Ever had a bad experience with a specific company? Maybe those salesmen from company XYZ do not stop harassing you, or maybe you had to be transferred 7 times over a two week period to cancel a service. The word service itself has bad connotations with many people. Why would someone contact customer service? To complain. When do you bring up the service at a restaurant or cafe? Often, it is because you were unsatisfied w...
The pleasure and pain principle is a theory that humans are driven primarily by a desire to avoid pain and obtain pleasure. If this is true, all our purchase decisions would be hinged on either giving some advantage in obtaining pleasure or alleviating pains. At the very least, we can definitively say that we buy products to solve problems: whether it be a refrigerator to prolong our food or luxury cuff-links to improve our...
What if I told you there was a universal reason behind every decision in the world- an underlying formula which is used again and again? This formula not only dictates what products we buy or what services we seek out- but also all other aspects of your lives. The formula is simple: maximising perceived value. In this context, value can be defined as benefits divided by costs. If the result is greater than 1 (eg. Benefit...
A common misconception is that all marketing aims to do is get the customer to buy a product. This is so off the mark that every time someone brings it up a little piece of my soul dies. Let me give an example of why. As you stroll down the mall you are stopped by a salesman. While you are annoyed, you are polite and let us say that you listen to what they have to offer. Let us say for the example that using cunning,...
Social media has been heralded as the next big step for marketing, and is expected to forever change how marketing is conducted. While social media is important, one must realise that by nature marketers often exaggerate the impact of their ideas. While social media is important, it is not THAT important. In fact, it’s just an extension of what we already know and do in marketing. Social media describes any type of socia...
