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Did you know that web users are only consciously aware of 30% of the browsing process. It is the unconscious mind, system 1 reactions, that is actually in charge of the majority of the browsing process. Is your current user experience research measuring this?

Traditional moderated user experience research may miss up to 70% of the navigation process as users are not aware of every step they take. Asking users to explain their journey during research is also slowing down the navigation causing misleading results. Users who would usually spend seconds on a page start analysing text and images they will, in real life, actually not even see.

Un-moderated, remote testing on the other hand allows for quick browsing but often does not explain why elements of the journey do not work. Leaving you with an incomplete picture.

 

So traditional approaches to UX testing can leave you with 3 problems:

  • A large proportion of the navigation process is missed because it is unconscious and people cannot verbalise it
  • Moderated user journeys are artificially slowed down and do not show how people really browse
  • Results often show what happens but cannot always explain why, which means you cannot improve the designs directly

The solution

Emotional Logic has developed a web user experience test that measures unconscious navigation, gets you closer to real life and helps you build Behavioural Science principles into your journey to improve satisfaction and conversion. Our unique process applies online eye tracking, measuring not only where people click but also where they look. Users can complete the test on their own devices and in their own environment, which means you get a result that is closer to real life behaviour.

Our integrated approach shows not only what happens (for example where users get stuck) but also explains why (for example they did not see the button). This delivers a clear list of actionable insights that you can convert into design changes straight away. What is more, most of our clients also learn general navigation effects that they can apply to future design without having to test.

We would love to tell you more about how our UX research is helping client develop more intuitive and faster web journeys for their customers. Please get in touch  for no-obligation conversation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Persona development is the cornerstone of human-centred design and marketing. Creating personas will help your team more easily understand the needs and expectations of your customers. Well-formed personas help you develop better products, services, communication and experiences for your customers and galvanise your team behind a common language within the organisation.
But not all personas are created equal. Emotional Logic helps you use the power of Behavioural Science in your persona development.

Why should you use personas?

Personas help you bring your customer into day-to-day decision making – by helping you prioritise elements that are most important to them.
Personas are characters, developed based on customer research, that represent different user types of your product or service. Creating personas will help you get closer to the needs and wants of your customer base and allows a more tailored approach for marketing, user experience and new product development. If done well, personas help you bring customers ‘to life’ and enable your teams to engage with them on a more human level.
But not all personas are created equal.

What is the problem with conventional personas?

The traditional types of ‘John’ and ‘Fatima’ geo-demographic personas can easily descend into stereotyping and are not able to keep pace with todays multi-ethnic, multi-age consumer segments who no longer fit traditional stereotypes. When you have 25 year olds and 55 years olds buying the same tech products a demographic based persona soon falls short.

How to add the power of Behavioural Science to your personas

Adding Behavioural Science delivers personas that inspire organisation-wide usage and innovation and are more effective than traditional systems. In order to develop such personas, you have conduct research that helps you understand what is motivating people to buy your product or service and how they are using it. It requires advanced research techniques that go way beyond ‘price’ and ‘good customer service’ to really understand the emotional relationship customers have with your product or service.
Once you understand the emotional benefits people get from your products and what is motivating their purchasing you can develop personas that have very clear service and communication requirements.

To find out more about how Emotional Logic can help you add the power of Behavioural Science in your persona development get in touch for a free demo of recent case studies.

 

 

 

 

 

In-store decisions are made quickly. Within the initial 3-5 seconds a shopper will have decided whether to pick up a product or move on. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for your brand to be noticed, especially in categories with many me-too products. Those few seconds are vital as shoppers scan aisles and use heuristics in a bid to narrow down their options and get on with the rest of their day.

Green denotes vegetarian but how can you stand out?

For example, imagine you were looking for a vegetarian food product. In many countries vegetarian/vegan products are represented by the colour green and the packs feature elements that refer to nature, such as flowers or leaves, so if we wanted to launch a new product that can be quickly identified as vegetarian or vegan we would use this same type of imagery for our pack. This is a so-called dominant code as it’s firmly established, so much so that it almost becomes a hygiene factor to be part of the category.

But think about a market where all products use the same visual cues: how could we stand out quickly in a sea of ‘cold’ green leaf icons and increase our chance to be seen and picked by our imaginary grocery shopper then? And being noticed becomes particularly important when we consider that around 80-90% of new products fail at launch.

