Having studied statistics in the 1980s and realised that forecasting energy reserves wasn’t for me, I stumbled into a career in market research. A chance reading of a book on psychoanalysis opened my eyes to how little we all understand ourselves and I started to look for better ways to identify how consumers think. After developing techniques from psychoanalysis and behavioural science I started my own consultancy firm in 2005. Over the last seventeen years I’ve been lucky enough to advise some of the world’s biggest brands, make regular appearances in the media discussing consumer affairs and, with my book Consumer.ology, to upset some of the biggest market research companies.
I wrote...
Consumer.ology: The Truth about Consumers and the Psychology of Shopping
Consumer.ology looks at the gap between what people think makes them buy and why they really do. Described by one reviewer as a “fascinating romp through the psychological underpinnings of consumer behaviour,” it explains why shoppers make the purchases they do and illustrates why and how many famous brands like Red Bull, Coca-Cola and Mattel have been misled by what people have told them in market research.
Along the way, the book reveals many of the ways in which shoppers are influenced, why they inadvertently mislead brands who are trying to understand them better, and includes fascinating insights into human decision-making that have emerged from behavioural science.
It is no exaggeration to say that this book changed my life both personally and professionally. Robert de Board introduces us to counselling with his account of The Wind in the Willows character Toad having therapy. This delightful read doesn’t just illustrate the power of transactional analysis, it demonstrates how our experiences shape our interaction with the world around us, enabling us to see both through a clearer lens. The book ignited my interest in psychoanalysis and behavioural psychology and I have genuinely lost count of the number of times I’ve recommended or gifted it to people.
'Toad', the famous character in Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows is in a very depressed state and his good friends Rat, Mole and Badger, are 'worried that he might do something silly'... First they nursed him. Then they encouraged him. Then they told him to pull himself together... Finally, Badger could stand it no longer. That admirable animal, though long on exhortation, was short on patience. 'Now look here Toad, this can go on no longer', he said sternly. 'There is only one thing left. You must have counselling!' Robert de Board's engaging account of Toad's experience of…
After reading this book I started to get glimpses into parts of my own shopping behaviour that I had previously overlooked. As with most psychology books it helps us understand ourselves and other people better. The book blends academic rigour with a conversational writing style and includes anecdotal and research evidence. If after reading this you don’t have a better understanding of your own unconscious mind, you’re probably an android.
"Know thyself," a precept as old as Socrates, is still good advice. But is introspection the best path to self-knowledge? What are we trying to discover, anyway? In an eye-opening tour of the unconscious, as contemporary psychological science has redefined it, Timothy D. Wilson introduces us to a hidden mental world of judgments, feelings, and motives that introspection may never show us.
This is not your psychoanalyst's unconscious. The adaptive unconscious that empirical psychology has revealed, and that Wilson describes, is much more than a repository of primitive drives and conflict-ridden memories. It is a set of pervasive, sophisticated mental…
Behavioural economists have a lot of fun designing experiments that make people look foolish and Dan Ariely reveals lots of these in Predictably Irrational. That said, to paraphrase Jessica Rabbit, we’re not dumb, we just evolved this way, and there is much to be gained from understanding the curious ways in which we make choices: the decision-making architecture of our brains changes very little over time. As consumers, we make hundreds of decisions every week and Ariely’s book shows how easily these can be manipulated by brands and retailers.
Why do smart people make irrational decisions every day? The answers will surprise you. Predictably Irrational is an intriguing, witty and utterly original look at why we all make illogical decisions.
Why can a 50p aspirin do what a 5p aspirin can't? If an item is "free" it must be a bargain, right? Why is everything relative, even when it shouldn't be? How do our expectations influence our actual opinions and decisions?
In this astounding book, behavioural economist Dan Ariely cuts to the heart of our strange behaviour, demonstrating how irrationality often supplants rational thought and that the reason for…
Early in my career I was responsible for running the UK brand tracking and customer experience studies of a global brand. I was constantly battling to reconcile what the research told me with what the real data from the business showed was actually going on. This book, written by someone who was a senior editor at the Gallup market research company for years, helped me appreciate some of the reasons that survey results are inaccurate. It also reveals how opinion polls can be used to distort elections and manipulate people – scary stuff.
Drawing on over a decade's experience at the Gallup Poll and a distinguished academic career in survey research, David W. Moore—praised as a "scholarly crusader" by the New York Times—reveals that pollsters don't report public opinion, they manufacture it. In this highly critical book, he describes the questionable tactics pollsters use to create poll-driven news stories-including force-feeding respondents, slanting the wording of questions, and ignoring public ignorance on even the most arcane issues. More than proof that the numbers do lie, The Opinion Makers clearly and convincingly spells out how urgent it is…
Lots of people have written about nudging and influence, but arguably few have studied it as tenaciously or with such a focus on its practical application as Kevin Hogan. As is so often the case with books, it was just an online retailer’s serendipitous algorithms that meant I stumbled across it. The author’s approachable style and use of practical examples (albeit often framed from a selling perspective) meant I was instantly equipped with a new way of seeing the world around me and of understanding why consumers make the choices they do. Whilst some of the behavioural science studies he references have since become quite well known, anyone venturing into this area for the first time is guaranteed to come away understanding why this field is so important and illuminating.
Get customers, clients, and co-workers to say "yes!" in 8 minutes or less This revised second edition by a leading expert of influence continues to teach a proven system of persuasion. Synthesizing the latest research in the field of influence with real-world tested experiences, it presents simple secrets that help readers turn a "no" into a "yes." Every secret in this book has been rigorously tested, validated, and found reliable. * Learn dozens of all-new techniques and strategies for influencing others including how to reduce resistance to rubble * Make people feel instantly comfortable in your presence * Decode body…
Gabrielle found her grandfather’s diaries after her mother’s death, only to discover that he had been a Nazi. Born in Berlin in 1942, she and her mother fled the city in 1945, but Api, the one surviving male member of her family, stayed behind to work as a doctor in a city 90% destroyed.
Gabrielle retraces Api’s steps in the Berlin of the 21st century, torn between her love for the man who gave her the happiest years of her childhood and trying to come to terms with his Nazi membership, German guilt, and political responsibility.
Api's Berlin Diaries: My Quest to Understand My Grandfather's Nazi Past
"This is not a book I will forget any time soon."
Story Circle Book Reviews
Moving and provocative, Api's Berlin Diaries offers a personal perspective on the fall of Berlin 1945 and the far-reaching aftershocks of the Third Reich.
After her mother's death, Robinson was thrilled to find her beloved grandfather's war diaries-only to discover that he had been a Nazi.
The award-winning memoir shows Api, a doctor in Berlin, desperately trying to help the wounded in cellars without water or light. He himself was reduced to anxiety and despair, the daily diary his main refuge. As Robinson retraces Api's…
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