Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing. Scary, scary concept. Talk about an invasion of privacy! This new technology basically means that through a series of brain images, a researcher can tell what we are thinking. As a consumer, there can be no more discomforting concept than corporations gathering data about our true opinions and feelings without much trouble.

Of course, this technology is not ready yet. Gathering brain images isn't as trivial as turning on a light switch. But imagine if it was? Most stores would install a brain reading image at the entrance of their store. They could store crucial information about our shopping experience as we leave the store. Our mood as we enter it. The amount of information that can be gathered is astounding.

Remember "Minority Report", where the ads were displayed as scanners read Tom Cruise's eyes? That might be a reality some day.




Legal, ethical and moral issues aside (although there are many), technologies such as these would exacerbate the growing issues between consumers and producers. Consumers already feel bombarded with advertising, where every inch of space is being maximized for publicity as part of some campaign. Something to consider is that when introducing such a technology in the market, what's in it for the consumer? And don't say improved service - because that usually considered more of a right rather than a benefit. If there any additional advantages for a consumer, it would make it easier to adopt. Until then, all this technology would seem to satisfy is some marketer's wet dream.

The Customer That Never Was

I ended up waiting on a busy New York city street today. Right next to a Bank of America ATM branch at the corner of an extremely crowded intersection. And I didn't expect to learn a lesson in storefront dynamics.

Being on a corner, the ATM branch had two entrances and one of them was locked without any signs indicating that there was another entrance around the corner. It was an extremely crowded street due to a nearby fair and there was a steady stream of traffic into and out of the ATM vestibule. In the 30 minutes that I was waiting there - about 15 people struggled with the locked door - and 6 of them left without checking the other side. That's a loss of 6 customers who would have done some sort of a transaction.

6? No big deal, right? But take another look at the context. With restaurants, banks and similar services, when people need to avail of the service, it is usually due to something they need to get done. Replace this ATM branch with ... I don't know ... a hair clip store. And now apply the same scenario. Rarely does someone have to buy hair clips. My guess is that more people would try that locked door, not bother any further, and move on to something else. A simple sign could have minimized some of this damage, not eliminate it, because you cannot guarantee that someone will see the sign. But this example just goes to show that even before the customer has entered the store, the buying experience has begun. Make sure you are on top of your game right from the start.

A Brand of Their Own

The financial firm I work for has been going through a long and complicated acquisition with an equally large firm. The effects of these merger are still being felt after many months. The team that I work for has a new name, a new charter, new mission. However, our immediate management is still asking the question: How do we brand ourselves?

I never thought about our brand. We're an internal team - our clients are within the firm. So that question got me thinking about internal branding. Very easy to neglect, because when we think about branding - we're thinking clients, the outside world, outside the firm, outside the industry...them.

I would think there are 2 indirect benefits of internally branding your team well.

1. Visibility - I say this because a team that brands well works together to keep up a consistent image. This image, assuming its positive (because its equally easy to create a negative image), can translate to visibility and through it recognition.

2. Internal branding also can create strong work ethics. Because if you start treating other teams within the firm as you treat your clients, you can never be accused of having double standards. An internal unhappy client can do as much damage to your reputation as an external one.

It is the responsibility of higher management to identify and create these internal brands. And maintain the ones that already exist. Because, these internal brands are more tangible and more real to your employees, especially in a large organization. And because the strength of all these externally invisible mini-brands ultimately translate into success for the externally visible one.

Toggling metrics capture within web services

When creating reusable web services, if you have set up an architecture that stores metrics about every request that comes into the system there are a few traps to avoid. One of the issues our team ran into recently was when a web service called another major web service. We noted that the metrics from the inner service overwrote any metrics set by the calling web service. The work around was to reset all the metrics as they were after the inner service was called, for which a lot of redundant code had to be written.

The solution is to build a metrics toggle into your web services. This flag determines whether metrics should be recorded or not. But a big drawback is exposing such a schema to a client. If a client wanted to, they could misuse the service by setting the metrics flag - effectively rendering your metrics capture useless.

Can't think of a better solution for now. Just a reminder to not quit my day job.

The Lid is Flat

Consider the design of your shampoo bottle - more specifically, how the lid has been designed. If the lid is flat, it means that once your shampoo is running low, you can keep the bottle upside down and use the remaining bit. But if the lid is curved, then it presents a challenge. You will prop it up against something and extract the remaining, or wait patiently for small bits to fall into your hand every time, or throw away the bottle after some time.