Going back to our example, packs in the vegetarian/vegan category tend to communicate significantly less about elements like taste and emotions. When taste is cued this is more often than not in comparison with its meaty equivalent, almost as an afterthought to reassure those buyers on a health kick that the product will look or taste just as good as the original meat version.

Disrupting the category

This category also often ramps up clinical and rational aspects and promotes health by exclusion (‘free from’) rather than signalling a treat or something more special – so if we wanted to disrupt the category we could apply a new trend or association that is not firmly established yet (a so-called emergent code) and cue ‘warmer’ emotional elements, for example showing the context in which the product is being consumed (a table with a family around it cueing comfort). Or perhaps we could wrap our product in a black, glossy material for the pack to cue luxury and a special, indulgent occasion.

Semiotics makes your packs work harder

This is what semiotics does – it looks at signs and symbols around us and what they mean, and in the context of new product development adding a semiotic analysis module to your research project can help you fine tune your offering ahead of launch.

Semiotics can also help you improve your current products and communications – are you reducing cognitive load for shoppers when evaluating products? Are you sending the right signals to push your sales in the right direction? If you are operating across different countries is your pack adapting to different cultures enough, or is it alienating local customers?

Your product communicates with shoppers whether you planned it or not – knowing what cues your product conveys and how this compares with the offer currently available on the market is paramount. To find out how we can help you make your pack design and communications work harder with semiotic analysis get in touch today for a free conversation with one of our analysts.

What is one of the first things you do when you are not sure of the answer to something? Me, I unlock my phone and ask Google. Usually, the answer is right there, in front of my face, within seconds.

Your website is potentially the most powerful marketing tool at your disposal. What we mean by that is; it can leave a lasting impression on a customer – this can determine how they speak about your brand, if they make a purchase or if your customer returns to your site again.

Understanding how people browse rather than how they think they browse is essential. Carrying out User Experience (UX) testing on your website or app: can elevate your business more than you could ever imagine.

Dieter Rams, a German industrial designer, said: “You cannot understand a good design if you do not understand people.”

What is UX?

User experience is pretty self-explanatory. It can be defined as how people feel while interacting with your product or service. For example, when consumers want to check the opening times for a shopping center, they interact with your website. The design of your website – including usability, design, value, and overall impression: are all factors that may influence how consumers feel about the interaction. The struggle we face is because users think with their rational and emotional minds; both play a significant role in the decision-making process.

According to Don Norman (who created the term User Experience in the 1990s), “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

From our research, we have learned that people do not read your website the way your designers have designed it. You may have worked out a visual hierarchy. However, in over 90% of cases, users use a different order. You must know how people browse the page to ensure your messages and navigation routes are being identified quickly.

Multi-dimensional UX process

As you have probably noticed by now, this is not a straightforward process; it has many little facets that combine to create something extraordinary – a lot like a honeycomb. Peter Morville has created an illustration that has helped educate clients and see results, serving several purposes at once:

These seven elements are all components that can be used to identify areas that are important to a positive user experience and can be broken down as much as you require. The ultimate goal is to understand how to make your customer happy.

This tool can help you start on your user experience journey or to get a better understanding of your customer’s behaviours – either way, you must integrate it into your business model to improve your business.

How to test web UX using Market Research?

Traditional user testing asks participants to speak their views out loud and opinions and answer questions throughout the test. Forcing users to reflect on what they do is slowing the browsing process down. It gives an unnatural emphasis to something that in real life is completed in seconds without thinking. Testers may filter out what is socially acceptable to say and may not admit if they made errors or did not understand something (in order not to look stupid). Speaking out loud increases cognitive load, can influence the results, and may differ from natural browsing behaviour.

Emotional Logic’s user test avoids those issues by allowing testers to browse the site naturally while we record their eye-tracking movements. Delivering a more accurate picture of the natural browsing process.

Benefits of web UX testing:

Nowadays, it is so easy for a customer to try something different or shop elsewhere because it is slightly cheaper on a competitor’s site, so having the ability to hook viewers faster will pay off. See how our Web User Experience & Testing tool has helped others:

  • Our methodology uncovered how users scan a page in less than one second – allowing a finance brand to double its task conversion online.
  • We also found that changing the image on the home page of a leading charity led to a 20% increase in attention on the page.
  • We helped optimise pages for a retail website based on eye-tracking insights into engagement – increasing conversion by 29%.

