Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Princeton psychologists learned that first impressions form in less than a second. Sounds crazy but it’s not.

Even though we consider ourselves logical and modern human beings, the majority of our decisions are made by the ancient, instinctive subconscious part of our brains, sometimes referred to as our “reptilian brain.” That doesn’t mean that the quality of our decisions is lowered; some, like Malcolm Gladwell in Blink, argue that quick, gut-level decisions are actually better and save us time and agony.

Let’s explore how emotions play into modern-day marketing and why....

When we set out to design, build and deliver a great customer experience or anything else for that matter, we can tend to make assumptions about who it is for, what they like, what they prefer and what they enjoy.

However, in the face of ever changing consumer behavior, can we be sure that our assumptions are correct? Here’s a few examples of assumptions that we many of us may make and some new, alternative and conflicting data that might make us pause for thought....

The research found that retail therapy is an emotional rollercoaster for consumers, with a high proportion of shoppers worrying about making a mistake when buying a product, despite the endless opportunities to compare and contrast online.

When it comes to bigger purchases, two-thirds of shoppers often choose between just two brands from the outset. For consumers who have only one brand in mind before shopping, seven in 10 do not even try another brand.

The research shows that shoppers with brands in mind before they start looking to buy are less likely to worry about the choice they’ve made after buying (27%)....

I recently attended a workshop in which we created a customer-journey map for content planning. Before doing this exercise, I had only a fuzzy notion of what a customer-journey content map might look like, how to make one, and why anyone would bother.

It turns out, this map looks like a spreadsheet. You make one by filling the cells. You bother because doing so helps you answer the perennial question, What content shall we create?...