May11 |
 As one of the participants wrote his friends... Howdy folks, I know you’re all super busy, but I’d like 5 minutes of your time to review this email as we have an upcoming opportunity for some great training. We’re setting up a training session with Joseph Carrabis, a brilliant thinker and tool creator in the online research space. He’s currently the chief research scientist for NextStage Evolution, a company focused on creating tools and training marketers in a variety of techniques that drive more effective web experiences. He is also a Sr Research Fellow at USC Annenberg's Center for the Digital Future who holds multiple patents, and also claims to be a fairly good cook (and I can confirm he’s also definitely a funny guy, don’t tell him I said so though). Joseph will be in Toronto the week of July 23-27 2012 and we’ll be able to attend some of Joseph’s amazing in-person training. Here’s the three topics that may be of interest: - Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less Two Day Training– This course is great for account managers, marketers, anyone who presents information – S___ has already taken this course and used what she learned at this year's conferences and it literally “blew” her mind. Imagine knowing exactly what someone is thinking when giving a presentation and being able to change your approach to be more effective on the fly.
- Mastering Push and Pull -- Crafting Information that Causes Action One Day Training– This is a great writing workshop for copywriters and information architects – basically this is training on using neuroscience to more highly target your copy to drive more action.
- NextStage OnSite Training – This class is for marketers, planners and creative - NSOS is a NextStage tool which when installed on a website can generate huge amounts of insight into what people are actually thinking when they are on the site based on a variety of factors (mouse movement, click paths, location etc.), and how to improve to site to accomplish your goals. It’s all automatic and must be seen to be believed. Much of the course is applying what the tool reports to actual site modifications, so even if you're not using NSOS currently the training will cause lots of lightbulbs to go off and give you lots of ideas as to where to apply NextStage tools and how to pitch them (and Joseph will offer some thoughts on improving sites people offer for review at the end of the class. That alone is worth the price of admission. Conferences bring Joseph and NextStage in to hold private trainings for high-roller attendees every year and charge them $$BIGBUCKS$$ to attend his sessions. See comments).
Pricing is on the Toronto BootCamp page. This should be in range of many people’s PDSA budgets and NextStage is offering deep discounts for people who sign up before 18 May, 29 June, and also in groups. It's nice to know we're loved. And see you all in Toronto 23-27 July 2012. Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter.  Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed  .
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Dec10 |
 I received an email from a friend and am posting it here. Please do what you can, folks, and with my thanks. Even better, I'll provide a free 15 minute phone analysis of your site for all verified donations of 100$CN or more. We charge 400$US/hr for consulting and we can get a lot done in 15 minutes, so this could be quite valuable to those with an interest.
Asking for help does not come easily to me. But ask I must. Over the next three days, my friends Frazier and Mark at Puck's Farm must raise $6,000 to keep the financial wolves at bay, the padlock off the door, and the hydro to the barn and house on. This is stop-gap measure to get us to our grand plan for bringing in young farmers to take over the farm, raise the animals, cultivate the fields, and assume the lease.  Meantime, animals must be fed, and there are bills that cannot be stalled any longer. Please consider making a contribution to Puck's Farm between now and Monday. Make a direct bank transfer to pucks farm via "frazier (at) pucksfarm (dot) com or if you prefer you can donate through DUO.CA's PayPal account. Time is tight -- by Thursday it may be too late. Thanks in advance for your help and support. I appreciate it! p.s. Please know that everything Mark and Frazier have has been put into the farm to keep it going to this point. Please feel free to forward this request and/or share on social media.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences: - F**k Privacy: Neuromarketing is the Web's Future at SXSW 2012
Come on by and say hello. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Oct17 |
Know More:
Behavioral, Consumer Psychology, Cultural Marketing, Marketing, NextStageology, Online Anthropology, Prediction Markets, Decision Markets, Information Markets, Psychology, Rich Personae, Sociology, Web Analytics
