All Customers Are Irrational


Book Description

As many businesses are discovering, customer behavior doesn’t always make sense. That really shouldn’t be surprising. As recent studies have shown, people tend to base their decisions on more subconscious, emotional desires than on rational, practical choices. What’s more, customers aren’t able to tell you accurately why they do what they do. Combining recent research findings with real-world examples from his consulting practice on customer experience, William J. Cusick examines how the sub­con­scious part of the brain drives the decisions and behavior of every customer on a daily basis and introduces the concept of "the irrational customer." All Customers Are Irrational shows why businesses must change their approach to attracting and retaining customers, and proposes ways they can alter their strategies on everything from customer research, product design and website development to call center management, employee recruitment, and retail store layouts, by focusing on what customers are actually doing instead of what they’re saying. Honest, direct and insightful, All Customers Are Irrational will help businesses tap into the impulses and motivations that both attract and retain consumers for the long haul.




The Irrational Consumer


Book Description

Companies of all kinds have fallen into some of the most fundamental of traps when it comes to consumer marketing; in assuming that the motivation that drives their customers is entirely rational. Enrico Trevisan's The Irrational Consumer builds on the ground breaking works on behavioural economics of authors such as Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler in order to explain the fundamental drivers of customer decisions and how to incorporate these into your business strategy. Learn how consumers respond to different offer architectures and discounts; why they sometimes struggle to see the wood for the trees in a world of ever-increasing options; what are the rules of thumb they develop for making sense of value. Behavioural economics offers organizations perspectives for engaging with customers, whose views on what to buy are strongly driven by contextual factors, such as the framework and the dynamics of choices. Enrico Trevisan's The Irrational Consumer is your 'must-have' primer to this world.




Predictably Irrational


Book Description

Intelligent, lively, humorous, and thoroughly engaging, "The Predictably Irrational" explains why people often make bad decisions and what can be done about it.




The Intuitive Customer


Book Description

Building on the work of Daniel Kahneman (Thinking Fast and Slow), Dan Ariely (Predictably Irrational), Shaw and Hamilton provide a new understanding of how people behave, explain what it means for organizations who really want to understand their customers, and show you what to do to create exceptional customer experiences.




The Law and Economics of Irrational Behavior


Book Description

This collection of essays explores the most relevant developments at the interface of economics and psychology, giving special attention to models of irrational behavior, and draws the relevant implications of such models for the design of legal rules and institutions. The application of economic models of irrational behavior to law is especially challenging because specific departures from rational behavior differ markedly from one another. Furthermore, the analytical and deductive instruments of economic theory have to be reshaped to deal with the fragmented and heterogeneous findings of psychological research, turning towards a more experimental and inductive methodology. This volume brings together pioneering scholars in this area, along with some of the most exciting developments in the field of legal and economic theory. Areas of application include criminal law and sentencing, tort law, contract law, corporate law, and financial markets.




Sway


Book Description

A fascinating journey into the hidden psychological influences that derail our decision-making, Sway will change the way you think about the way you think. Why is it so difficult to sell a plummeting stock or end a doomed relationship? Why do we listen to advice just because it came from someone “important”? Why are we more likely to fall in love when there’s danger involved? In Sway, renowned organizational thinker Ori Brafman and his brother, psychologist Rom Brafman, answer all these questions and more. Drawing on cutting-edge research from the fields of social psychology, behavioral economics, and organizational behavior, Sway reveals dynamic forces that influence every aspect of our personal and business lives, including loss aversion (our tendency to go to great lengths to avoid perceived losses), the diagnosis bias (our inability to reevaluate our initial diagnosis of a person or situation), and the “chameleon effect” (our tendency to take on characteristics that have been arbitrarily assigned to us). Sway introduces us to the Harvard Business School professor who got his students to pay $204 for a $20 bill, the head of airline safety whose disregard for his years of training led to the transformation of an entire industry, and the football coach who turned conventional strategy on its head to lead his team to victory. We also learn the curse of the NBA draft, discover why interviews are a terrible way to gauge future job performance, and go inside a session with the Supreme Court to see how the world’s most powerful justices avoid the dangers of group dynamics. Every once in a while, a book comes along that not only challenges our views of the world but changes the way we think. In Sway, Ori and Rom Brafman not only uncover rational explanations for a wide variety of irrational behaviors but also point readers toward ways to avoid succumbing to their pull.




