You compliment Rose on her outfit, and Kate thinks: why not me? You start a conversation with a girl at the bar, and she thinks you want something from her. You give a round at the bar, and people think you are buying friendship. No matter how good your intentions, doing good can always bring [...]

Two brand new cars. Same model. Same type. Both black. Only difference: the number plate. One belongs to a ‘regular’ car. The other one belongs to a taxi. The cars are exactly the same. But you like the regular better. Two shirts of your favorite football club. One is worn once by the club icon. [...]

We all know positive emotions are good. But it does more than make you feel pleasant. That counts for business as well. Happiness researchers have found that positivity boosts profitability. ‘It is a neon sign that growth is under way, that psychological capital is accumulating’, says positive psychology professor Martin Seligman. In a research, Marcel [...]

‘Profits and cash flow are like blood and water to a healthy body: they are absolutely essential for life, but they are not the very point of life.’ – Jim Collins ‘We need red blood cells to live (the same way a business needs profits to live), but the purpose is not to make red [...]

Company Fiat Key driver for business Making compact, practical and economical cars. Real brand value: Driving while taking care of the environment. Societal insight People are wasting money by driving inefficiently. But even more important, they are wasting our fossil fuels and are polluting our environment. The debate around reducing car emissions is mostly concentrated [...]

Umair Haque is one of the influencers in the field of meaningful marketing. In the video below, Haque explains his thoughts of actually making a difference in this hyperconnected age. “What’s the trick to making a brand meaningful? The criteria, says Haque, are simple: “Did this brand make you fitter, wiser, smarter, closer? Did it [...]

The Dutch Financial Times (Financieel Dagblad) interviewed Nawaz about MiU Marketing and our goal to enrich consumers lives through marketing. Related Posts:Bouwlust Financial ServicesStudent Entrepreneur 2010

And why social media are more like restaurants As I mentioned in my last post “Why being nice to your customers is not enough”, I visited a trendsetting Italian restaurant near Leiden the other day. The restaurant was great; however it didn’t embrace social media yet. So I had a chat with the owner and [...]

A beautiful short film for Onitsuka Tiger, where footsteps are synchronized with the rhytm. The Assics shoes only step forward twice in this film (in the beginning and at the end), but the brand recall will be high. As Takayuki Akachi says it: “I traveled around the world to create the film which concept is [...]

…and why you should also pay attention to people you pay. A few weeks ago, I had a drink with a couple of friends at a trendsetting Italian restaurant near Leiden, a town in the Netherlands. The beverages were great and so was the staff. I had a little chat with the guy who seemed [...]

A couple of weeks ago I was planning for a relaxation day. I booked an arrangement at a wellness center including a hot stone massage. You know the feeling it gives you, right? The joy starts while only thinking about it. So what would you do when the hostess at the wellness center sends you an [...]

Sheraz and I joined another battle in the Battle of Concepts, a platform where students are asked to come up with concepts for issues for (public) organizations and the government. In every battle, prizes are divided among the top 20. In the most recent battle, the Fund for Employment & Education asked us to come [...]

The young dream The dream of being a millionaire is fully exploited by lotteries. The chances that you win are almost zero. But still, people are willing to spend money on lotteries. Because one day, it may be their lucky day. It’s the experience that counts. And in most cases, not the money you can [...]

Advertising in modern America is a tricky business. On the one hand, you have the cutting edge: Generation Y, the 3.0-empowered youth who grew up around computers, the kids who often understand these machines, this internet, this Information Age, better than the old men who created all of it. On the other hand, you have [...]

We’ve got some ‘hot’ news: next week, we’ll start a project for Luxor, an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Luxor is an amazing venue with more than 300 seats on two floors. They prepare and serve the fresh food from an open kitchen and are opened for both lunch and diner. Luxor used to be a theater before [...]

Next week, one of us will attend at the seminar “Invisible influencing”. Dutch top speech and language psychologist Pacelle van Goethem (amongst others) will tell about how to use (body) language to influence people. Yesterday, I interviewed her. I just posted the interview on Molblog (in Dutch). Related Posts:A manipulator!Why we now only blog in [...]

Omar Munie is living the Dutch dream. As a succesful young entrepreneur his products are available in New York, Dubai and London. Hilary Clinton has one of his bags. Next to working hard to continue building his brand, he also travels through The Netherlands to promote Dutch education, along with minister Marja van Bijsterveldt. We [...]

We joined another Battle of Concepts last month. This time the Dutch ‘labour inspection’ put out an assignment. We had to come up with a breakthrough service or product that will encourages employees in the public sector to report aggressive behavior and violence of the attendance. We ended up 11th. Although we (obviously) aimed for [...]

Hereby we officially (and proudly) present our restyled, refreshed, and upgraded branding. We launched a new interactive website and integrated it with our blog “Blowing minds”, which, of course, also was subject to the fresh brand guidelines. To continue, we made sure all our social media were in style, so we thoroughly run through our [...]

What the **** is a cognitive creator? I’ll tell you! Nawaz is our marketing psychologist. He will most likely receive his degree in Psychology by June 2011. As MiU is marketing 3.0, we see consumers as humans with deeper desires and fears. Psychology helps us to understand the minds, hearts and souls of consumers. Let’s [...]

Last week I was invited to a Nightwriters mini-event in The Hague’s Nespresso shop. After a warm welcome and a glass of coffee spoom, Dutch writer Kluun and Flemish Vekeman read us several intriguing short stories. Accompanied by DJ Bart Thimbles with jazzy lounge to build a fascinating small show. Next to wine & coffee [...]

Do you know Battle of Concepts? As an innovation platform, it crowdsources the collective intelligence of students and young professionals in The Netherlands. Corporations and public organizations can capitalize on the community by placing issues and contests when they look for fresh energy and inspiration in the form of innovative concepts. It’s all about marketing [...]

NedLab is an independent laboratory, existing for over ten years, operating mainly in The Netherlands. To expand their business gradually, they’ve asked us to manage an online marketing campaign. We will start optimizing the website text for search engines. Then we will implement Google AdWords, apply web analytics, and of course optimize the process. No doubt [...]

We helped these guys of a laundry service company with a boost of their branding.