Ged Carroll

Category: consumer behaviour | 消費者行為 | 소비자 행동

Consumer behaviour is central to my role as an account planner and about how I look at the world.

Being from an Irish household growing up in the North West of England, everything was alien. I felt that I was interloping observer who was eternally curious.

The same traits stand today, I just get paid for them. Consumer behaviour and its interactions with the environment and societal structures are fascinating to me.

The hive mind of Wikipedia defines it as

‘the study of individuals, groups, or organizations and all the activities associated with the purchase, use and disposal of goods and services.’

It is considered to consist of how the consumer’s emotions, attitudes and preferences affect buying behaviour. Consumer behaviour emerged in the 1940–1950s as a distinct sub-discipline of marketing, but has become an interdisciplinary social science that blends elements from psychology, sociology, social anthropology, anthropology, ethnography, marketing and economics (especially behavioural economics or nudge theory as its often known).

I tend to store a mix of third party insights and links to research papers here. If you were to read one thing on this blog about consumer behaviour, I would recommend this post I wrote on generations. This points out different ways that consumer behaviour can be misattributed, missed or misinterpreted.

Often the devil is in the context, which goes back to the wide ranging nature of this blog hinted at by the ‘renaissance’ in renaissance chambara. Back then I knew that I needed to have wide interests but hadn’t worked on defining the ‘why’ of having spread such a wide net in terms of subject matter.

  • Puma + more news

    Puma Poaches Manchester City Kit Deal From Nike | Business of Fashion – big move by Puma in football, especially considering that all the money is boot sales and Puma is currently a distant number four behind Nike and adidas. New Balance is considerably closer for Puma to reach than the top two. Kit sponsorship deals are self liquidating brand marketing.

    A Perfectly Cromulent Cultural Moment – memes as societal discourse

    A Brief History of Computer Vision (and Convolutional Neural Networks) | Hacker Noon – a great read, it reminded me about the work that search engines like Yahoo! and Google were doing around image recognition back in the day and Virage et al did in the mid-1990s onwards

    Know-It-All Robot Shuts Down Dubious Family Texts – WSJ – which begs the question why Facebook wasn’t here, providing a similar kind of service on its platforms? (Paywall)

    Subaru Recalls Cars to Fix Glitch Possibly Caused by Fabric Softener – WSJ – no you haven’t read the headline wrong, it apparently affects a sensor. The investigative process must have driven the engineers crazy

    Musical.ly, now TikTok, to pay fine to settle FTC allegations | Digital – Ad Age – Social video app Musical.ly, now known as TikTok, agreed to pay $5.7 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that it illegally stored data from underage children and refused parents’ requests to delete it.Data collected from children under the age of 13 included names, email addresses and, for a period, user locations, the FTC said. The settlement represents a record penalty under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a 1998 law designed to put parents in charge of what information is collected about their children on the internet.

    Creepy AI Tech From China Can Identify You 50 Meters Away With Your Back Turned, Face Covered – interesting how they are using gait analysis for identification. Of course the way around it is to put something in your shoe. More related posts here

    Prada tries to put luxury’s derailing train back on course | Trendwatching – It’s not hard to see the link between this innovation and recent events in the luxury fashion industry. When it comes to diversity and inclusion, iconic fashion brands have lurched from one epic fail to another recently. Gucci perpetuated blackface via a sweater. Prada itself perpetuated blackface via its window displays. Burberry sent a noose down the runway. Philipp Plein fat-shamed a journalist. D&G offended many in one of its key markets when its ad showed Chinese models struggling to eat spaghetti with chopsticks – Prada is also listed in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange so this makes sense from a shareholder perspective as well

    Who needs malware? IBM says most hackers just PowerShell through boxes now, leaving little in the way of footprints • The Register – running in RAM rather than memory

  • Shut down digital marketing + more

    Mark Ritson: It’s time to shut down digital marketing teams for good | Marketing Week – return to media neutral and evidence based marketing? It also reminded me of a debate that I had back in 2008 with James Warren about when were we likely to see the end of the digital strategist. It hasn’t happened yet, because there are plenty of businesses selling ‘digital transformation’. Basically the old enterprise IT sales process in a new design thinking bottle. I suspect that the time to shut down digital marketing teams might be a while away yet, though I agree with Ritson’s sentiment.

    Carmakers quitting Britain won’t blame Brexit – it’s not in their interest | The Guardian – classic reputation management; I don’t blame the Japanese for taking this approach. I imagine that Mini, Bentley and Rolls Royce might take this approach too, if the brands survive electrification. Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover may go further showcasing India or China as a premium vehicle powerhouse.

    Europe lagging on 5G? Don’t be so sure, says Ericsson | total telecom – Ericsson believe that the move to speed up 5G rollout in Europe will come from Industrial, rather than consumer focused use cases. European government’s and operators are looking to fast track their 5G rollout programmes, dispelling the myth that Europe will be ‘late to the 5G party’, according to an industry expert

    WSJ City | Key investors unhappy with SoftBank Tech-Investment Fund – not terribly surprised

    Gender and box office performance: Applied Economics Letters: Vol 26, No 9 – having a male star in a film generated a premium in the neighbourhood of 12%, while female star had no statistical impact on a movie’s performance – is this down to the way that they are marketed or the way that male stars are perceived versus female stars? I also tend to follow directors because of the sense of style that they bring to a story. Their name is a mark of quality

  • Legend of Old McLanden & things from last week

    BMW’s X7 advert about the Legend of Old McLanden has been cited as a piece of feminist advertising. I won’t spoil it for you watch the clip and you’ll see why.

