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When are too many choices not too many choices?

Kelly Herd is a PhD student at the Leeds School of Business. Kelly’s expertise is in the area of consumer behavior, creativity, and innovation. I asked her when is “too many choices” not too many choices? Her response: . . Kelly’s research highlights a limitation of the emerging belief that

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Flash post: More ESP controversy

I recently wrote a post about ESP, where I mentioned work by Daryl Bem. Yesterday’s New York Times reports a forthcoming and controversial paper by Bem (LINK). The paper describes nine unusual lab experiments performed over the past decade by its author, Daryl J. Bem, an emeritus professor at Cornell,

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You, the powerful shopper

Consumers have never been more powerful. Why? Here are two reasons: 1) The rise of the smartphone ……… Almost better than cash. Actually, it is the power of information. To demonstrate the power of information, I recently conducted a class demonstration: I held up a copy of the book “The

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Are you more aggreeable and extraverted than a comedian?

Probably.. I recently met Louis C.K. backstage before a stand-up performance (documented in this post). One striking observation was his demeanor during the performance was much more appealing than during the interview. Why? A large literature in psychology finds that people are strongly influenced by situational rather than dispositional consideration,

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Flash post: How would you sell this rubber chicken?

Kit, co-owner of the Boulder cafe Atlas Purveyors (@atlaspurveyors), is helping me run an experiment. We want to sell this rubber chicken: How would you do it? Tell us: ____ Lower the price (e.g., only $.50) ____ Raise the price (e.g., only $5) ____ Make it scarce (e.g., last one!)

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When should brands act like people?

[Tuesday is the new Wednesday. This post is going up one day early.] . Carmel Hagen (@carmelelise) recently gave a guest lecture in my Consumer Behavior class. Carmel’s expertise is in the area of social media and branding.  She is also a pretty cool gal. After her talk, I asked

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Flash Post: More bad branding for your viewing pleasure.

Although they won’t win this contest, the Big Ten Athletic Conference has created an appallingly bad new logo and coupled it with appallingly bad names for their new divisions. Q: How could they have avoided this debacle? A: Combine art and science by hiring a good designer and market researcher.

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SOLO | Carrie Osgood | Creative Journey
Podcast - Solo

Creative Journeys

  How can creativity fuel a remarkable Solo life? Writer and storytelling expert Carrie Osgood joins Peter McGraw in the Solo Studio to explore using

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Podcast - I'm Not Joking

Curtain Call

  Welcome to the final episode of I’M NOT JOKING. Comedian JD Lopez returns from Episode 1 to debrief and reflect on Peter’s experience building

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