Sentient Insight: the business blog for consumer psychology and consumer marketing

An issue of IBM’s Forward View for mid-sized businesses came out today. In it, IBM reveals that “eight times more data than all the information held in U.S. libraries is created everyday.” Wow. No wonder managers are feeling overwhelmed by the information coming at them on a daily basis. In this age of information overload, being able to cut through the clutter to access the fundamental drivers of behavior is increasingly critical. In this age of information overload, we are truly fortunate to be in the business of behavioral insight.

“We will extend a hand, if you are willing to unclench your fist.” - Barack Obama, January 20th, 2009. On the day of Obama’s inauguration, the best political team on television largely panned Obama’s speech as being “not great” (notable exceptions were Republican leaning analysts Castellanos and Gerger). The CNN panel saw the speech as containing no great delivered lines like “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself” or “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”.

It was early January, the second day of Winter term @ Middlebury College in VT. I was at a reception in an old building on campus with creaking hard-wood floors under my feet and a local micro-brew in my hand. I struck up a conversation with a fellow visiting faculty member. “What are you teaching this January?” “I’m teaching an environmentally interactive course for students through the Geology department. How about you?”

Starbucks’ new ad campaign positions the coffee purveyor as an ethical company worth paying more for. It’s set to break in the NYT this Sunday. You can see Schultz talking about the campaign here.  He seems really genuine about wanting to tell the world what Starbucks is all about; but the singular message I get from it is that Starbucks costs more (and it’s worth it). I guess I hoped the first time Starbucks talked to a national audience in this format they’d have more to say, and would make a more emotional connection with their audience. This effort leaves me disappointed.  What do you think about the campaign? Read the WSJ’s coverage.