Tell me about your vision.
My vision?
You know, for me, I think
I have a unique space that I work in, which is consumer psychology.
My background is in psychology, but doctorate in clinical psychology,
but I realized I didn't love being a therapist.
And I had to figure out some other options.
And I led my first focus group, boy, 30 years ago,
and fell in love with that process.
And so I love psychology, and I love in particular understanding
how people make decisions, what makes them tick,
what are the motivations that drive even some of the most mundane types of decisions.
So what type of laundry do I buy?
Well, that seems like such a boring subject, but when you really dig deep,
you find there's a lot of influences and factors under the surface
that influence why people choose the things they do.
And so I charted a course.
At the time, there were no working consumer psychologists.
Most of them, any that existed were primarily professors.
And so I really blazed a trail there, but my vision is
using marketing, advertising, sales for good,
because I think that we have the opportunity to make people's lives easier,
make them more enjoyable, make decisions easier,
make shopping, making choices, more informed, more confident.
And I think using what I do as a force for that is something that I feel very strongly about.
Thank you for sharing that, Chris.
So tell me more about that.
Tell me more how psychology and marketing come into play.
Yeah, well, you know, there's a lot of psychology in marketing,
because we do want to understand what is going to resonate with people.
And for me, I think one of the things that I really feel passionate about is the power of empathy in marketing,
in life in general, but in marketing.
And helping people to develop their sense of empathy.
We talk a lot about insights and doing research and developing insights into people.
I really encourage the people that I work with, my clients and people, my colleagues,
to think about it as developing empathy rather than simply insight,
because I think that the ability to see and experience through someone else's eyes
is a really powerful way of helping, you know, understanding what's frustrating for them,
understanding what solutions, what needs they would like,
what they're trying to accomplish in their lives, the aspirations they have,
and then using marketing as a way of not convincing people just to buy something once,
but by forming a relationship with them where they know and trust
that you're looking out for ways to make their lives better.
And so I really...
My eye ticks a lot when I hear people talking about psychology tricks in marketing
and that sort of thing, because you can...
One of the biggest questions I get all the time is, oh, consumer psychology.
So you trick people into buying stuff they don't need.
And I used to be irritated with that question, but I actually love that question now,
because it gives me a way to talk about the power of marketing, the power of empathy.
You know, as marketers, we are sophisticated enough.
We have the tools, you know, we have the technology.
We can get anyone to buy something once.
But that's not really smart strategy.
You know, think about yourself.
You know, you buy something and you feel like you've been duped
or you feel like you've been manipulated.
Usually people's first reaction is resistance.
And if that continues, then it can go into anger, frustration,
and then ultimately, it can lead to avoidance.
You know, we don't... People don't like feeling like they're manipulated.
People want to feel like they have agency in their lives.
They're making decisions that are best for them.
And when they feel like they've been manipulated,
that can have really damaging effects on relationship with the brand
and openness to a brand, willingness to listen,
to be willing, you know, to take advice, those types of things.
And so I really feel strongly that when we put ourselves in the audience's shoes,
our target, you know, market shoes, what we're doing is seeking ways
to understand them on their terms and then develop ideas, solutions,
innovations that work for them.
And I think when you do that consistently, you develop trust.
And that's really golden for any brand or product.