WWB Quiz Results.

Codename	WWB Quiz
2589	8
3243	9
3957	8
89494790	8
49Ford	8
caboose	5
Cherry	8
HisDarkMaterials	5
kopo	5
mango	4
MoreMoneyMoreProblems	8
Torsten	6
Wendy	5
WhiteSox05	6
zaebaeis3	8
No Code	6

Cognitive Surplus Discussion Topics

We'll be discussing the book cognitive surplus for the next couple of weeks. When you read it, you should be focusing on the main issues. What is cognitive surplus (CS)? Who has it and how do they utilize it? What are traditional domains we use it in and where do you think it will be used in the future? What are the necessary components to leverage CS? What types of groups are the benefactors of CS and what makes people choose one group over the other? As you notice, these are bigger picture questions that you should get from the book. I won't be testing you on names or specific dates, but you should understand specific concepts and marketing applications.

Now, this book can be used to discuss some interesting customer insight ideas and how they may deviate in the online space. I've come up with 4 discussion areas that I hope will carry us over the next two weeks (and remind me that we need to form groups and talk about the project on Tuesday!):

#1. Consumption: What are we actually "spending" and "consuming" when we consume? What are the currencies of interest? How do these currencies differ and what are the exchange rates? What does that mean for marketing decisions?

#2. Identity: What is our identity? How do social networks reflect this and how does online social networking affect this? Why do we care about identities in CI and marketing? You may want to think of consumption decisions this affects as well as products (such as Google+) and product categories (tattoos, luxury goods) or even brands where identity matters. Are there ones where identity doesn't matter?

#3. Aggregation: What is the value of aggregation? When are individuals better/smarter than groups and when are groups better/smarter than individuals? How does aggregation fit in to the innovation process, especially in idea creation? How does behavior change when it is aggregated (e.g. what happens when you de-individuate people and create anonymity)? What are the dangers of aggregation in the marketplace? Are there dangers associated with non-aggregation?

#4. Value: How do we figure out "value" in the marketplace? How do "market forces" and "winner's curses" work in aggregated markets? Who captures the surplus value in aggregated markets? Can we change this? What are other product aspects (besides typical physical product attributes) that drive consumer perceptions of value?

I'm so sleepy...

Obviously, I've been making too many decisions recently, so I'm going to go home, take a nap, and have a chocolate shake. In the meantime, I recommend you read this great article on "decision fatigue" that was in the New York Times Sunday Magazine this past weekend...

first post of a new year

I realize that 95% of material posted on the internet is probably just reposts of material that is already there. What I'm less sure about is if this a problem. Three aspects/properties of the internet make me feel that this lack of creativity (I'm using the word in the sense of development of original content - not as a judgment of the value of the information being repurposed) may not only be a detriment, but may actually be a good thing:

1. The Internet is really big. There is already tons of original content out there. And every day, people are still generating tons more; more than I or anyone can read/use. Every once and a while I think of a clever thought  or come up with a great example through the blind squirrel principle. These thoughts, while clever, are not usually that original - so it's nice that I don't have to invent the wheel and rewrite the thought but can just "borrow" the description from another source (just be careful not to try to take credit for someone else's work!)

2. And it's only getting bigger. We're not going to run out of space (although in theory, we've run out of IP addresses for domain names or something last year). So re-posting stuff that already exists out there isn't going to fill the thing. It just makes a messy closet a tiny bit messier.

3. So how do I find anything? Even if it only contained original content, there would be too much stuff to slog through. Therefore, one of the beauties of people reposting the good stuff is that it actually acts sort of like an aggregation agent. If more copies of the best stuff exist, you are more likely to stumble across the good stuff - especially if there are places that collect information that is more likely to relate to what you need.

So now I'm going to post a link to an article about aggregation, the internet, and creativity. I think it's a great place to start to see how the ideas in Cognitive Surplus can relate to all sorts of issues. In this article from the New York Times Sunday Magazine, Rob Walker discusses a website called Kickstarter. Prepare to discuss this in class (and think of other, similar crowd-sourced websites...).

Books for MARK 30243: Customer Insights

Here are the books we're going to read for class in case you want to get a head start. These books are much more interesting (and a whole lot cheaper) than a textbook! The first book we will read will be Cognitive Surplus. See you in a couple of weeks!

