The100: The price of American made, judgement economies and 1880s hipsters

Does your brand need to be polarising to be successful?

From their grand palaces of ‘hot takes’, some LikedIn ‘gurus’ are of the opinion that your brand needs to be polarising to be successful. But John Dawes of The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute argues that what they’re saying is just that. Opinion. And that the data says otherwise:

“The idea that successful brands are polarising is at odds with decades of research on buyer behaviour as outlined above. We took a supposedly polarising or ‘repelling’ brand and showed how its buyers are buying other brands, and other brands’ buyers are sometimes buying it. That’s not how things would look if Liquid Death was really like what commentators say. Therefore, don’t believe the idea you need to polarise to succeed.”

Knowledge economy to judgement economy

Ruth Muller is Interim CMO & Chief R&D Officer at Suntory Oceania and she’s shared her thoughts on the ‘AI is making me lazy’ conundrum. Her view? Use AI to amplify and support, not to do the critical thinking for you.

“I learned from the amazing Eric Tachibana that the new world will see us moving from a ‘knowledge economy’ to a ‘judgement economy’.  The currency in that world is ‘critical thinking’ […] ChatGPT wants to be your cheerleader. It’s designed that way to keep you engaged. But if you don’t push back, you’re missing the value… with your outputs and your cognitive development. Most people think AI will do the thinking for them. But the people who’ll thrive are the ones using AI to think BIGGER.”

The paradox of pessimism

BCG has been looking at why people are pessimistic about their country’s economy, yet still plan to maintain or increase their spending. In short, it’s the close-to-home, microeconomic factors that really influence purchase decisions:

“While overall economic sentiment does not directly correlate with consumer spending, it does seem to shape the type of spending […] Personal economic conditions—such as income levels and savings—are more tangible and have a stronger correlation with how much consumers spend.”

The price of American made

How much would clothes cost if they were made in the U.S? Janet Nguyen has shared some back-of-napkin calculations. One statement that caught my eye in particular…

“In the first half of the 20th century, Americans spent up to 14% of their annual income on clothing and had a more limited wardrobe. But in 2023, Americans spent less than 3% on clothing as costs have plummeted.”

Yowza.

“Think hipsters of the 1880s”

Kat Lonsdorf has been digging into the history of the word ‘dude’. Its origins can be traced all the way back to the 1880s and being used to describe the hipsters of their day in NYC. Dude!

For anyone else told on the school playground that ‘dude’ means a certain part of a camel’s anatomy, turns out we were quite far off the mark with that one. (Please tell me this wasn’t just me?!)

And finally…

One meticulous lady owner, full service history, room enough for two corgis in the boot. The Queen’s Range Rover is up for auction should anyone be in the market 😉

If our canine friends had their own podcast. This is exactly why I’ve put parental controls on my dog’s phone.

Rather than using your finger to draw shapes in the clouds, this website lets you use your mouse instead. Very ‘wholesome’, as the youth would say.