- [The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould](https://neilbendle.com/tag/the-mismeasure-of-man-stephen-jay-gould/)
- [scientific findings](https://neilbendle.com/tag/scientific-findings/)
- [Daniel Gilbert](https://neilbendle.com/tag/daniel-gilbert/)
- [Dan Gilbert](https://neilbendle.com/tag/dan-gilbert/)
- [Stumbling on Happiness](https://neilbendle.com/tag/stumbling-on-happiness/)
- [candy bars](https://neilbendle.com/tag/candy-bars/)
- [Jack Knetsch](https://neilbendle.com/tag/jack-knetsch/)
- [Deep Rationality Rationality](https://neilbendle.com/tag/deep-rationality-rationality/)
- [Itamar Simonson](https://neilbendle.com/tag/itamar-simonson/)
- [Emanuel Rosen](https://neilbendle.com/tag/emanuel-rosen/)
- [perfect information](https://neilbendle.com/tag/perfect-information/)
- [Sam Allardyce](https://neilbendle.com/tag/sam-allardyce/)
- [Tim Hortons](https://neilbendle.com/tag/tim-hortons/)
- [Canadian Business](https://neilbendle.com/tag/canadian-business/)
- [Canadian Business magazine](https://neilbendle.com/tag/canadian-business-magazine/)
- [Carlye Adler](https://neilbendle.com/tag/carlye-adler/)
- [Andy Smith](https://neilbendle.com/tag/andy-smith/)
- [Jennifer Aaker](https://neilbendle.com/tag/jennifer-aaker/)
- [Fairness](https://neilbendle.com/tag/fairness/)
- [Jagmohan Ragu](https://neilbendle.com/tag/jagmohan-ragu/)
- [Tony Cui](https://neilbendle.com/tag/tony-cui/)
- [q](https://neilbendle.com/tag/q/)
- [Evolutionary Psychology](https://neilbendle.com/tag/evolutionary-psychology/)
- [Paranoia](https://neilbendle.com/tag/paranoia/)
- [Political Marketing](https://neilbendle.com/tag/political-marketing/)
- [Net Promoter](https://neilbendle.com/tag/net-promoter/)
- [Herfindahl Index](https://neilbendle.com/tag/herfindahl-index/)
- [Competitive Advantage](https://neilbendle.com/tag/competitive-advantage/)
- [privacy](https://neilbendle.com/tag/privacy/)