Join Kelsey Ruger (aka: the Moleskin) and me for our SXSWi 2010 company culture conversation today!
Up for grabs, an iPad, iPod Nano and other goodies -- expect lots of great discussion and some hands on activities. And yes, me being very hyper :)
What: Kicking Recession Ass with Killer Company Culture at SXSWi 2010
Where: Courtyard Brazos 2/3 (at SXSW in Austin of course :) )
When: Sunday, March 14th 12:30pm
URL: www.kickassculture.com
Hashtag: #culturesx
Armchair neuroscience enthusiast that I am (is there anything as fascinating as the way our brain works?), I was greatly looking forward to the Big Brother in Your Brain: Neuroscience & Marketing. I left with interesting and actionable tidbits to consider implementing in my own marketing plans and some overall cool brain candy.
The information was interesting and right on my admittedly incredibly low level of understanding (still not completely in touch with the scholarly scientific vernacular yet) - but I definitely noted some very interesting creative / scientific tension from the audience and even between panelists. Always makes for a lively panel :)
All in all a great panel - it started off slow and I briefly considered jumping ship given the awkward question and response flow that I felt was limiting some great free flowing, but am hugely glad I stayed. Dr. Pradeep (who was what really kicked off the panel - he had a fantastically bumpin' Neurofocus video - see below - and an engaging presence) and Roger Dooley really made it for me - great information and very easily digestible to fiercely curious newbies like me. Thanks to all the panelists!!
Here are my rough notes - if I'm missing anything please fill me in on the comments!! There was an awful lot to digest:
Speakers:
Gary Koepke, Modernista!
Eric Kogelschatz, shark&minnow
Dr AK Pradeep, NeuroFocus Inc
Dr Danielle Stolzenberg, Ph. D., University of Virginia
Roger Dooley, Hobsons
Panel moderator Dr. Danielle Stolzenberg begins the panel with a story of her first high school road trip, stopping at a rest stop to catch a quick nap in the middle of the afternoon. Surrounded by families and kids playing, she should have felt safe... except she felt anything but. Seconds after locking her rear passenger door (the only one unlocked) a trucker began vigorously trying to open the door.
Locking that door was a subconscious emotional response that motivated her to act -- she tied this into the ways that such emotional response motivates consumers to act and react to marketing messages. A... rather dark kick off, yes?
But why should science be used in marketing research? Many don't know that Advertising God David Ogilvy started career as researcher, "statistics are used as a drunkard uses a lamp post - for support, rather than illumination". Numbers can only go so far.
The science of Google - 'the database of intentions - a living artifact of immense power' (John Battelle - of Federated Media).
Gary: On discussing our decision making process - perhaps we have many brains working in a body (like the concept of chakras) to help make decisions.
Dooley: GoDaddy ad Super Bowl researchers found GoDaddy to be the least effective ad (from brain scans), but market researchers found it o be the most effective from an ROI / traffic driver. Sometimes scientific explanations, we are very complex.
No such thing as 'Super-Ads' take over your brain type commercials - (The Advertised Mind - Plessis) 20% of ads had no effect and another 20% had a decline in share increase of bran market share.
Iceberg - 88% hidden / Brain - 95% hidden, there's a lot of uncertainty and hidden complexity in our brains. fMRI show brains responding to sublimal messaging.
Kogelshcatz: Neuromarketing shows more results than ad psychology, but it's not the death of market research. Needs to be a triangulation of research methodologies. Combination of methodologies and approaches to effect brain behavior and decsions -- MUST use multiple methods of branding (print / web / etc.) to really get to someone. Nothing new.
Kopke: Sex and humor - Modernista + Cadillac commercial -- let the beautiful model do the objectifying ('when you turn the car on, does it return the favor?') -- tough reaching out there because everyone finds something different to be funny or sexy.
39% sales increase for that .Cadillac campaign. Irreverence helps advertisers play with some of these uneasy moments -- Old Spice commercial a great example of making fun of marketing tactics, but still benefiting by them. The easy laugh isn't always the easiest way to go - nor is overt sexuality.
