There’s a selfish little consumer behaviour researchers have finally given a name to. Tell me if you’ve experienced something like this. Near where I live, there’s a new Mexican restaurant with fantastic food and almost absurdly good value. I occasionally write restaurant reviews, so normally I’d be happy to tell people about it. Except I caught myself thinking: maybe I shouldn’t. What if it gets crowded, and then the prices shoot up? What if my family can’t waltz in and get a table anymore?...
1 day ago • 1 min read
Somewhere along the way, a little Belgian coffee biscuit became an ingredient to put into anything. What is up with Biscoff? I like the spicy-sweet biscuits. To me, they scratch pretty much the same itch as Dutch speculaas, my favourite things in the whole mass-produced cookie world. And lately Biscoff seems unavoidable. Spread, ice cream, Milka, Côte d’Or, Toblerone truffles, Ferrero Rocher, McFlurries, Krispy Kreme doughnuts, Cinnabon, protein bars… My kids even came home from Halloween...
2 days ago • 1 min read
Holiday shopping is about to provide a pretty good stress test for what happens when AI becomes part of the buying decision. A new Harris Poll commissioned by Forter found that 67% of Americans plan to use AI for holiday shopping this year. Among 18-to-34-year-olds, it’s 83%! Those numbers are eye-catching, although this is vendor-sponsored research, so I wouldn’t carve anything into stone. And how about this: 43% of Americans say an AI recommendation has already led them to discover or...
3 days ago • 1 min read
Halloween’s most extravagant purchases make more sense when you consider who gets to enjoy them. Last night, my family and I drove around our community looking at Halloween displays. Some houses and yards were absurdly overdone, to our absolute delight. There were creepy clowns, towering skeletons and life-sized Freddy Kruegers. Where do these folks store everything? Does Freddy stay in the guest room ‘til next October? What once seemed like a niche industry now has Costco and Home Depot...
4 days ago • 1 min read
Familiar characters give Walmart a way to reopen a shopping decision customers may have closed years ago. A couple days ago, I wrote about how Casper suggested Scrooge needed a better mattress. Well, Walmart has decided what he needs is a shopping revelation, delivered by Muppets. I grew up loving them on TV. And now my kids have their own affection for Disney’s version through YouTube, so I got a bang out of Walmart’s two-minute film, A Who Knew Carol. Walton Goggins takes the Scrooge role...
5 days ago • 1 min read
Customers bring habits from other products, even when your design expects them to start over. I’ve gone from my iPad to my Mac, absent-mindedly touching the screen, then wondering why nothing happened. Apparently, my finger has been waiting for Apple to catch up. Yesterday Apple announced touchscreen MacBook Pros arriving November 6. Image: Apple For historical perspective, HP sold a touch-enabled personal computer back in 1983. Even compared to the iPhone Duo’s 7-year lag behind...
6 days ago • 1 min read
Casper gives a familiar mattress promise a character shoppers already know, right down to his nightcap. I get a kick out of Johnny Depp. Foibles and all, he’s one of our most inventive actors, and I’m looking forward to Ebenezer despite having seen countless regurgitations of the Dickens story I read eons ago. (Check out the trailer.) Casper has a theory about its famously miserable protagonist: maybe ol’ Scrooge only needed a better mattress. Its Paramount partnership runs with “The more you...
7 days ago • 1 min read
Turning a criminal archetype into a cough-medicine hero is a little weird. It also makes surprisingly good psychological sense. Robitussin has introduced Robby Tussin, a deadpan “cough hitman” who appears when a cough becomes unacceptable, reaches ominously inside his trench coat and pulls out… cough syrup. In one ad, a coughing man in a restroom tells him, “Do it quick.” That’s dark territory for a 77-year-old medicine brand. It’s also pretty creative. Haleon says this is Robitussin’s...
8 days ago • 1 min read
Halloween is one of those weird moments when putting barbecue sauce all over your face can qualify as brand engagement. I love me a good Halloween face painting. McDonald’s UK has taken that idea somewhere wonderfully ridiculous with Spooky Sauces, a limited-edition face-paint collection inspired by six of its dipping sauces. There’s Tomb-Mato Ketchup, Curry Cauldron, Boo-Boo-Q and Garlic MayOoOo, among others. The kits even come with fries-shaped brushes, a Chicken McNugget-inspired sponge...
9 days ago • 1 min read
