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Tag Archives: emotional mind
Underestimate Emotion at Own Risk
In this interview, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings concludes that his mistake reflected “arrogance” and “underestimating the emotional attachment to Netflix” among Netflix customers. His answer highlights two important points relative to MindSight®. Emotion is critical to brand building and business decisions, such as price increases, are fraught with emotion. Companies like Netflix ignore this at their peril. “Arrogance” is not an option. The good news is that MindSight® can identify the emotional intensity and explain the motivations driving customers to brands like Netflix – and can do so quickly, cost effectively and with thousands of globally dispersed respondents. It’s not that customers won’t expect or ever accept price increases. They do and will if it’s handled correctly. MindSight®can help companies correctly understand the emotional attachments customers have to their brand, providing guidance about how to better manage rollouts like the Netflix one and avoid fiascos.
Mobile Marketing in the Modern World
With the rise of smartphone usage among adults in the U.S. providing instant access to all types of media, marketing researchers are realizing the potential for gauging consumer opinions directly before, during, or after a purchase. In contrast, traditional online surveys rely on respondents’ memories of using or purchasing a product/service; depending on how long ago that purchase was made, the accuracy of responses can decline as memories fade. For example, if respondents are asked to think about the last time that they purchased toothpaste and it was over a week ago, they probably won’t remember where it was purchased, why it was purchased, or how much they spent on it. However, if respondents are asked this on their smartphones immediately after purchasing toothpaste, they should be able to answer survey questions more accurately since the purchase is still fresh in their minds. The prospect of gaining more accurate survey data “in the moment” is thus very compelling.
However, with this new way of reaching respondents, a new set of challenges have arisen such as privacy laws, data/texting charges, and system compatibility issues with the numerous types of smartphones. How to make sense of it all?
That’s where the Mobile Marketing Research Association (MMRA) comes in. In January of 2012, the MMRA launched with the mission to “unite and serve the industry in developing best practices, professional standards and ethics regarding the use of mobile devices for marketing research.” One way in which the MMRA practices this goal is by hosting the Market Research in the Mobile World conference, which unites market research professionals around the globe in order to share new insights and technologies related to mobile marketing, in addition to building best practices and a vision for the future. This year’s conference is being held on April 18th and 19th in Amsterdam. If you plan to attend, check out David Forbes’ session entitled “Developing a mobile platform tool for assessing consumer emotional states in target lifestyle moments,” where he’ll discuss applying MindSight technology to smartphones as a way of determining consumer emotions right at the point of purchase.
To learn more about the Market Research in the Mobile World conference, check out http://www.mrmw.net/.
Be sure to check out the recent launch of MindSight Mobile.
Does a Parent Deserve a Massage More Than a Non-Parent?
By Ric Dube
Clearly, our stage of life says something about the products we consume. I rarely shopped at the home improvement superstore until I became a homeowner, from which moment I grew as familiar with its aisles as any of the store’s clerks. More familiar, in fact, than a few of them.
When we buy gifts for others, what we choose to give inevitably echoes our life stage because the kinds of people we care about and their respective interests and priorities relate directly to factors such as our age, marital and family status, and home ownership. For example, it makes intuitive sense that parents buy more toys than non-parents because they’re the shoppers with kids. But what do non-parents buy more of?
We asked more than 2,000 holiday shoppers what kinds of gifts they planned to buy this season (details below). As predicted, the majority of those who said they are shopping for “toys and games” have kids at home, although these shoppers were also more likely to say they gave “power tools” and “perfume.”
Sourece: Forbes Consulting Group Holiday Shopping Survey, December 2011
Meanwhile, shoppers without kids were more likely to shop for “gourmet foods,” “specialty alcohol” and services such as “massages and spa days.” Why are shoppers without kids more likely to give a gift of self-focused indulgence than those with kids?
Forbes Consulting officially launches MindSight®
Forbes Consulting is proud to announce the availability of MindSight®, an innovative research technology that identifies and explains the specific subconscious emotions motivating consumers and professionals to buy. MindSight® can be used in small, qualitative studies as well as large-scale, quantitative studies with thousands of globally dispersed respondents. It delivers real-time results, cost-effectively, and can be deployed on mobile devices.
Dr. David Forbes Presents at PMRG
On October 18, 2011 at the PMRG Institute David Forbes, Ph.D., presented “Accessing the Emotional Brain: Non-Verbal Motivational Mapping.” In a well-attended session, Dr. Forbes discussed MindSight®, Forbes Consulting’s revolutionary technique for accessing and explaining authentic respondent emotions in qualitative or quantitative research. The talk included a case study showing MindSight® in action in a physician research study where MindSight® uncovered important emotional areas that traditional research techniques – including projective techniques – had not. MindSight® then helped identify the positioning statement that best spoke to these dominant emotions. The session concluded with a live interactive demo involving members of the audience utilizing MindSight® , allowing audience members to witness the technique in action.
It was an honor to be part of the PMRG Conference and we look forward to working with the organization in the future.
Dr. Forbes discussing the MindSight Discovery Window.
Detail of The MindSight Discovery Window.
Fun with . . . Words and Their Feelings
It’s been said that fear leads to anger but which words truly capture the difference between fear and anger?
Words that score highest in anger while lowest in fear are often descriptions objectionable people (snob, pest), while in contrast the words that score highest in fear and lowest in anger are more likely to be things that happen or places (tornado, ski-jump).
Get Below the Surface & Uncover Core Emotions
The Emotional Mind
By David Forbes, Ph.D.
Why do consumers “really” think and act as they do? We have long known that the deep seated emotional centers of the human mind generate the most powerful motivational forces driving consumer behavior. Traditional market research, however, has historically only accessed the conscious intellectual layers of the consumer mind. The desire to learn about the emotions that “really” control behavior are largely unfulfilled.
Two barriers confront the market researchers in this quest. First, consumers are often unaware consciously of these deep-seated emotional forces. As St. Augustine wrote in the thirteenth century, “I cannot grasp all that I am.” His insight remains true of consumers today. Consumers today are no more able to grasp the motivations that arise from emotional centers of the brain that work below the level of consciousness than St. Augustine was; in the language of pop psychology, consumers are “out of touch” with their feelings on the issues important to marketers. Second, consumers are often unwilling to share their emotions with market research professionals, even when they are able to consciously access and articulate their emotions. Rare is the respondent who is willing to share reasons for behavior that might make them seem frivolous or irrational.
