Tag: behavioural economics

To Sell Is Human: Book Review

August 7, 2013 • Book Reviews • 1 comment

Do you know that 40% of our time at work is engaged in selling, even if we’re not in sales? Or that “Bob the Builder” can be a sales trainer?

Sprinkled with discoveries from fields such as behavioural economics, life coaching, and improv acting, To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by bestselling author Daniel H. Pink scores. Interspersed with charming anecdotes on septuagenarian Fuller Brush salesperson Norman Hall (Pink’s unsung hero who was the last such salesperson), To Sell Is Human is neatly divided into three parts.

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Customer Sense: Book Review

July 10, 2013 • Book Reviews • no comments

Do you know that your five senses (sight, sound, scent, taste and touch) play a major role in what you buy?

While marketers go gaga over social technologies and their impact on digital commerce, it is often our physical perceptions of a product which influence buying decisions.

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Predictably Irrational: A Book Review

May 29, 2012 • Book Reviews • no comments

Debunking conventional wisdom that human beings are rational and logical beings, Predictably Irrational by behavioural economist Dan Ariely provides an entertaining and enlightening read in the market-tested tradition of authors like Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner (Freakonomics series), Malcolm Gladwell, and Ori and Ron Brafman (Sway). Using the results of empirical research conducted at MIT and other university campuses, Ariely explains why we do the things we do despite their contrary effects on our health, wealth and long-term success.

Written in a light-hearted, jargon-free prose, Predictably Irrational takes us through several themes. They include the fallacy of supply and demand (ie why pricing can be so arbitrary in certain markets), the overwhelming power of FREE, the danger of turning social norms into market norms (or why you shouldn’t pay your mother-in-law for cooking a delicious family dinner), the effects of expectations (what you visualise is what you get), and two chapters on honesty and dishonesty in humans, among others.

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Superfreakonomics: Book Review

October 4, 2011 • Book Reviews • no comments

Creators of the highly popular book Freakonomics, hosts of the Freakonomics radio podcasts, University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and New York Times journalist Stephen J. Dubner join forces yet again in Superfreakonomics. Written in the same fast-paced and witty style, the authors combed through prodigious scientific and research data to present findings that astound, amaze and amuse.

Tackling the fields of behavioural economics, criminology, psychology, sociology and other fields, Superfreakonomics examines taboo topics and sheds new light – and answers – while challenging conventional wisdom. Reading through the easily digestible volume, one learns why walking drunk is more dangerous than driving drunk (shorter average number of miles before accidental death), why department store Santas are like prostitutes (seasonal demand), and how capuchin monkeys actually behave like humans when given the right monetary incentives!

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