PLU vs PLT and The Pitfalls of Confirmation Bias

Yo!

The long tail is truly awesome – it allows you to float along in a happy bubble of one – but you now might have more in common with someone in Scandinavia than with your neighbour in Koramangala. What happens then is that you start relying purely on research and data for your knowledge of “People Like Them” – PLT. Despite not rubbing shoulders with the PLTs you have some hypotheses and the data might be fitted to suit that. Or your sample could be skewed to include only PLUs (People Like Us) That could possibly explain why large swathes of people in India (and US) did not expect Donald Trump to win despite the fact that lots and lots of data was available on sentiment and intent. For example this research that was tweeted to me by Textient Analytics, let’s face it, there’s lots and lots of data around – what’s important is not what answers we can get from it, but what questions we asked in the first place.  Marketers often say that they are drowning in seas of data. Possibly. But does the data answer the right question?

With the abrupt demise of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 marketers are racking their brains to think of legal offers to woo customers to the digital economy. I was very impressed that chains like Future Group were able to pull off an instant sale up to midnight the day the news was announced. The wallets must of course be dancing with joy, and I’m sure it’s been a great day for online retailers, but how should traditional retailers deal with this shift? Because while tomorrow cash will start coming back into the system I think buyer behaviour would have permanently shifted in certain sectors. I can’t see hoarders stashing cash under their beds till this fades from their memory. Not so long ago the women of many business families wore chains with a 100 gold coins, like a portable wallet. I can certainly see them coming back into fashion

In this week’s issue we have a take on why any publicity is good publicity (Kanye West for President in 2020!), and Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s piece on the Intellectual Yet Idiot (that can’t possibly be People Like Us!)

It’s been an intense week for many and so I’d like to sign off with a light hearted quiz question – “What’s the marketer’s favourite musical instrument?” Mail me if you know the answer.