 Long, long ago, NextStage's tagline was "Learn How the World Thinks...Now!". We were quite happy with that as a tag line because it exemplifies the basis of what NextStage did then and does now, make human thought marketably actionable. I'll admit we were taken aback when prospects heard our pitch -- it hasn't changed much -- and responded, "Why would I want to know what my customers think?" A response we heard almost as much was "Why should I care what my customers think?" Well, it turns out what we offered then we still offer now, then it was free, now it's for pay (just letting you know ahead of time, although we believe it's pretty inexpensive) -- You can learn how the world (or select parts of it) thinks now for only US$39.99/run. Ten years ago nobody was interested. Now they are. Perhaps there's more interest in learning how the world -- or at least different regions of it -- think now. Or at least how the world was thinking in the last twenty-four hours (because that's how often the tool updates). In any case, you can go to the NextStage SampleMatch World Report and see how people are thinking in different countries that we're monitoring. NextStage's SampleMatch Tool uses data collected by NextStage OnSite to determine how people are thinking, how they'll behave and what motivates them. As I write this, these tools are reporting on more than 70 countries. Whoa! One fascinating thing we've discovered so far is that the majority of people around the world use what we call a V14 Personality Style (you can learn more about these designations in the links below). That V14 hasn't changed in the time we've been betaing the tool (about three months). What does change fairly regularly are the secondary, tertiary and less used Personality Styles. The secondary and tertiary change at least once a week, and the Personality Styles representing lesser populations shift little. It is an oddity. You can also get an idea of how many individual locations NextStage's SampleMatch Tool is analyzing on NextStage SampleMatch's About page. Right now, for example, we're providing results for Albania through Ho Chi Minh City, Lam Dong, Viet Nam. NextStage SampleMatch's function is to provide marketing and creative people actionable design data by region. Imagine yourself sitting in a mall watching people walking past and making highly accurate decisions about how each person shops, decides what to buy, what kinds of things trigger their interest, etc., and you get an idea of how NextStage's SampleMatch works. And before I forget, the information can also be provided by zip/postal code, gender, age and industry, if desired. So go take a look and let us know what you think. Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Links for this post: Upcoming Trainings: Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Sep13 |
 A month or so back I published When it's OK to confuse your customers on iMediaConnection and I'm grateful for the response. Several readers wrote me asking for a bibliography. Here I present a general reading list for information on the power of confusion, deception, marketing, psychology and their intersection. Enjoy!
Adam, S.; Mulye, R., Deans, K.; Palihawadana, D. 2001 A Three Country Comparison of Internet Marketing, . , Massey University, Auckland, NZ
Basu, Sudipta; Dickhaut, John; Hecht, Gary; Towry, Kristy; Waymire, Gregory 2009 27 Jan Recordkeeping alters economic history by promoting reciprocity, .Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences V 106 , I 4 , DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811967106
Carrabis, Joseph 2006 Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History, V 1 , Northern Lights Publishing , Scotsburn, NS
Edvardsson, Bo; Gustafsson, Anders; 2007 Analysis Of Triggers For Customer Switching Path - A Case Study At Volvo Car Corporation, . , Karlstad University , Karlstad University
Fehr, Ernst 2002 17 Jan The economics of impatience, .Nature V 415 , I 6869 , DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/415269a
Fehr, Ernst 2004 15 Apr The productivity of failures, .Nature V 428 , I 6984 , DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/428701a
Kahan, Dan 2010 21 Jan Fixing the communications failure, .Nature V 463 , I 7279 , DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/463296a
Krajbich, Ian; Camerer, Colin; Ledyard, John; Rangel, Antonio 2009 23 Oct Using Neural Measures of Economic Value to Solve the Public Goods Free-Rider Problem, .Science V 326 , I 5952
Layard, Richard 2010 19 Jan Measuring Subjective Well-Being, .Science V 327 , I 5965
Liat Goldfarb, Avishai Henik, 2006 Feb New Data Analysis of the Stroop Matching Task Calls for a Reevaluation of Theory, .Psychological Science V 17 , I 2 , DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01670.x
Masum, Hassan; Zhang, Yi-Cheng 2008 Manifesto for the Reputation Society, .First Monday
McCabe, Kevin; Houser, Daniel; Ryan, Lee; Smith, Vernon; Trouard, Theodore 2001 25 Sep A functional imaging study of cooperation in two-person reciprocal exchange, .Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America V 98 , I 20 , DOI: 10.1073/pnas.211415698
McNamara, John M.; Barta, Zoltan; Houston, Alasdair I. 2004 15 Apr Variation in behaviour promotes cooperation in the Prisoner's Dilemma game, .Nature V 428 , I 6984 , DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature02432
Merrilees, Bill; Miller, Dale; 2007 Antecedents Of Brand-Personality In Australian Retailing: An Exploratory Study, , Griffith University
