Category Archives: Marketing

August 15, 2010

On Price and Perception

The very real value of branding As prices goes down, demand goes up. That’s the usual economic formula. We all want more for less, right? Buy one, get one free! But in the case of “Veblen goods” (named after economist Thorstein Veblen), demand goes up as prices increase. Why? A high-priced item is often a high-status item.
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July 16, 2010

Us vs. Them

Your brand’s best friend might be an enemy Red Sox vs. Yankees, Coke vs. Pepsi, Republicans vs. Democrats, Apple vs. Microsoft. These are among the most recognizable brands in the world. Each is defined in part by its opposition to the other. Can you even think of one without thinking of the other? What makes rivalries so [...]
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June 28, 2010

Neuromarketing: the new “Mozart Effect”?

The future is usually hazy for me. I wasn’t impressed when first introduced to the Macintosh II in 1988, figuring the computer would take its place beside the waxer as a pasteup tool. I didn’t predict my wife would be upset when I forgot her birthday. But it was clear to me that neuromarketing would be [...]
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June 24, 2010

Social Standing Is Number One

Why we’re all buying—and selling—cool I have a horrid confession: I wore Daisy Dukes in middle school. It didn’t have to do with the TV show or Catherine Bach…honest. Rather, it represented rural New Hampshire social capital of the day: the more ragged the cutoffs, the better. Most of us like to think we left peer [...]
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June 11, 2010

Creepy Crawlers

Facebook’s Big Brother issue Professor George Milne of the University of Massachusetts studies online privacy and why some businesses—like Facebook—are starting to give us the creeps. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been clear that he believes we should all be open with our personal information. He put that belief into action by setting Facebook privacy defaults that [...]
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