Posts Tagged ‘psychographics’

Facing forward

Friday, May 29th, 2009

Traditional methods of market segmentation will never truly hit every person just right. Using dated behavioral information is like looking in the rear view mirror. Instead, the focus should be on anticipating what a visitor wants and what will make them act. What’s going to happen NEXT for them. 

When you look at your traffic as a whole you can make gross calculations. However, just because you have your average doesn’t mean it translates to every single person, even if they fall within the same demographic. Changes that will improve conversion and usability for one group will typically have a negative impact on another group. 

The reason most testing solutions struggle to reach a high testing number is because the biggest variable in the whole equation is the person and their psychology. Viewed that way it makes perfect sense. It’s not the red button versus the green button, but what KIND of people you have going through the test.

So how do you take each type of person and optimize just for them? The answer is being able to isolate each type of person based on their unique DNA, profile, and run tests that are only looking at like-minded people. Suddenly there’s not a lot of statistical deviation because we’ve just taken the biggest variable out of the equation. 

In the end, what matters most is their intent. It’s their DNA, why they’re here in this precise moment, how they think, and what purchase model they prefer. These things matter a lot more than traditional demographics.

Add to Del.cio.us RSS Feed Add to Technorati Favorites Stumble It!
   www.sajithmr.com

Headspace

Friday, May 22nd, 2009

What we know of other people is only our memory of the moments during which we knew them. And they have changed since then. To pretend that they and we are the same is a useful and convenient social convention which must sometimes be broken. We must also remember that at every meeting we are meeting a stranger. ~T.S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party

We change. Constantly. Every experience, big or small, alters who we are, and our frame of mind in any given situation. So as marketers, how do we effectively understand such a moving target? Demographics can offer up objective facts - person X lives in the midwest and recently bought a truck - but the bigger question remains elusive and unanswered - WHY did they buy it? What was their headspace in that precise moment that led them to the purchase? 

Let’s look at another example. It’s late in the afternoon and a young businesswoman, needing a distraction after a long meeting, decides to peruse the sales section of her favorite online retailer. She doesn’t get paid for another week, so she doesn’t intend to buy anything right now, but picturing herself in that new sundress puts her in a good mood.

When she gets home that evening, she’s pleasantly surprised by a substantial tax refund, and immediately thinks of the dress. She goes back to the retailer, selects the dress, and with the unexpected money burning a hole in her pocket, adds shoes and a matching handbag to her shopping cart. 

These behavioral changes are subtle, yet powerful. Many solutions attempt to test behavioral attributes in an effort to better understand intent, but as you can see from the example above, unless the data is captured in real-time, it’s already outdated. This is where magnify360 steps in.

Our Predictive DNA technology is able to analyze attitudes, motivations, personality characteristics and belief systems in the moment, at the micro level. It gets in the headspace of every single visitor,  identifies their psychographic DNA, if you will, to present them with a truly unique browsing experience.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Predictive DNA serves as a closed-loop research engine. It’s smart technology that learns from a person’s on site behavior; adapting content, page layout and flow to offer up only the most optimized experience for who the person is in the moment.

Just like you. Over the course of reading this, your mood may have shifted, you may be getting hungry, your phone might be ringing, you’re about to face heavy traffic… People change. 

In ending, Ancient Greek Philosopher Heraclitus said it best. “No man steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.”

 

Add to Del.cio.us RSS Feed Add to Technorati Favorites Stumble It!
   www.sajithmr.com