O'Cass, Aron; Julian, Craig; 2001 Fashion Clothing Consumption: Studying The Effects Of Materialistic Values, Self-Image/ Product-Image Congruency Relationships, Gender And Age On Fashion Clothing Involvement, 8 Pages, , Griffith University Gold Coast
Oswald, Andrew J.; Wu, Stephen 2010 29 Jan Objective Confirmation of Subjective Measures of Human Well-Being: Evidence from the U.S.A., .Science V 327 , I 5965
Schulz, Don E.; 2009 Spring Solving Marketing Problems with an Integrated Process, .International Journal of Integrated Marketing Communications V 1 , I 1
Shaikh, A. Dawn; Fox, Doug; Chaparro, Barbara S. 2007 Jan The Effect of Typeface on the Perception of Email, .Usability News (Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University) V 9 , I 1
Shaikh, A. Dawn; Chaparro, Barbara S.; Fox, Doug; 2009 Oct The Personality of Terms and Concepts Used in Online Material, .Usability News (Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University) V 11 , I 1
Vlok, Daniel 2005 An Assessment of the Knowledge Processing Environment in an Organisation - A Case Study, .189 Pages, , Rhodes University , Rhodes Investec Business School
Vogel, Gretchen 2004 20 Feb The Evolution of the Golden Rule, .Science V 303 , I 5661
Vohs, Kathleen D.; Mead, Nicole L.; Goode, Miranda R. 2006 17 Nov The Psychological Consequences of Money, .Science V 314 , I 5802
Wedekind, Claus; Milinski, Manfred 2000 5 May Cooperation Through Image Scoring in Humans, .Science V 288 , I 5467
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences: Come on by and say hello. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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May11 |
 I'm a member of the Association for Psychological Science (surprise!) and recently received an email about their upcoming conference. I'm sharing it here because a) it's a hoot and b) it's an excellent example of knowing your audience and designing material that specifically targets them. I hope you enjoy.
Have you seen your spam lately? The end of the world (EOW) is coming - sometime between May 21 and October 21. (Rounding error?) But....what if it's not just spam.... I hesitate to write this as the executive director of a scientific association and I hope you'll think no less of me (watch it...), but I personally have seen the signs, so it must be true. Really - signs, literally, as in on billboards and the sides of busses. Right next to "Got Milk?": "End of the World coming May 21 through October 21." (And I don't think they mean as in "coming to a theater near you.") We at APS Headquarters are horrified. Why? The 2011 APS Convention begins May 26. What if this is our last one? Worse yet - what if it's interrupted? What if it never starts? After we calmed down, we thought about how to make the EOW work for every APS Member coming to the Convention, even for those who have not yet decided. So ... here's our money-back APS Convention Guarantee: Come to the 23rd Annual APS Convention May 26-29, in Washington DC. Register in advance at our oh-so-reasonable rates. And if the world ends anytime between May 21 and the end of the Convention on May 29, we will refund EVERY PENNY you spent. No questions asked -- registration, airline ticket, all local transportation, all hotel costs (INCLUDING MINI-BAR CHARGES), a per diem of $55 a day (the going rate), plus a couple of happy hour beers. All on us. How can you beat it? You can't. So, see you all in DC for the convention (unless...)
Unfortunately, my schedule doesn't allow me to go. However, I'm keeping next year's time slot -- should there be a next year -- open. Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences: Come on by and say hello. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Mar31 |
 Yes, 'tis the season again. The political season, that is, and we here at NextStage have a long history (going back to 2004) of knowing more about the candidates than they want you to know we know about them. You can read some of the background on this in Reading Virtual Minds V1: Science and History or in this blog's Political archive.  This time out, we used our NextStage Political Analyzer tool to analyze several candidates, non-candidates, ... we're open to analyzing the presidential aspirations of anybody we're asked to evaluate. Currently here's what you can find... - President Obama continues his appeal to Youth
- Walker, The Daily Show, and the youth vote
- Michele Bachmann has at least two votes, hers and her speechwriter's
- Buddy Roemer needs some site design help to increase donations, we think.
- Bolton Bluntness
- Senator Grassley appears to be entrenched and, as such, is seems to have no concern about speaking his mind.
- Pity Senator Grassley's not running. Then again, he's too lucid, eloquent and precise. He wouldn't stand a chance.
- Newt heard Bowie's call, "Ch-ch-ch-changes"
- Mitch Daniel's Talking to today's leaders but without a hope of getting in
- John Bolton guards his words and likes to be in control during an interview
- Scott Walker going for the youth vote, paying attention and cleaned up
- Newt was being Centrist whether he knew it or not
- Rand Paul knows his audience, both in the Senate and out
- Does Tim Pawlenty's staff think he can win?
