The scarcity principle, one of Robert Cialdini’s six core principles of influence, holds that people assign more value to things they believe are rare or diminishing in availability. In marketing, this translates to a simple mechanism: when something appears limited, demand tends to rise. But the principle is frequently misapplied, reduced to countdown timers and…
Conditioning in advertising is the process of training audiences to associate a brand, product, or feeling with repeated exposure over time. It draws on classical and operant conditioning principles, and it explains why the brands with the longest memories in any category tend to be the ones that spent the most time being consistent, not…
User retention strategies are the systems, tactics, and behaviours a business uses to keep existing customers engaged, active, and spending. Done well, they reduce churn, increase lifetime value, and make your acquisition costs work harder. Done poorly, they become a patchwork of discounts and emails that paper over a product or experience that was never…
A customer experience plan is a structured approach to defining, delivering, and improving every interaction a customer has with your business, from first contact through to retention and advocacy. Done well, it connects business strategy to customer reality. Done poorly, it becomes a slide deck that lives in a shared drive and changes nothing. Most…
Customer profile research is the process of building a detailed, evidence-based picture of who your buyers are, what they care about, and why they choose you over the alternatives. Done properly, it replaces assumption with observation, and turns marketing from a broadcast into a conversation. Most companies think they know their customers. Most are wrong…
Nudging in marketing is the practice of designing choices and environments so that people are more likely to behave in a particular way, without restricting their options or changing their incentives. It draws from behavioural economics and the idea that most decisions are not fully rational, and that small, deliberate changes to how options are…
Persuasion strategies are the deliberate methods marketers use to shift how people think, feel, and act toward a purchase. The most effective ones work not by overpowering a buyer’s judgment, but by aligning with how decisions are already being made at a psychological level. Most buying decisions are not the product of careful rational analysis….
Product marketing strategies are the decisions that determine how a product reaches the right buyers, gets positioned against alternatives, and converts interest into revenue. Done well, they connect what a product does to what a buyer actually needs, and they give sales, marketing, and product teams a shared commercial logic to work from. Most companies…
Horizontal differentiation means brands compete on difference, not superiority. Vertical differentiation means they compete on rank. One says “we are not the same.” The other says “we are better.” Most positioning debates in marketing skip this distinction entirely, which is why so many brands end up defending the wrong ground. Choosing the wrong axis is…
A UVP in marketing is a clear, specific statement that tells a target customer why they should choose your product or service over every available alternative. It answers one question: what do you offer that no one else can, or no one else offers as well? Most companies have one written on a slide somewhere….
Practical marketing intelligence
for people who think.
© 2026 The Marketing Juice