Recently I had the privilege of attending a conference by Citizen’s Advice on Behavioural Economics and Utilities Switching Behaviour. The various speakers from industry, academia and regulatory bodies were each expert in their area, well-spoken and undoubtedly well-meaning throughout. However, I was struck by the extent of Groupthink that prevailed in the room.

In order to attract and hold customer attention in an increasingly fragmented digital world, brand experiences and customer journeys need to be compelling and memorable, as much as they need to be quick and easy.

Amongst the gazzillions of junk emails I like to glimpse before permanently deleting without reading properly each day, one from Belkin caught my eye today. It had the very un-catchy title of “Belkin's new USB-C Resource Center...now open to explore.” My first thought was simply USB-WHATNOW?!

I’ve recently seen an excellent video execution of a PR event for Emirates. The brilliant tongue in cheek creative idea springs an unexpected surprise in which challenges are pre-conceived stereotypes to create a powerful brand message.

Constant monitoring and real time response is a mantra that is being repeated everywhere as a best practice in business. However, that may not be what your customers are really looking for. Is there a danger of micromanagement leading to a myopia that misses the bigger picture?

Organisational culture is increasingly a recognised as competitive differentiator for leading companies. Yet in the current business climate, leaders are often forced to find ways to balance investment in talent, motivation and employee engagement against the pressure to ruthlessly prioritise initiatives and reduce costs.

Affordances and Rituals can shape the working environment in ways that make us love our job, creating a productive workplace and making our work more meaningful.

We previously introduced the ideas of affordances to design a working environment that makes it easy for employees to be productive and be engaged. We will now look at brand rituals and how they make the brand meaningful by shaping the organisational culture that people buy into and believe in as employees and customers because it makes a difference to them as human beings.

Have you ever been in a meeting when there is that magic moment when a consumer insight nugget is shared that seems to unlock great potential and subsequently the company goes on to successfully exploit it. But where did that nugget come from?

Amazon is suing fake reviewers, consumer watch dogs are warning us about fake and biased reviews. What will happen when we no longer have confidence in the consumer review ratings that are currently so popular?

It's time for brands to get serious about their obligation to responsibly manage customer data if they want to offer a personalised experience to customers. Brands are increasingly built on customer data as they use the data they hold on customer interactions to develop innovations and personalise brand experiences. It’s becoming unnervingly personal, in a connected world almost all customer data can be classified as personal data, anonymity is increasingly illusive. Marketers face risks and opportunities with customer data as they balance control, privacy and security with innovation. At what point does it become creepy when computers and the environment around us can recognise who we are and our behaviour?