Dooley: Choice architecture (element of web design), test on having consumers select from 4 tents online. Changed the order each time (each tent had product differences) and the 1st choice presented ALWAYS scored 2.5x higher than any others.
Subconscious influence driving decision making process -- 1st option is the hot one.
Decoy product -- want to drive more sales to expensive product? Make your least favorite product as expensive but obviously inferior as the expensive product you want to make. It will make your preferred product (to sell that is) appear that much more fantastic.
Smiling faces are powerful - direct mail piece with attractive smiling woman on loan offer got consumers to choose the 3 point higher interest rate that appeared on that ad.
Pradeep: Never tests anybody under 18 for his neuromarketing research - EVER. He respects this as a boundary, just because you can doesn't mean you should. One should not market or try to influence young minds. Why advertise to children? His challenge: don't advertise to young people, social messaging yes -- but no jeans, clothing, toys. They are children, leave them alone.Gary: Creativity is key, look at the pet rock and snuggies. No research would have guessed that would've worked. We can only measure what we know, but we must discover what we don't know. Pet rock is proof :) Anything can catch on in peoples' consciousness and become successful.
Pradeep: Art vs. Science -- what is creative design? Doesn't believe there is a conflict, no VERSUS there. All scientists are artists and all artists are scientists. We love our iPhones, so many little design decisions that just plain work in our brains.
Brain finds it hard to count more than 3 objects -- 3-5 is the max. On the Web, more than 3-5 image groups means you lose visitors. Must understand how the brain receives design - how does design seduce us? That which is attractive appeals to different parts of our brain.
According to Dr. Pradeep -- smiling faces on billboards tell brain to pay no attention. What's more intriguing? A face whose expression is hard to decipher commands more attention. Emotion reveals intent, we are constantly evaluating faces to see what people are going to do. Smiling makes it easy to know - but undecipherable expressions makes it hard to know. So our brains open its memories of emotion templates (what kind of face is this -- and what emotion is connected?)
Super models walking down the runway - they always look a little pissed. It makes them memorable. The Mona Lisa - she's not really smiling. She's memorable and it's lived on beyond a 'nice painting'/. Great artists have figured this out -- they have brought in the science into their art. It's the same thing.
Q&A Time:
* 3 big facts we have learned from neuromarketing that we couldn't have learned from behavioral science? - this question came in from a big dog in the behavioral science world (Dan Ariely) who was sitting immediately behind me... and also gave me this condom (see my Tweet here - hah). The question wasn't really answered and was obviously posed as a continuation of some bloody ongoing battle. Or something, says Katie the clueless outsider.
Dr. Pradeep's response: neuromarketing doesn't necessarily discover new principles, but let's us identify what part of an experience that made an impact. Think of a chips and salsa experience - what is the part that makes a difference. DIp the chip into the salsa and lift it, that action on its way to your mouth (a moment between moments) -- very evocative to your brain.
This should have great implication on how you design your salsa and chips - too chunky may not work, a little impression in a chip holds the liquid in. Much like Steven Jobs - the iPhone design elements show that every little thing counts. So not newer principles, but newer attributes. That is purpose of applying neuroscience to marketing.
Dooley: There is no conflict between behavioral marketing and neuroscience
*Product line up, is there a sweet spot in numbers to present to increase conversion?
More important than order or number is context - primacy is not position of item, but how it relates to what has come before. Numerosity (sp?) concept - living in jungle and see herd coming 'is it big enough to run or big enough to have dinner? Have developed mechanisms in our hardware - 3-5 is king.
--- Marketing to children - possible to give messaging to a child for some sort of inoculation against these marketing tactics? Whatever you saw last gets consolidated first in first REM cycle.
Legoclick.com - balance of art and science, a very interesting video shown at TED from Lego.
Katie Laird
Originally uploaded by .imelda
The lovely Imelda took this photo of me while we were riding in the Oscar Meyer WeinerMobile - one of the crowning events of the Mom 2.0 Summit to be sure :)
Felt like popping it back up because IT IS AWESOME. I couldn't possibly have been smiling any bigger, my face hurts just looking at me...