Irrational Exuberance


Book Description

With a new Afterword on the current state of the stock market, the ongoing debate over the "new economy," and the larger implications of "irrational exuberance." In this controversial, hard-hitting account of today's explosive market, Robert J. Shiller, a leading expert on market volatility, evokes Alan Greenspan's infamous 1996 reference, "irrational exuberance," to explain the alternately soaring and declining stock market. Shiller's unconventional yet persuasive argument credits an unprecedented confluence of events with driving stocks to uncharted heights, and he analyzes the structural, cultural, and psychological factors behind these levels of growth not reflected in any other sector of the economy. Now more relevant than ever, this analysis is both chilling and convincing-a must-read for the individual investor, the policy maker, and the investment professional.




What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You


Book Description

Why do people buy? A behavioral economist explains the science of consumer behavior in “the most important business book to come out in years” (Michael F. Schein, author and columnist for Inc., Forbes, and Psychology Today). What Your Customer Wants and Can’t Tell You explains the neuroscience of consumer behavior. Learn exactly why people buy—and how to use that knowledge to improve pricing, increase sales, create better “brain-friendly” brand messaging, and be a more effective leader. Behavioral economics is the marketing research future of brands and business. This book goes beyond an academic understanding of behavioral economics and into practical applications. Learn how real businesses and business professionals can use science to make their companies better. Business owner, consultant, and behavioral economics expert Melina Palmer helps leaders like you use the psychology of the consumer, innovation, and truly impactful branding to achieve real, bottom-line benefits. Discover information and tools you can actually use to influence consumers. Go beyond data science and learn how the consumer brain works. Dramatically improve your effectiveness as a leader and marketer with: · Real-world examples that bring a concept to life and make it stick · Ideas to help you with problem solving for your business · Ways to hack your brain into coming up with innovative programs, products, and initiatives “A stand-out guide for anyone fascinated by customer behavior and the science of decision-making.” —Madeline Quinlan, cofounder of Salient Behavioral Consultants




Talking to 'Crazy'


Book Description

No matter how hard you try to reason with irrational people, it never works. So how do you talk to someone who just won't listen? You can't win by ignoring the insanity, and you can't argue it away. However, you can stop it cold. Top-ranked psychiatrist and communication expert Mark Goulston shows you just how to do so in this life-changing book for everyone trapped in maddening personal or professional relationships. Goulston unlocks the mysteries of the irrational mind, and explains how faulty thinking patterns develop. His keen insights are matched by a set of counterintuitive strategies proven to defuse crazy behavior, along with scripts, examples, and exercises that teach you how to use them. In Talking to “Crazy”, you will learn: Why people act the way they do How instinctive responses can exacerbate the situation, and what to do instead When to confront a problem and when to walk away How to activate the Sanity Cycle, which quickly transforms you from threat to ally How to use 14 simple yet effective communication techniques, including assertive submission flattery, the kiss-off, and more You can't reason with unreasonable people, but you can reach them. Talking to “Crazy” shows you just how easy it is to do it.




The Irrational Ape


Book Description

THE IRISH TIMES TOP FIVE BESTSELLER 'An unstoppable page-turner. If our leaders were forced to read this book, the world would be a safer place' Richard Dawkins 'A beautifully reasoned book about our own unreasonableness' Robin Ince Why did revolutionary China consider the sparrow an 'animal of capitalism' - and what happened when they tried to wipe them out? With a cast of murderous popes, snake-oil salesmen and superstitious pigeons, find out why flawed logic puts us all at risk, and how critical thinking can save the world. It may seem a big claim, but knowing how to think clearly and critically has literally helped save the world. In September 1983, at the height of the Cold War, the Soviet Union's early warning system showed five US missiles heading towards the country. Stanislaw Petrov knew his duty: he was to inform Moscow that nuclear war had begun, so that they could launch an immediate and devastating response. Instead, he made a call to say the system was faulty. He'd assessed the situation and reasoned that an error was more likely than such a limited attack. We may not have to save the planet from nuclear annihilation, of course, but our ability to think critically has never been more important. In a world where fake news, mistrust of experts, prejudice and ignorance all too often hold sway, we can all too easily be misled over issues such as vaccinations, climate change or conspiracy theories. We live in an era where access to all the knowledge in the world is at our fingertips, yet that also means misinformation and falsehoods can spread further and faster than ever before. In The Irrational Ape, David Robert Grimes shows how we can be lured into making critical mistakes or drawing false conclusions, and how to avoid such errors. Given the power of modern science and the way that movements can unite to protest a cause via social media, we are in dangerous times. But fortunately, we can learn from our mistakes, and by critical thinking and scientific method we can discover how to apply these techniques to everything from deciding what insurance to buy to averting global disaster. This book, packed with fascinating case studies and examples, helps ensure we are ready for the modern world.