Deadlines can wait. Sweat accumulates around my hairline as I plant row after row. My grip on the gardening tool tightens, slipping into worn grooves and calluses. Harvest is coming, and I have to continue tending my crops daily to prepare them for sale. Although farming fills me with this primal pleasure, watching something I’ve nourished flourish minutes, hours, maybe even a day later; it has taken quite a toll on my extracurricular pursuits. Like my social life. Or my “real” job. In the “real world”. My boss just wishes I wouldn’t play FarmVille at work. When productivity blossoms in the virtual fields, it means fruitless efforts in the office.
Developed by Zynga, FarmVille is an enjoyable yet time-consuming game hosted through Facebook where players create and manage digital farms. With each successive harvest and successful animal husbandry, players can progress to the next level and accumulate more gold coins to purchase decorative accessories. Like, a Sandro Botticelli inspired Birth of Venus garden gnome for the low price of 18 FarmVille cash (whatever that is). Another interactive element of the game is networking with other Farmville members via Facebook to improve both of your farms. I did mention that all this work is for a game, right?! It takes great devotion and diligence as crops can wither away pixel by pixel, losing digital cash and your real time.
Botticelli Inspired Venus Gnome
Recently, NPR covered an inventive strategy used by Farmers Insurance Group to join in the game. In “an example of real corporate money that was well spent in the virtual business world”. Marc Zeitlin, the vice president of e-business for Farmers Insurance, negotiated with Zynga to allow FarmVille players to download a free Farmers Insurance Group blimp that would act as a pause button on a game that continued on with or without the farmer playing. Returning to their roots, Farmers Insurance Group “protected” farmers from any potential digital disasters.
“Zeitlin says more than 5 million users downloaded the airship. And in that time, Farmers’ Facebook fan page went from a handful of fans to more than 120,000.” Zeitlin’s zephyr created playful publicity that charmed users across the web for its creativity and, maybe, “reprieve” from the game.
Marketers can no longer merely reach consumers in the physical space they inhabit. Virtual space is the final frontier of marketing. As younger generations spend more time developing relationships and living their lives in virtual dimensions, advertisers will increasingly bring tangible brands into fictional universes.
As Alex Rampell , the CEO of TrialPay an agency that matches advertisers with game companies, admits, “most people can’t stand advertising. They want to skip it. Social gaming — by providing more crops or more fish or more virtual poker chips for the poker game — it encourages people to interact with advertisers, and they do take notice.”
Farmers Insurance Group Airship
I certainly noticed and was grateful to have my free time back to play web sudoku in the office. If only those pesky ads didn’t keep popping up on the sides….
Snowmageddon swept through the Midwest. Air travelers wrung their hands at O’Hare and Midway watching the flight tracker display one cancelled flight after another. Airports became refugee camps filled with displaced snow migrants. Delta, American, Jet Blue, United, and other airlines claim millions of dollars each in lost revenue. Airlines execs and airports learned a costly lesson: Be more proactive in customer outreach. “Social-media networks such as Twitter Inc. give carriers another way to reach fliers, while new jet-tracking technology helps target the cutbacks so fewer planes and people pile up at socked-in airports, airlines said.” By utilizing the latest technology and transitioning to a more efficient communication system, airlines can curb flier frustration, curb their losses, and reduce the amount of passengers stuck curbside.
Snowmaggedon: Frozen Tundra, Once Lake Shore Drive
While in the U.S., airlines were seeking new ways to utilize social media to enhance individual autonomy, the Egyptian government blocked internet access to prevent collective use of social media. Pro-Mubarak forces recognized social media as an instant communication tool that could further disseminate anti-government propaganda.
15 days of rioting so far, with no end in sight unless President Mubarak meets protesters demands and steps down from office: Now! When the cameras aren’t turned to Tahrir square, or covering topics however tangentially related to the riots, reporters are turning their cameras on their own experiences. CNN’s Anderson Cooper and his crew were attacked, and according to NPR’s Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, herself and other journalists have been “systematically targeted” by Mubarak supporters in order to intimidate international eyewitnesses who they blame for stoking the flames of revolution. Relatedly, the Egyptian government disconnected the internet for six days in an attempt to control what news enters and exits Egypt, as well as to inhibit networking and coordination efforts by anti-Mubarak protesters who use Twitter, Facebook and other sites to mobilize their demonstrations.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called for “an orderly transition”, to which all 27 countries within the EU agree. The British Prime Minister, David Cameron, has demanded “a clear, credible, transparent path towards transition”. And you know what? Mubarak agrees.
