America is or, rather, was full of what Lily Allen might call weapons of massive consumption. This brings to stark relief an ongoing and interesting ethical debate for marketers: How to develop effective marketing without pernicious manipulation.

In recent years, some 70% of the American economic activity was generated by consumer spending. With the trauma of the recession, however, the rate of consumer spending has declined markedly. Recent positive spending indicators are still modest and are dwarfed by the worst unemployment rate for twenty five years. Many households saddled with debt have seen the wisdom of saving. With a savings rate near 0% in early 2008, that has risen to 6.9%, its highest rate in fifteen years. (more…)

The rapidity of adoption of a variety of innovative online tools has every marketer on their toes. Which is a good stance to take considering that we would also describe the current online landscape as one of shifting sands. A question facing many marketers is how to adjust their brand management strategy and media buy in the context of online developments?

A few figures from The Nielsen Company Online’s Global Online Media Landscape report illustrate the changes:

There has been a massive surge in the use of online video. The availability and ease of use of inexpensive personal video technologies, the number of online sharing sites and enhanced internet infrastructure capacity has enabled this growth. (more…)

“All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players.”
Shakespeare’s As You Like It

Social media has been with us for a little while now, but we have a strong sense that its use is growing rapidly. Over the last six months, the 35-54 year old user base of Facebook has grown by 276.4% and the over 55 year old user base has grown by 194.3% (statistics from iStrategyLabs here) Use of twitter has risen as well. Interestingly, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 10% of online 35-44 year olds use twitter.

Even the venerable news source, National Public Radio, has been exploring the issue of why we tweet.  Entertainingly, and interactively, on February 28 they asked the question “Why do we tweet?” They got plenty of replies, which you can see online here. (more…)

Sellers of both puppies and cars have known this for a while … customers interacting with, or just holding, your product for longer periods are more likely to buy. Of additional interest from a recent scientific study is that these customers will be more likely to pay more!

Length of ownership influences the owner’s perception of value and this study demonstrates that it applies to pre-ownership scenarios also. Additionally, it aligns with psychological principles of loss aversion, where people tend to be more averse to the potential of a loss than the potential of acquiring a gain.

Marketers should be considering ways that they can get their product and, indeed, their service-based experience, in the hands of their target customers. The question is simply how do we get our customers to interact with our offering and for how long? In particular, how do online retailers address this opportunity? Think about it. Give me some suggestions. I will share my own thoughts with you.

The Generational Imperative by Chuck Underwood

After recently re-reading Aldous Huxley’s classic novel, Brave New World, it was timely to read the Questions for Jonah Lehrer interview in Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, as he has just written How We Decide, a book on how we make decisions. I got to thinking about our understanding of the human brain and the use of that knowledge in marketing. In another post, I’ll chat about behavioral economics, but in this post, as it is the end of the year and there is the surfeit of “Books of 2008″ lists, allow me to note just a few books related to this topic that I think would be inspiring and to ask you to provide your own suggestions. (more…)