Groupthink Causes Brand Myopia

Want consumers to forget your competitors' brands? Advertise to them when they're assembled with their friends--during the Super Bowl, for example.

New research shows people are less likely to remember other brands when presented by an ad for a single brand in the presence of their friends. So, for example, individuals are more likely to remember other Pizza brands after they see an ad for Pizza Hut if they see the ad alone, versus with other people in the room.

Surprising as it may seem, this suggests groups are less able to be creative than are individuals. The peer environment seems to stymie individual thought even to the point of blocking memories that would otherwise be recalled.

If you're seeking to maximize brand recognition (at least in the short term), you may find greater success in advertising through outlets and at times that reach your audience gathered in groups.

Source: "Retrieval Disruption in Collaborative Groups due to Brand Cues"
JOURNAL OF CONSUMER RESEARCH

Sometimes Web 1.0 is Better than Web 2.0

We at Stage 2 sing the praises of Web 2.0 all the time. But with any technology that brings enhanced interactivity to the interface (think Flash) comes an inherent danger of employing interactivity for interactivity's sake. When that happens, the user experience suffers.

Take for example Google. The search giant's image database is enormous and hugely useful. But do a Google image search and you'll see a recent "upgrade" to the service brings JavaScript rollovers to the image results. However, what Google engineers have done is hide information that once was easily viewed. Now, if you wish to view image details like size, dimensions, or source, you must physically point your mouse cursor at each individual image in the results. This is horribly inefficient.

Sadly, there's no upside besides aesthetics; the page is cleaner on first glance, but only because they've removed useful information. Rollovers are trendy and visually interesting, but this implementation diminishes the user experience.

Another trendy feature popping up lately is image slide shows (see: NFL or NASA). Variations of this technique allow sites to cycle between photos for several lead stories. While this adds some Flash-like animation to the site, and allows for pushing multiple headlines at the user in the same space, it violates the integrity of the user interface.

In most implementations of these slide shows, the user has no indication of when the image will rotate. A user may find themselves halfway through reading a headline when it disappears and is replaced by the next headline. Or worse, they may try to click a link and have it change to another link out from under them. This will push the user to a page they were not requesting.

There are numerous other examples (some more egregious) of Web 2.0 going astray. The bottom line is content providers and developers must take great care to examine when and why they employ Web 2.0. Including trendy features purely for the sake of introducing interactivity often results in a handicapped user experience.

As an aside, I use a little extension for the Firefox browser called QuickJava that toggles Java and JavaScript usage. It's a great tool for blocking unnecessary scripts as well as for testing.

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Our industry is changing on a daily basis. While we won't update this blog that frequently, it will give us a place post timely news, insight, and advice on marketing and content creation.