Google, Blockbuster Movies & NSA's PRISM

Big data is here - and no one knows big data better than Google. It has access to several planets worth of information that is constantly up to date - as people continue interacting with Google's services. 

Proving this point, google recently released a white paper arguing that it had the ability to predict blockbuster movie success.

"70 percent of the variation in box office performance can be explained with movie-related search volume (such as trailers)."

Thats pretty cool. That means - if you want to know if a hollywood movie will be a success - just google search the answer (or at least see what the google-searching public has been up to). If your movie happens to be trending in advance of your release date - odds are that odds are in your favor. 

This topic of big data and access to big data has been actually hot news in the press of late - what with the leak of NSA's PRISM.

Should the government be able to track you online?

Where do you lie in the privacy vs. security spectrum?

There can be no doubt that you are leaving a digital wake behind you, as you click through the web. However a recent Economist article makes a fair point: 

Should the government know less than Google?

I hope you know by now - google has been spying on you. From your youtube views, to the content of your gmail emails - google has been painstakingly going through every word to get to know you better (just like a good neighbor).  

Don't believe me? - click this

If you are logged into your google account that link should send you to a fun little page. Here you can view what google thinks of you - specifically who you are and what you like to search. 

So the argument returns, yes the government is beefing up its online presence big time - but should google really know more about you than your government? Would you rather a private corporation hold your detailed information or a public one? 

The Pre-crime Department: Social Media

I found this very interesting article which argues that social media engagement is not itself a strategy but a tactic - and that institutions should focus on the long term with social media.  

The article gives the example of the Dutch Bank ABN AMRO, which used social media as a digital CRM platform to maintain customer satisfaction. What peaked my interest was the firm's use of "pre-customer support" - truly being able to anticipate what customers need before the need has fully developed. This idea reminded me of the hit 2002 summer blockbuster Minority Report where a fictions enforcement agency arrested individuals before a crime was committed. in the movie, the Precrime department was able to predict individuals intentions and arrest individuals for future crimes. This is a very interesting idea that can be applied to social media. 

No, not arresting people for a future crime based on a tweet. In the article's example, there was a special embedded section in customer management department that would scour social networks to find customer's having problems in order to provide them with trustworthy and accurate financial solutions. This idea of "pre-customer support" is extremely powerful in that you can address developing problems before they ever arise. In practice, individuals need not be customer's of ABN AMRO or have even mentioned the financial institutions they use - a powerful tool to poach customers. I think this would lead to a stronger conversion rate and higher retention rate of customers. 

Case Study: DryBar

Case Study. 

Ladies, have you ever heard of drybar? Well if you haven't, maybe you know the founder Ali Webb who was just invited to Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards?  She is the founder of a wildly successful startup called - you guessed it - drybar. The concept for the startup was a place that women could get really good blowouts (their tag line - "no cuts, no coloring, just blowouts"). Sound mildly crazy to completely impossible/unfeasible - well try telling that to a business with long lines and that is now opening locations around the country. 

Dry Bar Engagement Strategy. 

This post is going to analyze their marketing success - which really looks at how flawlessly they communicate both their value proposition and their core beliefs. To keep this post clean we are going to be using the my own egyptian analytical framework, which is weird I know - but stick with me. 

Develop an ideology.

Peace, Love and Blowouts. That pretty much sums it all up.  Behind the yellow hair dryer, the company has produced a very unique view point and experience, which drives their engagement strategy. They even went so far are as to publish a video of their 10 core values - a type of exercise and publication I believe every company should go through. Why does this impact marketing/engagement - it completely streamlines the decision making process. If you approach marketing/engagement as a medium to construct added value to things (as drybar as done amazingly) - then you need to define goals, methods and approved communication styles. 

Establish a story.

drybar has done a very good job of that - they even released a video explaining the drybar experience. As every good marketer knows, a hair salon should not focus on the scissors but the environment in the salon. Indeed the "bar experience" story has been very well established. When you walk in you are greeted with a "menu" (with the services they offer) and cocktails. This story has been physically manifested as the menu indeed looks like a real restaurant menu. The story of "haircutting" has been completely thrown out the window - to drybar's advantage. 

Condense into symbols.

See the little upside-down yellow hair dyer from way above - her name is Buttercup. This company has also done a great job in the usage of symbols. Take their distinctive mascot - Buttercup - who is prominently displayed at every location. The symbol is a good use of color, personality and visual identification. Furthermore the "menu" of hairstyles are boiled down into archetypes - symbols that assist in the decision process. Women can choose to get the Manhattan or the Cosmo. In the "restaurant design" of their shops you can see the minimalist esthetic, which is white and their symbolic yellow. This narrow design choice is very specific and fully realized to every aspect of the experience - making it highly visible and recognizable. 