Weekly Book Reviews - Language

This week I thought I'd try to give some books about language from a couple of different perpectives

This is a great introduction to psycholinguistics. Pinker does a great job explaining how individuals learn language and how our brains are hardwired to do this. It is a fairly easy read of a potentially complex topic and you will definitely feel smarter after completing this. From an academic standpoint, Pinker can sometimes be controversial (and he doesn't always agree with others on such topics as neuroplasticity or linguistic categorization - but these differences tend to lie in the persnickety erudite academic details) but his snarkiness makes him a great writer to read as he can turn a quick phrase and draw you into the text.






I'm a HUGE fan of Bill Bryson. And if you have time and like travel writing, I can't recommend enough, A Walk in The Woods. In that book Bryson hikes the Applachian Trail and is completely inept doing so. In Made in America, he examines the wonderful language of "American" and how it is beautifully different than "English". This is done mostly through rambling around and giving us different etymologies of  objects in America (including some interesting stuff on brand names - and how you can often tell when a product was developed by its name). It also goes into place names, regional dialects and sayings, as well as discussing the origin of many common words and sayings. It's a classic source of useless arcana.

With package sizes getting smaller, why are we still getting larger?

I love that there are three stories that are in the papers every year and still seem to come as such a shock. We've already seen the first (how consumers have too many choices) and now an intrepid classmate has found us a story from Tuesday's New York Times that talks about how companies are downsizing our products to reduce costs. Interestingly, February's Consumer Reports also ran an article on downsizing. You need to click on the section headers on the left to read all 5 sections of this article, but in it you can see the experts saying everything that you already know (and some great examples). Who knew that Tropicana is no longer half a gallon (64 oz.) but is now sold in 59 oz. containers? I guess the nice thing about an arbitrary number of ounces is that the next downsize is that much easier... I still find it amazing that with all our new sweeteners, diet products, and downsized products, we still find creative ways to get fatter and unhealthier every year. Go us!

Weekly Book Reviews - Everything you need to know about children to ruin their lives

Leaning how kids learn is important for two reasons. The first is direct and obvious; if you know how they mentally develop, you should be able to help guide them through their mental growth. You may not make them that much smarter, but you can easily prevent them from staying dumb or getting dumber. The second is a selfish reason; if you know how kid's mentally develop, you can better understand why you do all those dumb things that you do. You might just be able to prevent yourself from continuing to make those dumb mistakes (and getting dumber).

This is my all-time favorite book about child-rearing and developmental psychology. I will warn you; it is a completely difficult read. It is written by a neuroscientist, and she doesn't water things down that much or pull her punches. I still don't think I completely understand the beginning. It starts with conception (actually I think it starts even before conception) and explains all the hormonal reactions that take place in a women's body. These, it ends up, are important, because they can affect early fetal development. It then walks you through what develops throughout gestation - and I was never good at biology, so I got a little lost. I then goes on to talk about all aspects of the brain and mind development for the first five years of life (including developing motor skills, language, sensory perceptions, etc). Not only is it good to know this stuff - but knowing it allows you to better understand all the other stuff you read about development. And it will help you to understand what advice/information is truly important from a developmental standpoint and what is likely to be more trivial. This book is worth the effort.


OK, this book is an easier introduction about the mind. Like the first book, it is written by scientists; so you know they aren't just making stuff up. This one is written by developmental psychologists and is a much easier read. In fact, even thought this book takes place slightly later in the chronological development of a child (it really isn't as concerned about pre-birth) this book might help ease you into the topic and provide some frameworks for the book above. The authors do a great job really explaining not only what and when and why a child learns stuff, but also how scientists figured these things out. Usually, a clever experiment has to be designed to test for all this stuff since if you ask an infant a question, they don't tend to provide a comprehensible answer (and their tiny fingers aren't that good at holding the pencils required to fill out surveys).




By this point, you're probably worried that there is so much to know and so much you should be doing that you are guaranteed to f**k up the life of any small child you come in contact with. That is where this book steps in. This book makes you feel better by realizing that children are hardwired to learn (and we are hardwired to teach them) and the best thing we can do is just get out of our own way and play with them. And it uses science to back this up. And it gives you reasons why you should hate Baby Einstein and all those early educational toys. It's a win-win.

