to. wa.- walking on the insight road (and not halfway there). - Latest Comments

Re: How I stumbled into owning part of an IT company …

curiouslypersistent — Tue, 15 May 2012 19:07:44 -0000

Good luck!

And how can we miss you - the red hair stands out a mile to the left of the white background (if I see you in London, I'll buy you a drink to say well done)

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:05:20 -0000

thanks

Re: Say hello to and please support Marica

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 06:04:03 -0000

very nice work

Re: 2.2 What is a Brand?

Inventory Records and Reports — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 05:55:22 -0000

thanks

Re: 2.3.3 Adaptive Paradigm

Méhpempő tabletta — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 05:58:49 -0000

Nice article thanks for it.

Re: Nivea, confronted with being ‘denounced’ as a’jewish’ brand, adapting to National Socialist content and style in the thirties.

Guest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 04:03:36 -0000

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all your valuable effort on this website. My aunt delights in participating in
research and it’s simple to grasp why.

Re: Say hello to and please support Marica

Guest — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 03:55:16 -0000

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points there. I looked on the internet for the topic and found most individuals
will approve with your blog.

Re: Spring

Thomas Wagner — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 05:28:32 -0000

Thank you :)

Re: Spring

Roman Mittermayr — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:53:20 -0000

i am looking for the "play live stream" now button....

Re: Spring

Christoph Paulik — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 04:00:10 -0000

Sounds like the Hipster Version of the Man

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

Thomas Wagner — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:25:36 -0000

Hi Neil, great to have you drop by. How are you doing?
I've actually read all of this. Just tried to get as little as possible new stuff on the list for my final exam. :)

Re: Master exam time – my reading list as a MA student

neilperkin — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 13:46:25 -0000

Lordy, that's some reading list

Re: Approaches to ideas and a proposed metaphor

neilperkin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:03:52 -0000

Great post Thomas - just to let you know that it's shortlisted for the Post Of The Month vote over on Dead Fish http://bit.ly/q1udL0

Re: Signals, Knowledge, ‘Ambient’ Learning

Igor Schwarzmann — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:48:34 -0000

Big up, Thomas. This is very, very good.

Re: Signals, Knowledge, ‘Ambient’ Learning

Igor Schwarzmann — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 04:48:15 -0000

Big up, Thomas. This is very, very good.

Re: Approaches to ideas and a proposed metaphor

FamousRob — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 09:27:12 -0000

Creative hedging - I love it.

Re: APSOTW – strategy, collected feedback and what to do with this

Joanna Bakas — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:36:05 -0000

This post, the participation in the challenge and how you're learning from the feedback is just an illustration of one of the things I admire and respect about you - you're dedicated to learning not just knowing - and I thought the strategy you presented had some fantastic insights and ideas.

Re: Fragen und Antworten zum Studium

mittermayr — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 07:32:36 -0000

Ich stimme dem Punkt, dass man im Studium nicht unbedingt das lernt, was man in einem späteren Traumjob machen wird, sehr zu. Oder, von der anderen Seite: Auch ohne Studium könnten viele Jobs gemeistert werden. Ich beurteile auch nicht wesentlich besser, mit dem Hintergrundwissen das ich mir aneignen musste. Fakt ist jedoch, in einer Welt, in der sehr sehr viele Menschen einen breiten Zugang zum Arbeitsmarkt nutzen, wird natürlich zuerst bei den groben Kriterien angesetzt, um die Auswahl an Bewerbern zu reduzieren. Dazu gehört eben nunmal ein Studium (or the lack thereof). Warum nehme ich zum selben Preis, jemand mit weniger Qualifikationen (ohne Studium), wenn drei andere mit Studium in der Auswahl stehen. Klare Entscheidung. Nicht jedoch immer so:

Ich habe mich vor drei Jahren mit dem Personalchef der Erste Bank unterhalten. Meine Frage war: Magister, oder MBA? Er meinte: Am besten keiner der Beiden - lieber einen Bachelor! Ich war etwas erstaunt und bekam die Antwort: Ein Bachelor hat alle Grundlagen intus, ist noch lernwillig, nicht hochnäsig und sehr ausbaufähig. Ein Master (oder schlimmer, MBA) ist jedoch oft der Meinung, er habe ausgelernt, verdiene jetzt eine unglaublich gut bezahlte Managementposition und wolle sich nicht mehr mit Details aufhalten. Und, zumindest in der Erste Bank, damals, war das ein no hire. Und das Geld war hierbei nicht das Problem.

Ein Studium ist ein Schlüssel, der zwar nicht jede Tür aufmachen kann, aber auf jeden Fall mehr als kein Schlüssel.

Wichtig, im Nachhinein finde ich jedoch, ein Studium zu wählen, dass einen zu 50% interessiert und zu 50% Freiheit in Aussicht stellt. Freiheit kann auch im Studium passieren, damit meine ich nicht die Freizeit. Aber die Freiheit, sich zu entwickeln. Die meisten Menschen zwengen sich mit dem Gedanken ins Studium, die naheliegende Profession auch mit vollem Einsatz auszuleben, danach. Ein JUS Student denkt sich, Richter, Rechtsanwalt oder Steuerberater zu werden, ein Wirtschaftler sieht sich als CEO, Top Manager, Investor oder Berater. Und der Techniker wird bei Kapsch, Siemens oder Rolls Royce sicher zum Ingeneur. Fakt ist, all das sind keine Tätigkeiten. Es sind Templates, Hüllen, Zusammenfassungen von wirklichen Passionen - interessiere ich mich für das Web, würde ich gerne mit Mode zu tun haben, träume ich von Mechanik, oder Musik? Würde ich gerne im Film oder Medienbereich zu tun haben? Man muss genug Freiheit in seinem Studium haben, um sich selbst darin finden zu können. Das geht manchmal in Stunden, manchmal in 10 Jahren. Ich dachte immer, das Studium wird mich definieren, wird vorgeben was ich mache. In Wirklichkeit gibt es einem nur Zeit, einen Titel, einen Schlüssel und eine Menge Erfahrungen, daheim und weit weg, mit netten und mit erledigten Menschen, mit tiefsinnigem Lernstoff sowie absolut sinnlosem Müll. Ich hoffe niemand erwartet sich die Erfüllung seiner Träume mit der Wahl des Studiums. Die Wirklichkeit passiert entlang des Studiums. Wo sonst hat man 3-10 Jahre Zeit, sich für das Leben so zu begeistern.

Ich würde wieder studieren, aber mich nicht mehr so oft fragen, was ist, wenn es nicht das richtige war?

Re: Nivea, confronted with being ‘denounced’ as a’jewish’ brand, adapting to National Socialist content and style in the thirties.

claus_stachl — Thu, 19 May 2011 16:16:15 -0000

here is a fun fact from a typographic point of view: since 1941, so called "fraktur" fonts were banned by bohrmann due to the need of better readable typo, serif fonts, in the 3rd reich ;) he signed the "frakturerlass", where he called the former typical "german typewriting" of fraktur fonts from then on "judenlettern". how funny is that. here's the german wiki text:

"Mit dem sogenannten „Frakturerlass“ vollzog das Regime 1941 eine
unerwartete Kehrtwendung. Versuchten in den Jahren zuvor noch zahlreiche
Fachleute den Nachweis zu erbringen, dass nur gebrochene Schriften
„wahrhaft deutsch“ seien, wurden diese in einem von Martin Bormann
unterzeichneten Erlass plötzlich als „Schwabacher Judenlettern“
diffamiert und der Einsatz von Antiqua-Schriften als verbindlich
vorgeschrieben."

Re: Stockholm Observations/Impressions

Thomas Wagner — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 17:03:41 -0000

Thanks Claus. As for the concept stores, I just had the feeling they are more visible/mainstream in Stockholm.