    I think that its part of something different which has been less heralded: a return to craft in advertising. We’re starting to see a refocusing of marketing. Away from the shiny toys of ad tech and influencer networks back to advertising craft.

    The Legend of Old McLanden would fit comfortably with the golden age of TV adverts and I think that’s a good thing for brand building. Especially when we usually only see this kind of thing during the Super Bowl.

    I am a big fan of Visual Politik’s videos, but was unimpressed by this video on crypto currency. I get the attractiveness of a more decentralised internet, BUT I don’t buy into the cryptocurrency hype and believe that blockchain is at best a solution for niche problems.

    The video reminds me a lot about the techno-utopian opinions of the early web, P2P technologies etc. It has value, but it isn’t likely to be transformative in the way its implied.

    SK-II has a new instalment in its #changedestiny themed campaigns called ‘Meet Me Halfway’. This time they focused on the pressure that single Chinese women face during family gatherings for lunar new year.

    It follows on the SK-II marriage market makeover campaign done in 2016. More beauty related content here.

    Whilst many consumer brands have dashed into the influencer marketing space, it interesting that adidas have developed a contra-influencer content. It does

    Diesel’s ‘Be A Follower’ campaign took a similar line to this latest Adidas campaign.

  • Roland file trademarks + more things

    Roland Files Trademarks For 303 & 808 Designs In Germany – Magnetic Magazine – interesting reading, in particular patenting designs so long after they were manufactured. Roland files trademarks and patents aimed at trying to stop Behringer who are due to be releasing a near perfect copy of the 808 drum machine

    Why Jeff Bezos Went to Medium With His Message | NYTimes – evidence that blogging isn’t dead and social media isn’t everything

    Huawei Threatens Lawsuit Against Czech Republic After Security Warning | NYTimes.com – interesting that Huawei is trying to cow the government with legal force. Huawei’s interpretation of Chinese law seems to be different to legal experts

    An Honest Take on the Hits and Misses of SIHH 2019 | SJX Watches – Baume et Mercier’s abandoning of the silicon hairsprings that made their debut in the Baumatic of 2018. The elimination of the silicon hairspring has lowered the retail price of the watch by about €250, but that’s notable for the reason behind the retreat. According to several insiders, Baume & Mercier, and by extension its parent Richemont, was kindly asked to stop using silicon hairsprings because the intellectual property for them belongs to a consortium led by Swiss micro-engineering institute CSEM, which is in turn backed by Rolex, the Swatch Group and Patek Philippe

    Are Influencers Over? | The Daily | Gartner L2 – interesting read and contrasting approaches between Unilever and Diesel.

    5 Asian Trends for 2019 – TrendWatching – After decades of economic growth, rising numbers of Asians are no longer primarily focused on pursuing material wealth. On the contrary, the pressures of progress are catching up: overwork, mental health issues, apathy, and more. In 2019, many Asians comfortable with their economic status

    Meet the ‘godfather’ of China’s smartphone industry | SCMP – the founder of BBK which backs Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus, RealMe etc. More related content here.

    Cheatsheet: Snapchat is no longer adding more users (but it isn’t losing them, either) – Digiday – bots are loyal?

    WSJ City | As US and Germany draw up trade barriers, Germany fights back – makes sense

    WSJ City | Apple retail chief Angela Ahrendts leaving company – makes sense. Apple’s move into true luxury pricing has shown to be a fallacy if one looks at consumer reaction to iPhone sales and laptop pricing. A number of people I know downgraded in the range rather than follow through on MacBook Pro purchases. Also the retail presence has felt like straightening deck chairs rather than moving forwards

  • One Small Step + more

    I had to start with this short film ‘One Small Step’ I saw that’s right up there with Pixar in terms of its storytelling and craft. One Small Step is an amazingly inspirational film. The space theme reminds me of the retro futurism of the Soviet bloc in terms of visual style. The characters have a lovely airbrushed feel to them. Keep an eye out for this director and animator in the future.

    I’ve been listening to this mix by Greg Wilson which contains his favourite edits and reworks from 2018. It is a beautiful set of tracks from a range of producers sympathetically rejuvenating classic tracks. It is more than ‘nu-disco’; Wilson imprints his usual eclectic style on the mix. More related posts here.

    If you’re doing anything in the international sphere on digital then bookmark this presentation: Digital 2019: Global Digital Overview — DataReportal – Global Digital Insights – I expect this will be in every strategists tool kit for creating client PowerPoint decks.

    Ken Block’s latest vehicle includes a huge intricate metal manifold made with additive manufacturing. Despite the voice over, this video about the manufacture of the manifold is very interesting. Ford engineers worked with  RWTH Aachen’s Digital Additive Production Institute, in Germany. Ford claims that it is the largest additive manufacturing metal part in a working vehicle. it is obvious that Ford is wondering how this could affect their manufacturing processes in the future, if parts can be created on demand.

    Cixin Liu’s short story The Wandering Earth has been adapted into a film that’s been released in China over the spring festival. The trailer looks immense but I don’t know if Liu’s work has been done justice through the film adaptation. Chinese cinema often manages spectacle but then fails on dialogue rather like George Lucas’ Star Wars scripts.