“It was such a coincidence that we met,” the bride said at her wedding. “If I hadn’t gone to that colleague’s dinner, I might still be single.” We often attribute a romantic meaning to coincidence. Coincidental encounters stick with you, are worth a story. In online marketing, coincidence has less and less of a chance now that many providers want to offer a so-called personalized experience to (new) customers with search algorithms, keywords and database marketing.
But how dramatic is the email that the wedding day is coming and the bouquet of flowers can be ordered? singapore phone number library Giving chance a chance, according to five mathematical laws, can make meetings with clients so much more valuable.
What is coincidence?
First of all, the question: does chance actually exist? For the answer, a detour into mathematics. The English professor of mathematics David Hand has published extensively on the role of chance. His website opens with the sentence: ‘the truly unusual day will be the one on which nothing australia database directory unusual happens’. He argues that we all regularly experience something that we call a coincidence, but which is not actually a coincidence at all. He explains this using the ‘improbabilit header structure which represent the main principle’: a combination of five mathematical laws.
These are the five mathematical laws that, according to Hand, make chance less chance:
Law 1 : It is ultimately inevitable that an event will happen.
Law 2 : Selection plays a role in chance.
Law 3 : Sufficiently large numbers increase the chance of coincidence.
Law 4 : A constant change of circumstances gives chance a helping hand.
Law 5 : Be close enough to allow coincidence to happen.
These five laws together form the ‘principle of improbability’. If we apply this principle to the idea that coincidence may and can play a role in the encounter between supplier and customer, it is up to the marketer to direct this coincidence.
The laws applied.