The Grapevine

Economic headwinds mean that consumers are planning to cut back on Christmas spend, and looking for discounts where possible.  

In this mini “sun-lounger” podcast, we look into how spending behaviours are changing, and what impact that will have on retailers. 

Are people switching to lower-priced brands? Will there be a revolution on gifting? Is there a social stigma around switching brands to cut costs? 

We discuss all of this and more, plus a fair amount of chatter about cheese straws and Baileys! 

Without stock to sell, car marketers have been forced to shift their strategies – and that means keeping existing customers and prospects happy while they wait months, sometimes years, for their new car.  

Looking at this through a behavioural science lens, what does this mean for consumer buying behaviour? 

And with purchases becoming more infrequent, how can marketers keep their brand top of mind? 

We discuss some practical ideas for increasing loyalty, getting people talking about your brand in the right way and creating an “in the club” mentality. 

According to Hopper’s 2023 Travel Trends Report, people are booking holidays at the last minute more than ever before.  

In this mini “sun-lounger” podcast, we ask whether this a good thing for marketers when it comes to thinking about shoulder season? Is there still time to market to those people who haven’t yet booked for September and beyond? 

And can we avoid shoulder-season discounts? 

We delve into consumer behavioural changes, community networks and the true meaning of value to answer these questions. 

It was our absolute pleasure to welcome the brilliant Richard Shotton, bestselling author and expert in applying behavioural science to marketing, on our last podcast of the season.

Richard, Ed and Tom dig into some of the fundamentals of behavioural science, and what it actually means for smart marketers.

“What motivates us hasn’t changed in millennia and isn’t going to change. Yet still not many marketers look at human behaviour as a way of influencing consumer change. Those who take the time to learn are giving themselves a headstart,” says Richard.

If you’re looking to get started with behavioural science and listen to some practical tips on how to apply it to your role, this is the podcast for you! Here’s a sneak peek:

• The more you learn about behavioural science, the more opportunities there are to apply it
• The best way to approach pricing and discounting
• The power of imprecision – people believe unrounded numbers more
• Red Bull’s growth story (it involves spreading empty Red Bull cans around nightclubs at kicking out time)

We’re inundated with new developments in technology and automation, but does that make us more efficient?

Neil Mandell, Senior Digital Marketing Manager at Samsung, believes that this is the year of efficiency.

In this week’s podcast, he chats to Tom about:

• why we need to lean into AI
• how the community of Samsung loyalists contribute to business growth
• what Samsung’s cookieless strategy might look like

As Google announces its Privacy Sandbox will be available within months, it’s a timely one!

Sustainability and eCommerce… A contradiction in terms?

On this week’s podcast, we welcome Chloë Thomas, eCommerce guru and pro-podcast host – no pressure, Ed and Tom!

Chloë’s hot topic is sustainability in eCommerce. Surely the two are opposing forces? It’s something we’ve grappled with at Herdify HQ.

“Fundamentally, we need to consume fewer resources, and in the UK we’re amongst the worst offenders,” says Chloë. “After a particularly dark weekend of being freaked out by Armageddon stories, I felt like I was helping people destroy the planet. So now my business is about helping people put sustainability front and centre.”

What can Kevin Bacon teach you about marketing?

Fresh on the podcast today, Ed and Tom discuss the idea of 6 degrees of separation, otherwise known as the “small world effect”.

We’re all six or fewer social connections away from each other. The world of Hollywood has taken this one step further – you can search how many connections separate Kevin Bacon from any other actor  (check out “The Oracle of Bacon” for that one!).

When it comes to influencing behaviour (a change, a purchase, a call to action), that effect is reduced to “three degrees of influence” (a friend of a friend’s friend).  

What can this teach us as marketers?

On the podcast this week, hear from Mike Taylor… In his own words, a “recovering agency owner” and author of the upcoming book, “Marketing Memetics”.  

Tom, Ed and Mike go deep in 30 minutes. Is marketing art or science? Do ideas evolve in the same way that genes do? Is any idea ever original? Is creative optimisation the only lever left for performance marketers?  

What makes one song a massive hit, and one a flop? What sets apart the popular kids? Why do 1 billion people own an iPhone, more than any other brand?

It’s all to do with social proof.

In this week’s podcast, Tom and Ed pick apart an experiment that answers these questions. Entitled “Leading the Herd Astray”, the study created an online music marketplace, mere months before Spotify was launched.

Participants were placed into groups and asked to rate various songs, armed only with the ratings from the rest of the group.

The guys take the findings and chat through what they mean for marketers. Find out how to:

• appear bigger than you are
• apply the tactics used by Uber and Airbnb to grow social networks
• create virality, even years after launch