And regarding the shoes: this is what lots and lots of girls and women in Stockholm are wearing at the moment and as Austria/Vienna usually has some time-lag when it comes to fashion, and Sweden is a bit leading there these might very well swap over to Austria - instead of regular boots, next winter (not all of them are that aggressive, but they're bolder than the tiny boots we see now). We'll see, but Stephanie claimed that girls wore their jeans inside their boots two years before girls here started doing so :-)

Re: Stockholm Observations/Impressions

claus_stachl — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 15:39:54 -0000

"CEO sees this thing out there that apparently everybody now has to have. Reaction: Ok, let’s put up some Facebook page and a boring corporate twitter account so it seems like there’s something going on. Check." --> Good one ;)

and what about those boots? they are ugly as hell (and kind a nazi)... but what happens in sweden, stays in sweden (hopefully)...

nice post, although I think there are a lot of concept stores here in vienna too... you just gotta find'em I reckon.

Re: About the ‘Science of Marketing’

Byron_Sharp — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 13:39:12 -0000

Hi Thomas, I really like your post. The bit about sounding like a the sulky response of a 'social constructivist (or any other 'anti-positivist') had me laughing. Yes there are more than a few of these people out there.

I'm don't think that relying on generalizations reduces insights and understandings. Newton's laws, which are pretty extreme generalizations (e.g. leaving enough room for Einstein to become famous), cut through centuries of muddle to offer astonishing insight and understanding. All scientific laws work along these lines. They give us a handle on the world. They lead to deep explanations.

My point about Harley Davidson is that we marketers shouldn't get confused between our brand image and reasons why people buy our brand. Some people strongly aspire to live a Harley lifestyle, but for many others the image's power is just pure branding (it's distinctive, they notice it) - remember Harley buyers switch back and forth between Harleys and other bikes in their repertoire, so it seems that other bikes also offer the key benefits to them.

Mental and physical availability matter most. Branding is a means to obtain the former, it's not the magic bullet all by itself.

Please do read the book. I'd love to hear your opinion. It's physically available from these places:
http://marketinglawsofgrowth.c...

Re: About the ‘Science of Marketing’

Thomas Wagner — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:05:15 -0000

Hello again and thank you for the comment. Sorry for being a little slow today but I'm not sure I understand what it is you like. The book, the talk, or - heaven forbid - the post? ;)

Re: About the ‘Science of Marketing’

addwax — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 08:23:11 -0000

I like this one. It's nice to hear some simples (pronounced with Meerkat accent) into the increasingly complex world of jargon. Sorry, that should've been marketing.

Re: It’s Future of Advertising Time Again. About the (Allegedly New) Crisis of Advertising.

Thomas Wagner — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 06:07:53 -0000

Hi Olle! Thanks for dropping by.

First of all I fully agree with pretty everything in your blog post. The future of advertising question is asked again and again, most were not good at the old and won't be at the 'new' way of doing things and the fundamentals remain the same anyways: It's about connecting with people and the fact that advertising - or the idea business - isn't an end in itself. It will always be about creative ways of solving problems and I'd even argue they should be at the creative end of commerciality (http://robcampbell.wordpress.c... and not the other way round.

In my post I didn't necessarily mean that advertising solves the problem it creates with better advertising, but that the advertising system needs this 'crisis of advertising' and the 'future of advertising' thing to 'create' new approaches (or new names for old approaches) that suddenly promise to be the new holy grail: be it UX design, 'utility', 'conversation', 'transmedia' or 'gameification'. And this might very well also be true about the marketing discourse. (Might be also because loads of people use the words as a synonym ... anyways.)

So maybe because I always felt that it should be that way – connect with people, solve problems –and because it was always marketing's job to adapt to changes in the environment that I fail to see the big strategic shift as anything other than the change that is pretty much always happening and the drama the industry creates around it.