Conclusion

As mentioned, UX requires a deep understanding of the user – particularly their needs, wants, and behaviours. The ability to learn, design, and change without hesitation are critical for companies. Being fluid in your actions and putting your customer first will create brand loyalty and repeat purchasing.

Carrying out market research will help you find out the key elements that will make your design click with your target audience and make it beneficial for both you and the end user. Get in touch today to connect with your users in 2 seconds.

How to increase touchpoints online

What are touchpoints and how can you use them to your advantage? In this day and age there are so many ways consumers can interact with your business or organisation and each one can be known as a touchpoint. For example, you have a new product launching and have put out a paid ad, a potential customer clicks and this takes them to the landing page on your website where they sign-up for pre-release information – this process involves three touchpoints. In this example, the first touchpoint was your potential customer seeing the pre-paid ad, however, what if they had already heard of your brand through a friend? It’s important to know what your customers first touchpoint is so you can understand them and their requirements better.

A customer touchpoint can be defined as anytime, point or stage where a potential, current or existing customer interacts with your brand. This can happen before, during or after a purchase has been made. We’re now going to have a look at those three different stages and the touchpoints involved:

Before sale: Awareness and Consideration

When a customer is aware of your brand it means that a purchase / identity can be created for it. Awareness can be through traditional or digital touchpoints such as…

Company website

This is a great way to spread awareness and it’s probably the most common touchpoint customers will use to find out more about you / make a purchase. Having a well-designed and well-optimised website can increase dwell time as well as spend. However, most of the online browsing process happens subconsciously and even if we interview people straight after their experience, it will only reveal a fraction of what happened. Carrying out market research will help you avoid big mistakes.

To get the most out of your website you should consider:

  1. Use consumer language – this makes it easier for your consumers to relate.
  2. Repeat a message you want people to see more than once – up to 50% of people may not see the content on the page so don’t be afraid to repeat it
  3. Put the most frequently asked questions at the top of the FAQ’s page – this will avoid people getting annoyed and abandoning their mission

Social Media

As you probably know, Social Media is a huge part of a lot of people’s lives and according to Smart Insights, “59% of the world’s population uses social media. The average daily usage is 2 hours and 29 minutes (July 2022).”

Social media platforms are a great way to grow your audience by jumping on new trends or setting them, measuring engagement and also boosting sales. Optimise your social media by:

  1. Create exciting content – having interactive content is key to have people pay attention to your brand. However, you first have to understand what type of content your consumers want / will share.
  2. Communicate with your consumers – having regular conversations and replying promptly to your audience will build a solid relationship where they feel listened to.
  3. People like people – whilst using illustrations can make your brand seem more modern, quirky and interesting it can also reduce your scores for customer service and friendliness.

Online advertising

Advertising online can be done through paid and organic post on search engines such as Google or Bing – or on another company webpage. These adverts help to make others feel more connected and get to see what you’re offering, especially if its relevant to what they’re already searching for. To optimise your online advertising, you can:

  1. Know your audience – to be able to target an ad, you must understand their profile. This will increase engagement and click-through rate.
  2. Attention – people will only read the average advert for 1.5-2 seconds. It’s important to make sure the ad is optimised effectively (call-to-action etc)

SEO

SEO is slowly becoming more important in all things digital, having high rankings on search engines is important for trust and reliability. If your customer doesn’t see you within the top 3 links, its likely they won’t purchase from you.

Live chat’s / Chat bots

Automated services are becoming so popular, and if you are going to use them its important it’s done properly. You will hear horror stories that people have boy-cotted brands because of the poor information they have received from a chat bot or sheer frustration from not having a direct response – if you are certain your live chat is going to work, it can provide an exceptional experience for your customers.

Fun fact: the marketing rule of 7 still applies

This means that on average it takes seven interactions with your brand before a purchase will take place. Therefore, it’s essential your touchpoints are working and are leading to a good customer experience – especially online. When consumers are shopping online there is so much distraction and its less likely that a spontaneous purchase will be made (in comparison to a pack of chewies or a chocolate bar at a checkout desk). By identifying and optimising your touchpoints, it can help you win more customers and connect with them on a deeper level which will increase sales and brand loyalty. This should always be a top priority for your business.

During sale: Decision and Action

During the decision and action phase consumers are weighing up their options and are really considering making the purchase.

