NEED insight

Back from holiday, my mind’s gone completely blank. I can’t think of a thing to write. I could do another post on the importance of differentiation to brands. But nobody’s going to shift their ground in that battle, the lines are drawn. I could find an obscure Physics explanation of orbits and relate it to a positioning about moving people closer to brands. But that wouldn’t fool anyone. I could talk about how this year’s Proms featured an evening of 70’s prog rock,

Positioning is getting a right old kicking at the moment. On the one hand you have Byron Sharp saying the concept is over-rated because it isn’t what drives growth. On the other you have Mark Ritson saying the current practice is, to quote, “a shitshow”. Bearing in mind their recent love-in at Cannes, it’s tempting to think they’re now singing from the same songbook. But it doesn’t sound like it. Sharp’s view is based partly on a rejection of Philip Kotler’s. He alw

Mental availability is a simple enough concept. It’s the chance of a brand coming to mind in a particular buying situation. No one would argue that increasing that probability could be bad. But what actually is it? Mind if I peer into your mind? The leading argument around is that it’s the outcome of a ‘cued retrieval link’. There’s a link in your brain between two things, ‘nodes’. One is that situation you’re in. Where you are, when it is, who you’re with, what

This is when it can happen in marketing. When you’re dazzled by new data but don’t do due diligence. When you reduce Kahneman’s book to ‘most things we buy on auto-pilot’. When you discover the born-again zeal of the newly-enlightened. When you prioritise what can be measured over what matters. When you want to stand apart from other people when what you need is to fit in with them. I could go further. When you understand brands are about memory but base everyth