Proximity is a Virtue [REDUX]

I developed some of the thinking from the last couple of posts and expanded it for the nice people at Canvas8 into a report.

Proximimty is still a virtue, and a few more examples bring that to life, includin, Zaarly, Neighbourgoods and Whipcar, all of which use proximity to facilate sales, renting or sharing.

It also touches on another idea I've been playing with about what customers are: 

Customers are to people as waves are to water.

"For the majority of marketing, it may be better not to think of customers as people.

‘Customers’ are a repeating pattern of behaviour that expresses itself in people – from the point of view of a company, it doesn’t really matter who that person is when they walk into a store.

Throughout the marketing process, we spend a lot of time trying to understand the kind of people who are most likely to buy, but behavioural economics and decision research all suggest that 'where', 'what' and 'when' are at least as important as 'who'."

Which is a nice [as in accurate..I think], slightly abstruse concept to mull over during the long weekend [USA only, check your local listings]. 

Full report here.