- Yep, Mitt Romney was bowing to his wife this time
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences: Come on by and say hello. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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You can consider this a test post for BizMediaScience. The system has been burbling a bit and I'm checking to see if it's really alive. What to write, what to write, what to write... How about another update? Things I or other NextStageologists have written elsewhere: And upcoming conferences: Come on by and say hello. And upcoming Trainings: Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Feb 2 |
For those who follow my other blogs (AllBusiness.com, An Economy of Meaning, That Think You Do, The Analytics Ecology and TriQuatroTriteCale), this will serve as an update to my and NextStage's recent activities... - PersonalLifeMedia CEO Susan Bratton interviewed me in a two part podcast on NextStageology, neuromarketing and more. Listen to Part 1 and Part 2
- Emer Kirrane did a biograph of me that I hope gives both chuckles and insights at Joseph Carrabis - Fear Álainn
- NextStage published a research paper, NSE Consumer Research Paper - The Selling Face: A Study of Face and Body Biases in Marketing Communications, Part 1, that deals with how cultural bias affects responses to marketing efforts. You can get a taste for the research at How Pretty Is Your Picture? (Koinophology)
- We've premiered three tools in the NextStage Members area, NextStage SampleMatch (determines what psychologic, behavioral and motivational drivers are best in different geographic locations), NextStage Predictive Echo (scans historical server log files and webpages to determine what will work and what won't work with audience) and NextStage Veritas Gauge (determines what percentage of visitors are filling out forms, blogs, etc., truthfully v fabricating). Members also get the results of the afore mentioned paper.
- We're finalizing plans for our Spring-Summer 2011 Training Schedule. Stay tuned.
- My current conference schedule includes:
And I think that catches us up. Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Oct22 |
Today, Friday, 22 Oct 10, NextStage is formally announcing its Age Persuader Tool -- NSAP. Beta feedback has been quite positive (even amusing) and clients are in agreement that its a welcome addition to the NextStage arsenal. The tool itself grew out of NextStage's desktop TargetTrack tool, which has been in use in NextStage's consulting practice since about 2003. The Age Persuasion gauge can also be seen in NextStage's Political Analyzer tool.  About NextStage Age Persuader Tool Use: Pure and simple, you login, either upload a file or enter an URL, click on submit and get your result. Clean, quick, simple and neat because we like it that way. NextStage Age Persuader Tool (NSAP) is a format recognizing text analysis tool based on Nextstage's patented and award winning Evolution Technology (ET). ET is the only patent (as far as we know) granted by the USPTO that "allows machines to understand and respond to human thought". Why format-recognizing? Because people respond to DOC files, web pages, emails, straight text, etc., differently even when the same information is contained in each item.  NSAP is designed to analyze material (blogs, Twitter streams, FaceBook pages, emails, DOC files, ...) and determines which age groups the material will appeal to and by what amount. Please note that all values are in NextStage Standard Units. These values are internally consistent to the NSAP report. Successive runs of identical material should only vary a few SDVs unless the Language Engines are updated. Update times are posted on the NextStage Evolution site. Note that NextStage Evolution can deny use of its offerings to individuals or groups at NextStage's discretion. You can learn more about the NextStage Age Persuader Tool and purchase uses at the NextStage Age Persuader Tool site. The tool is available at a single run price of US$0.99 for a limited, introductory time. Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
whitepapers, tools, presentations and more via The NextStage RSS feed .
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Sep17 |
Know More:
Age Based Marketing, Attention, Behavioral, Big Ideas, Branding, Communications, Consumer Psychology, Cultural Marketing, Engagement, Expectation, Experience, Gender Based Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Analytics, Marketing Design, Marketing Management, Media Strategies, Methods, MicroTargeting and Segmentation, NextStageology, Online Anthropology, Online Loyalty, Online Marketing, Online Trust, Prediction Markets, Decision Markets, Information Markets, Psychology, Satisfaction, Social Computing, Social Network, Sociology, Website Marketing
First, please note that our logo has changed slightly. Not to worry, we're still the folks that make those fascinating tools.1 Second, in case you haven't been following along, I'll be co-presenting Analytics Schmanalytics: How Neuromarketing Is Changing the Future of Marketing Analytics Forever with SymphoneticInsight's Frank Della Rosa at FutureM in Boston's Hult School on 6 Oct 2010. I'm sure I could put more links in that paragraph if I worked at it. Anyway, as preparation for our event, FutureM asked us to answer some questions, which Frank and I did. Reading our responses I thought they'd make good blog fodder and provide some insight (symphonetic or otherwise) into what we'll be presenting and our take on things. If nothing else, the questions we chose to answer and how we answered demonstrates this session is going to be killer! Also, to save Frank any embarrassment, I've placed my responses in italics. Enjoy! - What role has technology played in shaping the transformation of the marketing industry?