1. Is the feature good for the business? Yes, the sooner you give up, the sooner you are a potential buyer.

2. Is the feature good for the consumer? Probably not, because it reduces convenience of use.

In the shampoo industry, brand loyalty is scarce. About 70% of shampoo consumers would switch brands if their brand was not easily available. All the more reason to eliminate any negative features. But this is an example where a feature is good for business while not being good for the consumer. Easier said than done, but such features need to be minimized to create a popular product. The fewer such features you have, the lesser the disconnect is between the wellness of business and the wellness of the consumer.

Music and advertising

A trend I've noticed with ads is to include the name of the song being played during the commercial in one of the corners. An example is the GEICO commercial with the cavemen, with Three Doors Down playing in the background. This is just another way to create mental links between the product and the audience.

One of the primary goals of adverts is to associate the product with the different senses. An ad can be considered a success when unrelated events can make a consumer think of a product. Heineken has sponsored the UEFA Champions league - a premier European football (soccer) tournament for a few seasons. In this commercial, all the elements come together - the music, the colors, the sport and the beer. Football fans might just find their throats getting a little parchy upon hearing that theme song. Popularity can also be garnered through catchy jingles. How many times have you found yourself humming the Kit Kat song? "Gimme a break, gimme a break, break me off a piece of that....."

So why put the name of the song blatantly during the commercial? One negative is that it takes away the attention of your audience, however momentarily. But the advantage is that it works for the lazy, quick-fix, short-attention span TV audience of today. We know that if we know the name of a song, a download is probably just a click or two away. And especially by gearing the ads towards a younger audience, you can create an association with not only fans of that band, but along with the fans of that genre of music.

For a marketer, it is as much of a success if the audience doesn't pay attention to the product but pays attention to the song. With repetition, and some luck, those Three Doors Down fans might be buying some car insurance.

Marketing in a tough economy

Economic conditions affect marketing and advertising in very interesting ways. Seth Godin's piece on value fractions brought to mind the subtle difference between benefit and perceived benefit. Given the simplistic equation: value = benefit/price, in tough economic times, there are two options for staying afloat. Reduce price or increase benefit. But most times, it isn't cheap to increase benefit. And especially for products that do not have a pool of resources to dive into - it's more economical to increase perceived benefit.

Push your marketers to the limit and squeeze the most you can out of the benefits your product offers. If possible, add a few really simple and cheap add-ons to your product - especially if it increases the perceived benefit to the consumer. Products that have multiple features have a leg up on the competitions. For example - I own a camcorder that is also a camera and an mp3 player. I don't know why I bought it, it's a piece of junk. But if marketed correctly, such a product can be attractive to consumers looking to save some money in tough economic times.

Advertising Chrome

So, Google's coming out with their first ad on TV:

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=136536

From an advertising point of view, there are so many unconventional and fascinating things about Google. They don't need to have a large advertising budget due to the inherent nature of their product. But it is still a brand, and the image must be maintained. Google has done so - through a series of well positioned products and choosing the right domains at the right time to spread into.

Before Google, search engines were not something you thought about often. I remember using MSN Search and AskJeeves when I first started browsing the internet. However, I do not remember when I first started using Google or when I heard about them. But before I knew it, it was an integral online tool for me. I think it's the same story with many other consumers and it just goes to show how quiet efficiency has its benefits. Google has tremendous brand potential. And you know you have brand power, when consumers go from "Just search for it on Google" to "Just google it". The focus shifts from the function to the tool in that phrase and we need to appreciate the power behind it.

Much of the advertising is focussed on Chrome and I think it's because the browser is not catching on as quickly as anticipated. From a personal experience, Chrome was a nice and easy to use browser. However, I think it's extremely difficult to get a user to switch browsers. People can be very comfortable with the browser they use, regardless of the disadvantages. One need not look further than IE. Even with its terrible flaws, the most powerful thing IE has going for it, is that for most people it is the first browser they learned to use. There is a large (and older) generation of users that prefer IE and especially with older consumers who are not computer savvy - it becomes very difficult to teach them how to use a new browser.

Then you have the generation of consumers that have figured out that there are better browsers than IE - like Firefox, Opera, Safari - to name a few. I probably fall into this category. For me, even though I know Firefox has some flaws, I continue to use it because I like the different search toolbars and plugins. I have an IE plugin installed at work - so even though I use Firefox I can see most of the IE-only pages rendered correctly. These plugins have me hooked onto using Firefox and it would be extremely difficult for me to adopt Chrome.

