Friday, November 23, 2018

10:00 Lois and I drive over to the local Sainsbury's supermarket to do the food shopping. Afterwards we continue on to the Wyevale Garden Centre to purchase two tarpaulins or similar coverings that we can use to protect our two sets of patio furniture in the winter. But the sales clerk tells us that they are only sold in the summer when people first buy the patio furniture - my god, what madness !!!!

We swing by the garden centre's café-restaurant and get a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.

We head over to the local Wyevale Garden Centre to buy something to 

cover our patio furniture with in winter, but without success.

We get a cup of coffee and a piece of cake

at the garden centre's café-restaurant

12:00 We come home and put the food away.

13:00 We have lunch and afterwards I go to bed and take a huge afternoon nap.

15:30 I get up. Lois goes to the local library to change her books, and I listen to the radio in the meantime, an interesting program all about the fallacies of market research. The host of the program is the charming Rory Sutherland.

The program celebrates those who think outside the box, especially when it comes to the advertising industry, as well as celebrating the ability to come up with new and original ideas, and above all about the stupidity of relying on market research.

When the new St. Pancras railway station was launched in 2007, the railway station's promotional company showcased its 100 yard long champagne bar, the longest in Europe, rather than, for example, highlighting faster train services, new routes, smarter and more efficient trains, etc.

The Champagne bar was an attraction that most consumers would not want or use. But in terms of publicity, the campaign was a spectacular success: it had the right "alchemy". However, if a market researcher had asked travellers in advance whether a champagne bar would add anything to their experience, he would have been laughed out of the station.

St Pancras' champagne bar: "the longest in Europe"

Sutherland, the program's presenter, talks to Dave Trott, author of the book "Creative Mischief". Trott's theory is that for 100 years we have made the mistake of asking people what they want, thinking this approach was the best to way to guarantee a project success.

Ordinary people don't give a damn about advertising and market research, he says, and if a market researcher approaches them, they just say what they think he or she wants to hear. Henry Ford said "if I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said 'faster horses' ".

The whole point of advertisements is that they have to stand out from the rest. In Britain, £23 billion is spent on advertising every year, but 89% of advertisements are not noticed by the public, as studies reveal, which adds up to a lot of wasted money. 

Creative people avoid the obvious, but unfortunately they have to sell their "creations" to companies who love the obvious and who prefer for their company's advertisements to be in the same sort of style as that of their rivals.

The author Nassim Nicholas Taleb believes that society is often influenced by random-looking events and behaviours. No reasonable person would have advised Bill Gates to drop out of Harvard and start his own business. But like the St Pancras champagne bar, what turns out to be a success does not always match what we expect to be a success.

Taleb talks about 2 doctors: the first looks like a Hollywood doctor, silvery hair, distinguished-looking and Harvard-educated. The second one "looks like a butcher", sloppily dressed, fat fingers, but both have the same rank at the same hospital. Which one do you choose to carry out your brain surgery? The answer is the "butcher" because he has worked up to the same rank despite his appearance, so he has probably got to be the better surgeon.

Many promotional campaigns enjoy a success that is counter-intuitive, says Sutherland, for example, the insurance campaign that revolves around a talking meerkat with a Russian accent (compare.the.market.com).

meerkat sensation!

A company that wanted to launch a new canned drink that would compete with, for example, Coca-Cola and the others, chose not to compete with anybody in taste, quality, price, etc. They launched an energy drink that was more expensive, tasted horrible and came in much smaller cans. People presumed that they were only able to buy it in small cans because of its assumed incredible potency.

Lois and I are just two old crows now, so we are not completely sure what drink is being talked about here, but we assume it must be Irn-Bru, or something similar. Good grief, take us away, ye men in white coats, we surrender !!! Although arguably we have a greater need for energy drinks than younger people, but I'm going to let that one slide.

All in all, an interesting program, only 15 minutes long, but packed with interesting facts and anecdotes.

In Eastern Europe during the Communist days, the public was automatically suspicious of anything that the government tried to sell or promote through advertisements. They presumed that anything not in short supply was crap. And I myself have often thought that when I see, for example, a famous singer's latest album being advertised on television, it must mean that the albums concerned were obviously not flying off the shelves, to put it mildly!

One of Britain's largest chocolate companies (Cadbury's?) apparently caused a sensation when they changed the shapes of their chocolate squares by rounding off the corners. People thought that the chocolates in the new shape were sweeter, although the recipe was actually the same - my god, what madness!

Perfume companies spend a lot of money trying to sell fragrances for men, although it's actually a man's sweat that convinces women that they've found Mr. Right.

And a man tends to prefer a woman with a 0.7 waist hip ratio, whether she's thin or fat, a skinny model or one of Ruben's chubby beauties - makes no difference. It's all about maximising chances of fertility, apparently.

