Cluetrainplus10: Thesis no.2

This is my blog post on thesis 2 of the Cluetrain Manifesto, forming part of cluetrainplus10. This is a project set up by Keith McArthur to celebrate the ten year anniversary of the manifesto’s publishing. I am one of many bloggers who has picked a thesis to cover today.
I feel like a bit of a [...]

Segmentation is not a science

An Advertising Age blog post inaccurately entitled “The Death of Customer Segmentation” (those pesky subs) argues that traditional market segmentations should be combined with “self-segmentation” techniques such as user recommendations, networking groups, opt-in alerts and consumer generated content/feedback.
The author, Michael Fassnacht, finds traditional segmentation problematic because:

It is too static in a fast-paced society
People can belong [...]

“All you can eat” offers

I’ve been thinking about subscription models recently – specifically unlimited usage models.
It isn’t right for all business or all sectors, but generally they seem a good thing. Service industries, for instance, would struggle to cope with an increased demand without a commensurate increase in revenue. And premium good sellers would be reticent to participate in [...]

Perspective bias and the anchoring effect

Anchoring is a cognitive trait that causes us to rely too heavily on certain pieces of information when making a decision, such as an up-until-then trusted brand name selling us a lemon.
Perspective bias is a form of subjectivity or self-selection where we are unable to divorce our own prejudices and experiences from a decision.
Both exist. [...]

Carpe diem

An unwanted corollary of thinking time – the topic of my previous post – is the possibility of feeling unproductive or lazy. There is a distinction between the two – thinking is doing, after all.
And doing is important. We should do stuff. And we all have free time. So we should look to do stuff [...]