Sentient Insight: the business blog for consumer psychology and consumer marketing

Sentient recently partnered with Schneider Associates to conduct the Tenth Annual Most Memorable New Product Launch Survey. The results of this study have been published in USA Today and can also be accessed at MMNPL. Despite the large number of new products launched in 2011, there were a few that were especially memorable to consumers. Kinect for Xbox 360 topped the list, with 27 percent of Americans identifying it as one of the most memorable products of 2011, though the Nintendo 3DS and 2011 Chevrolet Volt were not far behind, tying for second place. Interestingly, memorability of new products this year was dramatically lower than that of 2010, with the Apple iPad being voted as most memorable in 2010 by 42 percent of Americans.

Complete the sentence. Every kiss begins with ____. If you consider yourself a marketing buff or a jewelry aficionado, you probably recognize the Kay Jewelers tagline: Every kiss begins with Kay™. Read that again and you might experience one of two reactions. Either you’re Mapquesting the nearest jewelry store, or you’re thinking, “Nonsense — I don’t need to show my love by buying diamonds for my significant other.” Advertisers are banking on the former, but they should expect the latter, according to the consumer behavior literature. Recent studies indicate that certain marketing tactics can produce a behavioral backlash, known to psychologists as a reverse prime.

Since the news came out on Wednesday, I’ve been pouring over video of Steve Jobs’ interviews, talks, pitches – anything I’ve been able to find really – to see if I can glean any last insights. It feels like an urgency to learn, an urgency to understand every last morsel of marketing genius I can from one of the greatest marketers in business. I could pick a hundred clips, but I want to take a moment here to share and comment on just one of my favorite Steve Jobs pitches and how it is relevant to the work we do at Sentient Decision Science and the future of marketing in general. The clip you’ll see

Our apologies to Bill Shakespeare for destroying his famous quote.  Perhaps we can recover by providing marketers some better-spoken advice related to selling their products and services. Our advice is based upon well-founded research on “construal levels.”  Simply stated, construal levels refer to particular cognitive styles consumers use when they evaluate and decide whether or not to purchase a particular product or service. Basically, two levels of construal are most often distinguished:

Behavioral Science is the future of market research and insight coming out of Neuroscience and Psychology are dovetailing to produce new methodologies of tapping the consumer subconscious. Here we discuss these trends in an interview with Ed Gaskin of CMOAdvantage, detailing best practices and case studies using methods that capture consumer visceral response to products and advertising.

First Command Financial Services has won a 2011 Bulldog Award for Excellence in Media and Public Relations for the Financial Behaviors Index®. Created in 2008 by First Command, the Index is a research initiative that provides timely consumer data to journalists and the news media. The Index assesses trends in the American public’s financial behaviors, attitudes and intentions through a monthly survey of approximately 1,000 U.S. consumers aged 25 to 70 with annual household incomes of at least $50,000.

  In this video, hosted the Pulse’s Ed Gaskin, Dr. Aaron Reid and Julie Hall (Schneider PR) discuss successful product launches from 2010. Reid and Hall explain how particular marketing and social campaigns contribute a product’s popularity, using the top ten product launches of 2010 as a benchmark. These strategies, Reid explains, are ubiquitous and can be utilized in any part of a productpositioning campaign.

The November First Command Financial Behaviors IndexTM reveals increased feelings of financial security during the holiday season this year as evident from holiday spending. The Index, commissioned by First Command and conducted by Sentient, examines financial behaviors, attitudes and intentions among U.S. consumers ongoing since February 2008.

Despite low mortgage rates, the October First Command Financial Behaviors IndexTM reveals that many Americans are not taking advantage of this opportunity to refinance their mortgage because of the continued economic instability. The Index, commissioned by First Command and conducted by Sentient, examines financial behaviors, attitudes and intentions among U.S. consumers ongoing since February 2008.

The results of the 2010 Most Memorable New Product Launch study were recently released, with Apple’s iPad claiming the top spot, followed closely by Microsoft’s Windows 7. Sentient collaborated with Schneider Associates and SymphonyIRI to conduct this study. In a new twist to this annual study, Sentient’s advanced methodologies were used to augment traditional survey data and shed light on subconscious emotional associations with new products.