Nmap just created a visualization engine based on Alexis.com data which lets you navigate the web’s most trafficked websites. Definitely worth a look even though the servers seems to be over capacity right now, due to all the traffic from Mashable.
As with all articles containing the words “x success criteria…” use this with caution. However, the report, while not earth shattering should help you with your next argumentation.
Via DavaiDavai
Within the pursuit of being students of human behavior, Leo Burnett researcher Carol Foley is developing a typology of human behavior, called Behavioral Archetypes (SM).
The Tool allows the classification of human behavior and the brands response behavior.
Our starting point for all explorations of behavior must be to identify and understand what people are doing right now with regard to our brand or product.
The psychological literature is full of references to specific types of behavior.
Yet no one has sorted out all of these various types of behavior, nor created a schema of their relationships to one another.
Were we to be able to do this, we could begin with the behavior itself, rather than with a psychological perspective, and then allow the relevant perspectives to inform that behavior further.
Through over 10,000 interviews in multiple studies, we’ve been able to quantitatively map all of the major types of behavior into a paradigm.
What is important about Behavioral Archetypes(SM), and what substantially validates it, is the degree to which it mirrors models of human motives and values. The model allows for spotting adjacent behaviors (e.g. the freedom behavior’s neighbours are self-interest and change) as well as opposite behaviors (e.g. the the change behavior’s opposite is preservation) as well as 40-50 sub-behaviors per behavior category. See below.
Further investigation into human behavior with this model also leads to insights (behavior tensions) regarding
The tool lends itself to a more structured approach to behavior investigation, spotting behavioral tensions within the people that are most important to a brand and to formulate a brand behavior response.
If you are interested in more information, please feel free to contact us.
A colleague just forwarded me a great online tool from Dr. BJ Fogg from Stanford about the different ways that behavior can change - expressing the subtle but important ways that change is approached - whether it is new behavior, the duration of a familiar behavior or the cessation of a behavior.
Interesting stuff, and useful for building strategies that can affect behavior through the understanding of exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. We typically include lots of information about the behaviors we are trying to impact, but this grid assists in clarifying the comparison of the change in context of other behaviors.
In their article, Facebook Fans Valued at $3.60 Each, Mashable’s Christina Warren reports on the latest study by Vitrue (also covered in this Adweek article - hmmm this topic seems to have a lot of people interested in it…) showing that the value of a fan can be expressed in “earned media” - or impressions for updates that post to your user’s news feeds.
It’s good to know that there might be some marketers who feel they can relax a little bit now - after all, impressions at least are relatively understood. But the really exciting thing is how much of an iceberg tip it really is - since the actions by users like Commenting, Likes, and Shares are also big influences, and probably still unknown - the blog post just hints at doubling or tripling the impact!
Vitrue is pretty forthcoming about the best practices that we have seen emerge, however, regarding deeper connections and better penetration - no surprise that relevant content, rich media and engaging Acts are the traits of more successful Pages.
It’s a cool time to be working in marketing - and a cool time to be working with clients to determine what the value of participation in the social space means for Brands and their consumers.
Interesting post on Influencers over at Techipedia - the author looks at influencers and the things that they say drive them to act.
There are some common threads, but the interesting thing to me is how diverse some views are. Proving that there is no magic formula. Sorry folks - to do it right takes Customization, Personalization and good old fashioned Relationship Building!
How many times has this topic been discussed? Possibly more than any other. But reading the Seven Principles for Marketing to Women on the Retail Customer Experience.com site, I was struck by how important it is to heed ‘the basics’ in our work with this half of the population.
I think the article is worth a read - and not just for retail insight. Even in the realms of interaction design and channel strategy, we have to take the time to make sure we are viewing the decisions that women make through a lens of their priorities and values.
Or - do you think this model is outdated? Are we seeing behaviors that are not always really there, and looking to evolutionary evidence to confirm our preconceptions? (The author is a cognitive anthropologist but that doesn’t make him infallible!)
via: RetailCustomerExperience.com
Plus - it looks like there is a page takeover ad running today on the site (and probably for the next few days) of Microsoft’s Embedded Retail Device technology that is super-cool. Check that out as well!
This is an old BBC documentary from 1967 about New York ad man Steve Frankfurt. I had the pleasure to work in his agency Frankfurt Balkind, when he had just left for new endeavours and only met him once. Anyway, this documentary is an amazing piece of advertising history, or nostalgia (depending of where you’re coming from). Apart from being a trip back in time, it lends itself greatly for some awesome quotes you might wanna use in your next client presentation. 
Thanks Andreas Combüchen for sharing!
Check out these photographic records of the heroines of the burgeoning women’s movement on indicommons.
Do you know bestiario.org? If you don’t you should check it out now. Bestario features the latest in visualization techniques, displaying boring data in mind-boggling arrangements