Google is trying to envelope their brand around the web browser category and establish an identity for the product. I have a feeling, even though they dominate the online application category - they would find desktop applications much more challenging to dominate. As an example, one can see how long Google Earth took to catch on and even now it faces stiff competition from Microsoft. I've heard talk of a Google OS - and how there might be one available by 2010. It would be interesting to see how much marketing is done for that - and how the desktop is positioned internally with respect to the other products.

One of the biggest advantages is that this strong brand will definitely have early adopters for any new products they try and launch. There are plently of consumers who are completely "sold" by the Google identity. Their loyalty will spurt a quick market distribution as they would talk, blog, and dissect every aspect of the product, giving it even more free air time. That in itself, makes Google a strong contender and I am anxious to see which pie they put their fingers in next.

As far as Chrome goes, only time will tell how a more aggressive marketing campaign will affect usage. But it's definitely a shift in terms of how previous products were "advertised". Maybe, this is the beginning of a new era of marketing for Google, where the brand will actually begin to flex it's muscles. For marketers, it is an important lesson in how to build a strong brand identity before recognizing your brand potential.

Getting Data From Your Customer

In one of my part time marketing classes, we were going over the different ways that companies get information about their consumers. You know the usual suspects, they make you get a store card, give you discounts, but track what you purchase. Or they offer you the chance to win a prize when you complete a short questionnaire. But I feel a lot of these methods are very invasive, in that they intercept a consumer when they're in the middle of something more important to them. For example, if I'm in the line paying for my groceries, I could care less about some survey.

"For the last time, I do not want a Duane Reade card! Tell me how much I owe you, so I can get out of here! "

"No, I will not taste that yogurt, I don't care how much fiber it has. By the way, your commercials are terrible."

There must be a way to get data from your consumers without harassing them or interfering with their lives. Brain implants, anyone? No? Then maybe the next best thing we can do, is bring the consumer to us, when they have the time, and more importantly, the inclination to voice their opinion. How's this for an idea? I go to ShopRite - near the entrance there are a bunch of computer terminals. If I want, I can go over to the terminal, browse a simple user friendly screen, pick the products that interest me, and fill out some short surveys. I get a nice little coupon for those products in return. The more surveys I complete, the more coupons I get.

It sounded like a great idea to me, but I'm wondering what is so wrong with it that it hasn't been done yet. There must be some obvious flaw I'm not seeing. Is it too expensive to maintain such terminals, when compared to the amount of information you can gain from it? Possible. There are definitely some factors that would hamper the use of such a tool.

1. Time - This caters to only those consumers that have the time to spare. What about the ones that don't. If supermarkets don't offer a discount to them, they will just go to another chain that does- with the hassle.

2. Demographic skew - Economically speaking, the data might end up being captured from the portion of the general population that depend on discounts. Families that do not have money to spare and for whom every penny saved counts. The terminal does not guarantee data capture from the entire spectrum of shoppers. For a marketer that is a handicap. It's equivalent to telling a baseball player she/he is only allowed to hit the ball to left field and nowhere else. And they must wear an eye patch while doing so.

3. Physical limitations - The unit will take up space. And in busy locations, there is a possibility that queues could form.

Yep, definitely has some drawbacks. But the first two of these drawbacks happen anyway. The advantage that a physical terminal gives is that it's not the lazy way out. As marketers increasingly rely on online and mobile tools - it makes it easier for them to push the work out to these tools and then perform the number crunching on that collected data. The advantage such a terminal gives is that users can fill out longer surveys with more meaningful information in them. And if you offer discounts, people will try and get them. I have once been driven by a obsessed friend, to three different Shop-and-Stops and bought 8 boxes of tea from each of them, just because they had an attractive discount.

Besides gathering more meaningful information, it also shows responsible marketing. Offer the discounts like a service a consumer might want to avail of, instead of forcing them to sign up for things they do not want to. Who knows, you might actually develop a healthy relationship with your consumer.

Finally, such a terminal can be packaged in a generic form - such that any brand can sign up to participate - for a fee. For supermarkets, this would generate revenue through a subscription service. They could also tie in additional features to the terminal - like once a product coupon is printed out - the ticket indicates which aisle they can find the product in. For completed surveys, the terminal could also suggest other products the user might want to rate/try. The terminal could also be a launching pad for test products and a cheap way to buy some market awareness. For brands that usually don't offer discounts, the advantages of such a service could finally tempt them to. For consumers, here is one place to get your coupons in exchange for your time and opinions.