TED Unviels Ads Worth Spreading

So the ads worth watching have been unveiled on the TED site. And... well... some may  be worth watching, but I find it a little sad that TED couldn't find 10 that were; although they do have 10 winners. Maybe I just have different criteria than they. Was I wrong to assume that these ads must have some value to me (either  social or philosophical or emotional) that would be so strong that I would want to spread these ads? I mean, with that title, they need to have some "worth", right? And then on top of that, besides the message/topic of the ad having worth (so I should want to tell everyone), I would assume that it ALSO must be compelling to watch or share. Some of these ads to both (which is why I'm compelled to share this with you). I do like the concept (and an ad that so captures the attention and mind of its audience that they are compelled to share it is a worthy goal of all advertisements - regardless of whether the message is for public good or commercial gain). Anyway, the ads are here.  (OK, and this one is my favorite - in fact, I'm going to watch it again as soon as I post this link).

Weekly Book Reviews - Persuasion through two sets of 6 simple rules

This is a must read book for anyone going into sales (and pretty much anyone who has to sit on either side of a negotiation.) Cialdini presents a nice framework of 6 simple principles that act as "weapons of influence": reciprocation, commitment and consistency, social proof, liking, authority, and scarcity. More importantly, he provides great examples of how these are used and how they can be leveraged in numerous domains. You will be kicking yourself as you see how easily you've been prodded into choices in the past (and hopefully, will learn some tricks on how to get your way more often).  I will warn you: after you read this book, you are going to be highly suspicious of people's actions and their underlying motives!




Of course, a big part of persuasion is communication. And there is no point in communicating ideas if they are going to be immediately forgotten. You've already had to give a lot of presentations (PowerPoint and other) so far in your life. And no matter what you do, you're going to give some more. You might as well make them interesting, memorable, and thus, more persuasive. The Heath brothers give 6 simple principles to make ideas "sticky": Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, and Stories. Following their own advice (and my spelling prowess), they even give us an acronym to remember it by, SUCCESs. These two books do a great job taking what we know of social and cognitive psychology and providing direct, easily applicable advice to address a wide range of marketing scenarios.

Go Green For Spring Break

I know that St. Patty's Day fell during spring break - so I think this is a time for everyone to go green. And one way to do this is to try some wine in some more sustainable packaging. This talks a little about how the form often colors our perceptions (and when, for wine, they may be true and when they may be false). Anyway, I love how one of the biggest problems with using a PET bottle is that they look too small! (no thick glass, long neck, and dimple in the bottom to make them look big). And after you try tetra pak try some high-end box wine. (I know that Black Box is supposed to make a good wine and is available at Goody Goody along with some tetra-pack wines they discuss in the article).

Weekly Book Reviews - Behavioral Economics

So I've decided to start a bunch of weekly book reviews. They'll all be tagged so you can access them in the future when you are out of classes and are wondering what to read in all that free time. To lead it off, I thought I would riff a little on the Paradox of Choice. The Paradox of Choice basically covers the area where psychology intersects with economics: decision theory. This is an extremely hot area right now, filled with books such as Dan Ariely's Predictably Irrational, and its sequel, The Upside of Irrationality. We also have such clever new one word titles (trying to take advantage of the Malcolm Gladwell effect) as Sway and Nudge. I thought I would approach this from the economic side this week and give you three of the older titles that I think are pretty interesting and still hold up rather well (OK to be honest, one of these titles is really, really, new). Don't worry - I have way more than enough of recommendations that have a more psychological bent coming in the future.

The Art of Choosing - Sheena Iyengar
OK, so this was written in the past year. But it does have the distinction of being written by the person who actually conducted the jam study! I actually think this book is an uneven read. The beginning is a fascinating personal history about Dr. Iyengar's life (she lost her vision during childhood) and this is followed by a great analysis of macro cultural differences in choice behavior. Then there are some uneven chapters, but the chapter on the jam study is well written and a great read. The beginning and the end definitely justify this book!








The Winner's Curse - Richard Thaler
This is a classic: one of the early popular attacks on rational economic choice theory by one of the heavyweights in the field. Thaler is the rare behavioral economist at the University of Chicago (the school famed for it's rational, free-market economists). This book is a collection of short essays that describes a bunch of times when people don't act "rationally" and explains what is really going on in these situations (or what the consequences are for their "irrational" actions). It's from a series of articles he wrote for the Journal of Economic Perspectives, but they have been slightly reworked to make them easier for the reader. There are some interesting points in here - like why auction winners almost always overpay for an item, why you shouldn't bet longshots at the racetrack at the end of the day (and why you should be the exacta), and, of course, a couple on how the stock market isn't always that efficient (and common errors investors make). I won't kid you, this can be a dense read at times, but it is rewarding. And it is a book that anyone who has an interest in finance (as well as marketing) should read!

