The following essay is based on a lecture I gave on April 27th 2016 in Japanese, hence the Japanese slide visuals, as part of a series of open events called "Profero University". The intention is to frame how to think about planning brands in their proper context, and it establishes 7 brand planning principles based on fundamental human psychology: Brands exist in people’s brains as a complex set of memories, relationships, associations and emotions. People tend to think about brands as if they are people with personalities and relationships to other things, like people they know Strong brands are distinctive when they engage your senses and the more senses they engage you through the stronger they are Strong brands are unique and distinctive, so brand communications should … [Read more...]
Lecture on Emergent Properties of the Universe and Tour of Hybrid Sciences
This is a rough script for the first half of a presentation I gave to a group of 12~17 y/o at the British School in Tokyo near the end of 2013. I have pasted some of the slides I used into the script for illustration. I gave it a provocative title in an attempt to maximise attendance!: "Everything they don't teach you at school because they are afraid it will blow your mind!" ***************** I want to take you on a whirlwind journey through time, from the big bang to the present, and across science, from astro-physics to evolutionary biology, and along the way highlight some of the discoveries, ideas and unanswered questions that have thrilled me in my explorations since leaving education and that I do not believe are on the school syllabus yet. Try to note the subjects that I skim … [Read more...]