Relationship between NCAA Division I Football Support and Politics

The table above shows the relationship between a state's NCAA division I football attendance and which presidential candidate it supported in the 2008 election. Red states are those that supported the Republican candidate, blue states supported the Democratic candidate. Lighter blue states were "swing states" -- states that where the vote was close, but went for the Democratic candidate.

The attendance figure was calculated by dividing the total Division I football attendance for 2008 by the state's total population.

As the graph shows, there is a correlation between high attendance states, and support for the Republicans in the election.

It would seem likely that stronger conservative feelings of loyalty and authority contribute to support.

Population Growth & Economic Development

Matching emotional appeals to emotional context

Fear Or Romance Could Make You Change Your Mind, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (2009-03-24) -- New research suggests that the effectiveness of common persuasion tactics can be dramatically altered by two primal emotions -- fear and romantic desire. ... > read full article

Touching predicts purchase behavior

Buyer Beware: Touching Something In A Store Increases Perceived Ownership

ScienceDaily (2009-03-31) -- To avoid unwanted or unnecessary purchases, keep your hands off the goods. That's the conclusion of a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research. ... > read full article

Future use preference differs from immediate use preference

Now Or Later? Consumer Product Evaluation Depends On Purchase Timing

ScienceDaily (2009-05-12) -- Let's say you planned to buy a new car at the end of the year. But then your car conks out and suddenly you need to make a purchase. A new study says you'll use different criteria to evaluate vehicles in that situation than you would if you planned to buy a car immediately but then had to postpone the purchase. ... > read full article

Abortion attitudes -- a barometer of conservative anxiety?

Recent polling has shown a dramatic increase then number of people saying they are against abortion. The increase has been most dramatic amongst whites -- particularly conservatives. Attitudes towards abortion haven't changed substantially amongst Democrats and Blacks.

This recent increase occurred after the election of Obama in November 2008; a similar spike in anti-abortion feelings occurred in 2001.

Could heightened stress from inter-group conflict -- terrorist attacks from Middle East, minorities being elected to the head of our government -- find its expression in greater angst about abortion? Abortion is an easy issue to declare your opposition to -- even those who agree with its need conceptually don't promote the behavior actively.

Its easy to have strong emotions about the killing of babies -- feelings that may not be dissimilar in strength to fears of other groups of people in threatening positions. Perhaps these inter-group fears are displaced and publicly presented in anti-abortion rhetoric.


read PEW Research poll here

read Gallup poll here

People Trust Extreme Positions More

Extreme Appeal: Voters Trust Extreme Positions More Than Moderate Ones, Study Finds

ScienceDaily (2008-08-08) -- Trying to appear moderate is not always the best strategy for capturing votes during an election, reveals a new study. Extreme positions can build trust among an electorate, who value ideological commitment in times of uncertainty. "A rational electorate is reluctant to support someone who does not exhibit commitment to some ideology," says USC economist Juan Carrillo. "Voters rightly perceive that someone without ideological commitment cannot have developed a valuable political program." ... > read full article

Advertising Strategy varies based on Purchase Timing

Timing Of Political Messages Influences Voter Preferences, Researcher Finds


ScienceDaily (2008-08-15) -- In political campaigns, timing is almost everything. Candidates communicate with voters over a long period of time before voters actually vote. What candidates say to these voters is, of course, important, but it turns out that when they say it also influences voter preferences. ... > read full article

We're Only Human...: Polling the Crowd Within

The article below shows how our minds respond to questions that we don't know the definitive answers to. Basically, when allowed to return to the question and re-answer it at a later time, the "average" of our answers tends to be more accurate than our initial response.

How could knowledge of this tendency be better utilized in market research?


We're Only Human...: Polling the Crowd Within: "www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman."

Market Research from the respondent's perspective

The following unsolicited account demonstrates how respondents often easily see the purpose of research. Humans' natural instinct to scan for, and assign, causation and intent to interpersonal events most certainly influences the survey responses they give to market researchers.

