Cults are all around us. I’m not talking about destructive cults that damage people’s lives. I’m referring to benign, even life-supportive groups that give people more meaning. Raving-fan groups of Star Trek, Lady Gaga, Jimmy Buffett, Harry Potter, Oprah, American Girl, Jay-Z, Apple, Barbie, and Harley...
Abraham Maslow, one of the founding fathers of humanistic psychology, taught us that human beings have a higher, transcendent nature, which he visualized most eloquently in his Hierarchy of Human Needs. This simple pyramid gives us a framework from which to understand the essence of Cult...
Perhaps the most important thing to take away from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs is his realization that all human beings start fulfilling their needs at the bottom levels of the pyramid. In short, we fill our lower physiological needs first. Needs like safety, esteem, and...
As Peter Drucker noted, marketing and innovation are the two primary drivers of any business. Developing marketing intelligence is vital for organizational leadership. Knowing the various marketing weapons at your disposal will help you explore new ways to approach your customers. We put together a list of...
In our visit to the National Retail Federation’s Big Show last month, we had the opportunity to hear Ginni Rometty, the CEO of IBM, discuss the technological trends that are shaping the future of retail. Thanks to the explosion of new data, the business landscape is...
You understand that the game of modern business isn’t won by capturing the next transaction. You’re passed that. Now you’re learning how to relate to your customers. Look at any of your personal relationships to see how difficult relating to another human being can be. Here,...
Building analytic muscle to learn about your customers is a top priority for today’s outperforming chief executives. Big data is an unquestionably powerful tool to improve your knowledge about your customers. Many executives are talking about “big data” these days. Another popular term associated with big...
Organizations that foster brand loyalty—that place an unusually high level of focus on their customers—on average, demonstrate a more enlightened approach to management. Why is this so? Cult Brands and other customer-centric businesses tend to be more humanistic. That is, they tend to place a greater...
Couldn't make it to this year's National Retail Federation's Big Show in New York City? No problem. The keynote opened with SAP's SVP of Retail Business Unit Lori Mitchell-Keller's discussion of the millennials and how the new socially-conscious consumer has been wired since birth and is comfortably connected through...
In walking the massive floors of the National Retail Federation’s Big Show in Jacob Javits Center last week, we noticed the same themes and language echoed throughout the great halls of exhibitors serving the retail industry: analytics, big data, and other research tools—services and technologies...