Blogs

Mobile number portability is finally a reality. It may well be a choice between the devil and the deep sea, for all you know. What is Mobile Number Portability: It is a new development in mobile communications technology. In India there are more than 700 million mobile users. In this service the mobile user can switch to other service provider without changing the mobile numbers. Both prepaid and postpaid tele-users have the facility to switch to other favourable tele-operators. How to switch...

Women are better than men at figuring out unusual products when they're among competing items. Women are better than men at figuring out an extremely unusual product, as long as the product is promoted among competing products. For example, female participants in a survey understood that a car without visible wheels was a car if the ad appeared in a magazine with other car ads, while men had trouble. The researchers examined consumer reactions to innovative products, like a car without visible...

Marketers hope to connect between the consumer and the products they represent by creating a strong brand identity. Now a Tel Aviv University researcher is giving marketers a heavenly new angle to consider — religious faith — on which to build their advertising strategies. Prof Ron Shachar of Tel Aviv University's Leon Recanati Graduate School of Business Administration says that a consumer's religiosity has a large impact on his likelihood for choosing particular brands. Consumers who are...

When it comes to our own pleasure, we like having a choice, but when it comes to utilitarian goals, we're just as happy being told what to do. Researchers conducted four experiments in which they presented participants the same choice-set options but varied the process (how the item was chosen) and the choice goal. In all the studies, the participants could either personally choose one of the options or they were assigned one of the options by a third party. The participants were told either...

How do people decide how much to spend on purchases for themselves versus others? If researchers are to be believed, it all depends on how powerful we feel at the moment of choice. "We ask whether the powerful and powerless differentially value the self versus others, and whether this, in turn, translates into observable differences in their spending behavior," write authors Derek D. Rucker, David Dubois, and Adam D. Galinsky (Kellogg School at Northwestern University) in a recent issue of the...

People who feel powerful are more likely to believe they can beat cancer if it's described in human terms. At least, that's the conclusion of a study that looks at anthropomorphism, or the tendency to attribute humanlike characteristics, intentions, and behaviour to nonhuman objects. "The present research shows important downstream consequences of anthropomorphism that go beyond simple liking of products with humanlike physical features," write authors Sara Kim and Ann L. McGill (both University...

[ The 'Towards a Free Revolutionary Art' manifesto was written by Andre Breton and Leon Trotsky in Mexico in 1938. Diego Rivera was a co-signatory. ] We can say without exaggeration that never before has civilization been menaced so seriously as today. The Vandals, with instruments which were barbarous, and so comparatively ineffective, blotted out the culture of antiquity in one corner of Europe. But today we see world civilization, united in its historic destiny, reeling under the blows of...

Our class enemies are in the habit of complaining about our terrorism. What they mean by this is rather unclear. They would like to label all the activities of the proletariat directed against the class enemy's interests as terrorism. The strike, in their eyes, is the principal method of terrorism. The threat of a strike, the organisation of strike pickets, an economic boycott of a slave driving boss, a moral boycott of a traitor from our own ranks – all this and much more they call terrorism...

It is a matter of debate whether my lack of belief in the existence of an Omnipresent, Omniscient God is due to my arrogant pride and vanity. It never occurred to me that sometime in the future I would be involved in polemics of this kind. As a result of some discussions with my friends, (if my claim to friendship is not uncalled for) I have realised that after having known me for a little time only, some of them have reached a kind of hasty conclusion about me that my atheism is my foolishness...

The simple presence of the store brand can save you money at the grocery store, even if you don't buy it. People are especially interested in saving money at the grocery store now, due to the rough economy. Most know that buying the store brand or private label, also known as the “generic brand,” can save you cash. But a new study suggests that the simple presence of the store brand can save you money, even if you don’t buy it. “Consumers benefit because the whole idea is for retailers to...