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SD#28: Double-jeopardy, cognitive bottlenecks and green spaces

July 24, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) Double-jeopardy law is further amplified by today’s digital algorithms
Double jeopardy is an empirical law in marketing where the lower-market-share brands in a market have far fewer buyers in a time period and also lower brand loyalty. Big brands have an easier time acquiring and keeping customers, their advertising budgets go further. And… digital world has only amplified the effects.

The pendulum has had two swings. Starting in the 1990s, the internet made it easier for startup businesses to make their products available, market them and grow. But since then, the direction of travel is increasingly in the opposite direction, with an ever-growing advantage for the big players.

The reason is that algorithms are mediating ever more purchases and they prioritise things that are already popular. That means businesses that are already big. Smaller businesses are served up less often, pay more for their digital ads and have to devote more cash to defending their existing sales.

The two swings net out at a situation where it’s easier for small businesses to launch than ever before, but also where there’s a limit to how far their growth can go. Where challengers can only challenge so much, and big business remains at least partly insulated from competition.

Marketing Week
2. (Psychology) We have two cognitive bottlenecks impacting our perception and action – our attention and our working memory

The human mind has many limitations. For instance, our limited sensory capabilities mean that there are many sources of information we cannot perceive at all. Dogs can smell emotions such as fear and ​​can tell the difference between two people based on their scent alone. Bees can see infrared, which is invisible to the human eye.

For the most part, we are naturally aware of these sensory limitations. We know we are not able to perform echolocation or see in the dark. But, somehow, we tend to overestimate our cognitive capacities — our ability to concurrently process multiple streams of information or to work on several tasks at the same time.

We believe that by combining two tasks, we will complete them sooner than if we worked on them separately. We also trust that we can consider many different facts when making complex decisions. But our thinking mind is limited by two big bad bottlenecks: our attention and our working memory.

Everyone will have different profiles for levels of attention and working memory, and your cognitive capacities also vary throughout the day and years. Being aware of the existence of these cognitive bottlenecks can help you avoid being overconfident in your cognitive capacities, and to make more sound decisions at work and in your daily life.

Ness Labs
3. (Meditation) If you struggle during regular meditation, consider an active one

Musician Regina Spektor was recently interviewed by The Creative Independent. It’s a brilliant piece full of creative thought, but the gem I found in it came in the afterthoughts section. Regina shared how she struggles with regular meditation, sitting down and focusing her thoughts. So instead, she does cooking meditation.

You decide something you dedicate the meal to. It can be peace in the world, or someone’s health, or anything that is stirring you at the time. Then as you cook, every little action of the cooking—washing, cutting, mixing—can be imbued with that dedication. You concentrate on that intention from start to finish and keep repeating the thought in your mind as you cook. In the end, every bite is filled with that wish. A meditation for the over-thinker…
 
4. (Investing) The most important investing question is not “what are the highest returns I can earn?” It’s “what are the best returns I can sustain for the longest period?”

Some of the best athletes in the world spend almost all their time working way below potential, purposefully not pushing themselves to the limits.

They don’t race at that leisurely pace, of course – they might be at the highest levels of intensity for an hour or more during a competition.

But in training, you tend to build the best athletic machine when longevity is favoured over intensity, when your body gets a signal to adapt vs. thinking it’s been temporarily tortured, and when you’re less subject to injury and mental burnout.

For the highest levels to be attainable over time, the process has to be sustainable.

Which is exactly how good investing works too.

Compounding is just returns to the power of time. Time is the exponent that does the heavy lifting, and the common denominator of almost all big fortunes isn’t returns; it’s endurance and longevity. “Excellent returns for a few years” is not nearly as powerful as “pretty good returns for a long time.” And few things can beat, “average returns sustained for a very long time.”

Collaborative fund
5. (Marketing) The value of brand love as a metric might be overstated but still valuable

Cast your mind back to the crazy days of the late 20th century when brand love was everywhere. Academics talked about brand relationships in a manner akin to marriage. Every third case study of branding success ended with consumers getting a tattoo of the company’s logo on their upper shoulder. And best-selling authors climbed over each other to come up with ever more ejaculatory metaphors for brand loyalty, obsession, love, passion, delight or intimacy.

And then things changed. The fire went out. The leopard skin rug was pulled from under the intertwined bodies of the brand and consumer. And the lights came on. All passion halted.

In 2007, Havas published the results of global research indicating most people would not care if 74% of brands disappeared. Linked to the Havas factoid was the emergence of the Ehrenberg Bass Institute and a new school of brand thinking. Brands grew through mental and physical availability, not love. Salience was the new engine for success.

But… there has to be room in any theory of brand management for affection, love and even loyalty. All three were certainly overplayed and overstated in decades past. But committing the equivalent sin of underestimation today does not absolve the exaggerations of the past.

Mark Ritson via Marketing Week
6. (Productivity) There will always be too much to do – and this realisation is liberating

Oliver Burkeman has been writing for The Guardian for over a decade. In his last column, he tried to sum up all he has learned in one piece, which ranges from the superpower of tolerating minor discomfort to how to deal with imposter syndrome. 

One that I need to remind myself the most – there will always be too much to do.

Today more than ever, there’s just no reason to assume any fit between the demands on our time – all the things we would like to do, or feel we should do – and the amount of time available. Thanks to capitalism, technology and human ambition, these demands keep increasing, while our capacities remain largely fixed. It follows that the attempt to “get on top of everything” is doomed. (Indeed, it’s worse than that – the more tasks you get done, the more you’ll generate.)

The upside is that you needn’t berate yourself for failing to do it all, since doing it all is structurally impossible. The only viable solution is to make a shift: from a life spent trying not to neglect anything, to one spent proactively and consciously choosing what to neglect, in favour of what matters most.

The Guardian
7. (Psychology) Prescribing time in parks and green spaces is now used as a way of treating a range of conditions including high blood pressure, anxiety and depression

Our species has spent the majority of our time evolving in close concert with nature over hundreds of thousands of years. So let’s compare that to the time after the advent of agriculture just 10,000 years ago. Farming transformed our way of life and essentially brought us more indoors by encouraging more permanent living structures. 

And even more recently in our evolution: The internet. Screen technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated at grabbing and holding our attention and keeping us sedentary, indoors with our eyes fixed on screens- especially our children’s. Are we becoming an indoor species so rapidly that our health cannot keep up with the change? Are there simply fewer opportunities to be active outside of how our modern lives have been structured?

Researchers studied how technology and urban environments deprive us of development in our attention system, which is designed for interactions with nature. They found that by redirecting our attention to nature and interacting with natural environments (Attention Restoration Theory), there is less of a demand for controlled attention compared to attention in urban environments, and is, therefore, restorative.

Duncan Murdoch is a certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide, and his site has a lot of great information about improving your mental health by getting out into nature, and specifically about forest therapy, or as the Japanese call it, “Shinrin-Yoku,” which means forest bathing.

