What’s the opposite of redundant?
Redundancy is rife in times of economic uncertainty. But for brands and marketers, embracing marketing science can help keep them ahead of the curve. Adam Ferrier, consumer psychologist and founder of Thinkerbell, explores ahead of of September's MSIX event.
Being made redundant is ‘to be able to be omitted without loss of meaning or function’. Fuck! That’s a tough label to put on someone or something. In a world where people are being made redundant every day, and business models are fast becoming redundant with the latest ‘category killer’, it would be handy to be able to inoculate oneself against such an outcome.
It’s within these economically unpredictable times that we host Marketing Sciences Ideas Xchange (MSIX), now in its 9th, and most important year. Never before has a solid understanding of how marketing actually works, and an evidence based practitioners mentality been needed. Attending MSIX, and better understanding marketing sciences may actually be the very opposite of being redundant.
Attending a conference on marketing science becomes a sure fire way to both understand the present and prepare for the future, here’s why:
Understanding the Present: Evidence based marketing gives us a language, framework and foundational knowledge to ensure what we do works well. Marketing sciences provides for a common set of principles and language to know what to do, explain it to others, and be confident in the outcome. For this reason alone, go to MSIX, so you can better understand what you do, and how it all works. At MSIX you’ll hear from some of Australia’s biggest brands, and best agencies on how marketing sciences helps them on a daily basis.
Prepare for the Future: However, marketing science also helps us understand the opportunity areas that exist within our industry. This year we have people discussing where marketing science is showing up in the worlds of AI, strategy, gamification, pricing and more. Marketing sciences is uncovering opportunities that the rest of the industry is yet to explore. The first step in science is having a hypothesis you’re willing to explore.
However, the final part of the puzzle is ‘ethics’ and this year we have Simon Longstaff AO, head of the Ethics Centre coming to speak. In a world where we can do anything, understanding the rights and wrongs of science in marketing, generative AI and everything in between is crucial. Being curious and leaning into these conversations will provide you with weaponry to lead yourself and your organisation into conversations that they are perhaps currently ill equipped to have.
So whether you want to avoid being made redundant, or you’re interested in exploring the next big opportunity areas within the marketing landscape, come to MSIX.
Adam Ferrier
Now before you finish reading this, here’s a quick plug for the 3 workshops that are happening on Day 2. If you come for Day 1, and have a drink with us that evening, then you should also sign up for one of the workshops happening on Day 2. The workshops are designed to be small, interactive sessions, over an extended period of time so real skills can be developed. The three workshops have been developed based on what most people wanted to know more on which is: gamification, pricing, and marketing effectiveness. If you can afford the time, please get to one of these sessions. There’s also an uber workshop at the conclusion where we develop the biggest ideas from the day.
If you can’t make MSIX, or just want to read up on it a bit before you commit to a day and a half of learning, here are some books and resources I can recommend. (Coming to a conference is going to be much more time efficient :))
See you at MSIX.
Behavioural Economics
“Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” by Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein
“Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions” by Dan Ariely
“Thinking, Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman
The Byron Sharp Trilogy (plus one more)
- “How Brands Grow: What Marketers Don’t Know” (2010)
- “How Brands Grow: Part 2” (2015, co-authored with Jenni Romaniuk)
- “Marketing: Theory, Evidence, Practice” (2013, co-authored with John Dawes, Bill Page, and others)
- “Rethinking Marketing” (2012, co-authored with Jenni Romaniuk)
How to change peoples’ behaviour
- “Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones” by James Clear
- “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
- “Decoding the New Consumer Mind: How and Why We Shop and Buy” by Kit Yarro
- “Consumer.ology: The Truth about Consumers and the Psychology of Shopping” by Philip Graves and Kate Nightingale
- “The Shopping Revolution: How Successful Retailers Win Customers in an Era of Endless Disruption” by Barbara E. Kah
- “Tiny Habits: The Small Changes That Change Everything” by BJ Fogg
- “Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard” by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
- “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion” by Robert B. Cialdini
- “Brandwashed: Tricks Companies Use to Manipulate Our Minds and Persuade Us to Buy” by Martin Lindstrom and Patricia Lewis
- “How to Change” by Katy Milkman
- “Influence is your superpower” by Zoe Chance
- “Good Habits Bad Habits” by Wendy Wood
- “Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us” by Daniel H. Pink
- “Impossible to Ignore” by Carmen Simon
- “Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain” by Lisa Feldman Barrett
- “Hooked: How to Build Habit-Forming Products” by Nir Eyal and Ryan Hoover
- The Advertising Effect: How to change behaviour (me)
Some New Ones
Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking Ancient Innovation to Solve Tomorrow’s Challenges” Sam Tatum, (2022)
“The Choice Factory: 25 Behavioural Biases That Influence What We Buy” Richard Shotten, (2018)
“The Illusion of Choice: 16 ½ Psychological Biases That Influence What We Buy” Richard Shotten, (2023)
“Choice Hacking: How to Use Behavioral Science and Psychology to Create an Experience that Sings” Jennifer L. Clinehens, (2020)
One of my favourites
Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy” Phil Barden (2020)
Adam Ferrier is the consumer psychologist at, and founder of, Thinkerbell.
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Sounds like being dundant is bad enough but getting re-dundant is worse.
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Yet another great line up. Should be great!
Great line up! Just a note, the book “Choice Hacking” was actually written by Jennifer L. Clinehens not Robert Chatterway.
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Great spot, LV!
– Neil
Managing editor, Mumbrella