The Marketing Bureau

Vibram Five Fingers and Eigen Values
by Stephen Denny
First Published on www.marketingprofs.com

Do you know what an eigen value is? "This sentence has five words." That's an eigen value. It's a self-defining entity. Its outputs are identical to itself. If I were to say instead, "This sentence has a lot of words and syllables," that would not be an eigen value because it's subjective. We can debate what "a lot" is or isn't. And that difference is important.

Want to see how an eigen value plays out in real life? Look at Vibram and its FiveFingers shoe. Read more >>

First Published on www.knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

To come up with the next iPad, Amazon or Facebook, the last thing potential innovators need is a group brainstorm session. What the pacesetters of the future really require, according to new Wharton research, is some time alone. Read more >>

First Published on www.marketingprofs.com
OK. Time to clear your mind and consider some findings from Tremor, a subsidiary of Procter & Gamble that focuses on word-of-mouth (WOM). Tremor is populated by cognitive scientists whose job is to study the brain, then apply their knowledge to marketing. Read more >>

United States: It’s been nearly 50 years since the Yellow Pages® first urged phone customers to “Let your fingers do the walking.” Back then, it was just an ad slogan, and the message wasn’t meant to be taken literally. Nowadays, however, thanks to touch-screen technology, wireless phone users can “let their fingers do the walking.”
They can easily shop online, send e-mails and texts, and share multimedia files and pictures with friends and family—all with the flick of a finger. The technology has proven so popular that customers who own traditional mobile phones—as opposed to feature-rich “smartphones”— are increasingly moving to models that offer touch screens. Read more >>