The account also reveals the issue facing market researchers on almost every project: Very few business people are interested in research, as much as they are interested in validation. New and unsolicited information is a risk, until it can communaly seen as an opportunity. The amount of effort needed to convert new information into an acknowledged opportunity leads to most research findings being discarded, discredited or dismissed (as below).


"Okay, so I am paid to participate in online surveys for the construction industry. (I was nominated to be on this panel by inadvertently impressing people with my knowledge and desire to increase my knowledge of the technical component of a building and how we describe and detail it. I am a rare and treasured bird in the architectural industry. I digress. The first several pages are general and anonymous and then the last pages are specific to the manufacturer who is eliciting feedback for specific products and their reception as a new product or image of a current product. Obviously you understand better than most people. So I take a survey and I felt that they were asking the wrong questions, even though it became evident what they wanted. But how do you get that feedback when all the Q’s are rate with a number strongly agree or disagree. I get paid $20 because they know how difficult it is to get an Architect to do something that isn’t an immediate task for an impending deadline. However, I felt some obligation since they a re a good company and I am favorably oriented to the majority of the products so I sent them an email of interesting and unexpected feedback for one of their products in the Chicago Market. It is unheard of for companies to get unsolicited feedback from Architects. I didn’t expect any response, but I was surprised by the dismissive response. She must be crazy to think I am have time to pursue this with a rep.

Is this a common scenario with US corps or corps in general that they seek market feedback from the people who will select and use their product, but when these receive it unfiltered by marketing analysis they don’t know what to do with it?"

The Desirability of High Prices

The High Cost Of Low Status: Feeling Powerless Leads To Expensive Purchases

ScienceDaily (2008-06-26) -- Feeling powerless can trigger strong desires to purchase products that convey high status, according to new research. In a study that may explain why so many Americans who are deeply in debt still spend beyond their means, authors found that research subjects who were asked to recall times when someone else had power over them were willing to pay higher prices for status-symbol items. ... > read full article

Designing Research Events for Accuracy

Too Many Choices Can Spoil The Research

ScienceDaily (2008-06-27) -- The more choices people get, the less consistent they are in making those choices, according to a new study. The study's findings may affect the way researchers examine consumer choices. ... > read full article

"Nature is Prodigal in Variety, though Niggard in Innovation"

While many recognize this observation from Charles Darwin's closing chapter in The Origin of Species, he had borrowed it from Henri Milne-Edwards.

Both of these naturalists were struck by the lack of dramatic innovation in the evolution of living things, and the preponderance of minimal variation and refinement of traits across species and time.

Looking at product development, modern observers see a repetitive pattern of trial and error -- dominated by the refinement and combination of existing ideas and technologies to create products and services that will be selected by consumers.

Interview with the author of "The Myths of Innovation"

If, in life and business, creativity and innovation are nothing but adjectives that accrue to those willing to try and fail over long periods of time -- what leads to our lack of patience in promoting trial and error, and letting creativity and innovation occur naturally?

How much has the belief that creativity is a personality trait cost businesses over time -- as they invested in ideas based on personalities, rather than consumer selection?

Or has it cost business anything at all?

Could the beliefs in dramatic innovation and creativity be -- like religious beliefs -- the stuff of thought that helps keep groups organized around a common activity, and committed to one another in businesses?

Why do Market Researchers Visit Different Cities?

The chart above is based on Richard Lewontin's famous study, as cited in Spencer Well's Deep Ancestry (2007).

The graph shows that the bulk of genetic differences is within a population of human individuals you may find, not between them. For instance, if we sample a population from an average city, not discriminating by race, we would account for at least 93% of the genetic differences.

In a country such as the United States, with a highly mobile workforce, national mass media, and national retail chains, even the population differences between areas are greatly diminishing.

This highlights one of the most perplexing inefficiencies in marketing research -- the ritual of conducting research events and focus groups in multiple cities. Rather expending resources on a larger sample size in a single location, money is spend on travel, multiple facilities and time.

Not only are are travel expenses and time away from the office greatly inflated by this practice, but the likelihood of inserting false or misleading results into the research process is increased -- not diminished. Expecting different results by geographic area can easily be the first step in getting them.

