My Daily Emails

For some would-be 3D printing customers, the barrier was watching half the filament go into the trash. I’ve been coveting a multi-material 3D printer for a while. Then I watched

A new study shows how a useful rule of thumb can become an expensive assumption when it starts deciding which customers deserve attention. I’ve often referred to the 80/20 rule

Steve Jobs described a product-development problem nearly 20 years ago that I continue to see with clients all the time. In August 2007, CNET’s Molly Wood asked Steve Jobs whether

Starbucks joins a growing list of brands deliberately making creative effort front-and-centre. Seems I’ve stumbled into an accidental series. Apple Music vibrated mineral oil with sound to create its new

Customers have been trained to see shipping as free. But someone still has to pay for the box, labour, truck and fuel, never mind the inevitable return trips. Amazon has

An influencer can create appetite even while the path to your product is a mystery. An influencer tears into a magnificent sandwich, and suddenly your lunch plans change. You dab

AI is making polished imagery easier than ever. Levi’s and E.L.F. are betting folks will notice when humans do the hard part instead. As a kid, I was fascinated by

Columbia’s canned puffers show how an unexpected setting can make a familiar product look considerably more necessary. Columbia has put puffer jackets in cans, which is one way to make

Good or bad, every customer pic containing your product is adding something to your brand. Brands put huge effort into controlling visual identity. Then customers take over. They photograph your

There’s a selfish little consumer behaviour researchers have finally given a name to. Tell me if you’ve experienced something like this. Near where I live, there’s a new Mexican restaurant

Somewhere along the way, a little Belgian coffee biscuit became an ingredient to put into anything. What is up with Biscoff? I like the spicy-sweet biscuits. To me, they scratch

Holiday shopping is about to provide a pretty good stress test for what happens when AI becomes part of the buying decision. A new Harris Poll commissioned by Forter found

Halloween’s most extravagant purchases make more sense when you consider who gets to enjoy them. Last night, my family and I drove around our community looking at Halloween displays. Some

Familiar characters give Walmart a way to reopen a shopping decision customers may have closed years ago. A couple days ago, I wrote about how Casper suggested Scrooge needed a

Customers bring habits from other products, even when your design expects them to start over. I’ve gone from my iPad to my Mac, absent-mindedly touching the screen, then wondering why

Casper gives a familiar mattress promise a character shoppers already know, right down to his nightcap. I get a kick out of Johnny Depp. Foibles and all, he’s one of

Turning a criminal archetype into a cough-medicine hero is a little weird. It also makes surprisingly good psychological sense. Robitussin has introduced Robby Tussin, a deadpan “cough hitman” who appears when

Halloween is one of those weird moments when putting barbecue sauce all over your face can qualify as brand engagement. I love me a good Halloween face painting. McDonald’s UK

Cricket Wireless found a really human way to turn one of our disposable digital files into something worth keeping. I have voicemails on my phone from people who are no

The coolest part of Apple Music’s new identity is how unnecessary the elaborate physical process was. Apple Music has a new visual identity built around an idea called Made by Sound.

Pocket Parm is silly enough to get attention and practical enough that plenty of cheese lovers will feel the need. I‘m a fan of every cheese from bocconcini to Limburger,

Bentley is designing its new EV around something product teams tend to underuse: the senses beyond sight. Most brands obsess over what they LOOK like. You know, logo, colours, typography

Toyota’s Walk Me asks a useful innovation question: what if the limitation you’ve been improving around is the thing that needs replacing? Wheelchairs have been in slow evolution for a

Halloween gives brands permission to go places that would get them the stink-eye any other time of year. Most days, suggesting that customers arrange to have their ashes buried in

Corona Cero’s seven-pack is a wonderfully silly packaging idea built around a much bigger change in how people can consume beer. I stopped drinking alcohol almost nine years ago, and

The new Roadster has questionable commercial value, but as an attention-generating product demo it has already worked spectacularly. Elon Musk unveiled the long-delayed Tesla Roadster this week by having it

Cause marketing can improve how people see a brand, but the product you attach it to determines IF that goodwill turns into buying. Cause marketing usually seems made for stuff

Visit Sweden shows how an overlooked product attribute turns into a compelling reason to buy when it connects with the right customer need. Visit Sweden has opened a travel agency

Apple’s new product burst is a useful reminder that the loudest reaction to an unfamiliar product rarely predicts what buyers will do with it. John Ternus has been running Apple

Polaroid’s latest camera makes creative techniques easier while leaving the pleasure of experimentation in your hands. When I was a kid, a Polaroid camera was a delight at parties. Someone

New research suggests customers experience craftsmanship through the people, timing and tiny gestures surrounding the product, beyond how it was made. When brands talk about craftsmanship, they usually point backward.