November 05, 2010 | Author: Ryan Hunt | No Comments
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Another election has come and gone. Republicans regained the House. Democrats held the Senate. And to no one’s surprise, more than 120 million eligible voters didn’t cast a ballot.
While it’s certainly no excuse for staying home, perhaps low turn out has something to do with the 1 million promises made that have no shot of being fulfilled.
The effect known as “negative expectancy disconfirmation” has been demonstrated in studies involving consumer products that fail to deliver on their promised effects. According to this research, we have a bias toward being more angry when a product fails to perform than to be happy when it lives up to its claims. What’s worse, as shown by Canadian team Peter Darke and colleagues (2009), when one product fails to perform, we generalize to other similar products. We may even generalize to the advertising agency that marketed the product and also distrust the other products it promotes. We may even go beyond this irrational extrapolation to distrust the competitor’s product or very different products from very different firms. In fact, we stop trusting all advertising, period.
Which is why, she goes on, we tend to think of all politicians as sleazy liars. Non-voters tend to paint politicians with an even broader brush, assuming a mentality that voting does not matter because it’s always going to lead to disappointment. But just as there are some excellent consumer brands hiding amid the marketing noise, there are also many people worth voting for somewhere on your ballot. They may not be running for Congress, but elections are packed with good people looking to do good things – from the county clerk’s office to the local school board. As Krauss Whitbourne’s marketing analog illustrates, the high profile promise breakers at the top of ballots often weaken democracy at the bottom.
I’ve entered that stage in my life where the most exciting parties I attend- are the ones my friends are throwing for their children. Recently, I made the VIP list for a three-year-old’s birthday pool party. In the cooler, sweaty Coronas cradled Juicy Juice boxes.
Like watching focus groups from behind a two-way mirror, I was safe as a distant observer from dealing with the toddler’s themselves: temper tantrums, picky eaters, and boogers. A fall! A booboo! A burst of tears. I snuck a bite from my friend’s cake as they rushed off to console their sniffling child.
But, while watching the children, I noticed something. Without a hint of hesitation or grimace, the birthday boy shared his toys with his young guests. Impressive! Considering I had just watched two adult males duel with forks over BBQ. Is sharing a skill that adults need to continue developing past preschool? Are we just naturally possessive? Despite adults’ composure and rationale are we just suppressing the little kid inside us all screaming, MINE MINE MINE!?
Sharing Ice Cream
Thirty years ago Richard Thaler, studied a phenomena he named “the endowment effect”. Once you own an object, Thaler noted, you’ll tend to place a higher value on the object than you did before purchasing it. Although this behavior is consistent across diverse items including food, worthless pens, to collector’s items, the motivation behind the behavior is logically inconsistent. The value we place on our chipped mug far exceeds its actual worth. How has the object gained value? A simple explanation of ‘emotional attachment’ does not account for how instantaneously the effect takes hold in absence of any sentimental bonds.
Recent neuro-imaging scans reveal insights on the impulse driving the endowment effect.
“the pattern and location of the activity … suggests the endowment effect works by enhancing the salience of possible loss. But that still does not explain why this sense of loss should be felt…”
Neuroscience offers an explanation for what part of our brain and what feeling stimulates the effect, but we are still at a loss for why exactly. Primatologists look to three primate species to determine whether our evolutionary past holds the secret. In studies with chimpanzees similar to the ones performed with college sophomores, the endowment effect was still observed; chimpanzees who were first endowed with juice were loathe to trade for peanut butter (even though that’s their favorite). The researchers propose that maybe an older part of our brain fears giving things up, even in an apparently fair exchange. In those nagging hypothetical situations, do we focus on our loss more than we focus on our gain? What if my other chipped mugs disappear? What if a heavy coffee season shakes the plain and I’m mugless? Is fear of potential loss greater than the prospect of gain?
October 19, 2010 | Author: Ryan Hunt | No Comments
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Humans are irrational. We’re susceptible to group think (bandwagon effect), even if facts suggest the group is wrong. We seek out or interpret information that confirms what we already think and ignore information that contradicts preconceived ideas (confirmation bias). We can easily be tricked into buying something because it’s 50% off (anchoring effect). We tend to chronically underestimate the time it takes to complete tasks (planning bias). We often grossly exaggerate or manipulate memories through the filter of present moods and emotions (hindsight bias, rosy retrospection). And these only scratch the surface.