Researching and reviews

It is important during this stage that you are completely truthful and open with your customers – they would rather see honest reviews than reviews that have filtered out the negative. According to Podium 93% of users have made buying decisions based on online reviews they have read, and most won’t engage with a business or product that has less than a 3.3-star rating.

How to optimise reviews?

  1. Act on the feedback – if there is something that is constantly popping up, try and resolve the issue and deliver a better experience to the customer. This shows you’re willing.
  2. Motivate buying behaviour – consumers are 50% more likely to be motivated by an online review rather than a discount code, according to Bizrate Insight.
  3. Boost confidence – reviews help a customer make a decision, reading other people’s experiences helps them to feel comfortable as well as confident about the products or services on offer.

Online purchasing

Since covid the majority of the world adjusted to online purchasing; whether it be for food, clothes or furniture. Customers had the option to make price-comparisons and the only thing making them purchase with you, is your brand connection. And if this isn’t good enough, you will start to see a lot of abandoned shopping carts. Optimising your online store can get shoppers to buy and users to stay.

Email campaigns

Sending or receiving emails is one of the main methods of communication for the majority of businesses – with 62% of customers saying they prefer to be contacted by email out of all other channels (phone or text).

Sending email campaigns to customers who have signed up but not yet made a purchase can be very helpful – it’s a direct trigger that can affect lifetime purchases, customer support and even purchases. You can optimise emails by:

  1. Being personal – if you use your customers name, DOB, buyer journey to communicate with them you will make them feel as though they are communicating with a human, not just a brand.
  2. A/B testing – remember, images that feature people / faces gain more attention.

Point of sale

This is the last touchpoint your customer will reach before they make a purchase.

After sale: Brand loyalty and Referral

This phase of the journey is all about getting people to make repeat purchases and for them to pass the message on through word-of-mouth marketing. It’s important that contact is kept and it can be done by:

Billing

Digital receipts: With the world going paperless, having digital receipts is a fantastic thing to offer to your customers. Although it can be an annoying process, having a simple and effective process in place is key. For example, having an iPad / tablet at the checkout for people to enter their own details and as soon as it’s submitted it goes into their inbox.

Online invoices: Whilst nobody really likes paying bills, its important again that this process is as straightforward as possible. This can be done by offering several different payment types, giving plenty of notice as well as it being laid out in an easy format.

Newsletters

This is probably one of the best customer touchpoints you can have post-purchase – it gives your customers’ information and engages them through either interesting content, discounts or new products / services. It’s a constant update without a great deal of work involved. You can optimise your newsletters by:

  1. Advertising your product – sharing information and the benefits your product / service can offer customers. From delivering good content it can increase engagement and gain more repeat purchasing.
  2. Recommendations – based on their previous customer shopper habits.
  3. Promote your business – advertise your company’s achievements to increase engagement. This works especially well for building up brand relationships and trust.

Customer support / feedback

If someone has made a purchase online, it’s more likely that they’re going to return it – this is because your customer hasn’t had a chance to see or feel the product in real life. Having an easy post-sale enquiry, complaint or returns process will be very valuable as it can determine whether customers return or move onto a competitor.

Rewarding customers for their loyalty

Having a loyalty programme is another touchpoint for your customers – which happens over a long-period of time. If you have good brand loyalty, you’re really winning, it’s something that should definitely be rewarded. It’s also an incentive for repeat purchasing…

  1. Appreciation – customers who feel appreciated feel more inclined to make a repeat purchase. Sending personalised discounts and rewarding on (company) anniversaries or birthdays can make your customers feel as though they have a deep connection with your brand. It stands out and makes them feel like you really do know them.
  2. Special offers – attracting customers with special offers or sign-up discounts is a great way to trigger impulse purchasing.
  3. Make it easy – a lot of brands have loyalty schemes in their own apps. It makes it easy and convenient to find the reward you’re looking for; the only issue is having people download it. P.S. using an incentive or special offer could help…

In a lot of companies, if you have a good relationship with your customers, repeat purchasing will happen and it will limit their urge to go elsewhere.

How we can help

As you’ve probably discovered by now, understanding your customer touchpoints is pretty essential in your business. At least if you’re looking to succeed. By understanding your customers’ touchpoints you’re able to generate more sales through nurturing and guiding your customers towards making a purchase, creating loyal customers through great experiences and making the journey pleasant as well as getting key insights from your campaign analytics.

