Seduction trumps rhetoric
Colm Carey reports from Esomar’s world congress held in Dublin
What have a skydiver, a champion ballroom dancer, a mixed martial arts fighter, a marathon runner and a fencing champion got in common? They are all members of Esomar and they spoke at the body’s recent world congress in Dublin. The atmosphere, combined with Indian summer weather, made for an event that promoted the best in market research thinking.
Not alone that but it also created over a thousand ambassadors for Ireland’s capital city. The recession has been bad for brands and for marketing in general. The finance crowd, some of whose peers helped get us into the mess, paradoxically became more powerful than they had been in the past. Industry’s rational brain was given free rein as firms struggled to survive. Emotion became a bad word and lost out to cost cutting, promotions and special offers. Social media and digital became cheaper ways to communicate with consumers. Followers were confused with customers as planning gave way to strategic hysteria. Sitting through some of the papers at Esomar provided evidence that marketing has rediscovered emotion.
It slipped in the back door in the guise of behavioural economics. Accounts let it in because the people pushing it had ‘economist’ on their cards. “This is Paul, the behavioural economist I was telling you about” got attention, while “this is Paul, the psychologist, anthropologist, or sociologist”, prompted a brief “whatever” as they turned back to their spreadsheets.
Back at the congress, 3Mobile’s Tom Malleschitz was explaining how a belief that seduction trumps persuasion led to a shift from message heavy to emotion filled advertising. The net result was a series of ads, notably Dancing Pony, that helped Three mobile become the UK’s fastest growing network and tripled profits between November 2012 and the end of 2014.
Decisions are made subconsciously, associatively and emotionally rather than rationally, resulting in a break out of high fives and fist bumps from the …ologists in the audience.
Talking research: To coincide with Dublin hosting the Esomar world congress, research body Aimro sponsored a reception in the Guinness Storehouse for research buyers, clients, Esomar council members and Aimro members. Pictured are Aimro chairman Richard Colwell of Red C, Maureen Van Wijk, Millward Brown and Finn Raben, director general, Esomar.
Feeling for respondents
In a study of how respondents see research, Hetta Bramley, Kristin Hickey and Vangelis Skouras of UK-based Kubi Kalloo found that in qualitative studies a moderator’s personality and approach has a big impact on how people feel about the research process. Key factors making for a good respondent experience include the moderator being relaxed and friendly.
Also, including everyone in the discussion and having clients observe in the room rather than from behind a mirror count for a lot. One in three respondents said experienced performance anxiety in viewing facilities. As to how often people should be allowed take part in focus groups, the authors challenged the view that groups work better with “fresh” respondents.
They found that people who are more familiar with how groups work are more expressive and clearer in their views. They are better listeners and better talkers and engage better with the research process. It goes against a lot of client and researcher thinking where there can often be an unrealistic demand that all groups must be made up of first time respondents.
My view is that a mix of newbies and people with some experience works best. The trio ended by saying we should stop treating consumers as naïve lab rats and start embracing them as the experts they truly are. More time should be spent explaining and encouraging involvement. We should educate our clients on the benefits of ditching the mirror.
Researchers should sell themselves as facilitators of fun experiences rather than taking our role as traditional purists so seriously. Great focus groups happen when people engage with the process and deliver useful understanding, when they go home happy, feeling respected, valued and looking forward to being asked back. That is how great groups come about.
Emotional browsing
Online shopping is a major part of lives in our always-on digital world. Andrew Consky, Steve Payne and Vicki Draper of AOL revealed a segmentation of online shopping behaviour that you might recognise in yourself. Deal browsing is where the aim is to find the best price for an item you want. Problem and solution browsing – as in looking to replace a dead laptop. Boredom browsing is just passing time because you’re bored at work or trying to avoid tackling an assignment. Dopamine browsing means looking at things you would love to have. Me browsing is when it is just about fun and entertainment. Rabbit hole browsing is where you end up on a site but can’t recall how or why you got there. Expertise browsing? It’s the art of finding things which make you seem like an expert as you share them with friends.
Boredom, dopamine and me time browsing are driven by emotional needs and represent half of all online browsing to shop moments. The AOL team conclude by encouraging marketers to be aware that much of online browsing is emotion based. Do not be lulled into thinking people are making rational decisions for rational reasons. There’s a lot of emotion out there.
Comments on this article are welcome at colm@theresearchcentre.ie
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