The next time you’re standing in the coffee aisle at the grocery store and pick up one particular brand of joe over another, ask yourself why. The answer might be rooted in behavioral economics 101. view more.

Each year a trillion dollars is spent on communicating to and persuading the human brain, yet few understand how the brain really works—what’s attractive to it, how it decides what it likes and doesn’t like, and how it chooses to buy or not buy the infinite variety of products and services presented to it every day. Neuromarketing research is revealing a myriad of fascinating insights that help improve the effectiveness of every aspect of clients’ brands, products, packaging, in-store marketing, advertising, and entertainment content. view more.

Case studies are great and I wanted to put together a round up of some of the best case studies I have seen in marketing and social media. So here we go…

• Here is one from the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA.org). 5,000 grasshoppers with chocolate.
• TechChrunch put together 6 great new business case studies. From The Creme Brulee Man, Luxury Hotels, Korean Kitchen, a Dentist, and Levis there is tons to be learned here.
• 5 case studies form Mashable that they call suprising. Equine, Steel buildings, and other businesses.
• Peter Kim put together a super list of social media example. This is a list worth checking out.
• Another website called theParallaxView put together a Hot list. It’s a little tougher to dive into but has tons of great examples.

As with all case studies the key is to find one element or a couple of elements you can take an implement within your marketing plan.

Social media is going to rule the Web until at least 2012 – according to a post by Justin Kistner, a Social Evangelist at web analytics company Webtrends. Kistner also claims that Facebook has become the king of social media. In a panel at a Portland event today called Lunch 2.0, Kistner said that the current era of the Web “is Facebook’s game to lose.” More here from Justin also a roundup at ReadWriteWeb.

On the heels of its Promoted Tweets ad product, Tweeter has introduced another type of advertising: Promoted Trending Topics, where brands pay to appear below the “trending topics” on the site. The first company to try out the concept is Disney/Pixar with the trend, not surprisingly, of Toy Story 3. It is, writes Mashable’s Pete Cashmore in a guest post at CNN, an ingenious idea: “the perfect way to generate revenue from the popular social network without infuriating users…Brands long to be a part of the conversation, and Promoted Trends create buzz around a product or service without vexing the user.” More Here >>