Matt Johnson's Blog, page 3
July 18, 2023
Harnessing The Psychology of Nostalgia Marketing for Technology Brands
In a vast digital landscape filled with endless distractions and fleeting attention spans, you might be wondering why you should bother t...
How Brand Communities Create Loyalty and Shared Consumer Identity
Starbucks' Howard Schultz, once said “If people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to the brand.” This quote i...
July 5, 2023
Positive Ambiguity: Marketing Psychology Lessons from The Berghain Bouncer
Key points for understanding the power of ambiguity in marketing psychology:
When people are given access to a special, exclusive experience, but the selection criteria is mysterious, this produces positive ambiguity. It holds significant opportunities ...
June 6, 2023
The Psychology and Neuroscience of The Consumer-Brand Relationship
Key points about this research on the psychology of the brand-consumer relationship:
The formation of the brand-consumer relationship is typified by three important psychological and neurophysiological mechanisms: decreases in emotional arousal, an incr...
May 29, 2023
How Creative Brands Inspire Empathy with the Future of Humanity
A shift in perspective can come from unexpected sources. Just ask Homer Simpson, whose life was completely upended by a ghost pepper at the Springfield chili cookoff.
Fans of The Simpsons will know the episode instantly. Not one to back down from a cha...
How Empathy for your Future Self Improves your Consumer Behavior
On May 11th, 2011 a group of research subjects was given a simple choice: Do you want $5 now, or $500 on May 22nd, 2011?
With less than two weeks to wait, the answer seems simple: Hold off and get the $500. Easy money, right? However, the research subje...
May 28, 2023
The Hipster Effect: Lessons in Brand Differentiation from The Neuroscience of Hipsters
One day, you’re enjoying your life, working hard, and making ends meet as a barista. The next day, you’re THE barista.
Such was the experience of Dustin Mattson, who became the literal face of the “hipster barista” meme. In 2011, the internet somehow f...
May 26, 2023
How Brands Create Shared Consumer Experiences and Social Cohesion
We’ve now seen how the economic divide has narrowed the opportunity for shared consumer experiences. We’ve also seen how this manifests both with in-person retail experiences and in the digital world. There’s a crucial question that has gone unanswered...
What Social Media and The Decline of Retail Means for Shared Consumer Experiences
The largest, most well-subscribed brands are unsurprisingly in the digital space. But while the reach for these brands is broad, the experience is anything but unified. Spotify has quickly risen to be a dominant force in music streaming. But one needs ...
How Branding Influences American Consumer Culture
Should brand logos be considered art? If you asked Vladimir Nabokov the answer would be a resounding "no". The mid-century Russian author was an admirer of American painter Norman Rockwell who, among other things, stenciled logos and advertisements of ...
