xperience Understanding the customer allows you to build trust and sell more to them Gen Y is different to the Boomers Big data means we have lots of information at our disposal Shopping centres have the opportunity to practice place making In densely populated areas retailers can have higher trading stores We must combine the best of the digital and analogue world You need a mobile responsive website for mobile world We must provide world class customer experience Great customer service has always worked and will always work and must be retained The customer is king The list continues and I will publish the rest on my blog later because I won’t bore you to tears here. [Disclaimer: This is paraphrased from the executive summary. I did not download the full report for obvious reasons.] This is what passes for research? Wow. I suppose we get fed the stuff that we deserve. I am certain the research leader was Captain Obvious. It turns out that this research is made available publicly as an exercise in content marketing. If there was any real value in the research and the insights were actionable, the organisation would have kept that IP confidential. Example #2 (If it looks like research, it is research…right?) The current buzzword du jour is ‘neuromarketing’. It is a discipline I claim some expertise in. Ganador’s retail sales training program was created some seven years ago based on those principles. I have formal qualifications in consumer behaviour and have been working in the field for more than 20 years. Even so, I would not classify myself as an expert, merely that I am an avid student of neuroscience. Yet, the internet is awash with people who claim expertise, often based on one reading of Robert Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, or more likely, based on following a few bloggers who have all read Ciadini’s book. Not to get into a slanging match with the newly converted about this, but suffice to say that 90 per cent of those so-called research projects were conducted by US professors who are driven to achieve tenure at university by being a mass publisher of scholarly articles, and the research is conducted on 20 to 25 year old America college kids (that very representative sample of the world population). Example #3 (Student or Master?) A 28 year old student debunks long held economic theory of two Harvard Professors. Another part time student debunks the corner stone of the positive psychology discipline. (See notes about neuromarketing above.) The conclusions that I draw from this is that: Real experts cannot be relied upon to provide real insights, reliably. Many people profess to be experts when they are not even remotely qualified. You deserve whatever consequences when you suspend your critical thinking in favour of following a flavour of the month. The advice I can offer (ironically but sincerely): Treat all unsolicited advice and unsubstantiated content as opinion that holds no more value than your own thoughts. (I write either to explain a useful skill or a piece of knowledge, or to provoke thought. This post is in the latter category.) Almost every piece of content that is freely given out on the internet has an unseen agenda – there really isn’t anything that is free. (I write here so that you can know of me, and think of me in a certain way, and that is my agenda.) Apply the common sense test and trust your judgment when confronted with research or expert advice. Google is a tool, not a solution. (Nicholas Carr wrote smartly about it some five years ago and asked the question: Is Google making us dumb? Don’t fall into the trap.) Take that advice at your peril… Dennis Ganador: Learn to perform: for the 21st century retailer dealing with the 21st century consumer.