Archive for the ‘Creativity’ tag
The Burden of Commitment
What is "Commitment"? Of all the various definitions you can find the one that I am talking about is "The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons". Let’s say for instance, you can be committed to a relationship (person), you can be committed to your health – going to the gym everyday (person and action), or you can be committed towards your house – paying off the loans (object). In its most basic form, you can describe commitment as ‘resolving to do or follow certain thing, no matter what’. But is it a burden? If so, why and how?
Commitment is Paradoxical in its nature. It can either grant you freedom or it can take away your freedom. In most instances it actually takes away your freedom and choices. Now this can be interpreted differently by different people. What is bondage to one, can be liberation to another. Let me give some examples to explain better. You buy a house. And you take a 15-year mortgage. Some may say that getting tied to your income so that installments can be paid every month is a burden. Some others may say that there is freedom to decide what you want and how you want in the house. So there is both restriction and flexibility. You get married. Your freedom to date is gone. But the love and affection you get at home is a luxury. You decide to exercise everyday in the morning. You will be free from aches and pains for a long time but you will lose out on precious moments, time, and money. I hope you understand the different facets of commitment that I am trying to portray here.
So, why is it a burden? Commitment in any form ties you down to certain things. There is a portion of your brain (mind) that gets stuck with the notion and loses any freedom, flexibility and creativity. To put it in better words, life becomes routine, monotonous, and a checklist. Really? Look at the world and the number of different experiences it has to offer. From traveling around the world, to trying different foods, to working in different professions, to living in different places, to undertaking several ventures, so on and so on. If you are committed to be a vegetarian, there is no way you can experience the great sensation of eating the different cuisines they show on the food network (case in point, yours truly). If you are bound by your mortgage forget about spending some relaxing time and enjoyable break working as a Barista. If you have children, forget about traveling to certain destinations as and when you want. Sure you get a house, a well paid job, and cute children, but hey! How long do these things last? A house can become too big or too small or even boring after a while. The well paid job is going to suck the energy out of you and will keep you tied up until you retire. And children, well the jury is open on this one also (just like in the other arguments). If you are unhappy about something today look back and see what decisions you took in the past. You will often see that you committed to something, consciously or unconsciously, that you should not have to.
Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that commitment is for losers or that commitment should not be made. It is commitment that gives us purpose, a direction, and a chance to make this life more meaningful. Aah, the paradoxical nature of commitment. The answer lies in the very nature of commitment we make. Commitment to all that is mentioned above is fine when made at the right time and in the right spirit. Explaining this aspect provides a challenge. Every human being is a collection of his/her own experiences. What seems evident to one may not be as clear to another. Hence, any argument made towards the aforementioned statements stands to meet a lot of resistance. I will try and then provide my advice to resistors. You are a young man and ready to move into the real world. Explore your mindset. Understand clearly what is it that you want to do. Be honest, be brutally honest. Say you decide to travel the world, work in different countries, learn various languages, and experience different cultures. Please don’t take up a job with a company that does not involve any travel, gives you 2 weeks of vacation, and has a 60 hour work week. Please don’t get married (at least for now).Think! Think! Think! Continue as long as you can go on without feeling any guilt or whatever feeling that shrinks your consciousness. You want to buy a house. Do you have enough savings that can be used to pay off the mortgage when you want to. What if you lose your job? What if you have a divorce? Please don’t buy a house and let the house be your owner.
I would ask my resistors to go over my arguments a few time and then take some time to observe their own life and evaluating their decisions. It is very easy to fall into the trap of "Confirmation Bias". Observe such tendencies. In order to avoid that, challenge yourself. Challenge yourself to listen and read various points of views. Avoid getting frustrated. This line of thinking may not make you feel good but at the same time realize that you now have the knowledge to take further actions judiciously. Read good books such as – Value-Focused Thinking: A Path to Creative Decisionmaking and Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques. If you are open to reading scriptures, get a copy of ‘Vasistha’s Yoga’.
I can go on and on about this topic and give numerous examples in order to explain myself further. But unfortunately it is a blog post and I have already exceeded the ideal size limit. So will rest the matter for now.
“Pricing and Marketing Productivity” Reading List
As part of our “Pricing and Marketing Productivity” class, we had to prepare a reading list from the articles that we referenced in order to get a good understanding of the subject matter. Many of these articles have been immensely helpful in learning about the various material we have covered. Though this is a formal submission, I am also releasing this to the blog so that it benefits its readers also.
Marketing productivity analysis
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With social media exploding in the past few years, many companies are entering this channel in order to reach its consumers. But one complex issue that arises with this is how to measure your ROI. This article talks about one such idea.
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Similar to the article above. It mentions that marketing is slowly transitioning from the domain of just art to a combination of art and science. Given this fact, the C-level executives are interested in knowing exactly how the ad revenue translates into tangible sales of their company’s products and services.
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An interesting twist to the thought process. The author of this article argues that ROI is really a ‘trailing’ indicator and not a ‘leading’ indicator. So should new strategies be first justified and thus constrained in its creativity? Leave the marketers alone.
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Market response models
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I haven’t read this thesis completely because of it is actually a complete book in itself. But I have often referred to it in absence of a true textbook whenever I have to understand certain types of models. This document has helped me get familiar with many models not discussed in class but handy and useful.
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This article talks about building a market response model. The interesting thing about this was the ideas in this document matched very closely with the data we used most of the semester. Very helpful article. There are some portions that involve higher knowledge of mathematics but apart from that, very good.
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Functional forms, Estimating competitive effects
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Mid semester module course material – Syndicated Data Analysis for Brand Scientists by Prof. Doug Bowman
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This is not a link because the material was provided in hard copy by one of our other professor. I always have this deck handy because it is easy to read and clearly explains various functional forms and methods of estimating competitive effects. It starts from the very basic and slowly builds in the concepts.
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Costs, Customers, Competition, and Pricing
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Games of Strategy – THE book on game theory
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This book is a required material on one of my other subjects – Strategic Decision Analysis. A lot of the concepts we study in pricing involves understanding competition, their actions, and consumer’s willingness to pay. This book is a great resource to learn about concepts like the prisoner’s dilemma and other games that are helpful in maximizing marketing dollars.
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A basic presentation on willingness to pay – covers basic economic concepts and the ever elusive consumer surplus
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White paper on Value based pricing model. This model speaks about an approach a specific company takes in measuring the true value to consumer. Interesting approach.
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Value based pricing vs. cost based pricing
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An interesting insight from one of my favorite sites about what actually determines our willingness to pay. Are we objective or subjective? But the real question is how can marketers exploit this sweet spot to sell their product.
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Psychological aspects
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Influence: Science and Practice – A seminal reading – Read review here.
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Wikipedia provides this interesting article on psychological pricing for e.g. why do prices of most items end in 99? The article talks about similar pricing mechanism in order to lure the customer into purchasing.
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Segmentation, and pricing
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A fresher’s guide to the importance of customer segmentation – probably one of the most important step before any marketing can actually be done.
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Segementation and pricing at its best. This paper by a Goizueta professor was not only an interesting read but also very informative. Given the right strategy and right method to segment customers, Harrah’s Cherokee Casino truly knows which customer to give their rooms and what to charge them.
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Read Cluster Analysis concepts