Having a detailed touchpoint analysis across all journey stages is crucial to understand their needs and wants. Here at Emotional Logic, we can help you at any stage of your journey, our Communication Optimiser is used for digital user experience (UX) research as well as for testing press, TV, radio and outdoor advertising. It has been designed to pinpoint specific words, sounds and visuals that trigger buying behaviour – measuring your consumers conscious and subconscious reactions. Our research helps clients get 25% increase in average order value and 200% increase in time spent on site.

Sign-up to our Newsletter for more interesting insights on how to develop your business or get in touch today for a free demo.

The Decoy Effect and why you should use it

As you’re probably well aware within a business there are at least four factors to the marketing mix, with price being one of the most delicate factors.

No matter if you’re a start-up or a massive franchise the Decoy effect should be present in your business and here’s why… Imagine you’re in the queue at your local coffee house, waiting for your medium Latte. But when you get to the counter, you notice the price board –

Although there is £1 difference from a small to medium, there is only a £0.30 difference between medium to large… and as humans, we rarely choose things in absolute terms, it’s mostly in comparison to other products that are around. So, setting your pricing strategy in a way that has higher value than the cheaper product (more coffee) and a lower price than the expensive product is going to give you the best ROI.

Businesses have been using this cognitive bias technique for a long time to trick their audiences into spending more than intended to. So, let’s find out how to make the Decoy Pricing strategy work for you…

Step 1: Your Pick your product(s)

This can be applied to pretty much anything you can sell, whether it be drinks, cars or online subscriptions. It’s always best to pick a product that is in demand – to limit the chances of failure!

Step 2: Always have more than one choice

If there are only two choices, people have the option to purchase or to not purchase (because the price is too high). Whereas with three options, you have something for the buyer to compare against, as well as the option to not purchase.

When setting your prices, the product you’re trying to sell should have more benefits than the other products, as well as having a (fractionally) higher price.

Step 3: Uneven product comparisons

This is often referred to as asymmetric domination – meaning that the decoy is prices to make one of the other options much more desirable. It is “dominated” in terms of value for money, quantity as well as additional features…

The decoy option is never meant to sell, just to drive sales towards the more expensive option.

Step 4: Limit what you offer on your lower-priced products

You don’t want your lowest-priced option to stand out – or else the Decoy effect won’t work. This is almost just a starting point so that people have a basic / standard option to compare against – they aren’t going to feel special buying this (which is what you want as a customer).

Step 5: Close pricing between the Decoy and your key product

As you saw earlier on the Coffee favourites example, the decoy price is close to the option you want your audience to pick – this is so they notice it’s only an extra £0.30 more expensive for such a greater return of investment.

Step 6: Implementing it

Now you’re aware of what The Decoy Effect is it will become so apparent which brands are using it – and how you can implement it into your marketing strategy.

If you aren’t sure on what to set the original price to that’s completely normal. With the cost of living increasing and customers changing their purchasing habits its hard to determine which price will make your product sell. Understanding how your customers are reacting to the new situation and your changed environment is key to maximise sales.

Asking customers is simply not enough

Buying behaviour and attitudes are shifting rapidly and new loyalties have developed. It’s essential you measure customer flows, get shopper feedback and optimise in-store and online displays now more than ever before. However, simply asking customers how much they would be prepared to pay alone has been proven as an inaccurate way to assess pricing. As consumers vastly over and underestimate outside the context of the supermarket or store – customers don’t really know how much things cost until they’re able to compare against others.

To make sure your price is optimised to get the best ROI, check out our price optimisation tool. It has been used to turn some of the leading FMCG and consumer goods products into industry favourites. Our approach is done in a completely natural setting which avoids bias and we can give you an advantage to see how market share would increase based on price as well as comparing against competitors.

To find out more, get in touch today.

If you’re not getting the same attention as you once were from your customers, I wouldn’t worry about it. Consumers are more distracted than ever before.

‘I’m bored’ has been a very prevalent sentence over the past 3 years. Consumers have looked for ‘quick-fixes’ to pass their time during lockdowns. Methods include (but are definitely not limited to), TikTok and e-Commerce scrolling for the latest and greatest trends or binge-watching series or movies on streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime.

