Small Data Quotes

“No matter how insignificant it may first appear, everything in life tells a story. As”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“lone piece of small data is almost never meaningful enough to build a case or create a hypothesis, but blended with other insights and observations gathered from around the world, the data eventually comes together to create a solution that forms the foundation of a future brand or business. My”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“As LEGO found out more than a decade ago, the question “What are you most proud of?” can yield surprising and transformative answers.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“According to the New York Times, last year as one of Google’s new cars approached a crosswalk, it did as it was supposed to and came to a complete stop. The pedestrian in front crossed the street safely, at which point the Google car was rammed from behind by a second non-Google automobile. Later, another self-driving Google car found that it wasn’t able to advance through a four-way stop, as its sensors were calibrated to wait for other drivers to make a complete stop, as opposed to inching continuously forward, which most did. Noted the Times, “Researchers in the fledgling field of autonomous vehicles say that one of the biggest challenges facing automated cars is blending them into a world in which humans don’t behave by the book.”15”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Westerners who’ve never traveled abroad don’t realize the extent to which American movies and actors, and Hollywood imagery, dominate overseas cinemas and markets.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“What do the sports we love the most say about us? A study carried out by Mind Lab surveyed 2,000 UK adults and found that bicyclists are “laid back and calm” and less likely than runners or swimmers to be stressed or depressed. Runners tended to be extroverted, enjoyed being the center of attention and preferred “lively, upbeat music.” Swimmers, the study concluded, were charitable, happy and orderly, whereas walkers generally preferred their own company, didn’t like drawing attention to themselves and were comparatively unmaterialistic”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“for all the valuable insights big data provides, the Web remains a curated, idealized version of who we really are.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“In some instances, I’ve found that executives don’t even use their own products.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Every successful brand stands for something more than itself, and that thing is emotional. A great brand promises hope, the contagion of coolness, or desirability, or love, or romance, or acceptance, or luxury, or youth, or sophistication, or high-quality technology.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“interview 14 leaders from religions including Protestantism, Catholicism, Buddhism and Islam in an attempt to figure out the ten characteristics their faiths had in common. In order of importance, I found that they were: A sense of belonging; storytelling; rituals; symbols; a clear vision; sensory appeal; power from enemies; evangelism; mystery; and grandeur. When you think about the world’s most powerful brands—among them Apple, Nike, Harley-Davidson, Coca-Cola, LEGO—you realize they all make use of some if not all of these pillars.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Paris Syndrome” affects roughly a dozen Japanese tourists every year, who arrive in Paris bearing romantic expectations of the French capital, but end up hospitalized “when they discover that Parisians can be rude, or the city does not meet their expectations,” adding, “The experience can apparently be too stressful for some and they suffer a psychiatric breakdown.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“When you surrender to apprehension, or worry, or nerves, you effectively place a filter over your senses and are no longer able to see what’s right in front of you.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“When people cry, it creates a “bookmark” in their brains—it is a moment, or experience, they are unlikely to forget.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Most remember Hitchcock as a skilled storyteller, but what few know is that the director shot his movies using two separate scripts. The first, known as “the Blue Script,” was entirely functional. In it were all the tangible onscreen components, including dialogue, props, camera angles and set descriptions. The second script, which Hitchcock referred to as “the Green Script,” chronicled in fine detail the emotional arc, or “beats,” of the film he was shooting. Hitchcock relied on both scripts, but the Green Script reminded him how he wanted moviegoers to feel, and at what point,”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“most of us are rarely inside the present moment. We spend a disproportionate amount of time plotting the future or revisiting past events. But when we swim, or shower, or take a bath, we have little choice but to position ourselves in the present, giving our thoughts room to float and wander”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“In general, we hang things—paintings, posters, mirrors—at the height where we best appreciate them. A painting is always slightly higher than the direct approach. We hang mirrors in such a way that we take in our faces, hair, neck and shoulders.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Indian children are more likely to be malnourished than children from Zimbabwe, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Africa’s three poorest countries,1 and in Delhi, nearly 5 million school-aged children have irreversible lung damage from that city’s air quality, which is twice as bad as Beijing’s.2”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“BRICS nations—a widely used acronym referring to the developing countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa—are often treated as indistinguishable, but nothing could be further from reality.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“communities come together in the face of conflict and disagreement.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Visit any comedy club, or watch Bridesmaids, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Simpsons, South Park, Family Guy or Louis CK’s routines on YouTube, and you’ll realize that Americans pay comedians millions of dollars to talk about things most of them have felt, or thought, but never said in public. In”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“the tacit tradition of making small talk with your neighbors springs from the desire to establish commonality, even if you’re talking about something as generic as the weather, or how the local sports team did last night. Small talk also has the secondary effect of defusing conflict or even resentment.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“On a larger cultural level, where we live also determines our timeliness. For example, in Australia, you can be assured that your guests will show up thirty minutes late, often with friends in tow that they haven’t told you about. In Switzerland, guests are always on time, and if they plan on being five minutes late, they will let you know. Japanese guests will show up a half hour before they are supposed to, and in Israel, they will be forty-five minutes late. Our”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“If you want to understand how animals live, you don't go to the zoo, you go to the jungle.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues that Uncover Huge Trends

