This blog is closing down.

As fantastic as this blog was, it has become one blog too many to manage. We’ve become “blogged down”…ha ha ha ha ha ha ..ha …ha …ha…..ha. Therefore, it will be closing down. Unfortunately, there will be no sale or party, just a very low key ride off into the sunset (assuming it’s not raining).

If anyone has a widget linked to the site please un-install. The blog will disappear at the end of May. We’ll be having one minute of silence sometime over the bank holiday at around 3am in the morning. To those who read this blog, thanks for watching; for those that didn’t you’re too late!

Should you want to keep up to speed with what we say, please visit http://karlhavard.blogspot.com or http://somatica-digital.blogspot.com

Many thanks.

If Latitude wasn’t enough, Google will allegedly soon be able to see our dreams

Google

Allegedly, Google are about to release a brand new application called Dream Catcher. Hot on the heels of the release of Latitude (the app’ you can load onto your phone and show where you are at anytime on a map) Google release Dream Catcher. This is also an app’ for the mobile phone and works via bluetooth. The aim is to place your phone under your pillow with your bluetooth enabled and wear the Google Dream catcher cap (resembling a woolly hat) whilst sleeping.

The Dream Catcher woolly hat

During your sleep, the cap which works on an EEG principle (Electroencephalography – that’s easy for you to say) monitors brain activity and transmits this to your mobile phone via bluetooth and the Dream Catcher application translates this activity into images. This is then downloaded to your PC, where you can see the sequence of images you have been dreaming about. Clever stuff hey!!

An artist's impression of the dream catcher phone

One off dream information holds very little value on its own other than intrigue, but over time this build up of information could become a marketer’s goldmine. A direct view of subconscious activity that can be used for marketing and even health/psychological purposes. Of course, it’s extremely important to remove your woolly hat once you awake. Can you imagine what it would be like if you forgot to take it off and ended up wearing it on the train? Other commuters with bluetooth capability and the Dream Catcher app could hack into your brain!! Scary.

A Google spokesperson was unable for comment. This was most probably due to the excessive snowfall in the UK.

95% of your decision making is subconscious!

I heard somewhere that psychologists estimate 95% of our decision making or more accurately our behaviour is carried out subconsciously. Flip that on its head and it means we only act consciously for 5% of the time. That is pretty scary stuff and from a marketing perspective probably means many marketing activities, especially those resulting from traditional market research, focus groups, surveys could be set for failure. 

An example of this would be the launch of a new website or online marketing campaign. Many brands, prior to going live, will test the effectiveness of their web marketing by involving people who represent their target audience, asking them for conscious feedback on what they like and don’t like. On the surface this seems very logical and should minimise the risk of the campaign or website failing. However, such testing and because it is all carried out at the conscious level, could mean the results and conclusions may not be as accurate as originally thought. There is in fact an argument to say that such testing could increase the risk of failure and lessen the return from any investment. Dominant parties involved with the testing could steer certain conclusions, and the tester (who after all will also be a human being) could also place a bias in certain areas based upon their own interpretation.

So if 95% (which is a big number) of behaviour is subconscious, how can brands test and create effective campaigns and online content that subconsciously appeals? There is a way. People’s subconscious can be measured accurately and the testing can provide extremely valuable results. However, such testing can’t explain why certain elements may be preferred over others, and the reality is…these reasons aren’t important.

My Choice of Shoes

Example – when you’re out shopping for a pair of shoes can you explain why you preferred the ones you bought over and above the many other pairs you looked at? I would suspect you genuinely can’t. You may consciously put it down to colour, style, designer brand, price, association or something else, but ultimately you bought them because you “liked” them and a whole host of things at the subconscious level were working to make you part with your money.

So Electroencephalography, or EEG is worth looking at. Organisations can utilise this technology and backed by a tried and tested methodology and extremely complicated algorithms it is possible to test how individuals react and behave to certain stimuli. This includes every sense and can therefore be used to measure the effectiveness of any brand or marketing approach, whether it is online, in store, on the phone or wherever. It can also be used to correlate the various brand touch points to provide an overall brand engagement score. Imagine how powerful that could be to benchmark the major brands in each market sector?

Granted…it’s a bit of a leap of faith to scrap the surveys, the usability testing, focus groups etc.  But why invest time and money on scoring 5%, when you can invest similar amounts to achieve 95%?

Trust Dynamics of the Web

Let’s assume you were on the Tube and became involved in a conversation with someone. Granted that such occurrences are rare, especially amongst commuters, however, for the purpose of this topic you have began a dialogue with a complete stranger. Would you trust any of the advice given to you during that conversation? Enough to go and book a holiday or buy a piece of technology? It Seems ridiculous doesn’t it. My initial instinct is “no way” but actually the reality is we do…or at least consider the options.

Transfer this conversation to an online forum, and now let’s assume you’re not even involved but just eavesdropping. In fact, you now have the ability to listen in on thousands of virtual conversations all of which can appear in the natural search rankings based around the search terms you enter. If you’re looking to buy something or make some form of online commitment you are much more likely to make a decision based upon the content and sentiment included within these conversations from unknown sources, as opposed to the brands who provide the product or service.

The web has evolved to truly provide power in numbers and the Wisdom of Crowds is something brands and experts can’t ignore. In fact, major organisations should be looking at how to enhance the relationships with their existing customers and do their utmost to create as many advocates as possible. For me this is the most sensible strategy, and most probably offers the highest potential return compared to any other form of marketing. That’s of course if the advocate is genuine… and not an impersonator. Even though there is legislation to try and prevent this, how can it be policed?