The100: Career lessons, communication tips and the sound of rain

The Empire strikes back Fortune favours the brave.  Or in the instance of brands during a pandemic, fortune favours the large.  Big brands are reclaiming the market share they were once hemorrhaging, with many reporting their highest growth in years.  But, because there’s always a but, is back to basics shopping here to stay? (You …

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The100: competition myopia, BeSci pitfalls and giant beetroots

Tube vs. Scooter The Right Honourable Lord of Marketing, Mark Ritson, has been reminding us that our competition may not be our competition. In fact, we shouldn’t be calling it competition at all. Instead we should ask consumers about alternatives: It’s a dangerous blind spot because focusing on self-generated competitors versus market-oriented alternatives means companies …

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The100: Data visualisation, sonic branding and 4am pees

There is no magic number Have you ever had to defend the number of participants used in a qual study? Err, does the bear wear a tall hat? Emmet O’Brian has nicely summarised a paper by Jacqueline Low on chasing theoretical saturation in its current form – the point at which new information stops emerging. The …

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The100: Creativity conditions, the culture myth and Norwegians

Best of both(ism) If you’ve ever been accused of sitting on the fence, here’s your splinter edged comeback: you’re applying bothism. Duh. Bothisms: The rare capacity to not only see the value of both sides of the story, but actively consider and then co-opt them into any subsequent marketing endeavour in an appropriate mix. The …

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The100: Inclusive design, insight pitfalls and dancing bats

“The future looks faster, nearer, meaner” Grant McCracken has mapped 250 things that he thinks could transform us. We have to see things early, when they don’t really look like things at all. And then we have to be prepared to repudiate them in the event they were really just “noise” after all. Or to …

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The100: Brand cannibalization, choosing a project and James Bond

Time = Memory How is it that the days drag, yet the weeks pass faster than you can say “20 Fridays until Christmas”? Well, because it’s Quarantime, the explanation of which is surprisingly logical: The passage of time as it happens (days) will be slower because of the monotony of your environment. But the memory of …

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The100: Right answers, messy middles and 3rd order island

Research: using it properly His [Dave] Trott-ness tells the tale of the Indian Mongoose brought in to control the rats in Hawaii. He says it was the right answer to the wrong question: Properly used, research is about finding out things we never expected, things we didn’t know. Which is why Jon Steel says the …

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The100: Brand purpose, prediction addiction and back in the USSR

The benefits of foresight? Do predictions become self-fulfilling prophecies? Does this make predictions dangerous? Should we stop making predictions? Will I ever stop asking so many questions? (I hope not.) Stuart Ritchie has been unpacking Margaret Heffernan’s book on our addiction to prediction. Our fervent desire to know and chart the future – and our …

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