by Mattr | Nov 26, 2013 | news
(Originally published in Online-Behavior) At the heart of any marketing initiative is one goal: to influence an audience. The tough part is figuring out 1) who the audience is, 2) what will influence them, and 3) the best way to do so. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) has long been considered a standard to help answer the first question in corporate HR, for example, but its popularity among marketers is growing rapidly. There are significant problems with using the MBTI for marketing, such as its lengthy survey format, prevalence of bias, and arguable inconsistency. The problems with survey-based insights have led these methods to finally be questioned as useful means for understanding an audience. While some marketers may rely on these insights, that could be a costly mistake. The MBTI, like any survey, has statistical problems — have you ever taken the test twice and gotten different results? Additionally, there’s an inherent bias associated with survey-taking. Think about it: People rarely take surveys just for the fun of it. Whether they’re expecting to earn something, gain acceptance to a group dynamic, or prove a point, human nature causes people to bring a level of bias to their answers. Why Passive is Preferable By using personality analysis that’s 100 percent passive — meaning audience members don’t know they’re being “tested” — you learn the deep-rooted characteristics or temperament of your audience. Text analysis of the words they use, as well as the actions performed while using social media, show temperament, which can be thought of as how people are hard-wired. As “moment” advertising using social media gains in popularity, its risk can...
by Mattr | Nov 20, 2013 | news
(Originally published in iMediaConnection) Ask anyone who’s struggling to stay on the cutting edge: Technology is evolving at light speed, and that means new innovations, new gadgets, and new data sources are hitting the market every day. It also means that America’s 300,000 market research analysts are feeling more confused and overwhelmed than ever. It’s no wonder: With every technological advancement — whether it’s a new gadget, wearable device, or social network — new data points grow exponentially. And business executives are challenging researchers to use that data to make smarter marketing decisions right now. After all, it’s just data; how hard can it be? But here’s what C-suite executives don’t know: The big data they need for thorough quantitative analysis is buried in Oracle databases. And once it’s exported — only after asking a company’s IT department very, very nicely — it’s just millions of rows of raw, uncorrelated atomic data. Agencies can have an even harder time getting transactional or behavioral data from a company, and no single social platform provides every metric, which translates to acquiring access to several tedious, expensive platforms. There is hope, however. First, companies need to create a new, diverse portfolio of research approaches. Then, they need to explore how these approaches complement each other — and which combination fits their business best. The Right Questions Every day, all over the world, millions of consumers are leaving trails of comments, posts, pins, and cookie-based data. So why are concrete, accurate consumer profiles so hard to create? Most companies already know they should start by getting a complete, in-depth profile of who’s buying what they...
by Jack | Nov 19, 2013 | news
(Originally published in B2B Marketing) Imagine a scenario in which you want a new book. You go to an online book retailer and sign up to fill out a survey. A customer service rep mails you a questionnaire or calls to ask what kind of person you are, what books you like, and how much time you spend reading. He may even talk to your friends and family to make sure you gave an accurate portrayal of yourself. After the form is filled out, a week is required to manually collate the data. Then, the company sends you an email with a suggested book. You hop over to the site and pay for your personalized recommendation, and five days (13 since you started looking) later, you receive it. See how crazy that is? Yet most companies conduct consumer research with the same lengthy, manual-intensive approach. Consumer Research Takes Too Long Remember how we used to check email? We’d hook a computer up to the phone line, wait for the dial-up shrieking to end, and download our email. Consumer research today is the dial-up Internet of yesterday. Think about it. It can take weeks at best — usually more like months — to complete a consumer research project. How relevant is the data at that point? What if the competition uncovers a solution everyone’s looking for while you’re still gathering data? Did you miss the “moment”? Almost surely. And It’s Just a Snapshot Most consumer research is done manually, right? Think about those survey people you avoid at the mall or the surveys you receive via email. (Cue dial-up...
by Jack | Nov 15, 2013 | news
Originally published in Everything Business Corp! Marketers have used focus groups to get feedback from real consumers for decades. But often, a focus group just reaffirms marketers’ beliefs or gives a distorted view of how customers really feel. The truth is that focus group research often fails — or at least fails to deliver any groundbreaking insights. What your focus group can’t tell you Because of the nature of focus groups — a small sampling of people led in a group discussion by a moderator — a focus group cannot tell you about: Benchmarking. Benchmarking allows you to better leverage your marketing or R&D dollars and uncovers extreme data points, either to avoid negative response or capitalize on positive response. Personality. You can fill your focus group with young women, but if you want to target compassionate young women, you’re going to need something other than a focus group to find them effectively. Trends. Focus groups provide you with detailed information that is frozen in time. You get a one-time snapshot of a group’s response, but this doesn’t allow you to see trends. Unaffected Responses. Probably the most significant drawback to focus groups is that the participants’ responses are greatly affected by two parties: the moderator and dominant voices. Research studies on interviewer/response bias have appeared since 1955, and the moderator’s attitudes and behavior can have a significant effect on the group. About Mattr Segment your audience in hours — not weeks or months — all without asking questions. Craft campaigns and products that appeal to their personalities and unique...
by Jack | Nov 9, 2013 | news
IMMOAFRICA.CO.ZA Stop Reacting to Others’ Real-Time ‘Moments’ and Do Your Research to Create Your Own There’s a lot of hub-bub over ‘target moments’, or ‘moment advertising’. But how much should you worry about so-called real time marketing? Is it worth the risk to your reputation and budget? You’re no doubt under a lot of pressure to spool up a team to react to these moments others create. You should re-consider. There’s good reason for you to be feeling this pressure. The reactive, real-time moments, both the wins and losses, are the ones that I seem to hear about most. Here’s a byte that had the audience tittering at a recent conference: “Advertisers aren’t looking at target markets anymore. They’re looking at target moments.” The discussion continued to talk about those real-time, opportunistic moments like when the lights went off during the Super Bowl and Oreo tweeted this: The Dunk in the Dark story Now forget the story for a moment and focus on the image and copy. What does it make you feel? If you know the story behind it (and that’s a bigger “if” than you think), you may feel envy or admiration. After all, it was a herculean effort to make this happen with such apparent ease. This was the Addy of real-time moments. Moments You Create Can Offer Far More Value Here’s another conquest from the Oreo team: How does this one make you feel? For me, I nearly teared up with pride that a major consumer brand would lead with its chin, hands-on-hips, and shout out the message of equality. They voiced a very strong...
