Segmenting luxury brand consumers
In some of my earlier posts, I have stated that there are two simultaneous paradoxical needs among us consumers with regard to consumption namely, (a) to conform and (b) to demonstrate uniqueness. In sociology and psychology this has led to creation of various terms such as fitting in or standing out, in-group vs. out-group behaviour,
- Published in Blog, Luxury marketing
Waving Good bye to Google Wave: Lessons in positioning
A year ago, when it was launched, it was one of the most hyped products (service) from Google. It was hailed as the next generation of communication and the big G was promoting it as everyone will move away from regular email and will use Google Wave. Today, it was announced that Google “doesn’t plan
- Published in Latest Qs & Reviews
Apple’s ‘Antennagate’: How not to deal with an issue when you are a leader
While listening and later on reading Apple’s defence of the ‘Antennagate’, I felt how much strategic thinking has gone into this and how the debate was PR driven rather than having any talk of substance. Apple won praise of customers and non-customers alike because it stayed at the upper spectrum debate previously. It looked at
- Published in Blog
The compromise effect in our decision making
Most consumers in developed and emerging markets are now facing an interesting choice making dilemma. It’s the dilemma of plenitude. This relates to most purchase decisions which includes a wide spectrum of products and services from buying corn flakes (a fairly low ticket item) to a car (a fairly big ticket item) and even the
- Published in Blog
Thriving on consumer irrationality
It has been well-established in psychology literature that consumers are highly irrational in most of their decision making. Moreover, Daniel Kahneman (the Noble laureate) and Amos Tversky (who would have also won it if he didn’t die in 1996) have shown using various experiments throughout their research career that we as consumers are very poor
- Published in Blog
Announcement: 2011 MAG Scholar Conference
For those of you who are researching the Asian economies, this is an interesting chance to participate in the debate. The ‘Marketing in Asia Group’ (MAG) is organizing the 2011 MAG Scholar Conference in Christchurch, New Zealand. MAG consists of more than 400 researchers from all over the world and this conference will be a
- Published in Latest Qs & Reviews
What is luxury?
When joining the ‘luxury society’ group, one of the interesting questions they asked was to provide your own definition of luxury. My response to that was “luxury is a state of mind. It is about how you carry yourself and fulfil yours as well as others desires”. My idea focused on the issue of luxury
- Published in Blog, Luxury marketing
How many times have you been mis-sold?
Recently, I was talking to one of my colleagues who was mis-sold his mobile phone contract. Interestingly enough, I stumbled across a research carried out by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK which suggested that more than 9% of all consumers were mis-sold products or services in recent past. Several questions emerged in
- Published in Latest Qs & Reviews