And with the sentence ‘I’m bored’ comes lack of quality attention…

According to a study conducted by YouGov, consumers are spending 30 seconds or less reading or listening to online marketing which isn’t leaving a lot of time to capture your audience’s attention. However, with the help of viral algorithms, it is giving your content the opportunity to be viewed, and better perceived by consumers.

Consumers wanting quick, easy and digestible content has been massively influenced by the likes of TikTok and Instagram Stories. Throughout the pandemic, a mass of all genders and ages have been watching (and creating) 15-second long TikTok’s with tailored content to capture their audiences attention almost immediately – which is perfect for quick consumption of knowledge. The trend of short, snappy videos has been introduced into almost every walk of life. Allowing us to live in an era of ‘snackable’ content.

‘Snackable’ content shouldn’t be viewed as a sign that attention spans are shortening, but just that consumers are looking for content that fits in with their beliefs and values. Now more than ever consumers are devoting all of their time to media, in fact, it is the norm to use dual screens and connected devices (I mean, you can RECEIVE and REPLY to a text message on a watch!!) – people have changed their habits to adapt to this new media world and it’s up to you to understand what drives it. P.s. your ads can become 4x more persuasive and 43% more memorable using our research.

75% of people who see your ad won’t remember it

With all of this content and having endless amounts of videos at our finger tips, how do we as humans filter out what is actually relevant?

75% of people who see your ad won’t remember it and this is the difference between a consumer being aware and engaged or being unconscious and mindlessly scrolling. People often operate using the unconscious mind, and for your advertising to be remembered it has to trigger emotions. Recall and memory-based assessment captures only a fraction of the true power of your actual communication. Even without the viewer being aware of it, their unconscious mind can receive an impression that will have an impact on their long-term brand loyalty and price elasticity.

Having an omni-channel approach and deep diving into what your consumer really wants from your brand can help. However, one struggle with that is, is 53% of UK consumers are shifting from live TV to streaming services (which usually have no ads) because they offer more entertaining content.

Methods to engage with consumers are beginning to shift. According to a global report from Criteo, 62% of UK consumers are saying they watch more paid streaming services than before the start of COVID-19. With streaming services on the rise, and cable TV losing traction, this is eliminating the option to target your audience with ads during TV breaks. Finding alternative channels and options will be key to success.

The world is changing and marketing must change with it.

But the core principles of communication never change – it is a two-way street. If you want someone’s attention, it’s not about how flashy or unusual, loud or controversial you can be – it’s about making it worth their while and resonating with their honest, core beliefs.

Quickly get implicit results using Emotional Logic’s Communication Optimiser, our tool has been designed to pin-point specific words, sounds and visuals that trigger buying behaviour and ad-attention.

If you want to capture your audience’s attention, you have to ensure that communication is a positive experience and is presented with relevant context. Whether you’re advertising physically or digitally, testing press, TV, or radio we can support you at any stage from initial idea to full designed creative – to help deliver a fantastic experience and capture quality attention… To read our case study on how we have helped deliver smart, actionable insight, click here.

Apart from the COVID-19 pandemic being one of the biggest health crises, it has also shifted consumer habits. As consumers have chopped and changed their old habits with new, businesses have wondered whether these changes would be fleeting or permanent…

Before the outbreak of COVID-19, consumers were already shifting toward a digital and cashless society. The pandemic has amplified it dramatically – according to UK Finance, in 2020, only 17% of all payments were made in cash. Shocking right? However, this might have something to do with the fact that around 54% of small businesses are avoiding handling physical money altogether and a Which? study in November 2020 revealed that 42% of shoppers told them that they were using less cash because they thought card payments were safer.

The study revealed that a third of people have had cash payments refused throughout the pandemic. For example, 28% of people for groceries and 24% for leisure activities (such as going to a pub or restaurant). More than three-quarters of respondents who were refused cash payments said it had an emotional impact on them, making them feel frustrated, anxious, or embarrassed. Having clear signage is an obvious way to eliminate miscommunication and prevent negative word-of-mouth that could tarnish your brand’s reputation and lose customer trust almost instantly!

