When conducting research, we frequently want to get at people’s emotions.  What excites people?  What gets their attention?  If we know that, we can market much more effectively.

The question is, how can we uncover people’s feelings when they might not even be aware of their emotional reactions themselves?  One way to do this is to utilize projective techniques in focus groups, using metaphors and visuals to go beyond participants’ rational side. 

But there’s a new way to get at emotions more directly: bio-metric research.  Participants wear a lightweight vest that measures galvanic skin response, heart rate, respiration and movement.  Changes in those measures have a direct correlation with emotional involvement. 

The results are quite remarkable.  When testing commercials, we see the exact points when viewers are engaged and when they lose interest, enabling advertisers to create advertising that is much more memorable and effective.  We also use this method with print ads, websites and new product research to uncover people’s “hot buttons” – when they’re most engaged – as well as understanding which elements are unexciting to people.

We find we can gain deep insights by looking at the discrepancies between what research participants say and their emotional reactions.  These discrepancies can be an extremely rich source of insights.  And since the method is fairly new, we’re still discovering new ways in which it can help marketers.  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210 and we can talk about the best ways to understand what makes your customers tick.

A few recent articles have been talking about a social media “backlash,” where marketers are realizing that social media marketing isn’t always the best approach.  An article on businessweek.com talks about social media marketing “myths” such as: social media marketing is free (it’s not really, since it requires many hours of work) or that social media sites are great places to find new customers (your prospects may not want to interact with you there).  The article also points out that companies don’t have to be on every social media site.  B2B companies will probably be more successful utilizing LinkedIn than MySpace.

However, some companies have used social media successfully for marketing, and in different ways.  It’s worth looking at some examples:

• Ad agency Centric generated a great deal of exposure for the movie Batman Gotham Knight by encouraging fans to download a widget — the more people who installed the widget, the brighter the Bat-signal would glow.  They generated over a million page views.  Clearly, this was a product with customers who wanted to interact and Centric found a hook to get their interest.

• For a completely different use of social media, consider Comcast.  The company monitors Twitter for negative comments about the company and tries to resolve the problems mentioned.  For a large company like Comcast, that seems like a good investment — a small expense for potentially very positive PR.

• A social media site can’t make you a cup of coffee, but Starbucks has been quite successful using social media marketing.  The company likes to combine social media marketing with traditional advertising.  For example, they sponsored a coffee giveaway on election day, promoting it with a TV commercial as well as a video on YouTube and advertising on Facebook encouraging users to forward the ad to tell their friends about the free coffee.

• Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice” campaign promised a free Whopper hamburger to anyone who would “sacrifice” (that is, “de-friend”) ten Facebook friends.  While this campaign might seem to be “anti” social media, the fact is, Burger King knows their customers are on Facebook and they found a novel way to get their attention.

The bottom line: while social media marketing may be new and overhyped, it also can provide significant opportunities for marketers.  Keeping an eye on what other companies are doing could inspire an effective social media marketing idea for your company.

We can help you learn what motivates your customers; give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Beware Social Media Marketing Myths,” Businessweek.com, May 26, 2009;  “The Groundswell of Social Media Backlash,” Collaboration 2.0, May 23, 2009; “Million Dollar Widget,” Centric blog, September 13, 2008; “Beware the Social Media Charlatans,” PC World, May 20, 2009

Many articles are being written about how companies should not cut back on marketing during the recession.  While this may be true, many companies have no choice in the matter because of decreased revenues.  So companies are looking for ways to market more effectively.

There’s some great advice in a recent article by marketing consultant David Evans.  Among other things, he suggests looking at new ways to segment your customers more profitably.  For example, rather than segmenting based on purchase size, a company might do better defining customer segments based on their needs.  Once segments with the highest potential are identified, you can focus your marketing dollars on those segments.

Evans suggests refreshing customer insights to understand how purchase intentions are impacted by the economy.  Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t agree more!

An article in the Financial Times makes another great point: companies have an opportunity to stand out when their competitors spend less on marketing.  “Recessions offer us the opportunity to be heard.”  With smart marketing strategy, your company may be able to emerge from this recession ahead of the competition!

To discover the smartest ways to connect with your customers, call us at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Follow These 5 Marketing Tactics to Succeed During the Downturn – Part 1: Offline,” evmarkpartners.com, February 13, 2009; “Marketing during economic downturns,” Financial Times, February 5, 2009

Remember how in the story of The Three Bears, Goldilocks samples the porridge and one is too hot, the other – too cold, and the third is just right?  We feel that video focus groups may frequently be the “just right” method between in-person focus groups and online bulletin board focus groups, offering the benefits of both.

As you may know, online bulletin board focus groups offer the convenience of respondents being able to participate from their own locations at times of their choosing throughout the day.  We also find they’re less influenced by others’ opinions when they’re participating from the psychological safety of their home or office.  And of course, we’re able to get geographically dispersed respondents and not spend any time or money on travel.

However, participants in online bulletin board focus groups do tend to interact less than they would in regular focus groups.  And we miss the body language and spontaneity that we see in traditional groups.

Now that video focus groups have overcome their technical hurdles, they offer the best of both worlds.  They offer the visual benefits of seeing spontaneous reactions in real-time, but also provide the psychological safety, geographical dispersion and travel savings (they can even be used for overseas research).  In the past, video was slow, sound quality was questionable and respondents had to download special software.  But, nowadays, with the use of Flash, we can easily conduct small groups of 4-5 respondents with great audio and video.

With today’s decreased travel budgets and overworked executives, video focus groups are something most companies will want to consider.  Give us a call at (818) 752-7210 and we can discuss the best method or methods to answer your research questions.

We all know that most consumers are concerned about spending in the current recessionary atmosphere.  But how does that concern affect their shopping habits?  In some cases, consumers are buying cheaper items, but more of them, spending the same amount of money as before.  For example, the Herald Tribune reported that at wine.com, the average price of a bottle of wine purchased in December was 17% below the average of the year before, but the number of bottles sold was 15% higher than a year ago.  Similarly, at 9 Mile Schoolhouse Christmas Market in Montana, customers tended toward the smaller and less expensive Christmas decorations, but total revenue per customer was 18% higher than the previous year.

We’re not ignoring the fact that revenue and profits are indeed down for many retailers in this recession.  But is there anything marketers can learn from the sales of wine and Christmas ornaments?  We think those examples may represent a trend toward small indulgences.  That is, consumers are forgoing some luxuries and trading down, but then compensating themselves with a small reward. 

Marketers can benefit by repackaging products and services to fit this trend.  This can work at different ends of the economic spectrum.  For example, companies that offer high-end Baltic cruises might want to also offer a weekend getaway in the United States.  Note that high-end customers don’t want ostentatious displays of wealth right now: consider offering less flashy destinations.  Perhaps a quiet pampered getaway including gourmet food and wine. 

And companies appealing to more mainstream customers may want to consider offering less expensive options.  For example, a company offering activities for kids may have a full-day option that costs $75, which might scare away many parents at the moment.  But a three-hour workshop for $40 could seem very appealing, especially when that alternative is presented alongside the $75 option.

What are the best options to offer your prospects?  We are able to find the answer to this question by conducting market research that asks about trade-offs.  “Which would you prefer: option A for X dollars or option B for Y dollars?”  We then discuss the options further with respondents, and sometimes it turns out they actually prefer some other combination that hadn’t initially been considered!  To discuss how to uncover the most appealing offers for your prospects, give us a call at (818) 752-7210.

Sources: “Buying less expensive wine, and more of it,” International Herald Tribune, January 1, 2009; 9 Mile Schoolhouse, www.9mileschoolhouse.com