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While no longer updated regularly, this archive reflects some of the themes and thinking behind Philip’s work.
The Science Behind “The Customer is Always Right”
There is an old saying in retail, “The customer is always right”. The only issue is that, as anyone like me who has ever worked in a shop will tell you, “Some customers are idiots!” If working in a store teaches you …
Using the Power of Framing
Recently my father-in-law took away a couple of photographs of ancestors that my wife had found on-line to frame on our behalf. Each week he attends a framing class at a college and he has been learning the art of making pictures look good …
To Sell More Think Sheep!
Would you say you were more of a loner or more a herd-minded creature? A bear or a sheep, that’s the question? (The other question could be, “What the heck’s this got to do with consumer behaviour or marketing?” Hold on, I’m getting there,…
The Perils of Focus Groups
Focus groups have become part of the business and political landscape. They have acquired what you might call ‘cultural validity’: since lots of people use them, and lots of people talk about them, and lots of people have even p…
The Perils of Focus Groups (Part Two)
Continuing my article on the problem of using focus groups to investigate consumer’s thoughts, feelings and behaviour. (Part one is here.) 4. People are Lazy Another problem that stems from our thoughts not being created in the vacuum…
Cheer Up, They’ll Buy (shhh… it’s a secret)
Despite what consumer research would have us believe, people are very bad at working out why they’ve really done something. To be fair we are all taken in by the vain illusion that we are in conscious control of pretty much everything we do…
Why Buying Should be Exciting
When the unconscious mind gets excited it’s not very good at knowing quite what it’s excited about. It picks up on something that sets it off (and it gets jittery about all sorts of funny things) and sends out a feeling. One of the world’s…
Stradivarius’s Consumer Behavior Insights
Most of us would like a brand as powerful as Stradivarius, the man who made violins three hundred years ago – although we’d probably want that recognition a little sooner. Fortunately we can learn a lot about how consumers relate to product…
Consumer Research of the Future with Squirrels
You know what you want don’t you. You know what you like. It’s like the old saying about art, “I don’t know much, but I know what I like” (usually followed by something resembling, but not convincingly matching, a laugh). And so it is…