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…
Meta-Analysis: Combining Many Results into 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…
Some Notes On 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…
A Marketing Man’s 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
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…
A (Very Badly Done) Illustration Of Accounting For 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…
Learning From A Case Study Of 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…
Creating Discussions Between Marketers And Accountants
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….
The Danger of 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…
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…
