Too much convenience dulls our minds. The pitfalls of digital atrophy

As Marshall McLuhan taught, communication technologies are prostheses: extensions of our physical and cognitive abilities. 

However, smartphones and digital media go further: they are not mere prostheses but vital organs, without which we sink into anxiety and bewilderment.

By now, we are addicted.

Delegating our thinking to technology is convenient, but it comes with a heavy price.

Be crude, buddy. The impact of swearing in daily life and brand communication

It's not always good to express ourselves like polite and diligent guys. 

In fact, sometimes bad language helps us cope with difficult moments and convey our feelings.

Despite being judged as inappropriate and indecent, curses and swear words have always existed in all languages and cultures, tackling taboo subjects related to religion, sexuality, and bodily functions like urinating or defecating.

What Ottoman calligraphers can teach us about AI

"History teaches, but it has no pupils," claimed the Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci.

It's hard to disagree, particularly when the frontiers of digital innovation stir up ancient fears.

Over the past two years, the acceleration of artificial intelligence has disrupted every facet of our lives.

New professions have emerged, while many traditional ones fear being wiped out, especially in the creative field: their concerns are not unfounded.

Kamala Harris, Donald Trump, and the sly charm of underdogs

With just a few days left until the US presidential elections, the outcome is uncertain. 

One thing is clear: the replacement of Joe Biden with Kamala Harris as the Democratic candidate has reshuffled the deck, upending messages and strategies.

One tactic, however, remains constant, even when it clashes with reality: playing the underdog against a powerful opponent - or even against the system itself.

Stay modest, stay humble. Kudos to brands that acknowledge their mistakes

Sometimes it just happens.

Even the most seasoned brands can make embarrassing blunders. 

Recently, Apple had to apologize for a somewhat dystopian iPad Pro ad that hinted at the destruction of creativity.

Bumble, the dating app, withdrew its ads that mocked celibacy and abstinence among its female audience.

Beauty brand Youthforia faced a lot of criticism for a foundation shade that was considered not inclusive enough.

Brands need a strong identity, not to cling to someone else's. The Balocco and Ferragni affair

The fact: the Italian Competition Authority fined the companies of the famous influencer Chiara Ferragni, along with the confectionery company Balocco, with a total penalty of €1,075,000 for unfair commercial practices related to the Pink Christmas pandoro. The fine for Balocco is €420,000.

The Antitrust claims that the companies led consumers to believe that by purchasing the pandoro, they were contributing to a donation to the Regina Margherita Hospital in Turin, when in reality, the €50,000 donation had already been made by Balocco months earlier. Companies associated with Chiara Ferragni collected over one million euros from the initiative.

How did they get to this point?

Too much jam can be confusing: the Paradox of Choice

December: a time of carefree afternoons spent shopping with your loved ones. 

As you stroll through the crowded, festive streets illuminated with a thousand colors, your attention as food enthusiasts is caught by two stands on either side of the street. 

Both sell artisanal jams: on one counter there are 24 variants; on the other counter there are only 6 variants. 

Which of the two stands is more likely to pique your interest? 

The Kit Kat & Twix case. Does kindness really pay off for brands?

 

Sometimes, when we think about marketing, an aggressive and unforgiving environment comes to our mind.

After all, market is competition, right?

However, many people value integrity and fair play. And they wish to reward brands that embrace these values.

When the language we speak makes us a little… short-sighted

Remember when, in primary school, we had to study large pages of verbs?

No one could imagine that the harmless future tense can, in some way, undermine our future (and that of our planet).

Two eyes are enough to influence our behavior

Having worked in marketing for many years, I've realized that people often overestimate themselves and their ability not to be influenced by external stimuli.

I'm sure instead that we are more easily influenced than we sometimes think.

In this regard, some studies are meaningful.

If you win the mind, you win the market: the era of Brain Engine Optimization

By dint of SEO talk, we risk to forget that it’s not so much important to be at the top of search engine pages, as to be at the top of people memories.

More precisely: when our potential customers express their needs, we should already be in their minds.

Psychology for Communication Strategy (4/4): Making sound conclusions

In previous articles we applied some notions of cognitive psychology to tasks such as gathering information, analyzing scenarios and verifying correlations and predictions.

In this last article we focus on critically examining our beliefs, reviewing some factors that can influence or mislead them.

Why we can't resist clickbait

If you are continuing to read this article, I can be satisfied: the title has worked. It has aroused your curiosity.

This cannot be taken for granted: in the fast-paced digital age, our attention span is worryingly shrinking to match that of a goldfish - not gratifying for the Homo Sapiens Sapiens, isn’t it?

On average, our concentration would last 8 seconds.

Psychology for Communication Strategy (3/4): Connecting the dots

In the first and second episodes we examined 5 principles of cognitive psychology we can use to select the right information and analyze a situation thoroughly.

Now we’re discovering 5 more concepts that can ease our efforts to come up with sound conclusions and reasonable predictions.

The new normal after Covid19 is simply the old one

"Everything will be fine" and "we will be better": two phrases that, in the spring of two years ago, we often listened to online and offline.

Two phrases that had to give us hope and courage: Covid19 was a terrible dare, but we would have overcome it together and would have become better, more cooperative and supportive.

Psychology for Communication Strategy (2/4): Reading a situation

In the first episode we reviewed 5 concepts of cognitive psychology that can help us search and select the most useful and relevant information for our communication strategy.

Today we are examining 5 new concepts with another goal: to back the analysis step in a strategic process, when we have to carefully and clearly evaluate the departure scenario, both internally and externally.

1.2 trillion reasons to improve your workplace communication

If you want to end up in a chasm, a good solution is to give body and soul to external communication, taking internal communication for granted.

Many managers delight in designing intricate organization charts, paying enormous attention to roles, hierarchies and job titles.

However, too many are happy to spare themselves the Sisyphus fatigue to design information flows in a conscious, focused and orderly way.

Psychology for Communication Strategy (1/4): Finding the right information

In our work, strategy and creativity must backed up by data and empirical research.

Today we launch a series of 4 episodes, each dedicated to a phase of the strategic communication process.

Each phase is associated with 5 cognitive psychology concepts that help us make more wise and thoughtful decisions.

The first episode is all about finding the right information.

Goal dilution: why we desperately need to focus our brand positioning

The second half of the last century, in the world corner where I was born, experienced an astonishing economic progress.

An unprecedented well-being allowed many people to access for the first time a lot of consumer products, from food to appliances, from clothing to furniture, from automotive to entertainment.

It was an age of proactiveness and optimism, full of deep political and social contradictions, but nevertheless driven to a better future.

If we want to persuade anti-vaxxers, aggression is not the way

In recent days, many European political leaders (such as the Italian and French premiers) seem to have identified the public enemy number one in the so-called no-vaxxers.

Thus the Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi: “Hospitals are suffering from the impact the virus has on the unvaccinated population. Many of the problems we have now are due to the unvaccinated population that occupies two thirds of the beds in intensive care”.

So instead the French Prime Minister Emmanuel Macron: “With the unvaccinated, I really want to get on their nerves. And so we will continue to do that, until the end. This is the strategy”.