Against the Gods - Peter L. Bernstein
This is the history of humans mathematical understanding of risk. It's an intimidating subject. And it's a long book. But it is a cracking good read (this probably oversells it, but I really recall enjoying this). It's a history book and a lesson on probability rolled up into one; what could be more desirable than that? I'd say that if you read this and A Random Walk Down Wall Street you'd be all set to hold your own in most financial conversations (and be much better off when managing your personal investments). You'll probably have much more interesting financial cocktail conversational nuggets than any of those finance gurus as well!

What does a Mini mean? And does it matter?

I really like this article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal on Saturday. It's well written. It allows interesting, intelligent debate on both sides. It touches on many core marketing issues: branding, brand extensions, differentiation, competitive actions, and most importantly - it looks at a lot of these from both a manager's perspective and a consumer perspective. And the comments speak to some good issues as well: When should you listen to your consumer (see Robert Carilli's comment)?   How do you address gaps/voids the product space (a great positioning point brought up by Blake White)?

Maybe we'll have some comments about this over spring break?

Ads Worth Watching

Interesting Concept: TED and YouTube are partnering in a contest to produce Ads that People Want to Watch and Forward. AsRonda Carnegie, the head of global partnerships for TED, tells us, “Advertising is just not about selling you something. It really has to give you something back in order to reward the attention you give it.” The New York Times article on this is here. The winners will be announce on March 18 and showcased both on TED and YouTube. Tune in!

Placebos!

OK, so I have a lot of neat customer insights articles to post, but instead I'm going to post one on how consuming a little bit of sugar in the shape of a pill (or other forms), can have some interesting and inconsistent effects!

Mind Over Money

Of course, a lot can be learned from watching videos. I just can't justify showing an hour long video in class. Luckily, we don't have class on Tuesday so that you can attend the "Roadmaps to Careers in Marketing" event. So to make up for the tragic loss of knowledge, you can tune into a great piece on behavioral economics that aired on NOVA a couple of years ago.

Watch the full episode. See more NOVA.

Same story, different year...

As I said at the beginning of the semester, every year we see at least one article that will talk about too much choice and how companies are pairing their product lines to increase profits... We saw it in the Girl Scout Cookies, and now from today's WSJ it's here in the toothpaste aisle.

I think this article brings up some interesting questions. Some of the ones that come to my mind are:
Why do companies have to learn this lesson year after year? Or is there really something more complex going on here? Are companies seeing advantages by launching all these new products and line extensions? Are the different benefits these products offer wanted by smaller and smaller segements; is this a case of hyper-segmentation? Or in the consumers' mind are they just meaningless distinctions and not true differentiators?

What's the Skinny on Skinny Pepsi?

 Diet Pepsi Debuts its Sleek, New Look at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

"Diet Pepsi has a long history of celebrating women through iconic fashion imagery seen in our infamous and historical campaigns, and we're proud to continue that tradition as an official sponsor of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. Our slim, attractive new can is the perfect complement to today's most stylish looks, and we're excited to throw its coming-out party during the biggest celebration of innovative design in the world."  - Jill Beraud, Chief Marketing Officer, PepsiCo

This packaging seems to make complete sense from a Customer Insights standpoint. The tall, thin package mimics the suggested product benefit. We should non-consciously transfer the perceptual lightness of the package shape to the can's contents. The colors are light, the typeface is light; I mean, even the 0 in the zero calories looks thin!

But then I started reading that some things in their advertising campaigns may be too thin...

At what point are people/critics/groups reading too much into an advertisement?

Metrics for Measuring C(K)lout

This WSJ article will make a lot of sense when you start reading Cognitive Surplus. We talk a lot about how social media now changes corporate/brand information from being unidirectional to multidirectional. And while we can be aware of the importance of social media in establishing "buzz", it's full value will be realized when we can both measure the buzz and its sources. A company named Klout is working on a metric for identifying an quantifying individual sources of online buzz on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media sites. If you can identify the most connected nodes, you can try to have them spread the messages you want...

Of course, just being the most connected, doesn't always mean that you are the most influential; influence is a combination of reach and persuasiveness. The persuasiveness of these sources isn't being measured yet!

Did you see the Gorilla? Good news for Slackers and ADHD sufferers!