Maintain narrative.

This menu style experience insures that the bar narrative is maintained and that it ties back into the company's story and ideology. I can't really talk about the company's online or social media campaigns - I have not performed a thorough analysis of them. 

Engage & rumorize.

This would require more information - and more analysis of their social media usage - how interactive they are online - how hard they publish creative content to drive conversation. 

However this little image (left) I found is exactly what I am talking about - engagement pieces that drive word of mouth marketing. These pieces have to be big (in size or some  other characteristic), they have to be bold, they have to be eye-catching and they have to hold true to the system of symbols.  I would say a giant yellow hair dryer fulfills those requirements. The cherry on top, the kicker, the engagement piece to really promote brand vitality and strength. 

MUST WATCH TED VIDEO

Because it is very insightful and revealing. Trust me, you'll thank me when you're finished. 

http://www.ted.com Devdutt Pattanaik takes an eye-opening look at the myths of India and of the West -- and shows how these two fundamentally different sets of beliefs about God, death and heaven help us consistently misunderstand one another.

50 Tweets = Ability to Scientifically Predict Personality and Buying Behavior.

I will be saying this till I'm blue in the face - linguistics is a great tool to impact marketing, branding and segmentation. What you say - more specifically how you say it, describes a lot about your own personality. This article I found suggests that just by capturing 50 tweets companies can analyze and predict what products or services you are more likely to buy.  

But how? Let me describe a little bit of the science behind tweet psychology. 

The Secret Life of Pronouns: What Our Words Say About Us

By James W. Pennebaker

"The quick foxed jumped over the mean lazy brown dog."

Ok. Now, you ready? This is going to be very, very, very hard. Pay attention. Please keep reading this sentence a bit, maybe this word "Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis" - I just need you to get further down this paragraph so you can't see the first sentence. GOOD - Don't look up! Now, how many non-verb/subject/adv/adj words were in the sentence about the fox from above. If you said 3, you're a super-freak - No, JK, you are normal however the point of this exercise is to demonstrate the transient nature of pronouns (and all other words that aren't verbs, adjs, advs or nouns for that matter).  Your brain is programmed to strip away this non-essential information like meat from a bone. Pronouns and all of these filler words (because, that, we, up, therefore, she, besides, however) are parsed out of normal conversation and forgotten. Your brain remembers the: Who, What, Where, When and Why - the meat. 

When in doubt, follow the crazy people

Pronouns and Nouns/Verbs/Adj/etc are filed in two completely different sections of the brain. One way to prove this is to study the effects of brain damage and speech. There are actually two different types of studied medical injuries that are a result of brain damage in two separate parts of the brain - the two injuries would speak thusly: 

“You know, that stuff where those things move up and down and even though things come out”

— Patient Bud Abbott

“Mary knows keyboard keys help people print documents”

— Patient Lou Costello

You'll notice that Bud Abbot has a hard time using anything but "filler words" (pronouns, prepositions) while Lou Costello  can't seem to find one single filler word - he only uses proper names and verbs. This is because Bud Abbot has received damage to the Nouns/Verbs/Adj/etc processing center of his brain while Lou Costello has received damage to his filler "social words" processing center.  

Twitter pronouns are key to marketing

So, now we agree that filler words, compared to nouns and verbs, are contained in different boxes in the mind? Would it surprise you to hear that pronouns and fillers are kept in the very front, youngest part of the brain - the "social" box? (which makes sense as they are social referents). Nope? Moving right along, how you use these social referents tells us a lot about how you live in a social world. For example, do you use the "I" pronoun more than the "we" pronoun? DID YOU KNOW - men use the pronoun "I" slightly more often then women, while women use the pronouns "You /He/She" slightly more often than men.

So users that tweet "s/he" more often and use causal words (because, cause, on account of) are more likely to be rational, logical, social thinkers - who would obviously gravitate to a certain kind of product or experience. Now the game is over. BAM, once the company has you profiled they can market to you more effectively.

Research has already shown that these traits link to buying behaviour. Agreeable people prefer Pepsi to Coke and if you link your product messages to excitement and adventure, it will appeal to the extroverts.

All well and good, but how can brands find out the psychological profiles of their potential customers? After all, no-one is going to go through a long personality test to give marketers the information they need to harass them.

The answer is via social media, specifically Twitter. IBM’s research has used software to analyse three months data from 90m Twitter users, matching the words people use against their values and needs. It took just 50 tweets to get a reasonable match for their personality and a very good fit from 200.