2010 has brought all sorts of interesting road trips, looking forward to hitting the pavement with dstagg today as we make our way to Austin for SXSWi!!
happykatie graduates from the soccer mom Volvo... for a weekend at least
There's nothing that says 'Hi there, I'm a total bad ass hear me roar' than driving a 2010 Camaro.
Also, having a loaner Camaro from GM (see disclosure at the bottom of this post for the back story) makes your co-workers very, very, very, very happy. As evidenced here. And here.
I grew up adoring Mustangs (okay and I still do - but I reserve my love for the classic models), but spending a few days in one of these guys has made me a believer. Never before have I driven a car that has turned more heads, incurred more random parking lot conversations and just felt so ridiculously awesome to drive.
(On the random parking lot conversation note, seriously if you are looking to pick up a 40+ year old boyfriend, get yourself in one of these bad boys, ladies. Something about this model that muscle car geeks FREAK OUT over, so prepare yourself as your car -- and perhaps yourself as driver -- will be fawned over.)
The most surprising thing about the Camaro is... uhmm... hello... trunk space? Where did you come from? It's kind of sort of like a family-ish car. Like... not what you'd want to drop off 3 kids in the carpool lane, but totally do-able with one kiddo or for a fun weekend ride. No joke, I thought we'd be squeezing in and out and cursing the day I said 'HELLS YES' to driving one of these beasts - but it fit us perfectly.
Perfectly until you get a splitting headache in the passenger seat and lean your seat back and have to negotiate with your 3 year old that tapping her feet on your headrest 'to say hello', but sans headache and apparently chatty toddler feet it's a dream.
Gas mileage was great, we adored the XM Radio (Lithium 90's station and oldtime classic radio show station were the constants), were confused as to why my iPhone only worked plugged in half the time (blaming our old crappy iPod cord substitute) and dug the way the car cradled us while we were in it. Kind of like we were in some futuristic speed racer rocket that was giving us a hug.
I hate getting rental cars (and I will freely admit, some of them have been GM vehicles - this is the first GM car in a looong time I'd ever consider owning) that have that 'futuristic' design look to them. And by 'futuristic' I mean craptastic cheap silver-ish plastic and horribly designed dashboards with lame button placement and annoying door handles.
They say 'look at us, our designers were trying so hard at the start of this project but then got drunk and now are totally into WOW at the office now so they needed to hurry up and get something out the door before the next car show'.
The Camaro was everything but 'futuristic' craptastic. Somehow it was modern and retro at the same time - it looks and drives like a shark. A bit menacing at first glance (me likey - RAWR), but smooth, quick and streamline all the way.
Call me a fangirl, but this was one heck of a car to have in my parking spot (sure beats the soccer mom Volvo). I could make this an everyday car and give up nothing (except those 2 rear doors... carpool lane... one day... live a little) except anonymity :)
And in a parting note, I'd like to apologize for freaking out the guy who picked up the car after hugging the hood before he drove it off. Seriously, I'm sorry dude. I know it was weird, but we really had a bond there.
Disclosure: A few months back, I was contacted by a PR gal representing the Great Wolf Lodge (a chain of ginormous water park resorts) about an upcoming mommy blogger event. I was invited, along with my happyfamily (YIPPEE!!) to spend a day/evening in Grapevine, TX splashing, swimming and hanging with other geeky mamas just like me. General Motors jumped in on the experience offering a free loaner car to make the trip that much more exciting.
I say no to 95% of the PR pitches that find their way into my inbox (too little time, not the right fit and... honestly, I get afraid of diluting my brand with the perception that I'm only around these days to do a PR flack's bidding....) but this one felt cool, sounded fun and got my whole little family involved. I was game. And it was awesome. The following are my thoughts on the weekend experience - straight from my brain and into yours.
I was paid no money to write this post, in fact I wasn't even asked to write this post. I am just that floaty, dreamy, stoked about this frigging car. (love you Camaro!! See you in Austin at SXSWi)
To be honest, I was not planning on attending SXSW this year - I've been lucky enough to attend the last 4 years and had anticipated taking this year off. Rather, maybe I just wanted to give my liver the year off.
