A selection of articles and essays on consumer behaviour, research, and decision-making.
While no longer updated regularly, this archive reflects some of the themes and thinking behind Philip’s work.
Getting Schnozzled at Gunpoint
Picture the scene. You walk into the car dealership having made your decision that today is the day you’ll buy your new car. As you walk through the showroom, past all those gleaming metal forms you stop and linger over the model you expect…
Cadburys Eyebrow Ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TVblWq3tDwY I suspect many people will find this ad from Cadburys hard not to watch, appealing as it does to whatever morkish sense of curiousity causes people to slow down and sta…
Unconscious Wizardry
Here’s an ad that performed the rare feat of wrestling my conscious attention away from its unconscious meanderings and then, having drawn me in, manipulated my unconscious mind to boost my perception of a brand. So what is it that makes th…
A Bad Ad in a Good Cause
It can be hard to divorce the assessment of an adverts ability to connect with the mind of consumers and influence their behaviour from the subject matter of the ad. But I saw the following advertisement recently and it grabbed my attention…
Lessons to Learn: Bud Light ‘Drinkability’ Advert
It’s not too hard to speculate on how the artificial nature of the research process could have arrived at this ‘insight’. Frequently market research implicitly requires respondents to justify unconsciously driven purchase …
Insurance Comparison Websites Adverts Comparison
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=F_-9QFvhQWo If you can spare the time please watch both and then watch them for a second time. Do you have a favourite? Clearly they are both out to achieve exactly the same thing.…
Is Almost Every Company Making the Same Mistake?
Anyone who works for a large organisation and who has ever wanted to do something constructive for that organisation, will have experienced the same questions and the same dark forces waiting to challenge their brilliantly conceived scheme:…
New Office ‘Assistant’
Willow the dog is teaching me a lot about psychology (honestly, we’re a lot more like dogs than we’d ever want to think). But her food could smell better. I’m beginning to understand how those petty ‘office rulesR…
Why Market Researchers Shouldn’t Read Consumer.ology
The title the ‘International Journal of Market Research’ (IJMR) sounds undeniably impressive. Generally speaking journals are good things, bringing together peer reviewed papers from people pushing the boundaries in a particula…