Although marketing practices are increasingly similar around the world, the way consumers respond to brands differs dramatically.

Rules in a free market economy are difficult to frame in order to be both fair and, perhaps more significantly, to be effective.

The challenges faced by marketers as digital media, mobile and data accelerate are driven by important shifts in the location of power and control of value.

Anthropologist Grant McCracken looks at marketing as the management of meaning in culture.

Without a more nuanced analysis of what capitalism is, there is scant chance of ‘replacing it with something nicer’, writes John Kay

The ‘placebo effect’ in medicine is a well documented phenomenon whereby the perception of effectiveness influences the actual physical experience. Jeremy Bullmore explains how branding works in a similar way

In 1983, The Police released the Grammy award winning song Every Breath You Take, with the classic verse: Every breath you take/Every move you make/Every bond you break/ Every step you take/I’ll be watching you.

Elen Lewis talks to Jonah Lehrer, author of Imagine: How Creativity Works, about how we can all be more creative

Catchphrases from 1988 included Nike’s ‘Just Do It’, ‘Loadsamoney’ from Harry Enfield and ‘an ology’ from BT’s Beattie. The UK launch of Hello! heralded a new age of celebrity, where footballers’ wives rubbed shoulders with European royalty.

Elen Lewis says using constraints can inject magic and creativity into your business writing