Good grief, what a crazy world we live in !!!!!

waist-hip ratio

In short, "Think outside the box!" is the program's message. People say "money is the root of all evil", but actually the original quotation from the Bible says, "the love of money is the root of all evil", which is not the same, and Dave Trott agrees that there is nothing wrong with money itself. In the same way, there is nothing wrong with statistics. But the love of statistics - that's where the problem lies !!!!

18:00 We have dinner and spend the rest of the evening listening to the radio - an interesting programme featuring Rich Hall, the American stand-up comedian. Tonight, he explains to his British fans the significance of the US mid-terms elections.

He explains why the elections in the state of Florida always seem so chaotic. The fact is they have a lot of old people down there, half of them cannot even find their belt loops, but for some reason they are still allowed to vote. Abe Lincoln once confirmed in a speech that everybody is allowed to vote because all men are created equal, and they still have people in Florida who heard that speech.

The system in Florida still uses paper ballots, and they get counted by hand. All other states have an electronic system, but in Florida there are no free electric sockets available apparently - they are all in use (life support machines, also aspirators, nebulisers etc).

Ballot papers are much more time-consuming -  one has to explain to those old crows that the ballot paper is not a bingo card. And they tend to just stare at the ballot papers, says Hall. And 17% of the state residents voted for "Penguin Ballot Printing Co. copyright 2018 ".

My god, what a crazy world we live in !!!!

22:00 We go to bed. I read about 10 pages of my bedside book before I drift off to sleep - zzzzzzzzz !!!!

Danish translation

10:00 Lois og jeg kører over til det lokale Sainsburys-supermarked for at købe ind. Bagefter kører vi videre til Wyevale-havecentret for at købe to presenninger eller lignende overdækning, som vi kan bruge til at beskytte vores to sæt terrassemøbler om vinteren. Men ekspeditricen fortæller os desværre, at de bare sælges om sommeren, når mennesker først køber terrassemøblerne – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!!!!

Vi smutter ind i havecentrets café-restaurant og får en kop kaffe og et stykke kage.

vi kører over til det lokale Wyevale-havecenter for at købe noget

til at dække vores terrassemøbler med om vinteren, uden succes. Pokkers!

Vi får en kop kaffe og et stykke kage på havecentrets café-restaurant

12:00 Vi kommer hjem og lægger fødevarerne væk.

13:00 Vi spiser frokost og bagefter går jeg i seng og tager en gigantisk eftermiddagslur.

15:30 Jeg står op. Lois går hen til det lokale bibliotek for at skifte bøger, og jeg lytter i mellemtiden til radio, et interessant program, der handler om fejlslutningerne af markedsundersøgelser. Programmets vært er den charmerende Rory Sutherland.

Progammet fejrer dem, der tænker udenfor boksen, specielt når det kommer til reklamebranchen, også fejrer programmet evnen til at finde på nye og oprindelige idéer, og først og fremmest dumheden af at afhænge af markedsundersøgelser, hvilket virker lidt overraskende, for at sige mildt.

Da den nye St Pancras-banegård blev lanceret i 2007 fremviste banegårdens pr-selskab dens 90m-lang champagne-bar, den længste i Europa, snarere end, eksempelvis, hurtigere toglinjer, ny ruter, smartere og mere effektive tog osv.

Champagne-baren var en attraktion, som de fleste forbrugere ikke ville ønske eller bruge. Men hvad angår publicitet var kampagnen imidlertid en spektakulær succés: den havde den rigtige ”alkemi”. Men hvis en markedsundersøgelse havde spurgt rejsende på forhånd, om en champagebar ville tilføje noget til deres oplevelse, ville de have hulket af grin.

St Pancras’ champagnebar: ”den længste i Europa”

Sutherland, programmets vært, taler med Dave Trott, forfatteren af bogen ”Creative Mischief”.  Trotts teori er, at vi i 100 år har gjort fejlen af at spørge folk om hvad de vil gerne. Vi har troet at denne tilgang er den bedste til at gøre et projekt til succés med garanti.

Almindelig folk skider reklamer og markedsundersøgelser et stykke, siger han, og hvis en markedundersøger henvender sig til dem, siger de bare, hvad de tror han/hun har lyst til at høre. Henry Ford sagde, hvis jeg havde spurgt folk om hvad de ville have, ville de har sagt ”hurtigere heste”.

Hele pointen med reklamer er, at de må skille sig ud fra resten. I Storbritannien bliver 23 milliarder £ brugt på reklamer hvert år, men 89% af reklamer bliver ikke bemærket af offentligheden, beviser undersøgelser, hvilket betyde en masse spildte penge. Kreative folk undgår det indlysende, men desværre er de nødt til at sælge deres "kreationer" til selskaber, der elsker det indlysende, og foretrækker, at deres selskabs reklamer bliver lidt som deres rivaler.