New research suggests tracking healthy behaviour might make you more likely to indulge elsewhere. I like the basic promise of a Fitbit. That was my first fitness wearable more than

Selling online can expand a B2B company’s reach, but new research shows it can also weaken the consultation customers rely on. I’ve helped lots of B2B companies sell online, and

San Jose went and turned a familiar NHL nickname into a spectacle that makes the game-day experience unmistakably its own. My Edmonton Oilers visit San Jose this afternoon, and will

Jaguar’s inherited fame gives its reinvention a huge audience, but customers will decide if its EV deserves a future. The internet rallied to defend the old Jaguar with an enthusiasm

Snuggle’s Peanuts partnership connects its product to a meaning customers learned long before they bought fabric softener. I wonder what Charles Schulz would make of “peak Peanuts” in 2026, with

Chipotle gives its freshness message a soundtrack made from the food itself, played by classically trained musicians. As I write this, one of my kids is practising flute after the

When customers recognize your product’s taste as your brand, you have something you can carry into new formats and occasions. For most of my life, Reese’s was peanut butter cups

In 2011, Elon Musk laughed when BYD was suggested as a Tesla competitor. Fifteen years later, the joke has aged badly. There’s an old clip of Elon Musk that has

More than 40 years ago, Jobs described how computers would preserve a person’s worldview, answer questions and act as personal agents. Steve Jobs gets credited with predicting a ton of

I tend to write subject lines as statements. Research suggests I could be leaving readership on the table. I have this habit with subject lines… Even when they begin with

New research suggests the best way to use generative AI for product ideation is to add on MORE constraints. When innovators use AI to develop a new product idea (or

New research links getting a smartphone before 13 with dramatically worse mental health in young adulthood… and the younger the child, the worse the association is. My daughters were the

Affluent customers might welcome AI assistants, but premium service means knowing when a human needs to take over. Luxury service has traditionally meant high touch. Like a concierge who remembers your preferences or the salesperson who knows your size by heart. Maybe the hotel that anticipates what you’ll need before you step onto the shiny tiles. But the luxury consumers I know are also super-interested in AI agents and automation. Why wouldn’t they be? If an agent can book the restaurant, change the flight, locate the exact product, arrange delivery and save 20 minutes of pointless back-and-forth, that’s an all-round better experience. What they’re paying for is access to fantastic service, not max human interaction. A recent study in the Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services provides some neat support for that idea. Researchers examined attitudes toward AI assistants among luxury consumers in South Korea, a market with unusually high luxury spending and technology adoption. They found that emotional appeal and perceived social presence both helped drive acceptance of AI assistants. Trust also played an important role. But one other

Kate Moss wore Hunter boots to Glastonbury in ’05 because the field was mucky. Twenty-one years later, that spontaneous choice is still sellin’ the Wellies. Hunter turns 170 this year,

Meta is making virtual reality dramatically lighter and more affordable. The big engineering challenge is making folks around the wearer comfortable. Meta just showed off the coolest VR hardware it

After over a century of levity, The Laughing Cow has changed one of its most recognizable brand assets and refuses to say why. Exactly a month ago, I wrote about

New research suggests mind wandering can actually increase purchase intent when the purchase is still some distance away. Marketers put tons of effort into trying to STOP you and me

New research suggests recent consumption has an outsized effect on what people buy next, especially when uncertainty is high. My kids love goin’ to Costco, especially when they know there’ll

More than 20 years after turning “easy” into an office icon, Staples has created its opposite. Decades ago, we had a Staples Easy Button in our boardroom. Colleagues and clients loved slapping