Why yes/no questions can yield surprising answers
Was the Iraq war caused by the West’s desire to control access to Middle Eastern oil? Do you want this man or that woman as your leader for the next four to eight years? Should we stay or should we go? There’s been a lot of soul searching in the past month about the wisdom […]
The art of marketing has a scientific chip on its shoulder
Modern marketers are increasingly turning to science to give their art the legitimacy they clearly believe it’s lacking. It’s a rare client briefing these days that doesn’t include a perspective from a behavioural economist, an econometrician or a cognitive neuroscientist. To make evidence-based decisions, brands need to wrangle data into insights that can inspire fact-driven […]
Carry a big stick
Fear seems a very negative way to sell things. And yet all the evidence from behavioural economists shows that people will do more to protect what they have already got than they will do to acquire more. Most news stories start with a negative. ‘One in three Britons will die if x doesn’t happen’ or […]
How to motivate behaviour change
A version of this blog first appeared in the pages of B2B Marketing, posted online here. This is the first in a regular, quarterly series linking psychology and marketing, flying under the banner of I’m Still Thinking. Thanks for the platform, which I’m sharing with two other marketing psychs. Details to follow. — Marketing communications […]
