We’re back (panic over). Popping bubbles Years past, we’ve talked quite a bit about empathy and understanding the consumer better. You know: the echo chambers, the disparity between what you think and what others think, on why we understand people not-like-us less and less. There is a classic example that’s in the news now: the In/Out …

“Narcissism described as Strategy” Okay, stand back. This is powerful stuff and not for the faint hearted MRXer. It’s Martin Weigel with his Escape from Fantasy talk – and yes, we’ve now built a shrine for him (hand-hollowed out off the wall using unfurled paper clips)  at Watch Me Think towers. It’s next to Dave Trott’s. …

Just say “no” Gareth Kay writes brilliantly about Brand Rot. A 5 mins read. It’s worth it: “Brands that are free of rot tend to exhibit decisive leadership that protects the code that instructs and inspires everything they do. They simplify the experience to do one thing (or a few) well. They remember the old …

Doubt yourself At our October shindig in London – the Power of Finding your Truth in Marketing – Joe from fullfact.org (the UK’s independent fact checking organisation) was a font of useful ideas including: Tips for challenging claims (30”) How our experience can be used against us (11”) To doubt yourself rather than believe in …

Brand is an outcome, not an output Forget pyramids – your company is a lighthouse. Andy Whitlock presents a new analogy for the brand building process: It makes way more sense to start […] from the inside out: To work out what you’re trying to be and how you can be it. It’s a thousand …

Thank your critics No-one likes it when their work is criticised – well, maybe not everyone. But usually it’s hard to take. It feels personal. They obviously don’t understand.  So this is a handy list of 5 things to run through when someone has a go at you. With that said… The problem with all of …

The truth, at a stretch On dating sites, it’s proven that men claim to be taller than they actually are. Richard Shotton,  friend of Watch Me Think and speaker at our event on Fake Views (October 11th in London), cites such examples to illustrate why listening to consumer claims can be misleading. He also uses a classic …

Fake news The future is here and being created in Seattle.  And if it isn’t they will make history say it was just so. If you want to be even more nervous, have a listen to the 50m Audiolab podcast at the bottom of the article. This is all about copy/pasting audio, or even just …

Collateralized debt obligation There’s lots of posts out there on how to tell good stories, but these 9 rules from Michael Lewis offer (to me) something different, from the title above to lovely little takeaways like “Sometimes the better stories are messier.” And “If you want to tell good stories about just your own life, observe …