Fun things to click on:

An illustrated book full of things to look forward to. Find a local time that is convenient for everyone in your next virtual meeting. Guided monthly reviews help bring perspective and closure to the past month before you dive into the month ahead.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#27: Choice, financial freedom and compound returns

July 17, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) Consumers don’t want choice, but to be more confident in the choices presented
The average American adult makes 35,000 decisions every day — from what they wear to what size coffee they order. Each decision puts some degree of strain on our mental capacity. As the day goes on, we get tired and stop wanting to make decisions. It’s called decision fatigue.
 
Rookie marketers make the mistake of thinking choice is a good thing. 
 
Choice is a tax on your time and attention. Consumers don’t want more choice, but more confidence in the choices presented. Customers want someone else to do the research and curate the options for them. You could try to merchandise a better itinerary on a boat through Southeast Asia (hotels, meals, activities, planes, trains, cars), or you could let someone else figure it out for you.
 
Scott Galloway
2. (Investing) Financial freedom consists of things you do outside of your portfolio and career as well. During a turbulent time like right now, the best things to do might sit outside of investing

With all this market turmoil, you might be wondering: what should you do with your portfolio?
 
While this is a decent question to ask, it might not be the best question to ask. Why? Because the evidence suggests that any big changes to your portfolio are unlikely to pay off. […] The most sensible portfolio action to take is no action at all. Stay the course.
 
So, instead of asking, “What should I do in my portfolio?” Ask, “What should I do outside of my portfolio?”
 
Because, in the grand scheme of things, your investment portfolio is just one part of your financial picture. There are many other levers that you can pull if you want to improve your finances. However, those levers will be dependent on where you currently are in your financial journey.
 
Of Dollars and Data
3. (Productivity) Seek compound returns in your weekly activities for exponential growth

Last week we discussed how living a good life in modern times of abundance is about seeking slow-reward goods. A parallel thought is seeking compound growth in your activities.
 
Jeremy Enns expressed how podcast creation is an activity of compound returns:
 
Podcasting–and all content marketing for that matter–is similarly built on the concept of compound returns.
 
Your audience grows slowly at first and it’s hard to justify the time that could be spent elsewhere, but the more time and content you consistently invest, the more the returns start to accrue.
 
The reason most people don’t start investing earlier is that we as humans have difficulty thinking in the long term. We’re programmed to prioritize short-term benefits over long-term gains. On top of that, we have an inherent difficulty truly understanding the concept of exponential growth.
 
Combined, these blind spots lead us to avoid investing small amounts of time, money, or effort consistently over some time, even when we’re told that it will be worth it in the long run.
 
Simply being aware of these tendencies, and the fact that podcasts are not supposed to grow overnight can go a long way in building a productive mindset around producing and growing your show.
 
4. (Psychology) Allow yourself and others to fail

I had the privilege to hear Kevin Pieterson, former England international cricket player, speak recently. I’ll be honest, I know very little about cricket. But apparently, he was pretty good at it.
One thing that struck me from his talk was how he framed leadership. It’s about ‘allowing yourself and others to fail’. We all fail as human beings. It’s inevitable. We’ll go through ups and downs and we have to be prepared to face both of those situations.
All we can do is train ourselves to be ready for whatever outcome is waiting and then embrace the result.
5. (Marketing) Your competition is usually not who you think it is

When you’re sizing up your brand’s competition, where do you typically look? Sometimes, we look at the category through the lens of product features. For example, ice cream competitors can be divided into different formats (tubs, bars, cones, etc.). Still, in this case, you could also look at the competition in terms of the audience segment (health-conscious, millennials, moms, etc.).

However, identifying your competitors through product features or audience segmentation can prevent you from seeing how broadly your brand competes.

The reality is that consumers do not exclusively buy a product format (i.e. ice cream bars) or a product designed for their audience segment (i.e. organic). Instead, most consumers are occasional buyers who will buy ice cream bars on one occasion and opt for an ice latte the next time. To understand the true buying behaviour of a product, Byron Sharp recommends using “duplication of purchase” analysis to see the overlap of buyers in a category. Medium
6. (Psychology) You are perfect just as you are… but you can always be better

There is an inherent tension between self-acceptance and self-improvement. This tension is within each of us. On the one hand, we want to feel at peace with ourselves, to understand that we are good, valuable, worthy human beings and we deserve love and respect and occasional backrubs. 

On the other hand, unless you’re comatose, it’s abundantly clear that we have no fucking clue what we’re doing most of the time. We mess up all the damn time. There are so many ways we could be better—that we could learn more, achieve more, grow more, etc.

Self-acceptance doesn’t work without self-improvement. Self-improvement doesn’t work without self-acceptance. You are perfect just as you are… but you can always be better.

Mark Manson’s 3 principles for a better life
7. (Psychology) The average human attention span shrunk by nearly a quarter between the year 2000 and 2015

Do you ever feel like our attention spans are getting shorter? It’s not just your imagination; research has revealed that human beings are, indeed, flakier than ever before!

The average human attention span shrunk by nearly a quarter between the year 2000 and 2015, and we’re now lagging behind the humble goldfish in terms of being able to focus on a task or object.

Wyzowl

Fun things to click on:

An in-depth guide to elevating your brand presence with photography. Ukrainian artists bring images of war to the Venice Biennale. 17 Hidden Google tricks you probably haven’t seen yet.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#26: Temptation bundling, recessions and advertising words

July 10, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) Brand budgets should be going up not down during a recession
It’s no surprise that marketing budgets are usually the first to be cut in a downturn. It’s also the brand marketing budgets that take the axe first. Instead, marketers need to reverse this trend by keeping budgets going and only downsizing performance budgets if they have to.

“In a recession, people are less likely to buy. So why would you run short-term lead generation trying to get people to buy when they are not going to buy – because they don’t have the money or the confidence? […] You would be better off cutting short-term advertising and continuing to invest in long-term brand building, so when the economy does recover – and most recessions only last 12-18 months – you are going to win more of those customers” argued Jon Lombardo and Peter Weinberg to the Mi3.
2. (Productivity) Temptation bundling is a productivity technique that can help avoid procrastination by boosting willpower

You know you should be working on that presentation, but you’ve been procrastinating. To make things worse, the latest season of your favourite show has just dropped on Netflix. Luckily, making progress on your work and indulging in activities you enjoy is not only compatible but can also make you more productive. That’s called temptation building.

Temptation bundling is a productivity technique that involves combining an activity that gives you instant gratification, such as watching TV, with one that is beneficial but has a delayed reward, such as exercising. If you only allow yourself to watch TV while you’re on a treadmill, you may be more likely to exercise regularly than you would otherwise have been.