“Desire is always linked to a story, and to a gap that needs to be filled: a yearning that intrudes, agitates and motivates human behavior both consciously and unconsciously.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“«Teniendo en cuenta que el equipo directivo no sabe qué hacer con el Big Data, todo el mundo está a la búsqueda del pos-Big Data, y la respuesta son los pequeños datos».”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: Las pequeñas pistas que nos advierten de las grandes tendencias (Deusto)

“Based on the findings of a recent qualitative survey carried out in Switzerland, in fact, most of us have up to ten discreet interdependent social identities—identities, the study concludes, which are often in conflict.16 Let’s imagine a middle-aged bank teller living in Pensacola, Florida. He is a father, a son and a husband. He is a Floridian. He is a bank employee. He is also a bicyclist and a recreational runner, and at night, drinking with his friends, he is “the funny one.” He is also a vegetarian, an amateur guitarist, and on weekends he helps coach soccer at his daughter’s high school. Then there are his online identities, including his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram selves. Most surprising is that the man’s ethical mind-set, honesty, sociability and even level of social engagement changes from personality to personality. Imagine that in his professional role, for example, he may be primed to dissembling, or outright deceit, while simultaneously, as a dad, he finds dishonesty repellent.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“The brands we like, and buy, and surround ourselves with—and by now you know I define a “brand” as anything from the music on our playlists to our shoes, to our sheets, to our toothpaste, to the artwork hanging on our walls—have the profoundest possible things to say about who we are.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“By studying the number of fingerprinted smudge marks on a phone or tablet screen, it’s easy to determine the approximate age of its owner.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“Americans are accustomed to an instantaneous feedback loop, and have little patience with a product that doesn’t come to life immediately. An American tourist traveling abroad who switches on a Bang & Olufsen television in his hotel room will likely perceive the set as broken, not realizing it takes roughly seven seconds to turn on. Apple is one company that has solved this issue smartly. When a consumer powers on an iPhone, the silvery Apple logo appears, alerting users that the phone is on. Knowing the phone works, a consumer is happy to wait an additional 30 seconds before the phone is officially ready for use. I have no doubt that Apple engineers could tinker with the insides to make the phone turn on more quickly. Instead, they’ve designed the iPhone to give users both instant gratification and a sense of anticipation, which they interpret to mean that the phone is both technologically sophisticated and high quality”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends

“The Italian-owned Benetton label, for example, manufactures its entire clothing line in white. Once the clothes are delivered to distribution centers, Benneton’s analysts assess what color or length is in vogue, at which point workers dye and cut the company’s shirts, jackets, pants and infant apparel to replicate the style and color preferences popular at the time.”
― Martin Lindstrom, Small Data: The Tiny Clues That Uncover Huge Trends