Cognitive Edge News
Cognitive Edge Guest Blog
Our Guest Blogger for the next two weeks is Willem Brethouwer. Willem is experience in almost all aspects of industrial and consumer marketing research, i.e. qualitative and quantitative research. Specialization in image research, positioning studies, and tracking studies, especially in the field of face-to-face and telephone (Computer Assisted Telephone Interviewing) research. He is also experienced in international research (Multiple Country Research) for several internationally oriented clients. Experience in international research, food, non-food and automotive research, on European advertising research, product-testing, image research, testmarketing, price-research on an ad-hoc as well as a continuous basis. Working on brand positioning studies in the USA. Within MarketResponse (> 100 employees) responsible as management director for international acquisition, account management, personnel & organisation, and supervision of MarketResponse International USA (Minneapolis), MarketResponse International Germany (Heidelberg) and MarketResponse International Belgium (Gent).
30 June 2009
29 June 2009
I started my first blog end of March last year. As a market researcher I’m obsessed with figures. As a co founder of MarketResponse, a market research and consultancy in the Netherlands I discovered at that time that on the first of February next year, my company will celebrate its 25th birthday. Now as I started to write blog I found out two things. First of all that the countdown to the previously mentioned birthday was 666 days. Well, that is a message in itself isn’t it? Great coincidence or some bad guidance from hell? I did not know until I wrote down the birthday in figures (in Dutch annotation: 01022010. A Palindrome
14 June 2009
Thanks a lot, see you....
It is my last day as a guest blog. Also this has been my first blogging experience… I found it much more difficult to blog than I originally envisaged. I was always struggling to find the right reflective spirit (at the correct time) and to correct way to express the ideas once I had them… I think I will try to blog a little more and see what comes of it. After reading Outliners, I need to give it at least 10000 hours before becoming an expert, so still 9998 hours to go…
Also I was also a little hesitant to talk about some personal stuff (I guess I would have liked to talk more about my family and our children and our fights with the educational systems), not sure why, often I have deleted some personal blogs after writing them, I am not capable of writing in the right way, specially personal stuff (I guess if I was I would be writing “The Road”). All in all it has been a very good experience and I have really enjoyed. And I think I will give it a real go at it…
Yours
Luca
13 June 2009
Obama - UK
I am not English as many of you know, but I have been living in UK for the best part of 13 years now. I think the current political climate in UK needs some reflection. The Labour party is crumbling down. On that point, I just want to digress for a second, Tony Blair timing has always amazed me. Within 12 months of him living, the world seems to come to an end (political, economical social crises of unprecedented scale happened as soon as he left the PM job), not I cannot understand how that happened…. I cannot believe it is simply luck. I think, he just felt that things were not going to go his way any longer and he left (a bit like the great investors who get out just at the right time, they can “sense” the environment and profit from it). Now enough with the digression
I really take objection (even though I cannot vote) to have a PM who is not elected and claims to be the right man for the job, on absolutely no grounds. I also think that the “victory|” of parties like the BNP should really give politicians some food for thoughts. How bad can things be, if people do vote for the BNP. I guess UK would need an Obama, a figure who is capable to voice the people concerns, express and connect, in other words a good story tellers, who tells story people want to listen to…. The issue with UK politics is that the stories are simply not worth listening to…. Let’s hope somebody will come out of the crisis to help UK out of the current hole it is in (often crisis are very good in this….)
Luca
11 June 2009
airports....
This morning I have taken the plane to Aberdeen for work. Airports are just such strange places, are the places of ultimate “classification”.
First you are a potential criminal: You are pushed through all the security and checking like a piece of meat, an almost certanly dangerous piece of meat. Everything around you tells you that actually you are just a number, nobody cares what you think/want and that actually you have paid the full price of a ticket to almost strip naked because you might have something dangerous in your belt or in your shoes!!! You have to be checkes because you are dangerous and so is the person before you, and the one after that, and the one after that....
And of course, you cannot take water with you…. Too dangerous. Once they ensure that you are not too much of a criminal, then you go in the “waiting areas”
This is the best devised class system I have came across.
The business lounges are very the top dogs go, everything there is smooth and shiny. Things are free, you eat, drink, read as much as you like; nobody tells you off or looks at your strangely. And then you have the “plebs”, where nothing is shiny, but nevertheless quite expensive. It is mostly crowded and when you finally find a place where to sit to eat your overpriced Panini (Italian for sandwich!!), it is really uncomfortable. The best part is that the environment is designed so the two worlds meet as little as possible, if you are in the lounge you might never know that the dirty world of the plebs actually exists. You can not see them/smell them interact with them.
Then you get on the plane. The class system continues… First Class – Business class – Others… treated like a king – land owner – plebs. The thing which always makes me wonder, is when they close these little curtains (on small planes) between the business class and the cattle class… The poor one cannot even look at the people in business class for fear of infecting them?
Then there is the service on the plane, at the front of the plane one is offered nice drinks, perfectly baked little cakes and juicy steaks. At the other end of the plane, well I guess most of you know what kind of food is served…
But then you get off the plane, and almost everybody is criminal again, you are pushed through passport control, and everybody is treated with the same contempt and almost disregard of human dignity and when you get out of the airport you can be yourself again. I guess there aren’t that many places in which you can be a potential terrorist, a first class passenger to pamper and a potential terrorist again within few hours….
Luca