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)….
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…
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
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…
Are You Tyrannized By Metrics?
If you are tyrannized by metrics in this way I have just the book for you. Headline: “Tenured Professor Tyrannized By Metrics” Jerry Muller has a popular book — The Tyranny of Metrics. I have to say it is pretty bad. The problem is that it is a weak attempt to capitalize on concerns, some…
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…
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…
Prejudice Against The Machine: Impact Of Chatbot Identity 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 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)
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…