Ness Labs
3. (Psychology) If living a good life in ancient times of scarcity was about seeking fast-reward goods, then living a good life in modern times of abundance is about seeking slow-reward goods

In many areas of our lives, things that are not as satisfying now tend to be more satisfying and leave us better off later. If living a good life in ancient times of scarcity was about seeking fast-reward, lower-effort goods, then living a good life in modern times of abundance is about seeking slow-reward, higher-effort goods. Scientists call this the evolutionary mismatch—when strategies that were once adaptive to a species become harmful.

Once you become aware of the evolutionary mismatch, you start to see it everywhere. Overcoming it is key to being grounded in an increasingly frantic world.

The challenge is compounded by the fact that Western economies are set up for short-term profits, not long-term fulfilment. As a result, we are bombarded with products, services, and marketing aimed directly at the part of our brains that crave immediate-reward products, services, and experiences. Consumerism feeds off the evolutionary mismatch and traps us in a cycle of seeking shallow pleasures that have short half-lives. This may be good for the bottom line but not for our health and happiness.

What can we do about it? 

Outside discusses.
 
4. (Investing) History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme

It’s well documented that Mark Twain used the first four words, but there’s no clear evidence that he ever said the rest. Many others have said similar over the years, but Theodor Reik said something similar that describes the concept best:

There are recurring cycles, ups and downs, but the course of events is essentially the same, with small variations. It has been said that history repeats itself. This is perhaps not quite correct; it merely rhymes.

The events of investment history don’t repeat, but familiar themes do recur especially behavioural themes.

In the last two years, we’ve seen dramatic examples of the ups and downs Reik wrote about. And Howard Marks focused his memo on the market dynamics of these swings.
5. (Marketing) The confusing world of advertising words

It’s no secret that some words in the advertising world are used completely differently from their real meanings. Take the word ‘simple’. 

“Simple briefs, simple scripts, simple solutions, simple edits, simple endlines, simple decks, simple meetings…

Your simple, ain’t my simple. 

Whenever I’ve said that we want something simple, I think everyone nodded in agreement, but what were we agreeing to? Different things, of course! 

Your ad, which was striving at all times for simplicity achieved exactly that, by which I mean it achieved nothing of the sort, and all because your simple wasn’t the same as the strategist’s, the account handler’s or the client’s.” Ben Kay explains this and other most frequent words in his blog.
6. (Economy) Do we need a recession?

The weird thing about economics and the market is that bad thing are sometimes perceived to be good. Bank of America recently stated “The good news is that high frequency data is showing hints of [job market] cooling off… job posting on Indeed are down 8.5ppt from the high on December 31, 2021”.

This is not good news. It’s good news in the sense that it’s good that the labour market is slowing down so there isn’t that pesky ol’ problem of wage inflation, but it’s terrible news in the sense that these are people.

Economics is largely the study of humans and money – it’s what we do with our paychecks, where we choose to allocate and spend, the companies that we build, and the government regulating and stuff. That’s the System of the Economy.

In all Systems, there has to be some sort of mechanism to implement just in case it overheats. Your Microwave System will automatically shut down if the high voltage parts get too hot. The Economy System has to operate like this too. And that’s where we are now. Things are too hot.

Kyla Scanlon ponders about recessions in his newsletter.
7. (Productivity) Before capitalism, most people didn’t work more than 6 hours per day

There is a lot of science that suggests a 4-day work week might be better for all of us. Individuals and organisations. 

We’re about to see the biggest pilot scheme happen in the UK as over 3,000 workers trial such a week for 6 months.

As we look to change our future work for the better, I find myself wondering about the path that got us here.

Excerpt from the Practical Magic of the 5-Hour Workday by Trevor Blake:
‘Before capitalism, most people didn’t work very long hours at all. The pace of life was slow, the pace of work relaxed, and life was balanced between work, church, and family. Our ancestors may not have been rich, but they had an abundance of leisure time. Most people worked right where they lived. They sold their wares from the kitchen window or barrows and baskets on the green. There was no concept of commuting or rush hour.

Consider a typical working day in medieval times. It stretched from dawn to dusk (16 hours in the summer and 8 in the winter) but was intermittent – called to a halt for breakfast, lunch, the customary afternoon nap, and dinner. Depending on time and place, there were also midmorning and mid-afternoon refreshment breaks.

These rest periods were the traditional rights of labourers, which they enjoyed even during peak harvest times. During slack periods, which accounted for a large part of the year, adherence to regular working hours was not usual. According to Oxford Professor James E. Thorold Rogers, the medieval workday was not more than 6 hours. All of this relaxed, balanced nature-driven lifestyle changed in the industrial age.’

Fun things to click on:

Tim Urban asked his Twitter followers “What’s your favorite mindblowing fact?” A bunch of good book recommendations no matter what genre you like. Writing prompt generator you can use to build a writing habit.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#25: Recession marketing, apophenia and getting things done

July 3, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) During a recession, organisations that double down on marketing come up on top after the storm
From retaining a long-term view and the importance of excess share of voice to making strategic changes to positioning and saying no to failure, Mark Ritson sets out the important steps for marketers during a recession.
 
A recession is a peculiar thing. No economist can ever accurately predict when one will arrive, how big it will be, or how long it will last. But once it begins everything is affected in an entirely predictable way. The only silver lining for marketers is that while we have no clue when the recessionary curtain will drop across our businesses, we know from experience how we should handle things once we are plunged into darkness. Marketing Week
2. (Investing) Most stock market downtrends have several small rallies along their way

In the realm of U.S. stock market history, four major bottoms come to mind—1932, 1974, 2003, and 2009. While all of these bottoms are unique in their way, they each had at least three rallies of 10% or more on the way down.
 
Nick Maggiulli wrote this piece a month ago when the market rallied 6.6% over a week and just like his piece suggests had another downward run after.
 
I don’t say this to scare you, but to provide you with a realistic understanding of how markets work. That’s how you become a better investor. You recognize the nature of the market and invest accordingly. You don’t panic. You don’t change your strategy. You educate yourself and acknowledge volatility when it rears its ugly head… This doesn’t mean that you have to be happy when markets decline. Trust me, I do not enjoy seeing stocks fall. But, I also don’t lose my head either. Instead, I see these occasional declines for what they are—risk.
 
And nothing good in life comes without risk. Not love. Not a career. Not a family. Nothing. So why should money? Why should your wealth magically compound itself at 7% a year? It shouldn’t. At least not in a straight line.
 
It should be a windy, windy road to get there. And that’s okay. That’s what you should expect to happen. The volatility of today should pay for the growth of tomorrow. Rallies to the bottom
3. (Psychology) The dangers of apophenia: not everything happens for a reason

Humans love patterns. Sometimes that’s helpful, but other times… Not so much. Apophenia is the common tendency to detect patterns that do not exist. Also known as “patternicity”, apophenia occurs when we try to make predictions, or seek answers, based on unrelated events.
 