Although the government had advised using contactless payments when shopping in-store to prevent the risk of spreading the virus, there are so many other factors reducing the need to keep cash on hand, for example:

  1. Ease and convenience of not carrying or handling cash
  2. eCommerce and Social Media shopping is happening much more frequently
  3. Paying with mobile phones via Apple Pay is becoming increasingly more popular
  4. A rise of ‘buy now, pay later’ services that are aiding in cashless purchases such as Klarna
  5. A new digital way to monitor cash expenditure via online banking apps

With local bank branches closing, free cash machines significantly falling (by around 50%), and 74% of customers planning to be cashless from now on (MastercardQ1 earnings call, April 2020); some people believe cash will become unnecessary. New data from payments giant Worldpay and FIS suggests that just 7% of all purchases in the UK will be via cash in three years. Also, physical money will be almost abandoned in the UK by 2024 as the pandemic saw the use of physical currency drop. Therefore, being a card-friendly business and having up-to-date technology will help you move forward.

When contactless cards first became a thing, there was a limit of £30, which the public thought was ridiculous. The limit is set now to £100 (with the option to change via your online banking app), showing how people have adjusted to something new and realised that they love it. The ability to purchase without tapping in a PIN or simply paying via a mobile phone has become too easy. For example, a recent study from Buymobiles identified that 80% of the public have at least one of their cards stored electronically on their mobile phone and that even older generations are more comfortable with cashless payments. Buymobiles Jess Canning has said, “I don’t think anyone would have predicted that around 2/3 of 60 to 70-year-olds would prefer cashless methods.”

This is something that would never have happened pre-pandemic.

However, every coin has two sides…

Despite the world being heavily focused on cashless and contactless payments there are still around 10 million people who are still not fully prepared – or able – to give up on cash. Alongside that, there are an additional 22 million who say that cash is an essential backup for them; for paying for car parks or buying a cup of coffee. If every business / service refused to take cash, it could end up leaving people with no option and, ultimately, excluding that percentage of people who would have made a purchase previously.

Cash is still vital to so many people, says Nick Quin, head of financial inclusion at cash machine network Link.

If you can give customers more ways to make payments, it also gives you more ways to operate – accepting cash and card payments means flexibility for yourself and your customers. New and old.

We have delivered award-winning research solutions that go deeper than surface opinions for more than a decade. Our solutions reveal what drives brand relationships, makes advertising work, and motivates people to act. Find out what your customers want and see how our tool can help you today.

It’s fair to say that the majority of all consumers have been converted to this new online way of life and are enjoying the hassle-free process of shopping online because of the pandemic. Although consumers had already bought online before, many haven’t – specifically the older generation. With online shopping, consumers believe it is more convenient not having to leave the comfort of their own home, not paying for parking or having to drive/take public transport to the destination, as well as enjoying looking around online for discounts and price comparisons on big-ticket items.

Shopping habits are all about convenience; with more shoppers shopping online; the journey to the end goal has to be more efficient.

What is website optimisation? And how does it improve User Experience (UX)?

Naturally, every business wants to succeed and do the best it possibly can. But sometimes, what businesses think will work; doesn’t. This is how Market Research can help. By definition Website Optimisation is; the process of using controlled experimentation to improve a website’s ability to drive business goals. Ultimately it means improving the performance of a website and generating more sales.

Did you know that 71% of shoppers believe they will get a better deal online?

The ability to research a product and compare prices is one of the key reasons people shop online instead of in-store. It is important to make sure your website provides shoppers with a detailed product page with related photos or videos to support the text.

Also, with smartphones being so commonly used now for online shopping, your website must be compatible. Social media has become a popular channel for consumers to make a purchase too. Streamlining the process of seeing a product, putting it into their basket, and making a payment as easy as possible. Having better UX will result in more clicks, more lead generation, better brand recognition, and ultimately, higher conversion rates.

According to research, our attention spans have decreased. In 15 years, the average attention span has reduced from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8.25 seconds in 2015. The pandemic has impacted on this further. But why? Consumers are spending more time indoors social media usage is increasing, and getting quick hits of dopamine from feeds that have the perfect algorithm to keep them entertained for hours. If you think about it, storefronts that aren’t engaging or attractive won’t generate a lot of attention – this applies online too. Especially in today’s world.

Website visitors value good UX delivery – using this via website optimisation will improve your search engine ranking and keep people on your website for longer!

What caused the shift?

