Monday, August 25, 2008

Diaries on the net

The diaries of Samuel Pepys and George Orwell are being posted day-for-day. You can also read more historic diaries at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
At night home, much contented with this day’s work, and being at home alone looking over my papers, comes a neighbour of ours hard by to speak with me about business of the office, one Mr. Fuller, a great merchant, but not my acquaintance, but he come drunk, and would have had me gone and drunk with him at home, or have let him send for wine hither, but I would do neither, nor offered him any, but after some sorry discourse parted, and I up to [my] chamber and to bed.
Samuel Pepys

Sunday, August 24, 2008

I can't beleive this guy has a PhD!

As part of one of my (too many) jobs, I was reading through some articles about marketing. One of them was written by one Jonathan U. Elimimian (MBA, PhD; DBA., College of Business, Albany State University, USA). I don't know which is worse - that he has a PhD or that this was published in an edited journal...

“Sigmund Freud made a great contribution to Psychoanalysis with his concept of the super ego which was referenced as primitive and unconscious aggregate of values and psychoanalysis in form by contemporary authors.”
. . .
“Therefore, psychoanalysis also questions traditional ideas of irrationality. It shows that human tastes, preferences and other apparently irrational psychological consumers marketing decisions have a meaning and it is rational. Even though, most theorists argue that there is continuity between rationality and irrationality. This remained controversial among scholars.”
. . .
“Of course, this is another issue of major research topic in marketing. Even the most apparently abnormal and irrational buying behaviors are meaningful, because they occur for a reason, and in that sense, they are rational.”
. . .
“Even though Damasio’s application is strictly scientific, but the conceptual adoption to consumer behaviour (attitudes, values, and actions) is practical.”
. . .
“Before now, the influence of emotions on consumers decision-making (buying decision) is largely ignored.”
. . .
“Since the term ‘emotion’ tends to mean different things to the man and woman on the street (layman), the psychologist, the physiologist and the marketer, have used the term ‘Somatic’ to refer to the collection of mentally related responses that hallmark an emotion (Consumer behaviour). Even though ‘Somatic’ refers to the Greek word ‘Soma’, i.e. body.”
. . .
“Sigmund Freud’s treatment of people’s desires, wishes and human feelings is extensively discussed in literature (Freud, 1954). These too, must be understood as rational in terms of buying behavior. No matter of the racial identity, all consumers suffer from degree of anxiety provoked by the buying decisions and massive product assortments.”