Apophenia can lead to poor decision-making. For instance, many people choose their lottery numbers based on the birthdates of family members. As the numbers are picked at random, however, this approach won’t increase their chance of winning. In rare cases, apophenia can even be an indicator of some mental conditions. Let’s have a look at how apophenia works, and how you can both detect and manage this phenomenon. Ness Labs
 
4. (Crypto) 5 takeaways from the a16z 2022 State of Crypto Report­ 

A lot has changed in the state of crypto since we started investing in the area nearly a decade ago. A16z crypto report is the first of what will be an annual overview of trends in the crypto industry, shared through the crypto vantage point of both tracking data and across the countless entrepreneurs and builders we meet. Here are the five key takeaways from the report:
 
1. We’re in the middle of the fourth ‘price-innovation’ cycle
2. web3 is much, much better for creators than web2
3. Crypto is having a real-world impact
4. Ethereum is the clear leader but faces competition
5. It is still early days for the crypto movement
 
Full report can be found here.
5. (Productivity) A simple 15-minute guide to “Getting things done”

GTD—or “Getting things done”—is a framework created by David Allen for organizing and tracking your tasks and projects. Its aim is a bit higher than just “getting things done”, though. (It should have been called “Getting things done in a much better way than just letting things happen, which often turns out not to be very cool at all”.) Its aim is to make you have 100% trust in a system for collecting tasks, ideas, and projects—both vague things like “invent greatest thing ever” and concrete things like “call Ada 25 August to discuss conference schedule”. Everything!
 
I’ve never read David Allen’s “Getting things done”, despite having many people recommend it to me or reference it in some way. My soul has been saved by this 15-minute summary of the principle and how to implement it. It is super simple and easy to implement.
6. (Marketing) An ad is not a court case. The best argument does not win. Logic is, to a frightening degree, irrelevant

Another brilliant quote from Bob Hoffman.
 
It should be written on every marketing department wall, particularly those of B2B as they are gullible to falling into the abyss of ‘let’s shout about our product features’ the most. The majority of your buyers are not in the market to buy right now.  They do not care about the product features. An emotional brand message will help put the brand in their mind for when that crucial moment of consideration comes. If you’re lucky. And you did your job in branding the hell out of your ads.
7. (Wealth) There’s an inverse correlation between union membership and income inequality

In periods with greater union membership, the share of income going to the top 10% declines. But as union membership has fallen in the last 50 years, the rich have gotten richer. By 2021, when just 10.3% of workers were unionized, nearly 50% of income went to the top 10% of Americans. Scott Galloway’s take on this.
 
Just the other week, we Londoners were facing carnage in the city as several unions of train/tube operators went on strike. Those lucky of us were able to work from home. Others had to endure painful one, sometimes two, hour-long bus rides or expensive bills for carriage. We were unhappy. We complained and grunted. What we should have done is celebrated. Rail workers are doing something that many of us have lost the chance to do – exercising union rights and demanding better pay. Over the last 50 years, as union membership has fallen, the rich have gotten a whole lot richer. Let’s forget the minor inconveniences suffered by us and celebrate that some workers are still fighting for their rights

Fun things to click on:

If you love tools just like me, here’s 100 tools for an easy life. 200 years of great writers and artists on the creative and spiritual rewards of gardening. How to professionally say is a list of things you might feel like saying at work and the alternative (more professional way) you should say it.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#24: Choice, the false compromise fallacy and investing

June 26, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) The biggest mistake marketers make is believing choice is a good thing. It isn’t
Consumers don’t want more choice, but to be more confident in the choices presented. A while back psychologist Barry Schwartz gave a Ted Talk on choice. In Schwartz’s estimation, choice has made us not freer but more paralyzed, not happier but more dissatisfied. He summarised the negative effects of more choice under two paradigms: analysis paralysis and buyer’s remorse.
 
The most famous and possibly the first study that pointed to the adverse effects of choice was in 2000. The subject was jam. Researchers found that a lot more people purchased jam when fewer options were available. Since then, other studies have supported this phenomenon, with subjects ranging from chocolates to 401(k) plans. Most have supported the notion that more options debilitate consumer decision-making. CXL
2. (Psychology) How much should you criticise other people? ­

In private conversation, not in public discourse. And not to their faces but rather behind their back. And with at least a modest amount of meanness, not talking about criticizing their ideas. Here are some reasons not to criticize other people:
 
1. “Complain less” is one of the very best pieces of wisdom. That is positively correlated with criticizing other people less, though it is not identical either.
2. If you criticize X to Y, Y wonders whether you criticize him to others as well. This problem can increase to the extent your criticism is biting and on the mark.
3. Criticizing others is a form of “devalue and dismiss,” and that tends to make criticizing people stupider.
4. If X criticizes Y, it may get back to Y and Y will resent X and perhaps retaliate.
5. Under some moral theories, X is harming Y if X criticizes Y, Y doesn’t find out, and Y faces no practical penalties from that criticism.
Tyler Cowen in Margin Revolution
3. (Investing) How to stay calm while markets are crashing

Here’s Jesse Livermore, arguably the greatest trader in Wall Street history:
 
“There is nothing new in Wall Street. There can’t be because speculation is as old as the hills. Whatever happens in the stock market today has happened before and will happen again.”
 
This is how to not panic. You know history. You understand the risks. And, most importantly, you know yourself. Then you let the chips fall where they may. You don’t obsess over the headlines. You don’t try to predict the future. You enjoy your life. You go out with friends and family. You make cherished memories. You laugh. You cry. You remember that things like this happen. And you remember that they will happen again. Nick Maggiulli in Of Dollars and Data
 
4. (Marketing) Advertising pulsing or always on?

The advertising budget can be spent evenly over time or in ‘pulses’ of a certain frequency, length and predictability. The review by Vakratsas and Naik (2007) shows that early studies consistently find that even advertising spend is better, consistent with Sasieni’s (1971) result that no pulsing schedule can outperform the even schedule. However, copy wearout and repetition wearout imply that pulsing is best. Interestingly, following HBG’s advice implies both wearouts are unlikely to apply:
 
Advertising mostly moves light users, which are unlikely to pay attention to the ad in the first place, let alone get annoyed by it.
The budget should maximize reach, so a frequency of 1 means no repetition wearout.
 
Testing How Brands Grow
5. (Psychology) The false compromise fallacy: why the middle ground is not always the best

Picture this: you are having a debate with a colleague regarding the best next steps for a complex project. You both have been presenting your arguments, the tone is friendly, but you cannot seem to agree on the best way forward. So you decide to find a middle ground. Sounds reasonable enough, right? Well, it’s often a very bad idea, and it has a name: the false compromise fallacy.
 
When it’s hard to find a resolution, it can be tempting to search for the middle ground to resolve the conflict. By making us abandon the search for the most suitable resolution, the false compromise fallacy can lead to misleading conclusions and poor decision-making at work and in your personal life. Ness Labs
6. (Happiness) Does being a millionaire make you happy?