Every time we talk about whether or not you saw/missed the gorilla, there are questions regarding if one state is more desirable than the other. If I missed the gorilla, does it mean that I have laser-like focus to my attention and can therefore concentrate better and avoid distractions? If I saw the gorilla, does it mean that I have more discerning visual skills and am more attuned to my surroundings? Daniel Simons, the creator of this research, says that we can't really draw any trait distinctions from this one context, and that individual's ability to selectively focus their attention will vary from context to context. It's kind of a cop out.

However, there has been some interesting research recently regarding ADHD, an individual's inability to focus and what that might mean for creativity. Jonah Lehrer reports in the WSJ about some research which ties this lack of focus to increased creativity as it allows individuals to bring in ideas from unrelated and disparate sources; it appears that for some tasks, focused attention may not always a good thing!

Some Brave and Adventurous Students

A group of students decided to take the taste test challenge to the next logical level - and the results weren't good for premium vodkas. Our discerning tasters couldn't distinguish between Grey Goose and Smirnoff (and if anyone is interested, I can post a link to a great podcast about olive oil quality - which probably wouldn't be as fun to taste test!)

Coke vs. Pepsi

 A couple (well 3) of the CI gang (we need a better name for this) decided to put their tongues where their mouths were (a bad mix-ed metaphor) and see if their loyalty to Coke and Pepsi were based on real or percieved differences. They write:

"After your lecture yesterday we decided to test your experiment to see if we could tell the difference between Coke and Pepsi. We did a blind triangle test and out of the 3 of us, only Sammie got it correct all 3 trials. I got 1 right on my 2nd trial and Keziah didn't get any right. We attached two pictures in case you wanted to see how we did it and we thought it might be a good blog post. In the picture, from left to right is Sammie, me (Monika), and Keziah."

Update! More data has arrived thanks to Alex, who had a 50% success rate in his sample. This brings our sample of 7 and our success rate at identifying a difference to  43%. 

Let's have the data keep coming in!

Could you sell 2,000 boxes of cookies?

There was an article in the WSJ today on Girl Scout cookies. Besides the weak pun in the opening sentence, there is a lot to recommend about this article - and it really addresses some of the key issues that we cover in class.

First, there is really an interesting point regarding product line and reducing the size of the product line. They discuss a lot of operational issues regarding why you want less choice - all of which I agree with. In marketing we always talk about the marginal increase in sales you get with additional options. Their 5 most popular choices account for 77% of their sales. Economically, when you think about distributing your fixed costs over a greater number of goods, if the variable costs don't increase (which in this case they may due to inventory costs) then shouldn't we always consider expanding our product lines? Don't we want that other 23% of sales? What would the Paradox of Choice say about this?

Secondly, think about how this product is sold. What are customer's really buying? What needs do the cookies satisfy? How do consumers choose how many boxes to buy (or whether to buy at all)?  Does this change how they can design their product line?

Third, did you know that Girl Scout cookie names are regional? I grew up with Samoas in New Jersey. I just thought that the the GSA has changed the name of the cookie by the time I moved to Texas - I didn't realize that regionally they are called Caramel deLites. Have they always been called that in Texas? (The same is true with Tagalongs being called Peanut Butter Patties) 

Fourth, costs have been going up and sales have been pretty flat. So, besides trying to increase their sales through MBA style boot camps, they are using the technique we just discussed in class of downsizing their product: there will be one ounce less of cookie in each box.

By the way, 14-year-old Peach Norman Owen of Cincinnati sold 2,000 boxes of cookies last year. Think about just the sheer size of that!

No matter what they say, size does matter...

The new sizes of coffee at Starbucks got me thinking about the two related problems that we have in the US in regarding dietary consumption: we eat unhealthy foods and we eat too much of them. That's right, we have the perfect storm of poor nutrition quality in obscene stomach-stretching quantities. Consumers are really bad at knowing when we're full and judging how much we've eaten (let alone how healthy something is). And we as marketers take full advantage of this. We realize that we can increase sales not only by having you consume more often, but also by having you consume more in each sitting.

We use contextual information to make our judgments of how much we're supposed to eat. The amount of popcorn we eat at a movie is dependent upon the size of the container that we are given before we enter the theater. If we have a soup bowl fill up secretly from the bottom while you're consuming it, you'll eat more because you judge how much soup to drink by the progress you've made down the bowl. We judge how big our portions should be by how much of the dinner plate it fills up - and plates have been increasing in diameter (from 8.5" in 1960 to 10" in 1970 to 12" today).  We decide how much popcorn to eat at movies by the size of the container we are given.We know we should stop eating as we get to the bottom of our bag of chips, so we'll eat more if we eat out of a container where we don't touch the sides. We'll drink more if we drink from a larger straw (thanks McDonald's!) or a beer can with a wider opening (thanks Coors!).

