Tag Archives: Research

July 15, 2014 · 11:07 am

I Need To Know

I was reading about a study done by the Nielsen folks which measured how people are influenced by different sources of information.

Tom Petty

Since it’s Tuesday and we usually turn it into TunesDay, the song that popped into my head is Tom Petty‘s “I Need To Know.” OK, maybe not my best musical connection to a business point ever, but I think you’ll see why I chose it.

The Nielsen/inPowered MediaLab study measured the impact of product reviews by users, experts and brands to understand if one form provided a higher impact with consumers than another.  You can read about the study here.  The results show that expert content— credible, third-party articles and reviews—is the most effective source of information in impacting consumers along all stages of the purchase process across product categories. Frankly, the results gave me hope.  After all, many of the marketing tactics I see suggested by some of my less scrupulous peers seem not to have the sort of impact their advocates would suggest.  Advertising disguised as content, fake reviews, or even “unbiased” product information on the company website seem to have been sussed out and dismissed by consumers if one believes the data.  I particularly liked this:

The perceived partiality of the source was especially critical in setting expert content and branded content apart. The third-party element was important to consumers: 50% indicated that they wouldn’t trust a product’s branded website for an unbiased assessment of a product, and 61% were less likely to trust product reviews paid for by the company selling the product. Expert content can provide an unbiased and honest assessment of a product, particularly important during the final stage of purchase consideration.

There are cases such as with video game reviews where user comments and reviews are perceived highly.  Obviously someone who has played the game has the low-level of expertise needed to be reliable and trustworthy.  As the report I read states:

The report concludes by noting that, overall, the research suggests that there is a higher degree of trust from consumers when they are reading content from credible, third-party experts. This trust is demonstrated by the higher lift scores with regard to product familiarity, affinity and purchase intent and its perception of being highly informative and unbiased.

So what the song says is appropriate because consumers do need to know and do a lot of research to find out:

I need to know, I need to know
Cause I don’t know how long I can hold on
If you’re making me wait, if you’re leadin’ me on
I need to know

Even if the above refers to a romantic relationship and not to a purchase.  Then again, isn’t that sort of what a product purchase is?

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May 14, 2014 · 8:12 am

Love It Hate It

We all have people with whom we have a love-hate relationship.

"No Mom, I can't explain this any more cl...

(Photo credit: colorblindPICASO)

Maybe that starts with our parents as we’re becoming adults or maybe it’s with that dear friend who constantly drives you nuts.  We extend this sort of relationship to inanimate objects as well; technology specifically.  I want to ramble on about people and tech for a second but I think you’ll find that it has implications for your business as well.

A question for you to begin.  If you left your cell phone at home and discovered you had done so, would you be willing to turn around and go get it or could you get through the day without it?  A survey by the USC Annenberg Center for the Digital Future and Bovitz, Inc. found that nearly one‐third of respondents said if they left home without their mobile device, they would return for it no matter how much time was needed to get it.  Only 23% said they’d never go back.  Technology has become indispensable in most of our lives.  We love it.  Turns out we hate it too.

Those same folks did another survey and found that

  • Thirty-one percent said technology has made it harder to separate their work and personal lives.
  • Twenty-six percent said they are stressed because technology has made them always on call for work.
  • Twenty-five percent report they struggle to figure out new technology.
  • Twenty-one percent said being accessible through a mobile device has made their lives more stressful.
  • Twenty percent said they frequently resent having to work at home because of what technology makes possible.
  • Sixteen percent said their personal lives have suffered because of technology in their work lives

Yet we’d go back for the phone.  It’s become an addiction of sorts although there are a lot of positives too.  People are able to do more in less time with their technology.  We have more time for family and friends because technology enables us to do work from anywhere.  The broader point is this.

If we can provide a product that offers benefits which far exceed the potential downsides, we’re going to be in it for the long haul.  One could argue that many pharmaceuticals stay on the market for exactly that reason despite a laundry list of nasty side effects.  Smoking is vanishing for the same reason – the downsides far outweighs the positives.  I don’t think the device manufacturers have figured that out yet.  A Harris Poll found that more people find technology too distracting than in prior surveys and fewer say they find it has improved the overall quality of their lives.  Fewer think technology enhances their social lives and the proportion who say it has improved their relationships with their family decreased.  Maybe they need to rethink marketing?

It’s ok to engage in a love-hate relationship with your customer provided, of course, that your product becomes as indispensable to their lives as mobile devices have.  How are you going to make that happen?

 

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April 2, 2014 · 10:17 am

Where Are We Going?

I like smart people and I really like when smart people get together and have a think about things which interest me.

Internet!

(Photo credit: LarsZi)

That happened recently as the folks at the Pew Research Center, and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center set up an online survey to look at the future of the Internet, the Web, and other digital activities. This is the first of eight reports based on a canvassing of hundreds of experts about the future of such things as privacy, cybersecurity, the “Internet of things,” and net neutrality. In this case they asked experts to make their own predictions about the state of digital life by the year 2025.  It’s an interesting document, an overview of which you can read here and which is available in its entirety at this link.

This is a summary of what they found:

To a notable extent, the experts agree on the technology change that lies ahead, even as they disagree about its ramifications. Most believe there will be:

  • A global, immersive, invisible, ambient networked computing environment built through  the continued proliferation of smart sensors, cameras, software, databases, and massive data centers in a world-spanning information fabric known as the Internet of Things.
  • “Augmented reality” enhancements to the real-world input that people perceive through the use of portable/wearable/implantable technologies.
  • Disruption of business models established in the 20th century (most notably impacting  finance, entertainment, publishers of all sorts, and education).
  • Tagging, databasing, and intelligent analytical mapping of the physical and social realms.

As one expert summed it up rather elegantly, information sharing over the Internet will be so effortlessly interwoven into daily life that it will become invisible, flowing like electricity, often through machine intermediaries.  But is that a good thing?

I consider myself pretty “wired.”  To the extent I’m not using a technology or am blocking data access, it’s by choice.  I’m not entirely comfortable with the value proposition – my data/personal information/behavioral habits in exchange for whatever it is you’re selling.  Of course I know that proposition is just an extension of the media value proposition – my attention in exchange for entertainment.  But if you’ve read anything about the data collection business (never mind what governments are doing!) you know that there is way too much room for abuse and error, both of which will have a negative impact that negates any value received in my mind.

I recognize I might be of a generation that doesn’t “get it.”  Or maybe we do, since “1984″ was required reading long before the year 1984.  While one of the slogans of the Party is “Ignorance Is Strength” I don’t believe that for a second.  It’s all a matter of what knowledge – data – is owned by whom.  And that, dear readers, is something to ponder.  Will you?

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