Certainly, environmental or marketplace factors do exist for some products. Marketers and researchers should carefully, and earnestly, identify these before they appropriate research funds.

Burial vs. Cremation: Changing Commitment Displays

The chart above plots year 2000 data from 48 states and the District of Columbia. The X axis shows the percentage of deaths resulting in cremation; the Y axis, the percentage of state residents identifying themselves as Baptist, minus the percent of state residents claiming no religious affiliation.

The choice to be buried or cremated appears to be heavily correlated with one's attitude towards religion. Comparing state-by-state cremation and religious affiliation rates, a pattern emerges that reasonably predicted cremation rates at that time.

Baptists were chosen as they were believed to represent a group with high social reinforcement for religiosity. Assuming states with high Baptist populations would be more traditional/conservative in social structure and traditions, it was expected that burial rates would be less likely to have been supplanted by the growing popularity of cremation. This appears to be the case.

With the growing popularity of cremation, a chart of current data would show increased levels of cremation in states with higher Baptist populations, shifting the trend line to the right.

The interesting question is this: Was it the traditions and rituals of active religious life that reinforced burial, or the cognitive biases in the brains of people drawn to active religious life that also biased towards burial? Perhaps time will tell as cremation grows in popularity and becomes the accepted norm, due to economic factors.


The data used in the chart can be found at these locations:

Cremation rates here

Religious Affiliation Data here

Thinking further about my question above, I've found additional data, from a survey by the National Cremation Association:

Cremation survey here

This survey, from 2005, corroborates the by state information linking religiosity to burial, and adds two more factors correlated to the choice of burial -- income levels, and self-identification as being "Black."

The picture that starts to emerge from these elements is one of the strength of group membership being a leading factor in burial choices. Factors -- economic, psychological, social, etc. -- which put a premium on group membership for well-being make it difficult for members to depart with deceased ones, and consequently, lead them to retain their bodies as both symbols of their commitment and touchstones of positive memories. The archetypal example being the policy of military groups to not leaving anyone behind -- alive or dead.

As acceptance of cremation becomes the dominant form of remains disposal over the next 10 years -- due to cost, land and "green" concerns -- it will be interesting to see what symbols and rituals arise in popularity to replace the practice of burial.

Brand Affinity in Addictive Products

The table above is from the 2003 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse report on cigarette brand preferences. Key findings from the report were:

• In 2001, Marlboro was the cigarette brand used most often by past month cigarette smokers, followed by Newport, Camel, Basic, and Doral.
  
• Approximately 85 percent of cigarette smokers aged 12 to 25 smoked one of the three most used brands, whereas smokers aged 26 or older reported more diversity in cigarette brand selection.
  
• White and Hispanic smokers were most likely to use Marlboro, while black smokers were most likely to use Newport.

read full article

As with alcohol, it appears that the neurological effects of tobacco work to create strong brand memories and affinity in their users. However, looking at the dramatic differences in market share based on their stated race/ethnicity, it appears that brand choice for these products is also strongly influenced by social affiliation pressure as well. The social/group pressures seem to be a bigger factor than geographic difference for this product category.

This points towards several opportunities for improved marketing campaigns:

1. When marketers think about brand affinity and strength, it is common for products with high emotional/neurological components -- automobiles (movement/speed), beer (alcohol), food (taste), etc. -- to dominate the ideation and examples they use between themselves and clients. This is true even when the category in question offers little direct stimulation to the brain. It would seem that marketers who disciplined themselves to focus on products that have similar nervous system interaction patterns should be more likely to product effective campaigns -- versus referring to the campaigns that have the most salience to themselves and others.
2. Despite -- or perhaps because of -- the strong impact that tobacco has on the brain, social expectations still appear to play a big role in preference. This probably contributes to the tendency more expensive alcohol to be perceived as tasting better. This same phenomenon may not be as strong in products without the same emotional charge.
3. For product without a direct or continuous stimulation of the brain, messaging and position campaigns may have to be based on the incidents -- however infrequent -- when the brain is stimulated by feelings of intense satisfaction or frustration with the product. For instance, when the product fails, or is associated with positive situations -- like the care of baby or loved one.
4. All too often, marketers worry more about geographic preferences when doing positioning or research. As this example points out, the groups people believe they belong to are better predictors of segmentation and behavior than are the physical location in which they live.

