Ged Carroll

Category: economics | 經濟學 | 경제학 | 経済

Economics or the dismal science was something I felt that I needed to include as it provides the context for business and consumption.

Prior to the 20th century, economics was the pursuit of gentleman scholars. The foundation of it is considered to be Adam Smith when he published is work An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations. Smith outlined one of the core tenets of classical economics: each individual is driven by self-interest and can exert only a negligible influence on prices. And it was the start of assumptions that economists model around that don’t mirror real life all the time.

What really is a rational decision maker? Do consumers always make rational decisions? Do they make decisions that maximise their economic benefit?

The problem is that they might do actions that are rational to them:

  • Reducing choice when they are overwhelmed
  • Looking for a little luxury to comfort them over time. Which was the sales of Cadbury chocolate and Revlon lipstick were known to rise in a recession
  • Luxury goods in general make little sense from a ration decision point of view until you realise the value of what they signal
  • Having a smartphone yet buying watches. Japanese consumers were known to still buy watches to show that they care about the time to employers when they could easily check their smartphone screen

All of which makes the subject area of high interest to me as a marketer. It also explains the amount of focus now being done by economists on the behavioural aspect of things.

  • Mercedes Benz G63 + more

    Mercedes Benz G63 AMG

    Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 « Gear Patrol – I can’t work out if the Mercedes Benz G63 AMG 6×6 is amazing or stupid. It is based on the G Wagen which is a proper off-road vehicle. The 6×6 platform used was developed for the military like Germany’s KSK special forces unit. The Mercedes Benz G63 AMG adds a ridiculously overturned engine. AMG then has to go over every inch of the Mercedes Benz G63 and change chassis and components to adequately handle the power.

    Business

    16th annual CEO survey – pwc – (PDF)

    Consumer behaviour

    Chinese women aspire to be housewives | Market-interactive.com

    Study: Twitter debates don’t represent opinions of general public (Wired UK)

    Share Everything: Why the Way We Consume Has Changed Forever – Emily Badger – The Atlantic Cities

    Design

    BMW announced it’s i3 Coupe concept this week. It was buzzword compliant with plug-in technology; but the most interesting thing for me about it was the way in which the car shows the current range that could be travelled as part of its in-car instrumentation.

    range

    It was a duh moment of genius simplicity in terms of user experience design for vehicles.

    Economics

    China: Beyond The Miracle | Zero Hedge – interesting piece of analysis

    Q&A with Jim ‘BRIC’ O’Neill: Grillo’s good, China’s fine, Europe’s fading – Quartz

    The fourth euro crisis cycle of panic has officially begun – Quartz

    Euro zone unemployment hits a record high of 11.9% – Quartz

    Finance

    Why delinquent student loans are the fuse on America’s next debt bomb – Quartz

    Rigging the I.P.O. Game – NYTimes.com – this reminds me of the first day ‘pop’ that my former client VA Lnux had when they IPO’d

    UK and US toe the edge of a “regulatory trade war” over banking – Quartz

    Hong Kong

    Wu-Tang Clan’s RZA Breaks Down His Kung Fu Samples by Film and Song

    How to

    How to RSVP in an Entrepreneurial Way | AlwaysOn

    Twitter Archiving Google Spreadsheet TAGS v3 Jisc CETIS MASHe

    Nintendo games on a Mac – Matt Gemmell

    Creation Pinpoint™ | Dashboard for Understanding What Doctors Talk About Online. – New SM listening/monitoring tool for pharma – allows you to monitor only what HCPs are saying

    Korea

    Microsoft Seeks Software License from South Korea Military – Korea Real Time – WSJ

    London

    Evening Standard – FIFTY BEST: Independent coffee shops – as a Foursquare list

    Catching Up with the City Boy Who Spilled the City’s Secrets | VICE United Kingdom – interview with Geraint Anderson formerly a columnist in thelondonpaper

    Luxury

    Collectables – British Airways Business Life. – modern items that are collectable

    Marketing

    The Agenda for the Global Marketer – ad people worldwide – interesting white paper (PDF)

    Outside looking in – EIU – challenges CMO faces in dealing with the board

    Media

    Tumblr to Introduce Mobile Advertising to Help Achieve Profit – Bloomberg

    #LFW: The ELLE UK Twitter report | ELLE UK – since when was fashion a democracy? Elle uses Twitter as an arbiter of taste. More related luxury content here.