There are 140,000 Americans who earn more than $1.58 million per year. They are the richest 0.1%. The researchers found that the typical rich American is the owner of an unsexy regional business such as auto repair shops, gas stations and business equipment contractors. Does being a millionaire make them happy? A study of thousands of millionaires led by researchers at Harvard Business School did find a gain in happiness that kicks in when people’s net worth rises above $8 million. But the effect was small: A net worth of $8 million offers a boost of happiness that is roughly half as large as the happiness boost from being married. New York Times
7. (Career) Advice to graduates and young people – be monk warriors

The legendary Prof Scott Galloway on his advice to young people:
 
“Be mentally and physically … warriors. Lift heavy weights and run long distances, in the gym and in your mind. Many tasks you’ll be asked to perform early in your career will be tedious. Don’t do what you are asked to do, but what you are capable of doing. Think of it as boot camp before being sent to battle, as there are millions of other warriors fighting to win the same regions of prosperity. Get strong, really strong. You should be able to walk into a room and believe you could overpower, outrun, or outlast every person in the room.”
 
I strongly recommend reading the full piece from Scott here

Fun things to click on:

Who we spend time with as we grow older. Burnout Index – a 10-question survey that will tell you how close you are to burnout, and what your risk level is for exhaustion, self inefficacy, cynicism and depersonalisation. Reverse-order all Google search results so that you see the oldest webpages first.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#23: Drama in ad fraud, millennials and productivity addiction

June 19, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) Ad fraud shenanigans getting out of control
Last week, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) released a mind-blowing report on ad fraud. For years Bob Hoffman and other advertising gurus have been saying that ad fraud is way larger than anyone knew. This report confirmed it.
 
While most researchers have estimated ad fraud in 2022 to be in the colossal neighbourhood of $60 billion, the report from the ANA estimates ad fraud to be about double that, at $120 billion.
 
But that wasn’t all! The drama ensued as ANA took down the above report because… It wasn’t their report in the first place. They copied the chart from a different business and claimed it as theirs.
 
The ginormous irony is that ANA for years have been claiming how ad fraud is dropping and only takes a small portion of the industry. They wrote titles on how we’re ‘winning the battle against fraud’. As Bob likes to say ‘you can’t make this shit up’. Bob Hoffman’s newsletter piece
2. (Society) Millennials have experienced slower economic growth than any previous generation

During the boomer generation’s first 15 years of work, U.S. GDP per capita grew about 35%. For Gen X, growth was closer to 30%. But in the same amount of time, GDP increased by less than 20% for millennials. Prof G Show – Scott Gallowa
3. (Investing) To be an investor is to live constantly at the intersection of story and uncertainty

Dan Loab in the first quarter 2022 Investor Letter from Third Point thoughts on being an investor:

To be an investor is to live constantly at the intersection of story and uncertainty. We build our mental models, frameworks, and processes to try to accurately price securities and overlay them with a story about the economic, geopolitical, and psychological factors that frame the backdrop to value them. The key, of course, is to change your framework when the environment changes. Even the most sophisticated quant investors employing hundreds of PhD mathematicians and physicists find that their models can fall short due to the ever-changing topography of the surface area of relevant data. Full letter
 
4. (Psychology) You are not alone

While we all appear completely different on the outside, everyone is more or less struggling with the same three or four problems.
 
Sure, the contexts change and the cultures are varied and everyone’s life stories are inevitably different.
 
But at our core, whether we’re an insecure teenager from Quebec, an overworked woman from India, a worrisome grandmother from Texas, or a desperate immigrant living in Australia, we all seem to struggle with the same small grouping of stressors and anxieties….
 
Because while our values, cultures, and life circumstances change—our core struggles as humans remain the same. Relationships are hard but necessary. Trauma is inevitable, but healing is possible. Emotions cannot be conquered but must be accepted and managed. A sense of purpose is not found, it must be created. Mark Manson in his newsletter
5. (Marketing) If creating an ad would be simply developing a coherent argument, advertising would be easy

Ever since Peter Field and Les Binet shook the marketing world with their work in long-term and short-term advertising, things haven’t been the same.
 
Every week you see articles arguing for one side or another or both. Long-term brand advertising. Short-term activation. How many times have we heard it? Mark Ritson wrote a piece on how so many marketers get it wrong by trying to combine the two into one smudgy piece of paint. And he has a good argument.
 
At the core of the argument from Field and Binet has always been the idea that long-term advertising should have an emotional message. One that doesn’t necessarily scream product at your customers but rather engages with them and gently reminds them about your brand. So that when they do come to the decision of purchase, they remember who to search for. So many marketers make the mistake of stuffing their adverts with product messaging. We spend hours in meetings discussing how and why our products are better functionally and we feel inspired to transfer all of that to our ads.
 
And so it’s only natural that we come back to that product messaging. It’s the easy route. It’s also one that frankly doesn’t produce good advertising. It doesn’t move people. Doesn’t inspire or make you feel anything. We, as marketers, must do a better job at explaining the value of long-term brand advertising focused on emotions. Otherwise, advertising would be so easy
6. (Psychology) Kindness is not weakness

Some of what holds people back from showing greater love is the sense that it would be dangerous and woolly-minded to do so. Too much sensitivity and sweetness, too much tolerance and sympathy appear to be the enemies of an appropriately grown-up and hard-headed existence. Such types are not saying that it wouldn’t be delightful if we could display compassion and tenderness towards one another if we could be sensitive to the sufferings of strangers and quick to forgive and understand the failings of our colleagues and lovers; they just don’t think that this has much relevance in the real world. The School of Life
7. (Productivity) Why are we so obsessed with being productive?

The business and productivity app market is worth billions of dollars. Every day, there is a new productivity tool popping up, a book about productivity being published, and millions of people reading and sharing content related to personal productivity. It started as a measure of efficiency for the production of goods and services. Somehow, along the way, many of us have become addicted to productivity.
 
Why are we so obsessed with being productive? Ness Lab

Fun things to click on:

The power of breath – how deep breathing boosts your immune system. 10 Google Docs hacks to unleash the writer within you. ‘Small Kindnesses’: A collaborative poem by teenagers from around the world.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#22: Awareness, emotions and precision

June 12, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) The view how marketers make the ads and how consumers see it is disconnected

Brand advertisers have been frantically pouring ad budgets into digital channels for the last twenty years. They’ve chased every shiny object offered up to them from programmatic ads on long-tail sites, behavioural targeting and hyper-targeting, and influencer marketing — using so-called “influencers” to hawk their products. But haven’t they seen enough examples of influencers not having any actual influence at all, because most or all of their followers are fake accounts?
 
It’s also readily apparent now that much of the “digital marketing” was not marketing at all, but just “ad spending” that played beautifully into making many ad tech companies and their investors super rich. And don’t they realize that most of the sales they saw while they were doing digital marketing were not caused by digital marketing; those sales would have happened anyway.
 
