Predictably Irrational Blog # 2

This article is truly fascinating. The main lesson is that our expectations influence our views of subsequent events. If you tell someone up front that something might be distasteful, the odds are very good that they will end up agreeing with you. This is not because their experience tells them so, but because that is their expectation. So, when we believe beforehand that something will be good, it generally will be good-and when we think it will be bad, it will bad.

The main example that the article used to depict this irrational behavior is the glasses of beer experiment. The setup of the experiment is that there are two types of beers offered to people entering a bar. One is just Budweiser and the other is Budweiser with two drops of balsamic vinegar for each ounce of beer. The result of the experiment was that if the person was told before drinking the beer that there was vinegar in the beer, the person would prefer the Budweiser and be disgusted with the other, typically. However, if they did not tell the participants that there was vinegar in the Budweiser, they would typically prefer the one with the vinegar. Even if they were told after drinking the beer with vinegar, they still preferred that one over the other. What this exemplified is that people’s expectations before an event play a big part in the overall experience they will have. If you tell them that the beer tastes bad, they will more than likely end up agreeing with you.

I find this very fascinating, and have done my own experiments to verify this in another class my freshman year. We conducted an experiment in which one group was told before going into a lecture that the lecturer was very mean and boring. We told another group that the lecturer was super nice and engaging, while another group was told nothing beforehand. All three groups took a seat and heard the lecturer together. After the lecturer was finished, each participant from each group was asked what their opinion was of the lecturer. Surprisingly to us, we found out that, typically, the participants that were given the negative opinion/view of the lecturer found the lecturer to be mean and boring, while the ones that were told that the lecturer was nice and engaging agreed. The ones that were told nothing had mixed feelings.

I find this very interesting, as does the author of this article. All three groups watched the same exact presentation given by the same exact lecturer at the same exact time, and yet they all had different opinions depending on what they were told or weren’t told. Actually, I feel that this happens every single day. For example, if we are told that someone is promiscuous, and talks behind peoples backs before we meet them, we are less likely to like the person (unless we view these two things as positive qualities). We are more likely to describe the person negatively, and even use the same exact description that was given to us.

I once went into Kanobe’s. It was my first time going; therefore, I asked what some items were on the menu. The waitress gave me such a great description of the plate. She described it in depth and with a lot of detail, including information about the texture of the food. I automatically picked the one she described to me, and was completely delighted with my dish. The ingredients might not make the dish any better in a blind taste test; but by changing my expectations, she effectively influenced the taste. Not only did the waitress describe the dish with depth, but the presentation of the food was splendid. This automatically made me know that the food was going to be amazing. I still hadn’t tasted the food, but I already had high expectations that were confirmed when I tasted the food. Kanobe’s definitely enhanced the customer experience at their restaurant.

We can use this information given to us in this article about pre-knowledge and experiences in our quest to gain valuable insights and/or design valuable experiences for our customers. As has been mentioned in class, customers usually can’t articulate what they want or why they buy certain items. Some may say that they want one thing like eating healthy, but when you observe them, they are actually eating things like pizza. This article validates this point. I don’t think anyone told the experimenters that the reason why they chose the beer without the vinegar was because he/she was told that the other beer had vinegar. The participants would just say that the beer was distasteful with the vinegar. My point is that, in order to gain valuable insights, we must not rely too much on what customers tell us. Like “Insights into Customer Insights” said, qualitative research is what generates insights, while quantitative research validates insights. We must use both. Quantitative research that is not informed by insightful qualitative research may end up being precise but lacking in customer insight. On the other hand, customer insights that are not validated with quantitative research may end up being interesting but not representative of mainstream customers.

This article validates that, although most consumers would say that their purchasing behavior is rationat, it isn’t always that way. For example, most people actually preferred Pepsi to Coke in a blind test, but when told that one was Coke and one was Pepsi while drinking it, most preferred Coke. This preference was due to Coke’s brand and not the chemical properties of the drink. I can’t think of anyone that would tell us that the reason why they like Coke over Pepsi is because of the brand. Most would say they like the taste better, or something along those lines; therefore, we can’t rely on these types of answers… customers simply don’t understand their own behavior as much as they think they do. Their behavior isn’t as rational as they would like to believe; therefore, we must gain insights by observing rather than simply asking people what they want.

We also want to pay very close attention to the way that the product or service is presented, for as the article has described, presentation matters as does the way that the product or service is described. I feel that this is important, because we may have the best product that truly does meet customer’s deeper needs, but if we don’t present it in certain way or describe it according to the target market, the product may fail. This failure would not be due to not paying attention to customer needs; therefore, we would almost have had it but weren’t quite there in presenting a product or service that makes a positive impact in our community.

Persona Blog # 1

Many companies are trying to react to and anticipate their customers’ needs in order to cultivate a meaningful relationship with them. According to lecture, it is important to gain insight about what customers want out of their products, services, companies and brands. As a matter of fact, in my internship this summer, this was my main goal/project. I needed to think about the customer and gain insights from a lot of information we have about them throughout every step and function of my job including content creation for our website, promotions, new ideas for products, etc. This helped us reach our users in our marketing efforts.

One way of gaining this insight and making sure companies stay in focus with their customers is by using the persona lifecycle. This cycle helps have an early and continuous focus on users’ needs and goals by focusing on the user even before the development of the product. This cycle supports the 4 p’s talked about in class which are product, place, price and promotion. In order to start off the cycle, marketers can begin with family planning where one of the things to do is to generate and gather data about the customer in order to gain valuable data that can be extracted to build personas. Some information a marketer would need from me to create an accurate and rich persona of me is as follows:

1. I am taking 16 hours at the University of Texas at Austin, and am the Director of Public Relations for one of the most professional organizations on campus, the Hispanic Business Student Association that puts on more than 90 events throughout the year.

2. I am very time-oriented, meaning I plan out every minute of my life. This does not mean that I do not easily adapt to changes in my schedule, rather that, in order to not get overwhelmed with what I need to do, I need to map out my days. This also helps me not forget to do things, because I write everything in my planner and Google Calendar. I would not be able to function without these two things.

3. I am always busy. So busy, in fact, that I can never sit down to eat a meal. I grab my food and go; therefore, I make food purchases based on how easy and fast it would be to make and eat. I am also so busy that I rarely have time to watch TV; therefore, I always watch shows that are not in a series, and are about 30 minutes long.

4. I have a boyfriend that just graduated from the University of Texas at Austin. He is living one hour away; therefore, I am always looking for new ways to stay connected with and communicate with him.

5. I am a 19 year-old Hispanic female. I support many Hispanic advocacy organizations and companies. I think diversity is important in a company, and I take that into account when I purchase items at the store or online.

6. I love to read all kinds of books, newspapers, magazines, research, and different studies. I especially love to read articles and studies on what makes people and customers happy.

7. I am a bargain shopper! Price is usually how I decide between two products. The only reason that I may pay more for a recognizable and reliable brand is if I am buying health-related and skin-related products.

8. I absolutely enjoy the outdoors! I am not a sports type of person, but I love seeing a lot of green, and strolling through a park, and even studying outside. I would have my office or desk outside if I didn’t have to worry about the weather ruining my work or computer.

9. I prefer to buy or have experiences that create memories such as going jet skiing, on a road trip, or going to the movies, then purchasing products.

10. I live in a bad neighborhood in Austin. I live on Riverside where you always hear police car sirens going off due to the amount of crimes that occur in the area; therefore, I am very safety-conscious. I always carry around my pepper spray, and never go outside by myself at night when I am at home in my apartment.

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