    Digital Media in China – Digital Media Asia

    Social media policy | immediate future. – library of social media policies

    Pottermore Reaches Out To Harry Potter Fan Sites – affiliate marketing doesn’t pay that well

    Online

    TelecomTV | Reality bites: Fed-up with Facebook, the kids are are going somewhere “cooler”. – can’t say that I am surprised beyond the fact that network effects had been such a break on the retreat

    5 things that may change on your Facebook timeline – CTV

    Facebook algorithm stopping you see the content you subscribe to, unless brands pay | The Wall Blog

    The age of the brag is over: why Facebook might be losing teens | The Verge

    The Decline and Fall of Social Networks

    Andrew Mason on being fired by the Groupon board

    Security

    Penn Schoen Berland – Execs say cyber-attacks a top priority – PSB is a sister agency

    Google services should not require real names: Vint Cerf | Reuters

    First SOPA, Now Your Privacy: Facebook, Google Flex Lobbying Muscle in Europe | Mother Jones

    Software

    Google controls too much of China’s smartphone sector: ministry | Reuters – 90 per cent market share

    How Are You Feeling Today? A New Mood-Measuring App Can Tell You | Co.Create: Creativity Culture Commerce

    Jolla Wants To Build A Foursquare Phone, A Facebook Phone | TechCrunch

    Microsoft Might Owe Denmark More Than $1 Billion in Unpaid Tax

    Keeping the Wolfram from the Data

    Fontastic – A Processing library to create font files

    Who’ll win the consumer video codec battles?

    Resurgence in Neural Networks – tjake.blog

    Journo & Literate CoffeeScript

    Learning How to Code Is A Waste of Time – Forbes

    Technology

    PC market to decline for a second consecutive year in 2013, says IDC

    Library Camp London – Audio Recordings & Writeup | Terence Eden has a Blog

    Intel will make 14nm FPGAs for Altera

    Logitech reorganises to focus on mobile products

    Why Nobody Can Copy Apple | cek.log

    Telecoms

    Exclusive-Skype’s Jonathan Rosenberg, Father of SIP, Bolts Back To Cisco – VoIP Watch

    Wireless

    Why the Galaxy S4 won’t be shedding its plastic roots | CNET News

  • Siberian meteor burst + more

    Siberian meteor burst

    I know that there have been 500 people with minor injuries, but  the Siberian meteor burst felt like I was living in a Jerry Bruckheimer film. The best observation I saw about it was in Vice magazine’s email newsletter which asked why so many drivers in Russia had managed to film the asteroid rather than keeping both hands on the wheel? The reason for the multiple recordings of the Siberian meteor burst is driver cams used to help with car accident disputes. The Siberian meteor burst brought back memories of the Tunguska event in 1908 which levelled large swathes of Siberian forest.

    Business

    “Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal YHOO No-Work-From-Home Memo | AllThingsD – I could see a post coming on from Becky McMichael about the benefits of remote working and flexible hours etc etc

    PrivCo | LIVINGSOCIAL $110M Debt Infusion From Existing Investors With Oppressive Terms – I wonder what implications this will have for GroupOn

    Consumer behaviour

    HBO: The Weight of the Nation interesting site on obesity in the US

    Culture

    So there has been extensive character redesigns and different actors will be voicing some of the main protagonists, but I am super-excited that Production I.G are returning with another installment in the Ghost In the Shell series of anime. Arise looks amazing judging by the trailer footage now available on YouTube. More Japan related content can be found here.