Puncturing this “bubble” hurts a lot because so many billions have been spent in its pursuit already. However, brand advertisers should and can do better digital marketing. Augustine Fou via Forbes
2. (Mindfulness) Awareness creates distance between mood and mind

Becoming aware of our awareness is not straightforward, mainly because the untrained mind likes to latch on to whatever object or sight it sees, or whatever thought, emotion, or sensation that arises; in short, whatever we perceive.
 
When we step away from all of this — without ideas, judgment, inner dialogue, or the need to define — we step into a space of awareness; a space where we merely observe how the mind behaves, and where we experience the present moment … without thinking, without distraction.
 
When in a state of awareness, we’re able to zoom out and observe the mind a little like looking at the earth from the moon. Awareness affords us a whole new perspective, and through this perspective, we gain a whole new understanding. By practising awareness — not identifying with what we think, what we feel, what we believe, or what we know — we get to create a spaciousness of mind that sets us free from the impact of our thoughts and feelings; it allows us to be more at ease with the moment-to-moment unfolding of life itself. Headspace
3. (Writing) Eliminate 20% of the words you wrote to make your draft 100% better

Most writing advice will tell you the same thing – making things simple and easy to understand is crucial to making your writing better (and by no means I am saying I am good at it!). Master writers like Ernest Hemingway were adept at simplifying their language so anyone can read it but the image, and the beauty in your head remained.
 
Here are a few tips that all of us can use to keep it simple – write in the active voice; cut out the adverbs; avoid overuse of ‘that’; turn nouns into verbs; don’t rewrite tables; shorten wordy phrases.
 
Writing is an art that takes time and practice. The beauty of a good copy is invaluable and all of us can be better.
4. (Marketing) The commercial aspect of advertising – budget, media, strategy – require orderly thinking

Creativity and science of reasoning interchange within the world of advertising as yin and yang. We spoke of the juxtaposition last time, how both areas are equally important, how diversity of talent is paramount to different aspects of it and it is the commercial aspects of advertising that require the reason most. That’s why it is imperative for advertising agencies to look for opposite qualities within their talent. ­
5. (Psychology) Emotions have a substantial influence on our attention, learning and memory

The effect emotions have on our attention as well as motivating action and behaviour is linked to how well we can learn. It also facilities encoding and helps the retrieval of information efficiently.
 
However, the effects of emotion on learning and memory are not always consistent, as studies have reported that emotion either enhances or impairs learning and long-term memory retention, depending on a range of factors. frontiers in Psychology
6. (Marketing) Storytelling in B2B works better when you have a human in the centre of it

The B2C world has long been successful at telling human stories.
 
As humans, we need stories. In fact, we’re hardwired to latch onto the emotional aspect of every story we’re told, and from there, make decisions.
 
Of course, the power of human-to-human storytelling has long been recognised and harnessed in B2C, where many brands have mastered the art of humanisation by using language and imagery that resonates on an emotional level with their target audience. But we could argue that B2B brands have been slow to catch up, despite them being the same but simply writing for different audiences.
 
A more human approach is increasingly important in B2B, especially if brands are to achieve authenticity and build trust. Copestone
7. (Science) Precision and accuracy have very different meanings in science

I used to think of the two as close synonyms. Something that is precise surely must be considered accurate as well? Simon Winchester and his book ‘Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World’ changed my understanding completely.
 
Precision is the key to everything. It is an integral, unchallenged and essential component of our modern social, mercantile, scientific, mechanical and intellectual landscapes.
 
Precision and accuracy are two ways that scientists think about error. Accuracy refers to how close a measurement is to the true or accepted value. Precision refers to how close measurements of the same item are to each other. Precision is independent of accuracy. That means it is possible to be very precise but not very accurate, and it is also possible to be accurate without being precise. The best quality scientific observations are both accurate and precise.

Fun things to click on:

10 visuals that will change how you see success & productivity. Mushrooms have their own language of up to 50 words. The illustrated guide to plastic straws.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

in:

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SD#21: Fame, inspiration and stress

June 5, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) The most fundamental objective of brand marketing is to achieve fame. Fame is an unequalled business advantage

Advertising used to be a small part of marketing. Over the years it has managed to encapsulate most of its function. We will not delve into the reasons here, nor the consequences. Instead, we will focus on things we can control – what is one capability of advertising that has the greatest likelihood of increasing success? Is it differentiation or positioning? Is it creativity or great targeting? Is it empathy or brand purpose?

Or something else. As per the wise words of Bob Hoffman, ‘the main advertising influence on their success is fame. As you’ll see, I believe the most probable driver of brand success – and the central principle of communication that we advertisers can control – is fame. Not brand meaning, or relationship building, or brand purpose or any of the other fantasies that the advertising and marketing industry has concocted… Fame has many positive but not necessarily logical associations. These include trust, social acceptance, and credibility. Any brand can try to differentiate or position itself by saying these words. But only fame has the unique ability to communicate these attributes without having to say them.

Most marketing and branding “experts” believe that people have an understanding of the “meaning” of brands and the differences between brands, and based on these understandings, make purchase decisions in reasoned ways. Consequently, differentiation and positioning have become primary elements of brand strategy.’ The three-word brief by Bob Hoffman
2. (Business) If you go looking in the same place as everybody else for inspiration, your work will start to resemble theirs
This one doesn’t need much explanation. If you look for inspiration in the same place as your competition/peers, your work will be bound to look like theirs losing any effect. There is an argument (that I believe as well) that copying other people’s work can be beneficial at times. The crucial element in that argument is that you have to be determined to improve the work you take. Don’t just accept it as it is – desperately tries and improve work as it’s the only way you won’t always end up second. ­ ­
3. (Marketing) During natural browsing, display ads are glanced at for 0.9 seconds. Only 4% of viewers glace at ads for more than 2 seconds

In 2016 (the data is that old), research firm Lumen has used laptop-mounted eye-tracking cameras on 300 consumers’ laptops to collect visual data on what they notice when they are online. And over this period the study, recorded 30,000 minutes of data, with evidence relating to around 15,000 digital ads. It found that only 35% of digital display ads received any views at all. And, of those, only 9% of ads received more than a second’s worth of attention. Only 4% of ads, meanwhile, received more than 2 seconds of engagement. Marketing Week
I would guess that the statistics are much worse 6 years on
4. (Psychology) We have less motivation to do something when the incentive is gaining something compared to not losing something

Would you put more effort into gaining £10 or not losing £10? Well, the answer is clear – we are willing to put more effort to ensure we do not lose something, despite the two sometimes being incredibly similar in terms of rewards. Human behaviour is more strongly driven by the motivation to avoid losses than to pursue gains (loss aversion) studies have shown. Loss aversion also motivates higher effort investment in effort-based decision-making, while the effect of loss aversion during a performance may depend on the task type or effort level. National Library of Medicin
5. (Productivity) To think different, read different

“Read different to think differently; world is already into rat race” said Aman Jassal. Continuing on our theme of looking for inspiration elsewhere, this quote caught my eye a while back.
 
