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While no longer updated regularly, this archive reflects some of the themes and thinking behind Philip’s work.
Dell Finally Convert me to Apple
I honestly believed that I would stick with PC based computing. After twenty years using PCs they’re more familiar than my wife and kids! Despite all the positive things friends have said about Macs, and even though I have owned an i…
Bad Market Research: Today I’m Completing a Survey
Every now and then I receive an invitation to complete an on-line survey. They’re normally hopelessly poor tools at understanding real consumer motivations. They interrogate the wrong part of the respondent’s mind (the conscio…
Hate-Love Kindle: The Psychology of Easy
I don’t like Kindle (or Apple’s iBooks). I like books. I love books, in fact. The real ones with pages that you hold and read and put on shelves. They’re reassuring, they’re easy to reference and they’re a c…
Olympic 2012 Logo: Learning from Iran Boycott Reaction
Developing a logo is an interesting experience. Recently several organisations have found that the internet provides a platform for dissenting voices to grow into active movements to oppose designs that they don’t like. Gap, who some…
The Olympics, the Football Clubs and the Bad Market Research
The Olympic Park Legacy Committee board will soon be making a final decision on exactly what should happen to the stadium after the 2012 London Olympics. At the heart of the debate is the question of whether a football club should be allow…
Market Research Recruitment: Be Honest
People aren’t desperately honest creatures. Through no fault of our own we’re victims of the way our brains have evolved; it’s wise not to take the things people claim at face value. Among the many issues affecting market…
Fighting the Fat (or Not): Behavioural Insight
With levels of obesity increasing, efforts are being made in several of the countries affected to find a way of getting overweight people to stop cramming high calorie food into their mouths on a regular basis. Diet is a fascinating area, s…
The True Meaning of Christmas?
In the run up to December 25th I received several requests from broadcasters to talk about Christmas, how much we spend and whether the “true meaning” gets lost in this consumer age of ours. I was happy to contribute to the deba…
Customer Service: Sometimes Firms Don’t Get It
Large companies spend a fortune on customer service: implementing it, training people, monitoring it and, yes, even researching it. And yet all too often when you deal with a company it seems apparent that they just don’t get it. Take…