Frank: For better, technology has empowered the customer as an equal partner in the exchange of information. Voice of the customer (VOC) is louder and more influential than ever before. - What new application/tool/platform has had the greatest impact on the world of marketing and media? How and why? Good or bad?
Frank: Social media motivates (in some cases forces) businesses to be more transparent and open about their intentions. The wisdom of crowds is finally becoming apparent to business. Also, the potential to engage customers in co-creating products, service, campaigns, creates more loyal customers. Joseph: The "wisdom of crowds" doesn't apply globally, only regionally, and the wisdom is highly culture and language dependent. Henry Ford said, "If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse.". Marketing tool users must recognize their inherent desire to make any single tool or the "next" tool the foundation of their strategies puts their businesses at risk because, as Maslow said, when all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail (see "Learning to Use New Tools"). "Wisdom of the Crowds" is much like that. Any tool is excellent when used to do what it was designed to do. Any tool destroys the product and can maim the tool user when used to do something it was never intended to do. - What are the three most interesting ways technology has changed the way companies and their customers converse, learn and engage? For the better or for the worse?
Joseph: Better - The conversation is getting closer and closer to being a true conversation (in the social anthropology sense). Worse - everybody thinks their opinion matters in the conversation and companies, not understanding who to listen to, often listen to those who shouldn't have the microphone ("the squeaky wheel gets the most grease" syndrome). - How has the customer experience changed in the past decade?
Frank: The customer owns the brand. Joseph: I would go a step further, making use of the McLuhan reference used in our session description and based on some of my own writings - the customer is the brand. This deals with ego-identification and several other psycho- and neuro-marketing concepts. But this hasn't changed in the past decade, it's always been true and the best marketing has acted upon this concept. However, it's only been in the past ten+ years that this concept has had a name. In addition to this, the Fair-Exchange is becoming dominant because consumers/customers have metastasized (from a "marketing controls the message" model) from an exafferent (passive) culture to a reafferent (involved - not "engaged", but involved. Consumers/Customers expect to be treated as valued equals in marketing discussions (regardless of the validity of that expectation)). Fair-Exchange takes place when consumers/customers believe they are receiving as much as they're giving and giving as much as their receiving (these two vectors are distinctly different as they involve distinctly different cognitive rules and neural aspects with the product/service/etc provider. Fair-Exchange dominated barter economies and is once again becoming prevalent because people (consciously or otherwise) are recognizing their personhood/personal information has real market value in an information economy, so more and more often exchanges occur beyond the scope of symbolic representation (I give you a dollar and we agree upon the worth of that piece of paper) to a barter exchange (I give you a piece of my person and I decide what that's worth to you). - How has design changed over the years? As a result of new technologies, new customer expectations/rules of engagement?
Joseph: As I've written elsewhere, "The history of technology is the study of placing the most power in the most hands economically". Design - regardless of tool or platform or anything else - is driven to place power into hands. Consider the evolution and ubiquity of cellular phones/mobile devices, how other devices have merged into them, and (me thinks) this becomes obvious. Where "Design" goes astray is when form supercedes function as was demonstrated by the latest iPhone with an unworking antennae. - What's the number one new rule of engagement for marketing today?
Frank: Transparency. The days of anonymous research studies are finally coming to an end. - How important is data and measurement today in terms of strategy, innovation and understanding the marketing discipline? Have we seen the development of new role in marketing - the creative analyst?
Joseph: I had to laugh when I read this. Anybody who's been doing traditional web analytics has had to be creative (see The Unfulfilled Promise of Online Analytics series) in order to survive. Are you asking if marketing is becoming more and more accountable? Again, I point you to the above mentioned series and Matching Marketing and IT Mythologies. The real questions aren't data and measurement, but meaningful data and correct measurement forms. Strategy, innovation and understanding - regardless of who's doing it - are worthless when applied to meaningless data in useless measurements. - What does it to take to be an innovator instead of a follower?
Joseph: A willingness to lead and not follow. - How does your company make a difference in today's market?