Reading allows us to enter a different world that we couldn’t experience beforehand. It allows us live through other peoples’ eyes and their decisions. I’ve recently finished the book ‘A Thousand Splendid Suns’ by Khaled Hosseini. It is a story describing the volatile events of Afghanistan from the Soviet invasion to the reign of the Taliban to post-Taliban rebuilding. A troubling book, but eye-opening nonetheless. My understanding of the Afghani culture and the violence, fear, hope and faith that generations of this country have endured has completely changed. ­
6. (Psychology) Stress in short bursts is good for the brain,  but constant stress can turn into acid for the brain

Stress isn’t always a bad thing. In some cases, like when you’re starting a new job or planning a big event like a wedding, stress can help you focus, motivate you to do well, and even improve your performance. But some of the reasons stress can be positive in these situations is that it’s short-term and it’s helping you get through a challenge you know you can handle. Experiencing stress over the long term, however, can take a real physical and mental toll on your health. Research has shown a connection between stress and chronic problems like high blood pressure, obesity, depression, and more. WebM
7. (Marketing) Marketing is at the intersection of art and commerce

When I mention to others that I work in marketing, a typical response ‘so you’re a creative person then’ usually follows. There seems to be an underlying belief that marketing (particularly advertising) is a creative subject and while I do agree that there is a huge element of it, creativity after all is one of the largest contributors to advertising success, but it is not all that marketing is. There is plenty of analytical folk within marketing (including me) who crunch numbers so desperately needed within the function. This duopoly of two extremes, creativity and analytics, art and commerce, creating and selling, is what makes marketing what it is

Fun things to click on:

A list of things you’re allowed to do that you thought you couldn’t. Mvsep is a free web-based service that separates any song’s vocals and instruments. It’s useful for singers and musicians, but it also provides a new way to appreciate your favorite songs. Tune into random forests around the world.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

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SD#20: Culture of character, Friedman’s essay and rules

May 31, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) You can’t assume that your audience will believe what you’re saying. But you can boost your chances through public ads

In February 2018, hoards of disappointed KFC fans started complaining on social media that a number of KFC branches had unexpectedly closed. Hundreds of stores across Britain had been forced to shut their doors with signs saying “Sorry we’re closed.. we’ve had a few hiccups with the delivery”. What ensued is now known as the KFC chicken crisis where DHL, a new distributor for the chicken company, struggled to cope with supplying all the shops.
 
It was the sort of disaster that no one in PR or marketing wishes to see. Headlines in newspapers were being written hourly, social media flooded with anecdotal and angry messages, things were moving fast and a response was needed. Thus, the brilliant marketing team of KFC and their agency pulled one of the best crisis comms responses I have ever seen – the ‘fck’ ad. And they used it by taking out a full-page ad in a newspaper. Without outright blaming their distributor, KFC made fun of the situation publically and got the general population on their side. They didn’t go dark and hid under the beddings until the crisis was averted, they were public with what has happened and with their apology – and it surely made a difference.
2. (Psychology) Pre-1900s the character traits of serious, disciplined and honourable dominated the society

In her brilliant book ‘Quiet – The power of introverts in a world that can’t stop talking’, author Susan Cain describes how during the early 1900s and before the Culture of Character dominated society.
 
U.S. (and other western) societies have not always promoted extroversion as the ideal. Up until the start of the twentieth century, the focus was on a culture of character rather than personality. The ideal person was serious, self-disciplined, and moral. How you behaved in private, your virtue, was more important than outward charm or impressing others.
 
Contrast that with the values that came out in the post-1920s era – energetic, forceful, dominant, attractive, fascinating, magnetic.
 
During that time, particularly in retail, it became important to make a good impression on others with whom you had no past connection, in contrast to interacting with people in small towns whom you’d known all your life. This new culture of personality was a departure from the former culture of character. The burgeoning retail sector needed a different kind of employee—a gregarious salesman with the ability to get along with anyone and be comfortable in any situation. Having a “good personality” became paramount. At the same time, Americans developed a fascination with celebrities, further elevating charisma over character
3. (Psychology) Saying ‘I have a rule’ can excuse you from unwanted decisions in social situations

Moods and emotions are unreliable coaches for self-improvement, people don’t respect “grey areas” and will fight, sometimes tooth and nail, to get you to do whatever it is they’re doing if they sense they can convince you to. What works much better is simply being definitive in your statements. Make it non-negotiable. Make it black-and-white. Make it a rule. People respect it more.
 
Saying I have a rule that I don’t eat meat or dairy is a completely different statement than saying, “I don’t usually eat meat or dairy” or “I try to stay away from meat or dairy.” The difference is in the definitiveness of the statement. The former is black and white — it’s a rule and it’s clearly defined. The latter is grey — it changes depending on the context of the moment and the mood of the person. Movemequotes
4. (Marketing) The response to ads is reversed for people who are actively looking for a product – they look at ads longer

Have you ever wondered how many ads we see online daily? Hundreds? Or maybe thousands? Our daily ad exposure depends on many factors – from where we live to what job we do and how we prefer to spend our leisure time, but the fact is that we see thousands of ads every day and we are only able to recall and pay attention to a very small subset of them.
 
The backlash from this flood of ads is already evident. Concerns over how Facebook shares user data and targets ads have landed it in the crosshairs of Congressional investigations and Parliamentary hearings. Ad-blocking software is more popular than ever, with 86 million users blocking $20 billion worth of ads each year in the U.S. alone. Retargeting has grown so invasive it’s drawn comparisons to online stalking. Research shows that we’re sick of ads and we’ve also grown increasingly adept at tuning them out.
 
But the effect seems to be reversed for people who are already in search of a product. If there is a clear need circling in the mind, people not only make notice of ads, but they look longer at them. If your hoover just broke down, you will suddenly become receptive to any ads advertising hoovers or their alternatives. ­
5. (Business) Mr Friedman’s essay 50 years ago shaped business leaders for a single metric – increasing stock price

It was the essay heard around the world. Milton Friedman’s “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits” laid out arguably the most consequential economic idea of the latter half of the 20th century. The essay, published in The New York Times Magazine on Sept. 13, 1970, was a call to arms for free-market capitalism that influenced a generation of executives and political leaders, most notably Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher.
 
During his essay he argued that rather than being asked to balance multiple, often conflicting, interests among stakeholders, the manager is given a simple objective function – increasing profits (and in turn the stock price).
 