Marketers also know that bad foods are often yummy and that we are extremely bad about tracking where our calories come from. Yes, we might expect that one fast food meal may contain almost our entire recommended daily intake of calories and fat. But would you expect that a Venti Doubly Chocolate Chip Frappuccino Blended Beverage would have 800 calories and 25 grams of fat? That is 40% of your daily calorie requirement and 38% of your daily recommended daily fat intake! No wonder there is a Starbucks on every corner - and thank goodness they have drive thrus. We wouldn't want to burn any of those calories by having to get out of the car and walking to the counter!

Trenta!!!

Here is Starbucks' blog release of their new drink size: the Trenta.

Can anyone figure out the math behind the sizes? Doesn't trenta mean 30 in Italian? Then why is Startbucks' new size 31 ozs? And how is the Trenta 7 ounces bigger than the Venti? Is the Venti 24 ounces?

What is with the size names? I have to post both the linguist's gripes with size names as well as Paul Rudd's rant.

And this graphic is troubling....

Cool Perception Video.

So I'm trying to clear my box of stuff that I mean to post. Here is the video of perceptual illusions that I meant to post.

Slight of Hand? We tell consumers what to focus on...

If a company tells me that their food is high in calcium, should I think it is healthy? What if that same food is also high in fat and sugar? Should ice cream be able to carry labeling which stresses that point?

The New York Times reports on the food industry's new food labels here.

Do nutrition labels even affect your consumption?

Podbuster Ads

We were talking in class on Tuesday about the "arms race" between the consumer and the marketer. As consumers find methods to avoid exposure to commercial messages, marketers must find ways to get around these methods. We talked about how technologies such as DVRs have lead to the latest escalation and an increase in product placement on television. Well, you may have also noticed that it's getting more difficult to just fast forward through advertisement blocks as stations try to trick you into stopping in the middle of these blocks by making you think that the show is back on. This technique is called "podbusting" and a great article and mp3 clip on this technique was on NPR this past week.

Dressed To Impress: Unilever, a conglomerate behind various products, from food (Hellmann's mayonnaise and Lipton teas) to body wash (Axe and Ponds), bought into the Mad Men aesthetic with podbuster advertisements that evoke the TV drama's look. (image and caption compliments of NPR)

Oprah in Australia

So I'm sure that y'all have been following Oprah's last season on television. After all, once she only has her own magazine and cable television network how will we know what she's up to? How will we choose what books to read?

Anyway, If you turned on the television today you'd see that Oprah is currently broadcasting episodes filmed on a "road trip" to Australia. She's taken a studio audience (some 300 people) plus her production crew down under for a tour of the country. 

Here is the best part: the Government of Australia is paying for the entire trip. All $2.9 million of it!

Of course, this can all be explained by that wonderful concept of "Exposure" we just covered in class. Quantas and many other companies have also jumped on board with this as well...  You can read all about it in the WSJ article here.

Shopping Lists

Scott Allison pointed out that there is a person who has been collecting shopping lists for years and has compiled his favorites into a website and a book. You can be your own judge whether he uses them as a window into people's minds...

Of course, I have to geek this up and present you with some behavioral insights that researchers have found by examining the shopping lists of shoppers:
 - a specific brand is listed for 22.9% of items on shopping lists
 - 52% of items purchased on a grocery trip aren't on the shoppers' grocery list.
 So it looks like there is lots of possibilities in the retail store environment to influence a shopper's choice.

Last Semester Projects

Last semester the class focused on examining how consumers can utilize their "cognitive surplus" on the web. They looked at how the movement away from unidirectional communication leads to things like co-creation/crowd sourcing and new ways that fans can create and consume their interests when they can aggregate their fandom.

This is a video exploring co-creation via the website Threadless.com:

This is a video exploring fan sites:

Pricing Decisions: What do we even price?

While in Chile we stopped in a mall and looked about in a pet store. We noticed that the price of fish was prominently displayed on the tank, yet there were no prices on the puppy cages. Is this the same in America? Does this make sense? Where else might placing prices (or excluding prices) force us to reinterpret our consumption transactions?

All things American

In other countries we're known for many things: loud, rude behavior, large people (and larger portions), and apparently our crinkle-cut chips.