Forfatteren Nassim Nicholas Taleb, tror, at samfundet ofte blive påvirket af tilfældige-udseende begivenheder og adfærd. Ingen fornuftig person ville hae rådet Bill Gates til at droppe ud af Harvard og starte sin egen forretning. Men ligesom St Pancras champagnebaren, det, der bliver til en succes matcher ikke altid med det, vi forventer at blive til en succes.

Taleb taler om 2 læger: den første ser ud som en Hollywood-læge, gråt hår, fornem-udseende og Harvard-uddannet. Den anden ser ud som en slagter, usoigneret klædt, tykke fingre, men begge to har den samme rang på det samme hospital. Hvilken vælger du til at gennemføre din hjerneoperation? Svaret er den ”slagter”, fordi han har arbejdet sig op til samme rang på trods af sin udseende, så derfor må han sandsynligvis han være den bedre kirurg.

Mange reklamekampagner har en succes, der er ulogisk, siger Sutherland, som for eksempel, den forsikring-campagne, der kredser om en talende meerkat med en russisk accent (compare.the.market.com) .

meerkat-sensation!

Et selskab, der ville lancere en ny dåsedrik, der ville konkurrere med for eksempel Coca-Cola, valgte ikke at konkurrere i smag, kvalitet, pris osv. De lancerede en energi-drik der var dyrere, smagde forfærdeligt, og kom i et meget mindre dåse. Folk formodede, at de bare kunne købe den i små dåser på grund at drikkens utrolig potens.

Lois og jeg er to gamle krager, så derfor er vi ikke helt sikre på, hvilken drik de taler om, men vi formoder, den må være Irn-Bru, eller noget ligende. Du godeste, tag os væk, jer mænd i hvide kitler, vi opgiver !!!

Alt i alt, et interessant program, kun 15 minutter langt, men propfyldt med interessant kendsgerning og anekdoter.

I øst-europa i de kommuniste dage var offentligheden automatisk mistænkelig overfor noget som helst, som regeringen prøvede at sælge eller fremme via reklamer. De formodede, at det, der ikke mangelfuldt må være lort. Og jeg selv har ofte tænkt, når jeg ser for eksempel en kendt sangers seneste musikalbum blive annonceret på fjernsyn, at de ikke må være blevet revet ned af hylderne, for at sige mildt!

En af Storbritanniens største chokolade-selskaber (Cadbury’s?) voldede en sensation, da de skiftede formerne af deres chokolade-firkanter, ved at afrunde hjørnerne. Folk troede, at chokoladerne i den nye form var sødere, selvom opskriftet faktisk blev det samme – du godeste, sikke et vanvid!

Perfume-selskaber bruger en masse penge på at prøve at sælge perfumer til mænd, selvom det faktisk er en mands sved, der overbeviser kvinder, at de har fundet Mr Right.

Og en mand har tendens til at foretrække en kvinde med en 0,7 talje-hofte-forhold, hvad enten hun er tynd eller tyk, en mager model eller en buttet Rubens-skønhed. Det gælder om fertilitet, lader det til.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!!

talje-hofte-forhold

Kort sagt, tænk udenfor boksen, er programmets budskab. Folk siger, ”penge er roden til alt ondt”, men faktisk den oprindelige citation i biblen siger, ”kærligheden af penge er roden til alt ondt”, hvilket ikke er det samme. Der er ikke noget galt med selve penge. På den samme måde er der ikke noget galt med statistik. Men kærligheden af statistik – der har vi problemet!!!

18:00 Vi spiser aftensmad og bruger resten af aftenen på at lytte til radio der fremviser Rich Hall, den amerikanske stand-up komiker. I aften forklarer han til sine britiske fans betydningerne af USAs mellemvalg.

Han forklarer hvorfor valgene i delstaten Florida altid virker så kaotiske. Faktum er, at de har en masse gamle folk dernede, halvdelen af dem ikke engang kan finder deres bælte-løkker, men af en eller anden grund man tillader dem at stemme. Abe Lincoln bekræftede engang i en tale, at alle mænd er skabt ens, og de har folk i Florida, der hørte den der tale.

Systemet bruger stadig papir-stemmesedler, og de bliver tælt ved hånden. Alle andre delstater har et elektronisk system, men i Florida er der ikke nogen fri stikkontakt dernede – de er alle i brug (livsstøttemaskiner osv, også aspiratorer, nebulisatorer ).

Men stemmesedler er mere tidskrævende: man skal forklare til de der gamle krager, at stemmesedlen ikke er et bingokort. Og de stirrer bare på sedlerne. 17% af delstatens indbyggere stemmede på ”Penguin Ballot Printing Co. copyright 2018”, lader det til.

Du godeste, sikke en skør verden vi lever i !!!!

22:00 Vi går i seng. Jeg læser ca 10 sider af min sengetidbog før jeg glider over i søvnen  – zzzzzzzzz!!!!