BUT!! along came a happy 'Your Kicking Recession Ass With Killer Company Culture Panel Has Been Accepted' email from the ever amazing Hugh Forrest (and other gazillion SXSWi worker bees) and the thought of getting to present with Kelsey Ruger (aka: the Moleskin aka: AWESOME TALL DUDE) was enough to bring my liver out of SXSWi sabbatical.
Here's the skinny:
Kelsey and I are rocking out a Core Conversation on Sunday (3/14) at 12:30pm in the Courtyard Brazos A/B. This means that you'll be walking across the street and into the Courtyard Marriott. Yeah, SXSW has gotten THAT big. But it'll be worth it.
The topic of company culture is a hot one right now and rightly so for a number of reasons (in my little brain, at least). With crunched budgets, many companies cannot afford to remain competitive with the salaries they offer so many are turning towards more creative benefits for employees.
Reeling from a fresh influx of newly graduated youngun's, other companies find themselves as diversified as they've ever been (halloo multi-generational workplaces, what a trip!!!) and they see the need to cater to vastly different employee needs and desires.
And still other organizations have been seeing red thanks to the aforementioned financial strain, causing them to re-evaluate their corporate vision and mission. Many workplaces proclaim a 'culture of excellence', but micro manage and browbeat their employees until the low morale is so thick you can slice it. As businesses flounder, the smart ones take stock of their current situation and make the changes in their culture to keep together and keep it growing.
At the end of the organizational climate rainbow, employees are the heart, the pulse, the lifeblood and the magical billable glitter of every business. Kelsey and I look forward to holding a fantastic discussion with all of you, I know we will all leave inspired.
And, of course, huge and tremendous thanks to my company, Schipul - The Web Marketing, for keeping me sharp to what's good and necessary in the company culture world!
Thanks to the awesomeness of Web-based applications, many of us thrifty nerds have foregone the expense of uber-design applications (sigh, kinda' miss you Photoshop...) leaving us sad and alone in the world of creating beautiful visuals.
But hark, here is Lovely Charts to connect you with... why yes, lovely charts. How did you know? It's free and helps you whip up sitemaps, wireframes and more in no time flat. You'll love it.
The WSJ has an interesting piece on Wall Street investment banker turned dude-focused cupcake slinger, David Arrick. After being laid off and trying to find his next chapter, the sweet aroma of unexpected passion found its way to his nostrils:
Just when things looked bleakest, Arrick found his calling. Strolling around one day in the West Village, a neighborhood in downtown Manhattan, Arrick spied people lining up around the corner for Magnolia Bakery's cupcakes. This piqued his interest in the business.
And then, reading an article about cupcakes shortly after, he found himself disgusted when the writer called them "pink and magical."
"Why did cupcakes need to be magical? They're not magical for me. Where's the masculine aesthetic?" Arrick said. "We needed to butch it up, buttercup." And so Butch Bakery, an online delivery "masculine" cupcakery was born.
And his offerings sound delicioso!
The bakery sells the usual fare, but with a twist. It offers flavors like kahlua-soaked vanilla cake with Bailey's Bavarian cream, brandy-soaked lemon cake with orange-infused chocolate ganache filling, and chocolate and beer-infused cake with beer buttercream. Not every cupcake is drenched in alcohol: Butch Bakery offers caramel cake with salted caramel filling and maple cake with milk chocolate ganache and crumbled bacon....
With St. Pat's Day coming up this month, green has been on the brain. Actually, green is always on the brain - I love the color. Poison green, emerald green, muted nature-y green - such a wide palette range that I love to see people in. It's so alive and vibrant.
So tell me honestly, how many of you use or have used utensils to eat a cupcake and are not ashamed?!? :) Always curious on how many 'peel the paper and lick the finger' purists there are out there...
I for one just do whatever the occasion calls for - different cupcake, different protocol. Whatever it takes to get the job done :)