Frank: By helping marketing decision makers recognize and capitalize on the strategic value of the Customer Insight function across the entire organization. Joseph: NextStage Evolution has an historically 83% accuracy in predicting how consumers/customers will respond to marketing, we've been documented as correctly predicting the outcomes of national and regional political contests since 2004 and a recent independent test determined we had a 98+% accuracy in determining site visitor age and gender with no information other than how they navigate a page (no polling other databases, no questionnaires, no visitor provided information, ...). This doesn't qualify us as Biblical prophets (100% accuracy 100% of the time), it does get us close. This level of accuracy comes from patented, disruptive technologies. What difference does this make in today's market? More and more individuals, companies and groups are approaching us daily to provide them with real, actionable information with a recognized, demonstrable possibility of favorable, desired outcomes. This is the crux. Our "accuracy" only has meaning because we regularly produce actionable outcomes from it. That's what it's all about in the end, getting the outcome that you want and being able to repeat the "getting the outcome that you want". Getting the desired outcome one time out of ten, via "To insure hitting the target, shoot your arrow and wherever it lands, call it the target" or "We Have Too Much Data to Analyze So We'll Just Close our Eyes, Shoot and Pray" philosophies was probably a best-practice with the emphasis on "was". Present and future best-practices - due to increasing customer/consumer reafference, decreasing market share due to increasing competition, microsegmentation (it's still occurring regardless if it's lost its mot de jour status), ... -- require being able to understand markets as the markets wish to be understood, not how companies choose to understand them. - What is your number one piece of advice for a soon-to-be college graduate studying marketing?
Frank: Use the vast amount of information that's available to really understand and align with customers. It's the best route to performance. Joseph: Study and learn theory, not applications. If you understand the theory every application of that theory becomes obvious and you'll be able to transfer that understanding to things uncountable. However, if you only learn applications you'll never understand why and how those applications work, nor how to deal with exigencies that negate those applications. - Fill in the blank - Water is to a fish as [...] is to a marketer?
Frank: Water is to a fish as Customer Insight is to a marketer. Joseph: Water is to a fish as the world is to a marketer. The greatest single similarity is that fish don't know they live in water and it seems marketers don't know they live in the world. - What Boston based business has impressed you with their marketing?
Frank: Communispace - small business with big plans - What was your greatest marketing accomplishment? How would today's marketing world affect that accomplishment (make it easy, more difficult)?
Joseph: Recognizing that any human-human interaction is marketing of the self, asking my wife, Susan, to marry me and her agreeing, when I had not much to offer except a headful of ideas and a recognition that all I could really offer was change (see "Change (which is constant) and managing the work-life balance"). - Has there been a moment in your career that you thought you weren't going to make it? What was it? Why did you succeed in spite of it?
Joseph: That depended mostly on who was working with me ("Never allow yourself to be blinded by those who lack vision." This, of course, goes back to the previous question about being able to innovate or follow. - What would be your dream job? If you could create a title for your current job that reflects all that you do, what it be?
Frank: Running my insight business during the day, performing music in the evening. Chief Improviser Joseph: I was the first person I know to have "CRO" - Chief Research Officer - as a job title and I still believe it encompasses all that I do pretty well. Two job titles currently being offered to me are "Neuroscientist-in-Residence" and "Neuroscientist-at-Large". - Look at your planner for Oct. 4...what are you doing?
Frank: Future M kick-off Joseph: According to my calendar I'll be traveling. And shouldn't readers be more interested in 6 Oct? That's when this presentation is scheduled.
1 - According to Gartner's 2010 "Cool Vendor" report, NextStage tools have the following properties: - Analysis of content before publishing ensures that it will appeal to the desired audience.
- Analysis of the users to a web site will help align content to the audience and their expectations.
- These products provide empirical data about user profiles and reactions -- which is difficult to obtain other ways -- while protecting anonymity.
You should use them. Seriously. Syncapse's Chris Berry tells conference and summit audiences that we're the standard (Chris confirmed this for me) and I'm told Jim Sterne writes glowingly of us in his Social Media Metrics book (haven't read it myself). NextStage's tools are neat, simple, have an independently tested accuracy of up to 99% and they're amazingly inexpensive (because we believe "The history of technology is the study of placing the most power in the most hands economically").
back Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics. Upcoming Trainings: Upcoming Conferences: Come on by and say hello. Sign up for the NextStage Irregular, our very irregular, definitely frequency-wise and probably topic-wise newsletter. Have you read my latest book, Reading Virtual Minds Volume I: Science and History? It's a whoppin' good read. And you can always follow me on Twitter. I don't twit often but when I do, it's with gusto! Learn the latest regarding NextStage blog posts, conference sightings,
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