We’re vulnerable to many of these biases because we’re predisposed to protect our ego and self-concept. The “Bias Blind Spot” is the bastion of vanity. Odds are, you don’t think you’re irrational at all. Your decisions are products of pure logic. No social influence or cognitive trap deters your thinking. You are a Spock-like being!
So the question is: How do we avoid irrational behavior when we’re hardwired to be irrational?
I think this PSA from BC Hydro – a power company in British Columbia, Canada – identifies an effective strategy:
The juxtaposition here is obvious, and for that reason, highly effective. By depicting exaggerated, resource-wasting behavior, and showing it alongside forgetting to turn the lights off, viewers re-interrogate their behavior. Almost every household is guilty of wasting power, but lord knows, we’d never use 5 razor blades to shave, take one bite of every apple, or leave the water running non-stop.
Leaving the lights on is irrational (it wastes money, harms the environment, increases fire risk). As the ad says, “The most ridiculous thing about wasting power is that for some reason we don’t think it is ridiculous.”
Wasting power is invisible irrationality. We may consciously know its wrong, but because we see no immediate consequence it’s easily justified. Similar to why we cave and order deliciously unhealthy fried foods. When forced to compare invisible irrational behavior with ostentatious, equally mindless behavior, it’s easier to associate, to bring to light, the behavior we take for granted.
“We set out to test the hypothesis that groups, like individuals, have a consistent ability to perform across different kinds of tasks,” says Anita Williams Woolley, the paper’s lead author and an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business. “Our hypothesis was confirmed,” continues Thomas W. Malone, a co-author and Patrick J. McGovern Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. “We found that there is a general effectiveness, a group collective intelligence, which predicts a group’s performance in many situations.”
That collective intelligence, the researchers believe, stems from how well the group works together. For instance, groups whose members had higher levels of “social sensitivity” were more collectively intelligent. “Social sensitivity has to do with how well group members perceive each other’s emotions,” says Christopher Chabris, a co-author and assistant professor of psychology at Union College in New York. “Also, in groups where one person dominated, the group was less collectively intelligent than in groups where the conversational turns were more evenly distributed,” adds Woolley. And teams containing more women demonstrated greater social sensitivity and in turn greater collective intelligence compared to teams containing fewer women.”
Usually when the economy tanks, people decide to get tanked. But when jobs are hard to come by and droves of eager 20-somethings are desperate for your job, caffeine is the drug of choice to keep focused at work. Jack Phillips, a bar in Surrey, England, mixed business with pleasure for surprising results. One morning at 7am, Jack Phillips propped its doors open four hours early to welcome pedestrians in for breakfast. Rather than reaching for a frosty pitcher, customers were handed by their local barmaid -turned day barista- a piping hot coffee.
Revenues increased 4.3% up from last year. Jack Phillips, this humble local pub, was second behind McDonalds in breakfast sales and a cheeky third to Starbucks’ continued coffee reign. By diversifying their product, this once one trick pony reached a far wider clientele and remained viably open throughout the day. The business expanded to match the client’s varying daily schedule: morning coffee, lunch beverages, afternoon tea (this is England after all), happy hour, and evening cocktails. By tapping into different markets, this pub has cleverly recovered lost revenue and become a friendly neighborhood spot where…well, everybody knows and – now caffeinated- remembers your name.
On the other side of the pond, a famous carrot top with matching orange crocs, utilizes a similar one-stop model for his latest NYC business venture. Italian-American chef Mario Batali acts as the celebrity spokesperson and partner for Eataly, a 50,000-square-foot Italian temple dedicated to the patron goddess of feasting; Edesia. The sheer amount of stuff at Eataly is enough to make Bacchanalian revelries look modest in comparison. Not only is Eataly all-inclusive, with restaurant, wine bar, café, gelato stand, cooking classes, vegetable, meat and fish butchers, you can take Eataly with you on the go. And not just in a doggie bag. Yup, there’s an app for that too. Download Eataly’s interactive app to tote around your own personal shopper and sommelier.
“In fact the experimenters found that people weren’t providing more help because they felt better or it boosted their self-esteem, but because they appreciated being needed and felt more socially valued when they’d been thanked.