Have others experienced similar problems in researching products and services?

Consumer Perceptions of Volume -- Sight vs. Touch

Which Holds More: A Tall, Thin Glass Or A Short, Fat One?

ScienceDaily (2006-02-13) -- A fascinating new study from the March 2006 issue of the Journal of Consumer Research explores how our senses interact to gauge volume, with important implications for perception of consumer products and consumption patterns. Specifically, the article argues that "elongation effect" -- the common tendency to think that a tall, thin glass holds more than a short, stout glass of equal volume -- is reversed when touch is used instead of sight to evaluate how much a container holds....
read full article

This study contrasts the differences in perceived size, based on whether an item is looked at, or touched. For items that can't be touched before purchase, height seems a little more important in imparting a feeling of volume; for items that are handled, thickness conveys larger volume. What implications should this have on product and product display designs, if being perceived larger creates a positive sense of value?

Appreciating style -- Is it the Appearance, or Perceived Effort?

Recipe For Ad Success: Just Add Art

ScienceDaily (2008-02-15) -- Advertisers looking to add appeal to their products need to look no farther than their nearest art museum, according to a new study that finds that even a fleeting exposure to art makes consumers evaluate products more positively. The study represents a pioneering attempt to systematically demonstrate how visual art influences consumer perceptions....
read full article

This article summarizes a paper to be published in the Journal of Marketing Research, which shows that the addition of perceived artwork to a product -- a box, a soap dispenser, plumbing fixtures, etc. -- improves the likelihood the product is perceived more favorably or luxuriously. The nature of the artwork -- recognizable, aesthetically pleasing etc. -- appears secondary to the very presence of the artwork -- the impression someone made an effort to change the appearance of the package.

Returning to the question of style preferences -- how much is a preference based on aesthetics alone, and how much is it based on the perceived effort and value added to the item in question?

Brand Extensions versus Brand Birthing

Old Dogs Don't Notice New Tricks: Prior Knowledge Affects How Consumers Accept New Information

ScienceDaily (2008-02-16) -- Over time, consumers develop a set of cues that we then use to make inferences about products, such as "all French restaurants have great service" or "more expensive candles smell better." However, this set of predictable beliefs can make it difficult for us to learn and recognize other real, positive qualities that are indicated by the same cues, reveals a new study....
read full article

The article above points to an interesting problem with brands and brand extensions. Often the accumated memories / brand experiences make it difficult for new advertising and products to change the experience that consumers expect, and consequently, enjoy.

Shouldn't we expect more literature and growth in the area of how endorsed brands can be used to give birth to new brands, in situations where paradigm changing products or services are developed that would best prosper if unconstrained by the "baggage" of the well-known brand?

Conservatism and Early Adopters

The chart above is from the paper "Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition", by Jost, Glaser, Kruglanski and Sulloway.

Link to paper here

The paper summarizes several studies linking the psychological traits of individuals to their political views, focusing on which traits are positively and correlated with conservatism.

As the diagram above illustrates, fear & uncertainty are underlying contributors for the expression for political conservatism.

From a marketing standpoint, this presents an interesting challenge: if political conservatism is positively correlated to wealth and disposable income, how do get these consumers -- the ones who can afford to take risks -- to try new and innovative products (as innovation has been negatively correlated to conservatism in some studies)?

For this group, should innovative products be positioned as extensions of existing products -- downplaying their innovative features -- and emphasizing their performance attributed vis-a-vis peers? This would shift the consumer's mindset from a sense of risk of experimenting with unproven technology, to a fear that a competitor would be gaining an advantage.

Building further on this notion, it would seem that products that mitigated fears and anxiety of unseen contagions -- disease and crime -- would also be well positioned for the politically conservative segment, and a means for innovative ideas to gain access to the financial power of these consumers.