Studies have been conducted to identify whether consumers adopt the personalities of brands. In one study, female shoppers were asked to tote either a Victoria’s Secret shopping bag or a shopping bag with no identifying brand label while they shopped in the mall. Afterward, they were asked to evaluate themselves on various personality traits. Those who carried the Victoria’s Secret bag saw themselves as more beautiful, sophisticated, and womanly than their counterparts who carried the plain bag. Additionally, the research uncovered how fluid or fixed consumers believe their personalities are. Victoria’s Secret bag carriers felt that their personalities were static but brands could contribute to positive aspects of themselves. Plain bag carriers felt that that they had more power in changing themselves through their own efforts rather than relying on brands.

Another study revealed that even after participants were told they did not do well on a math exam, carrying a pen with an MIT emblem on it made them feel smarter and more influential than the control group not carrying the pen.

Because brand personalities are becoming more powerful, a deep emotional connection is being formed. People are striving to become more like the brand that they feel best represents who they are aspiring to be. This is very useful for brand marketers to recognize and may make targeting a specific persona worthwhile.

Fast food restaurants have become more and more popular throughout the years, and have consequently impacted the way we behave. Being able to access food quickly has helped us to become more efficient in our daily lives. Being exposed to fast food has also impacted our time expectations for other tasks unrelated to food.

In recent research, people have been found to be more hurried while completing tasks, favor products that helped them save time, and have become more impulsive regarding money.

In one experiment, participants were shown fast food brand logos too briefly to be registered consciously. Then they were asked to perform a reading task. Participants shown the brand logo performed the task faster than the control group. Another experiment examined the relationship between recollecting the last time fast food was eaten and preference for time-saving products. Those who were asked to remember eating fast food were more inclined to report favoring products that save time, such as a shampoo plus conditioner versus a regular shampoo. A last experiment found that individuals who viewed fast food brand symbols chose to receive smaller payments sooner rather than larger payments later.

Well known fast food brand logos are obviously very powerful to be able to subconsciously affect behavior. Their marketing messages trigger a sense of productivity and haste that our society values. By constantly being exposed to fast food advertising and first hand consumption of fast food, the consumer not only needs to be aware of the risks that fast food can have on their health. They also need to acknowledge that there could also be some behavioral side effects as well.

AMA released their annual “Honomichl Top 50” with the finding of the first downturn in the research industry  in more than two decades.

Interesting. Considering brands need to do more with less. I would think research might be finding a more important role; in the same way I think that database marketing and analytics would be seeing a surge in interest.

You can read all about the Top 50 in their June 30th issue of Marketing News.

In an attempt to take online research to whole new level, Mozilla has devised a plan to bridge the gap between many research methods currently used to gather usability data. They call this user testing project Test Pilot, and although it is merely a concept at this stage, the idea in itself seems promising.

Those of us in the world of user experience know that you can’t beat the large sample size you can get from web analytics data and online surveys, but when you really want to get to the source of usability problems, one-on-one testing seems to offer up more fruitful results. So far, there really isn’t any worthwhile in-between. Mozilla’s Test Pilot sounds like a fairly simple solution that will allow interested users to get up close and personal with a website while still providing written feedback about their experience.

Here’s how it will work:

1) Users simply download the Test Pilot add-on and then create a user profile by providing simple
demographic information which Mozilla promises will be non-personally identifiable.

2) Based on the demographic data provided, Mozilla will place users into groups with similar
characteristics.

3) Mozilla will send out requests intermittently asking for participation based on user profiles.

4) If a user chooses to accept, they will be linked to a quick test in which they will be asked to click
around a website while Mozilla monitors activity. After a certain amount of time or after a certain
task is completed, the user will be asked to provide feedback. Keeping the user in mind, Mozilla
plans to keep tests short and simple to keep the drop-out rate low.

Easy enough, right? With benefits like free testing open to anyone, huge sample sizes and worldwide results that can be gathered in just a few hours, it sounds like Mozilla may be on to something. In fact, Mozilla “aims to build a 1% representative sample of the Firefox user base,” which could be quite impressive in terms of statistical significance. Plus, Test Pilot also has the potential to get rid of much of the time-consuming work that goes into running test sessions—things like recruiting, participant screening and even the test sessions themselves.

So, what are the drawbacks?

• Perhaps the biggest disadvantage is that Test Pilot won’t offer researchers the opportunity to probe participants with more targeted questions after they’ve given their initial answers. Because Test Pilot will not be designed to record everything a user does in the test session, the lack of a moderator asking those follow-up questions may mean that some of the greatest data findings will go unnoticed.

• Secondly, in usability testing there are so many nonverbal behaviors that we assess which can’t be assessed with Test Pilot. Nonverbal behaviors tell us if a participant, for example, needs the text size to be bigger, when they squint and move their faces closer to the screen. There are some needs that participants simply can’t report verbally or in text but that still need to be addressed.

• Finally, all data collected through Test Pilot will be made public. I imagine there will be mixed opinions on this since there will be those who don’t see a benefit in sharing their data treasures. On the other hand, one also has to think about the possible Test Pilot data that could be used to inform research. This one is tough, yet to me it seems like a fair tradeoff for a free testing resource.

Although I don’t imagine Test Pilot will ever take the place of one-on-one testing, I do think Mozilla has come up with a great idea. Why not take a few tried and true methods of research and sandwich them together into something new? I’m curious to find out just how Test Pilot data will look once collected and what types of tools Mozilla will offer to aid in analysis. Worst-case scenario, Test Pilot could end up working much like web analytics already do, but if Mozilla researches this well, it seems like this could really be a hit. After all, even if the Test Pilot platform doesn’t grab you, surely you won’t be able to resist this little fluffy fox all decked out in his pilot gear…

*As of now there is no word on when Test Pilot will actually go live, so stay tuned for future updates!

In order to design an effective website, research has shown it is extremely important to take the site users’ ages into consideration. At Engauge, we see this trend over and over again as many of our mature user experience lab test participants often complain about small text size and overwhelming website clutter that younger audiences are more likely to overlook.

A recent article found in the Journal of Neuroscience poses an interesting finding which may have implications for web pages designed specifically for mature audiences. The study, which compares memory function in 60 and 70-year olds to those of 22 to 36-year olds, suggests that memory deficits that occur with aging may often be caused an increased susceptibility to distraction. In the study, it is auditory distractions, in particular, which tamper mature users’ ability to process and remember information.

As the number of mature individuals utilizing the internet continues to increase, the question becomes how these findings translate to web audiences and to marketing efforts, in general. Indeed, if mature audiences experience memory difficulty due to distraction, there may be a need to step back and rethink many of the websites being created for this specific population. Perhaps music, multiple advertisements and long chunks of copy could be hindering (not helping) mature audiences from getting the intended message. And if users are too distracted to form valuable memories, chances are, they probably won’t remember to come back. Proof again that keeping things simple is often the best formula for success, and web experiences do not fit into the category “one size fits all.”