This feeling of social worth helps people get over factors that stop us helping. We are often unsure our help is really wanted and we know that accepting help from others can feel like a failure. The act of saying thank you reassures the helper that their help is valued and motivates them to provide more.”
Thank You is the most direct form of recognition. Recognition is a core human need. It’s satisfaction is critical to personal growth and achieving your ideal identity. Perhaps you’ve found yourself needing to be recognized more at work. The completion of a week long project can feel meaningless if not capped by a hand shake, “thanks” or “job well done.” A paycheck itself is nice, but in order to really love your job, you must have some third party gratitude. The same goes for home life, and your interactions with close friends. A well-timed and well-intentioned Thank You can improve your connections to others. And, as Seinfeld’s George Kastanza learned the hard way, timing means everything for recognition.
To show recognition, the recipient must know you mean it. They must feel you mean it. Otherwise, they will not be motivated to help you again.
That’s where many businesses are flat-out wasting their breath.
Corporate-speak is skillfully, and sometimes ostentatiously, polite — so much so that we’ve come to expect the superfluous niceties. We inoculate ourselves from what we see as faux-gratitude. We see Thank You’s issued forth on shopping bags, marquees, receipts, on spam e-mails, coupons, and commercials. Even speech like the incessant, automated “Your Call is Important to Us” raises our red flags. I’ve been waiting on hold for 30 minutes, you think to yourself, at some point you’ve got to concede that my call is really not that important!
Companies sincerely want you to know how important you are to them, because the fact is, without you, they can’t exist. They genuinely do value your business. But the reason their Thank You’s fall flat is because you know that in most cases they don’t appreciate you as an individual; they appreciate your money. There’s nothing wrong with that, but as a vehicle of recognition, it doesn’t quite get the returns businesses think it will. So what’s the difference between a Thank You that can legitimately build customer loyalty and a Thank You that is not even heard?
Here are couple of guiding strategies:
Personalize to recognize. A work friend’s home is wrecked due to a water main break. You (along with two dozen of his other friends, colleagues and family members) volunteer your weekend to rebuild and clean-up. It’s the least you could do. Later that week, he sends out a terse, but gracious e-mail thanking the group for helping him through the crisis. The sentiment is nice, but you don’t really pay much heed to it. You’re not going to make a big deal about it, but the e-mail didn’t make you feel appreciated individually. On a different level, this is how you likely react when a company sends you a junk letter gushing with thanks. You know that whomever wrote the copy for that letter doesn’t really know you at all. It makes it that much easier to pitch it straight to the recycling bin.
Companies that invest in one-on-one personal communication will reap the rewards of increased loyalty. Throw out the form letters. Send personally addressed messages rather than listserv emails. Cut out automated menus. Empower retail employees to address consumer issues without having them cut through 18 miles of corporate red tape. If it’s possible, try sending handwritten letters (because who doesn’t read a handwritten letter?) These things cost money. But depending on the industry, loyal customers on one end, can generate new leads and lower costs on the other.
Give more than a “Thanks.” Showing is better than telling. A Thank You in conjunction with a tangible symbol of that recognition is often unexpected, and thus, a sure way to encode the Thank You into a lasting memory. (Similarly, replace, “thank you” with “I love you” and you see why the jewelry industry will continue to thrive.) A lot of retailers recognize loyal customers by giving them store credit or big-time discounts, but that token isn’t appreciation as much as it is a tactic (and by no means a bad one) to get people back to the store as quickly as possible. But even those are delivered too much and too often to hit the “I’m recognized” button in your brain. I get discount offers every day from Borders. They’re nice and all, but how can they be sending them under the guise of being a valued customer when I haven’t shopped there in a year?
Companies can diversify their Thank You’s by allowing you to send a $5 gift card to a friend (a small cost for the potential of getting a new customer and solidifying the loyalty of another). A store can give a complimentary gift or candy at the register for holiday seasons. If it’s an online order, ship a thank you card or small gift they didn’t expect.
The nature vs nurture debate has long been put to rest: it’s both. Who we are has as much to do with internal, genetic factors as external, environmental factors. At Insight Consulting Group we pride ourselves on being able to look deep within individuals to comprehensively understand human behavior; but… Professors of Marketing Itamar Simonson and Aner Sela from Stanford University, took it one step further and put our genes under the microscope to see how our DNA affects consumer choices.
