Category Archives: Branding

December 6, 2011

Just Say Thank You

A little appreciation goes a long way You probably thank your clients in some way as a matter of course. It’s definitely the polite thing to do (my Mom told me that). But it’s more than that. Studies show that a simple thank-you has a significant impact in both social and business settings. In short, gratitude [...]
Also posted in Marketing, social networking | Leave a comment
October 6, 2011

Ask Your Customers for a Favor

Ben Franklin’s Marketing Tip When you like someone, you do nice things for them, right? Not necessarily. Psychologists tell us that it can work the other way around: we like people more when we’re nice to them. (The reverse is also true: we come to hate those we treat badly.) This doesn’t seem to make sense until [...]
Also posted in Management, Marketing | Leave a comment
September 15, 2011

Animals on the Brain

In marketing, critters can be an asset or a liability Animals loom large in human culture and consciousness. That’s not news. At my house, Dudley practically runs the place (poodles are that smart). What is news is that our brains are very specifically wired to pay attention to animals of all kinds. Recent research has revealed that [...]
Also posted in Marketing | 1 Comment
June 23, 2011

Messaging for Hard Times

Is Status Quo the Way to Go? You’ve just been paid, and you’re feeling pretty flush what with all that cash in your pocket (so to speak). So the next time you’re in CVS, you go ahead and do it: you pass over the cavity-fighting toothpaste for the whitening toothpaste that’s going to turn your teeth [...]
Also posted in Marketing | Leave a comment
May 23, 2011

Better Branding Through Bickering

Hire a Consultant to Challenge Your Reasoning—Not Support It. Reasoning didn’t evolve to get at the truth. It was designed to help us win arguments. So argues Hugo Mercier from the University of Pennsylvania. This is the confirmation bias at work, which I’ve covered before: we unconsciously look for evidence to back up what we already believe. [...]
Also posted in Consulting | 2 Comments