Consider Brazilian cosmetics brand Natura, which deploys a direct-sales force of more than 718,000. By knocking on doors, it has established a vibrant network of brand supporters.

Because we're always more woundable when caught at exactly the time where we're in the mood for that particular product or service - and as Big Data increasingly are able to pick up on clues revealing desire - automated systems are increasingly able to hit at exactly those moments, across those channels we move - with an offer matching exactly what we're desiring.

Here in particular the idea of contextual communication - i.e. communicating the right message, at the right time to the right audience - seems to generate an increasing effect on the consumer in a manipulative way.

The enemy shapes the brand.

Visit your local supermarket or retail chain. You'll experience a lot of visual stimulus, but it's unlikely that your other senses will encounter any compelling messages.

We're no longer bored - in fact we're petrified of being alone with ourselves getting bored. Yet boredom is the foundation for creativity - an asset slowly disappearing from our world.

Spinning out of my neuromarketing work where, based on scanning the brains of 2,000 respondents' brains using fMRI, we learned that there's a huge correlation between religion and branding - and thus the way that brands intend to generate customer evangelism are to be constructed.