In their study on fraternal and identical twins they found
People seem to inherit the following tendencies: to choose a compromise option and avoid extremes; select sure gains over gambles; prefer an easy but non-rewarding task over an enjoyable challenging one; look for the best option available; and prefer utilitarian, clearly needed options (like batteries) over more indulgent ones (gourmet chocolate).
Additionally, propensity for specific products seemed to be genetically related: chocolate, mustard, hybrid cars, science fiction movies, and jazz.
The research suggests that we can thank, or blame, our ancestors for our love of chocolate. Our genetics may explain why we are predisposed to enjoy some things over others, but the item’s availability in our environment or how we alter our surroundings to obtain them can exacerbate or inhibit those inherited tastes.
What this might mean for market research firms is totally new target populations based less off of standard sociocultural, education, or age categories but genetic predispositions. What this might mean for you: resistance is futile. Chocolate is in your genes.
Many Americans simply roll their eyes at the flamboyant excess of New York City’s Fall Fashion Week. Reminiscent of the aloof decadence of 18th century Versailles, Lincoln Center’s chic catwalks offer the elite an escape from the country’s prevailing woes. What recession? Jenny Packham’s diaphanous gowns glide down the runway like liquid gold. Job scarcity? Move over Obama’s $50 billion dollar infrastructure proposal; Dennis Basso’s miles of material are sure to employ many hands in ruching, ruffling, and ruffling. While the day-to-day relevancy of NYC Fashion Week is arguable, for marketers it’s an opportunity to see the emergence of new trends, disappearance of old ones, and witness offbeat styles integrated into mainstream wear. Fashion speaks to more than how one clothes their exterior, but reveals facets of individual’s interior too. Our values are reflected in the clothing we choose to represent ourselves.
Last spring, the accessory dominating the runway was not your standard shoe or purse, but tattoos that peeked -or in some cases screamed- out of designer garb. The look was one of whimsical grunge, pairing a classic Chanel dress with a severe tattoo lent the outfit a refined deprecation. Its ladies-who-lunch … at an Iowa truck stop. Despite fall being a time to conceal rather than reveal skin, at NYC Fall Fashion Week, Marchesa introduced tattooed stockings to prolong the statement’s visibility.
High Fashion Tattoo
The New York Time’s Freakonomics blog exposes tattoos to be more than a sudden, passing trend. A survey in 2006, revealed that 40% of Americans between the ages of 26-40 have at least one tattoo. 18-25 years olds 36%. Tattoos used to be the domain of peripheral alternative groups, a symbol of subversive cool. Now, even bubblegum pop princess Miley Cyrus is sporting not one but three tattoos. So, what do tattoos mean for those who dare?
For some, its permanent presence acts as a record of significant events, places, or people that have – now literally- left a mark on their lives. For some, in this age of mass-production where everyone and their mom is wearing the same ironic T-shirt from Urban Outfitters , it’s a highly personalized statement of identity. But what do others think of your tattoo? Sure, you can claim your tattoo is a private declaration, but when placed in a public forum it- like the clothes you wear- are subject to judgment. To my parents, it would mean heartbreak. To potential employers, a visible tattoo might be considered unprofessional. Some find tattoos to be sexy, indicating the wearer to be wild, creative, and impulsive. Others may find those same qualities in a mate to be less than appealing. For those of us who are somewhere in between, Marchesa’s tattooed stockings and Chanel’s temporary tats may be the solution for those who shrink from the ink.
The message is clear for marketers, people like to customize. They want their things to reflect who they are as individuals. Allowing consumers to become involved in personalizing an item, makes them more engaged with the product as well as enhance a sense of ownership. Its no longer an identical, store-bought good, but theirs. As interactions with the product increase, so will customer loyalty.
Founded in 1995 by Dr. Mark Ingwer, Insight Consulting Group is a full-service market research and consulting firm. A psychologist with experience in law, consumer marketing, advertising, and healthcare, Mark witnessed a significant gap in traditional approaches to market research. The complex emotions of consumers and professionals that directly motivate behavior were not being explored with care or accuracy. Often, the emotional aspect of the decision making process was completely overlooked. With an acute focus on why people do what they do, ICG balances tried-and-true research methodologies with a suite of innovative tools that lead to valuable insights.
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