
Hello, I’m Dan Bond. And this is my thinking space for marketing observations drawn from, well, anywhere. It covers behavioural psychology, design, history, or the gap between what people say they do and what they actually do when nobody’s watching.

There’s an old story about a drunk looking for his keys under a streetlight. Someone stops to help and, after a while, asks, “Are you…
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A retailer I spoke with recently tried going cold turkey on promotions. Sales tanked. AOV collapsed. And their CEO, who’d presumably signed off on this…
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Why the distinction between new and returning customers is irrelevant: The focus should be on answering ‘Why should I buy today?’ for everyone. Imagine walking…
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There’s a scene in Mad Men where Don Draper convinces a room full of executives that a carousel of family photographs isn’t just a projector—it’s…
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Recently, I was asked to share some marketing podcast recommendations. Rather than sticking strictly to industry-focused shows, I believe it’s far more valuable to explore…
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In 2000, psychologists set up two jam-tasting booths at an upscale grocery store. One offered 24 types of jam; the other, just six. You’d think…
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I recently joined Sadaf Beynon on the Podjunction podcast to reflect on the beginnings of Browse Basket Buy. While I expected to focus on our…
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Inside Ben Cruachan, engineers carved a cathedral-sized chamber from solid rock. It was not for worship but for something equally powerful: storing electricity. Cruachan pumps…
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For years, Parry Malm sent millions of emails. He’d write subject lines, test them, try to spot patterns in what worked. Some performed well. Others…
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