Blog articles by Paul Janssen

Paul Janssen

Articles by

Paul Janssen

Paul is Vice President of Brand Communication at SKIM. He holds an Executive MBA with distinction from INSEAD and a Masters in Brand Management from the University of Maastricht and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Before moving to Singapore, Paul led our US consumer research team and spent 10 years in New York working closely with the world’s largest brands. Prior to joining SKIM, he worked in brand management at Kraft Foods. Paul is passionate in gaining a deep understanding of how consumers think and behave, and how brand’s communication strategies can benefit from a better understanding of what truly goes on in the human mind.

Mastering consumer experiences using the power of emotions

Mastering consumer experiences using the power of emotions

By Paul Janssen on February 1, 2022

The role of empathy and surprise in consumer interactions

Market changes are constant and inevitable. Your competition isn’t slowing down, and you must react quickly and strategically. When information and innovation travel fast, the costs of a late response are high.

Like many marketers today, you’re forced to make fast decisions and quickly adapt brand strategies.

How can you ensure your communications, products, and services deliver on your brand promise – surprising and delighting consumers?

Mistakes may be inevitable when it comes to consumer experiences, but how can you best rectify them?

We recently conducted research to answer these questions and explore the role of emotions in consumer experiences and decision-making.

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Communication guidelines: Building a more sustainable world

Communication guidelines: Building a more sustainable world

By Paul Janssen on June 15, 2021

How organizations can turn “intent” to act sustainably into “action”

Consumers are becoming increasingly vocal about a need for sustainable change in society. While it is encouraging to see this growth in people’s intent to act and buy more sustainably, their actual behavior is lagging.

How can organizations help inspire this behavior? Through consumer psychology, SKIM’s psychological distance framework can help explain why this lag is happening and offer tangible communication guidelines on how to turn intent into action to build a more sustainable world.

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From psychological to social distance: What we can learn from it

From psychological to social distance: What we can learn from it

By Paul Janssen on May 7, 2020

Much has been written about social distancing and the immediate impact on marketing across industries. You have likely already adjusted your short-term communication strategies. However, as you map out your long-term plans, much can be learned from the concept of psychological distance as it relates to recent events.

In this article, our Senior Vice President of Brand Communication explores how psychological distance played out during the early stages of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Reflecting on why Western countries responded differently to the crisis than certain Asian countries, helps understand how human decision-making works. Read on to learn more about the theory and how it could relate to you as a professional and as a human.

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Increase online conversion by reducing psychological distance

Increase online conversion by reducing psychological distance

By Paul Janssen on October 24, 2019

From clicks to cart: making smarter use of product images

In today’s crowded online marketplace, we all face the same challenge: how do we attract and convert shoppers? While increased media spend is an almost guaranteed way of attracting more people to an online platform, getting them to actually buy is a whole different ball game. Many online retail giants aren’t forthcoming with behavioral data, so knowing how visitors think and behave from the time they land on the platform until they check out, is a blind spot for many of us.

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