There are themes, experiences and concepts that words cannot capture and express as instinctively and vividly as visual images. Verbal probing, alternately, may not be enough to invoke respectively what goes in the minds of consumers (e.g., thoughts and feelings, beliefs and associations). However, the combination of visual images, especially photographs, with the words of… Read More
Smart Automation in Conflict
Smart automation is an integral part of the digital transformation of operations and services. However, automation goes much beyond the application of digital technologies and data when artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics are recruited to fulfill any task. Smart automation entails using capabilities of learning from data (huge amounts of data), adaptation and autonomous execution… Read More
The Personal Transporter of Segway Is Driving Off
The vertical scooter-like vehicle of Segway, the Personal Transporter (PT), takes little space and moves smoothly. Segway’s PT, created by Dean Kamen, introduced an innovative and inspiring product concept in its technology and form, easily recognizable on sight. There is something elegant about the way it looks and moves. Yet, the PT never fulfilled the… Read More
Drivers of Sharing More Personal Information on Smartphones
There must be something special about the relationship of consumers with their smartphones — they feel so close to the smartphone and confident in it that they are willing to disclose more personal and even intimate information in interactions on the device. Shiri Melumad and Robert Meyer, professors of marketing at the Wharton School in… Read More
When Airplanes Fly Again
The battle against the Corona virus created an extraordinary situation, halting flights almost completely — domestic and moreover international flights. It seems furthermore unprecedented in its scale, geographic span, and duration (days still counting). The crisis already threatens airlines round the globe. The future for the aviation industry is ambiguous at the moment with a… Read More
Digital Transformation and the Corona Pandemic
The restrictions on movement and contact imposed in the battle against the Corona virus are forcing consumers to rely more heavily on digital channels and their tools for obtaining products and services. Companies are required to provide and support more extensive digital tools of self-service for customers to be used in their homes. Some companies… Read More
Aesthetics Can Have Intelligence
Aesthetics is a fundamental aspect of product design. The visual design of a product affects the quality of consumers’ interaction with it, their usage of the product, and actually the product experience as a whole. Aesthetic appearance in particular contributes to the pleasure of viewing and utilising a product, whether it is a physical artefact… Read More
In the Mood: Consumer Confidence
‘Consumer Confidence’ is a contentious construct, subject to multiple views and versions on how it should be measured. The predictive power of a Consumer Confidence Index (CCI), at the macro and micro levels, is also given to argument. Yet measures of consumer confidence are applied in economic discourse as a useful indication of ongoing consumers’… Read More
Building Experiences Around Tea
Drinking good quality tea is an experience inseparable from the product ‘tea’ and its attributes. The flavour and aroma of the tea are experienced by our senses (taste as well as smell). The attributes of a drink product like tea have to be felt, and consumers now are more interested in that experience than in… Read More
A Psychological Framework for Website Design and Usability
Usability of websites may ascribe to the ease in which visitors can navigate and find helpful information through website pages and perform tasks successfully on the website; the visual design of webpages can determine the ease, convenience, as well as pleasure, of reading text, viewing images, interacting, and getting overall self-oriented on each page visited.… Read More
Consumer / Shopper / Customer Behaviour 