In his essay, Friedman calls outspoken C.E.O.s “unwitting puppets of the intellectual forces that have been undermining the basis of a free society.” Interestingly, today’s corporate leaders increasingly disavow that view of profit as business’s only responsibility — and use their money and influence to back movements pushing for racial equality, addressing climate change or taking overtly political positions. The role of ESG has gained such momentum that many companies nowadays have people and whole departments dedicated to such causes. NY Times
6. (Productivity) High performers live in a measurement culture, invest in the right skills, measure intelligently

A while back Accenture and the Marketing Society joined forces to research the importance of marketing measurement to these companies’ business; the processes, systems and resources these organisations have in place to gauge marketing performance; and the impact that marketing measurement is having on the overall business.
 
They found that high performers had three broad characteristics:
– They live in a measurement culture
– Invest in the right skills and capabilities
– Measure intelligently and comprehensively
 
The Chief Executive
7. (Marketing) The long and short term marketing can be dangerous terms as it implies all consumers start from zero

Opposing views can be good. I’ve spoken far and wide in Seven Dawns how the great work of Peter Field and Les Binet proved the value of the long term and short term marketing. Our discipline never looked the same since then and it is only for the good.
 
But I also like to consider criticisms of their work – the terms long and short term marketing can be dangerous as it implies all consumers start from zero. It is a classic fallacy not only in Field and Binet’s work but also in all our marketing/sales funnels that we are obsessed with. After all, many consumers begin their journey already knowing they need the product. Counteracting such fallacies can be burdensome, but knowing that they exist and being conscious of the decisions we make based on either the work of Field and Binet or our funnels is crucial.

Fun things to click on:

­Stop believing these myths about creativity. Rectangles is a time tracking visual where each rectangle represents 10 minutes of your day and the ones shaded in green display the time that has already passed.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

Loving this newsletter? Then why not share it with your friends.

Speak soon,

Tom

in:

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SD#19: Product weaknesses, deliberate practice and talking to strangers

May 22, 2022

Hi friends,

Welcome to another edition of Seven Dawns, your weekly newsletter on marketing, productivity, psychology and more. As the newsletter is still in it’s infancy I will experiment with the way I send you ideas. Do let me know if you like or dislike something you see.

Our seven ideas this week:

1. (Marketing) Marketing product weaknesses do not take away the strengths, they inform them

Every August Lithuania celebrates the catholic celebration of the assumption of Mary. It’s a joyful celebration with singing, dancing, beautiful weather and the quest to find a four-leaf clover. If you find it, you’re guaranteed a happy year ahead. But it is no easy task as there aren’t that many clovers of such kind I tell you (the chance of finding one is 5000 to 1). Once you find one, a moment of bliss shivers down your body as if you found perfection. That was it, all you needed. 
 
We like to embark on quests for perfection in our day-to-day too. Whether we’re working on a presentation or a project we’re building or an email we’re crafting or a product we’re making. But barely anything is perfect. And on most occasions being imperfect can be much better. In fact, imperfection can sometimes bolster our product. Brands who openly use the disadvantages of their product will be seen as more trustworthy. So the next time you try to instil perfection into your marketing copy, instead look for the three-leaf clover and praise the lack of the fourth leaf.
2. (Productivity) Instead of mindlessly practicing a skill for months, being deliberate can result in better performance

Becoming an expert at a particular skill has more to do with the quality of the practice than with talent. Instead of merely practising a skill a large number of times—and blaming a lack of talent when that strategy does not result in clear improvements—deliberate practice consists in continually practising a skill with the conscious intention of mastering it.
 
Deliberate practice requires to be able to fail like a scientist to build a learning loop. Many of the most successful people in their fields have internalised this iterative approach to mastery. Nesslabs
3. (Psychology) One negative event can taint an overall good day

Have you ever found yourself ruminating over a mistake you made a while ago? Replaying in your head a conversation that didn’t go so well? That’s the negativity bias at play: not only do we register negative stimuli more readily, but we also tend to dwell on these events for longer.
 
In general, negative events have a bigger impact on our mental state than positive ones. While the negativity bias used to be a useful survival mechanism, it has a powerful—and often unconscious—impact on the way we behave, think, and build relationships. Nesslabs
4. (Marketing) There are many ways to achieve fame. Advertising is the only one you can buy your way into

There’s been a lot of talk about targeting and reach in the last decade of marketing, mostly due to the work of Byron Sharp and Mark Ritson. The two have gone head-to-head to argue for one or the other and while the on-stage battles are sometimes won by Mark, the overall principles of reach seem to have the higher ground empirically (and Mark has admitted it). Thus, many marketing departments over the globe have shifted their efforts to achieve the highest possible reach lately and the easiest way to do that is through fame.
 
It’s important to remember what we’re trying to achieve, per Bob Hoffman’s words “the most fundamental objective of brand marketing is to achieve fame. Fame is an unequalled business advantage.” And “advertising is the most expensive, but most reliable way to achieve fame. There are many ways to achieve fame. Advertising is the only one you can buy your way into.”
5. (Psychology) Talking to strangers has a surprising positive benefit to our wellbeing

There is a growing body of research suggesting that engaging with and trusting people we don’t know is important for our well-being and the well-being of those we encounter as well as the health of society. For example, friendly behaviour toward strangers has been linked to higher self-esteem in teenagers in the United States. In China, greater trust in strangers has been linked to better overall health. And in Canada, trust in strangers has also been correlated to individual wellbeing. BBC
6. (Business) Thinking inside the box can be just as useful for innovation

Imagine that you were asked to invent an idea for a new business in the next 20 minutes. The task is so broad and vague that you would probably think you couldn’t do it. 

Instead, let’s consider a narrower question: What do Rollerblades, Häagen-Dazs ice cream, and Spider-Man movies have in common? The answer is they are all based on the same business concept. In each case, a firm has taken something children love and reproduced it in an extreme, more expensive form for adults. The same notion has led to over 25 new product categories, including gourmet jelly beans, baseball fantasy camps, $200 sneakers, 20-foot-high sandcastles for corporate parties, paintball, space tourism, and Disney collectables. Harvard Business Review
7. (Marketing) People will pay more for brands they think are different

There’s a certain magic about being different. We as humans are at a constant juxtaposition between conforming to what others are doing versus doing something that seems a bit rebellious and different. We will look for cues in social settings to see what others are doing and base our purchasing decisions on that. On the next day, we will find the most bizarre-looking t-shirt and buy it simply because we think no one else would wear such wickedness. 
 
Apple is a great example of someone that built their business on this. They positioned themselves as a challenger brand to Microsoft, one that is different and people liked that. More than liked it, they were willing to pay significantly more to have it. If you’re going after the same target audience as your main competitors and market leaders, then you will be competing for attention and headspace with them. If you position yourself different, suddenly you’re the only brand that is speaking to a certain group of people and they will gladly pay more for that.

Fun things to click on:

An illustrative list of tactics in pricing psychology. An inspiring letter from Steve Albini to Nirvana explaining his philosophy before they worked together on In Utero. The case for taking naps, even at work.

Thanks for reading! If you have any learnings you’d like to share with me, or disagree with any of the ones above then do drop me a message.

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Speak soon,

Tom

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