About Me
I’m a chartered psychologist and I help brands understand their consumers. I use psychological techniques to uncover unspoken needs and hidden motivations to reveal the truth about what people want.
My primary area of expertise is the impact of connected technology on how we think, feel and behave, including our wellbeing. I am a committee member of the cyberpsychology section of the British Psychological, Society, and I lecture in psychology and consumer behaviour at UAL (University of the Arts, London). I consult to WPP digital agency SYZYGY on emerging consumer needs, trends and values.
Books
- Marsden, P. (2020) In Their Shoes, Empathy-based Research Playbook (forthcoming)
- Marsden, P. & Chaney, P (2012) Social Commerce Handbook, McGraw Hill
- Marsden, P. (2011) Social Commerce, in Theobald, E and Haisch, Brand Evolution, Gabler
- Marsden, P. & Kirby, J. (2007) Connected Marketing, Elsevier
Selected Reports and Articles
- Marsden, P. (2019) Trust Tech, Syzygy Report
- Marsden, P. (2018) The Personalisation Myth, Mediatel, 7
- Marsden, P (2017) Sex, Lies and AI, Syzygy Report
- Marsden, P. (2015) Terror Porn, The Psychologist, (28)(1), 5
- Marsden, P. (2015) The Wow of Now, Digital Marketing Magazine, 8/5
- Marsden, P. (2015) So the Internet will Disappear – Get Over it, Fourth Source, 1/4
- Marsden, P. (2015) Neuromarketing: Say Hello to the Ventral Striatum, 12 Ahead, 17/3
- Marsden, P. (2015) Content is Dead; Long Live Convenience, CMO, 22/1
- Marsden, P. (2015) Better than Free, Digital Marketing Magazine, 19/1
- Marsden, P. (2015) What the Fappening Taught Us about Ourselves Digital Marketing Magazine, 28/1
- Marsden, P. (2014) The New C Word in Marketing, MyCustomer, 23/12
- Marsden, P. (2014) The Art of Content Marketing Digital Marketing Magazine, 1/9
- Marsden, P. (2014) The Uberfication of Everything WPP Reading Room, 22/9
- Marsden, P. (2014) The Future Is Already Here: We’re Just Looking In The Wrong Place, CMO, 14/11
- Marsden, P. (2014) The Future of Vending Cooler Plus (50) 5.6
- Marsden, P. (2013) Digital Point of Sale Syzygy Report
- Marsden, P. (2010) Social Commerce Syzygy Report
- Marsden, P. (2009) Crowdsourcing Contagious Magazine
- Marsden, P. (2009) Idea Platforms Syzygy Report
- Marden, P. (2007) The Power of Influencers Economist (7)
- Marsden, P. & Attia, S. (2007). A deadly contagion? The Psychologist, 18(3), 152–155
- Marsden, P. (2006) Customer Advisory Panels Market Leader
- Marsden, P. (2005) Advocacy Drives Growth Brand Strategy
- Marsden, P. (2005) Blink, New Scientist 2486, 12/2
- Marsden, P. (2005) Buzz Marketing Brand Strategy (Oct)
- Marsden, P. (2002). Brand positioning: meme’s the word. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 20(5), 307-312.
- Marsden, P. (2002) Marketing Values: Rising to the No Logo Challenge Admap, Jan, Issue 424
- Marsden, P. (2001). Is suicide contagious? A case study in applied memetics. Journal of Memetics-Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 5(1)
- Marsden, P. (2000) Mental Epidemics, New Scientist, 2237, 6/5
- Marsden, P. (2000) The Werther Effect, DPhil Thesis.
- Marsden, P. (2000). Forefathers of memetics: Gabriel Tarde and the laws of imitation. Journal of Memetics-Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 4(1), 61-66.
- Marsden, P. (1999). Review of Thought Contagion: How Beliefs Spread through Society by A. Lynch. Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation
- Marsden, P (1998) Memetics and social contagion: Two sides of the same coin. Journal of Memetics-Evolutionary Models of Information Transmission, 2(2), 171-185.
- Marsden, P. S. (1998). Memetics: a new paradigm for understanding customer behaviour and influence. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 16(6), 363-368.
- Marsden, P. (1998). The selectionist paradigm: More implications for sociology, Sociological Research Online
Media Interviews
- Die Welt – Happiness in Bhutan (German) 2018
- New Scientist – Irresistible – DPhil Research (1999)
- SAP Game-Changers Marketing to Millennials (2003)
- ITN TV News – Copycat Terrorism (2005)
- Who’s Afraid of the 10 Commandments – LWT TV Series with Melvyn Bragg (2000)
- BBC Radio 4 – Blink interview with Malcolm Gladwell (2005)
- BBC Radio 4 – Changing Status of Status (2005)
Dear Paul,
On December 10th IMPAKT will launch Disrupt and Reflect: a webproject about the many and constant triggers of the internet. We hope this could be an interesting vantage point for an article on Digitalwellbeing.org.
In our society we constantly seem to be looking for immediate gratification: by by buying stuff, in finding attention, likes, and, when we are completely overstimulated, in mindfulness, yoga or nature. Is dopamine the metafor or our age.
The webproject, which will itself be alternatively extremely overstimulating and very calming, consists of conversations, presentations and interviews with artists.
Especially now that in the COVID-19 pandemic, the online world has become more and more important for work, education and leisure as social connection, this is currently a very important subject that affects all of our lives.That is why we think it would be a nice subject for an article on Digitalwellbeing.org. We would love to discuss the possibilities. Naturally, we would be glad to provide you with more information, images and/or arrange an interview with the artists.
I would have loved to send you our press release for this project, but unfortunately it is not possible to add any attachement in this contactform. If you would like to recieve it, please let me know where I can reach you through e-mail.
If you have any questions or comments, please let me know.
With kind regards,
Jelany Hammen
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