Bob Deutsch

For quite a few years, “Consumer Experience” has been one of the big buzzwords in the marketing lexicon. Now, amidst the economic downturn and an increased reliance on digital in the time of the Coronavirus pandemic, greater attention should be paid to what actually comprises consumer experience?

Most marketers plan for how best to have consumers experience the company’s brand, and have consumers do so in a way the marketer wants them to experience its company’s products. Given the way brand actually works, perhaps this is not the most valid focus. …

Bob Deutsch

Yesterday, I was speaking to a teacher. Since the Coronavirus struck, all the way up until the beginning of this past week, she wasn’t teaching. Now she is teaching again, but her classes are out-of-doors and class sizes have shrunk from their usual numbers, as, she guess, some parents are keeping their kids at home, afraid of contagion.

This teacher told me that during these last couple of months she has been very careful. …

Bob Deutsch

Donald Trump has recently been talking about how he “aced” a cognitive test during a medical exam. With approximately 100 days remaining before the next presidential election, perhaps it would be more helpful to consider Donald Trump from the patterns of his actual, ongoing behavior. The patterns in one’s naturally-occurring behavior are much more revealing than answers to a one-time, formal cognitive test in a doctor’s office.

First, a caveat: IQ tests can also indicate aspects of personality. That’s partly because context matters. Trump has been touting about how he perfectly repeated back a five-word sequence. This is…

Bob Deutsch

Bob Deutsch

With rare exceptions, creativity is hard for a corporation, company or institution. Why? Because creativity is hard to define. Nevertheless, in recent years most executives say creativity is a critical human capacity needed for its success. Now, creativity is even more important as we all look to create adaptive and innovative visions that will guide the design of a post-Coronavirus world.

Working at the intersection of business and the Arts, considering creativity from a cognitive point of view and interviewing such imaginative thinkers as the eminent jazz musician, Wynton Marsalis, and Nobel Laureates, Konrad Lorenz and Richard Feynman, led to…

Bob Deutsch

Until the Coronavirus emerged, most adults went to work to earn a living. Now, by civic mandate, we are told to stay home. Covid-19 brought peoples’ normal, everyday routines to a screeching halt. Hopefully, this unwanted pause will contribute something positive to our assessment of what was our normal? In that sense, we can ask,

· When this viral threat is corralled what will advertising be like?

One suggestion: advertising should shift from a focus on “consumers” to paying attention to what real people are like?

We all would be living more vital lives if advertising and marketing…

There is a lot of discussion nowadays about creativity, cognitive science, artificial intelligence and ontology (The Theory of Mind). Rightfully so. As computers get smarter and faster, and various types of data become more readily available, the unquestioned impulse of many businesses, institutions and governments is to go the numeric — Big Data — route. Perhaps, though, there might be a few bumps along the way. …