I’ll Have What She’s Having by Marc Earls #TMRE #MRX

By LoveStats on

Live blogs by @LoveStats of @Conversition. This is a session summary from The Market Research Event by IIR in Orlando, Florida, November 2011. It was posted mere minutes after completion of the talk. Any inaccuracies are my own. Any humorous side remarks are also my own. Feel free to leave comments and critiques.

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Market Research In An “I’ll have what she’s having” World
Marc Earls, Author, Herd, How to Change Mass Behavior by Harnessing Our True Nature

  • Most of what we’ve been told is right. But things we have assumed, may not be right. Let’s focus on our assumptions.
  • We are good at human beings and their behaviors as individuals, what goes on between the ears. But humans are a social creature. Social is very different from
    Zachary Quinto as Spock in the 2009 Star Trek film

    Image via Wikipedia

    individuals.

  • We just did the wave left to right, right to left, front to back 🙂 We’re a herd.
  • [Ah yes, the homer simpson brain is on the screen]
  • Thinking is to humans as swimming is to cats. We can do it if we have to but we avoid it.
  • We assume people are Spock not Kirk. We are feeling creatures who think.
  •  Humans copy because it is fun. We pick up good and bad from our parents.  It is easier to learn, reduce the choices if you copy.
  • Our kids names aren’t unique. They follow fashions just like musicians do.
  • Obesity is not an individual issue. It is a social issue. Your family, your close friends. “I am what you eat” Suicide spreads the same way. 😦
  • We things get difficult, we always gather together. We look after our own.
  • How good is our toolkit for between people versus between the ears. [ah yes, social psychology is soooo neat. Pick up an intro to social psych textbook at a used book store]
  • “i just saw someone doing it” isn’t good enough
  • Independent choice is a decreasing line chart. Social influence is a normal curve. Twitter page of events has an initial spike of independant learning, then social learning follows a few days later creating a more normal curve. [Guess what i’ll be doing tonight 🙂 ]
  • Is our market shaped by independent learning or copying others? Independent is short tail distribution. Copying others is long tail distribution. Plot your market.
  • popular music, charitable giving, alcohol is social learning. Deodorants, car insurance is independent learning.
  • Who is more important than what if you are on the social side.
  • Get out of the facilities and see really how people live their lives. Memory is a poor indicator of reality. Focus groups are not real world. [I think we’re talking broaden your experiences not shift your experiences]
  • We need tools to work on the social learning part of the curve because we already have the independent part covered.
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