The idea has some merits and is worth considering. Capturing data from your consumers is very important to marketers. But perhaps a less aggressive approach should be considered, where the power is in the hands of the consumer. Consumer saves money. Marketer gets data. And the consumer chose to give it.

Responsible Marketing - why it's needed.

We live in a time when consumerism has a negative connotation. Who would have ever thought that too many choices would be a bad thing? But just as new technologies come up to market better to customers, there are ways for them to avoid the bombardment. Do Not Call lists, spam filters, TiVo - advertising free media is becoming increasingly popular.

Most forms of advertising is treated as noise these days. Advertising on web pages is as ubiquitous (and ignored) as the air we breathe. Which is why a new form of web advertising is to open a huge annoying pop-up that covers the entire page. Until you explicitly click on close, you will be subjected to flashy gimmicky messages. Marketers are getting increasingly aggressive and invasive. This causes consumers to think twice before subjecting themselves to any form of advertising that they can avoid. In such a distrustful environment, it makes sense to win back the consumers through responsible marketing. Obviously, so far this does not make business sense or it would have happened already. But there are technical advances that abet this - until it will be more profitable to advertise less.

The voice of the consumer is louder than ever. With the advancement of internet technologies and online applications, the opinion of one person counts for much more than it did five years ago. I could have a blog that condemns brand X and praises brand Y. I could post my opinion on "n" number of sites and I could post YouTube videos stating the same. This doesn't necessarily mean that companies need to re-strategize to appease me, but it does mean that if my opinion is heard, like-minded consumers could combine to create a more damaging effect. Viral marketing and word-of-mouth advertising are popular again.

The result of these technological advances is that it has created a new type of consumer. A consumer that has easy access to a large amount of information. Now, this information may not always be correct, but that's a wildcard. The point is that, once a product has created enough buzz, the marketing process needs to adjust accordingly - which means, maintaining that excitement. Build the loyal consumer base and then let them do your work for you.

At this point, two questions come to mind 1. How does one build that loyal base? 2. What if you don't have a good product?

Unfortunately, I think responsible marketing does not cater to either of these cases. If you are a newcomer, or just trying to scam as many people as you can, you aren't really looking for the "right" thing to do. A newcomer's focus would be capturing market share and spreading as much of the word about the brand as possible. A scammer's focus would be on reaching out to as many targets as possible, in order to milk the select few that fall for the scam. The focus for these two groups clash against the principles behind responsible marketing.

Responsible marketing falls on the shoulders of the well established brands, that have entrenched themselves in our lives and do not need to worry about where to make the next quick buck. These brands are here to stay. It is their responsibility to lead the way, because, frankly, they can afford to. The Cokes and the Pepsis and the McDonalds don't need to pepper us with extraordinary amounts of advertising. We'll still eat the billion hamburgers and wash it down with the billion sodas. Such firms need to take a step back - consumers will do their work for them. Their target audience reflects their loyalties more than ever - they will get the word out.

For the big powerhouses, responsible marketing would constitute lesser interference with their consumer base. Let them come to the product rather than harass them with unending broadcasts. However, the real question is what constitutes responsible marketing? And that is a far more difficult and complex question to answer.

Introduction, disclaimers and all that fun stuff

The "consumer". A google search result yields 291 million results. Everything from the definition to credit counseling to consumer alerts to books to blogs. The list is endless. And for marketers, and anyone who wants to own a successful business, the purpose is the same: to understand the consumer. What does the consumer want? Billions are spent every year, in research, to answer that very question. So for this blog and for this author, to attempt the same seems naive and frankly ridiculous.

So I will keep my task simple. I'd like to begin by taking stock of what I do know and then predict the direction in which consumerism is headed. Through my experiences I would like to suggest ways in which marketing can be improved, from the ground level up. Finally, as a budding marketer and more importantly as a consumer, I'd like to explore methods of marketing to consumers without stressing or overloading them.

The posts are as much for me as for the reader because through them I want to explore these fuzzy ideas I have almost everyday. Some of them may have merit, while the flawed ones would only improve and refine the things that we can collectively learn from ourselves and consumerism in society. The line separating a producer from a consumer is becoming increasingly blurry these days, and it would be a socially responsible of us to understand our role in this change. But, that is a discussion for another day. For now, welcome and I hope you enjoy the posts.