The100: IKEA effects, the voice of reason and pozzy-wallahs

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Marriages taken in part-exchange

The IKEA Effect is an interesting bias whereby we value things that require more effort because we’ve committed something of ourselves to them. In a 2 minute video at the bottom of that same page, Rory Sutherland explains how it can also destigmatize low prices:

It’s rather like if you have the same fruit and one lot has the proposition ‘cheap strawberries’. You go “what’s wrong with this?”. If you have a trade off ‘pick your own strawberries’ you tend not to devalue the cheaper product in the same way, because you see your effort as part of the payment.

Now there’s an idea for low cost brands. 

For your next commute / walk / escape from the kids

For those who like to dabble in a marketing podcast, the ever brilliant Helen Edwards has recommended the BBC’s Listening Project.

Why? Because it doesn’t feature any marketers. Instead it’s simply two people talking about all manner of subjects, such as financial hardship at Christmas or living with flammable cladding. 

You don’t have to infer ‘learnings’. Nobody needs to analyse. It isn’t necessary to use that most overdone word ‘insight’ […] think of it simply as a brief moment of tuning in.

Episodes available on HMS Spotify.

Speaking of…

Helen Edwards mentioned the overuse of the word ‘insight’, which makes now an excellent time to uncork a piece from Richard Huntington on that very matter:

Real insight is not something that most research delivers and that’s fine, since the primary job of research is to validate or disprove hypotheses, not to supply insight.

Make sure what you call an insight is actually insightful:

That it reveals something about people’s lives, the brand or the wider world that was previously hidden or unacknowledged […] Information about people’s lives, however true, which is frankly what most research and data provides us with is not insight.

“Correlation does not imply causation”

Dave Trott is back (we like Dave) with a marvellous article on the misuse and misunderstanding of data due to a lack of context:

The news was full of the fact that research had shown a bottle of wine a week increased the risk of cancer […] No-one bothered to ask why anyone was drinking a bottle of wine a week.

Trott finishes the article with this absolute whammy:

Data is just numbers, it can’t provide conclusions, that’s not its job. Because a human should possess software that data doesn’t, common sense.

Become the voice of reason

Ros Atkins of the BBC has become known for his clear and succinct explainers of world events. And he’s been on a podcast with Nick Bryant talking about what makes his videos work so well. Two noteworthy points for research:

1. (09:38) “I don’t really get involved in using adjectives to describe things […] you risk being accused of speculation or something that’s not fact based or bringing your own agenda. If you write very sparse, adjective-free scripts, you’re not at risk of that, because your entire piece is rooted simply in the information.”

2. (18:54) “We block out time to distribute the work. It’s part of the work, otherwise you risk making something that’s brilliant, but that doesn’t have impact.”

And finally…

56 delightfully unusual words for everyday things. Any other pozzy-wallahs out there? 

With the Commonwealth Games being on at the moment, James Harkin wrote up some facts about the sports featured there. Did you know that Netball used to be called ‘Women’s Basketball’?

The100 will be back in your inbox on Friday 9th September. I’m off to collapse into a sun lounger.