People of all ages have had to move online because retail stores were closed. There have been record-breaking statistics on the number of purchases made online from 2020-21 and eCommerce is now one of the most popular methods of selling a product or service. Having an up-to-date website that will connect with your target audience is key. This will drastically increase conversion and sales rates. As an example, Spring-Summer 2021: one of the fashion brands where UK consumers had significantly decreased purchasing was Primark – with the reason being, they did not have an online presence, and with stores being closed, it has left consumers with no other option. It’s sad to say, but brands that don’t move online will be getting left behind.

Consumer behaviour in the UK and US has been disrupted, and 48% of people have changed their habits and have increased purchases, and plan to incorporate these behaviours going forward. For example, Think with Google have noticed different consumer behaviours, in the past year 1 in 4 clothing shoppers have bought from a new brand or retailer; 75% of womenswear and 83% of menswear shoppers said that they will continue to buy from these same new retailers over the next 6 months.

For you to stay ahead of the game, you need to know exactly what is going to drive your consumers to make a purchase.

How we can help:

Most of the online browsing process happens subconsciously; even if we interview people about their experiences, it will only reveal a fraction of what happened; or what they think has happened. For example, Robert Evans (film producer) said, “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth.” Evans wasn’t lying when he said this, as people can create false memories or twist the truth (unknowingly) to make memory work in their favour. This can also be known as the Mandela effect. There are numerous examples of the Mandela effect: such as Star Wars – “Luke, I am your father” commonly quoted from “Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back” is just, “I am your father” and many people who quote the famous line from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs “Mirror, Mirror on the Wall”. However, the Wicked Queen says, “Magic mirror on the wall…”. *Cue everyone to question their memory*.

How do you expect your web users to remember or tell the truth during traditional research methods when consumers don’t have an accurate depiction of their own experiences? Having advanced technologies as hard evidence can help develop your websites which will dive deeper into your customer’s true subconscious. Most false memories are usually harmless, but when it comes to your brand, you want to make sure you’re reaching your true audience.

Independent tracking research has shown that our research insight delivers at least 44% more sales impact than traditional market research. Meaning your brand, destination, new product launches, marketing strategies, and digital communications will have much more impact. 

  1. Proven results

  1. See how people navigate your site through modern technologies in real life.
  2. Check whether people understand and identify which elements may require a closer look – ‘we’ think we know what people want, but truth be told, we don’t know ourselves. 
  3. Discover the truths and develop the most effective eCommerce site for your target audience.

Our insight from over a decade of website optimisation research will help you optimise look and feel as well as functionality to guide users implicitly to action. Whether you are looking for enquiries or sales, our tools are proven to increase conversion rates. We can help you test and optimise your site at any stage of the development process.

We have delivered award-winning research solutions that go deeper than surface opinions for more than a decade. Our solutions reveal what drives brand relationships, makes advertising work, and motivates people to act. Find out what your customers want and see how our tool can help you today.

For Emotional Logic, it was an honour to be among the finalists for the MRS Awards 2021, the most prestigious awards within our industry. Annett Pecher, Director of Emotional Logic, comments:

“We have been working with centre:mk for several years and have seen first-hand how adopting a research based strategic approach can transform business performance”.

Research Live Award for Business Impact of the Year: Research that has helped transform businesses

One of the worst hit sectors of the COVID pandemic is the retail and leisure sector. Our case proves that integrating research into all aspects of business operations not only delivers competitive advantage but also speeds up recovery from the pandemic.

centre:mk is a shopping and leisure destination in Milton Keynes and we have been working together since 2014. Over this seven-year period we have transformed how research insight is applied within the organisation, embedding the voice of the consumer across all areas of operation. Our research programme is centred around a shopper segmentation based on Behavioural Science. This helps us understand not just what shoppers do and want but also the motivations driving those needs. And that is essential for predicting behaviour, which is important in a sector beset by rapid and dramatic changes.

Integrating research into all areas of operation has positively impacted business performance. As a result, the catchment has expanded by 11 minutes’ drive time and annual spend per shopper has grown by 15%.

In addition, the research programme tracked behavioural insights throughout the pandemic and informed the post-Covid opening strategy. As a result, the centre is bouncing back from lockdown: on the day of reopening (12 April 2021) footfall was 4% above pre-Covid levels compared to -16% for the average UK shopping centre.

Since reopening, UK shopping centres experienced daily footfall increases of 278% on average, while centre:mk grew three times as fast, at 814%. Currently, footfall is 5% closer to pre-Covid levels, equivalent to an estimated spend of £87m.

Effective incorporation of research into all strategic and operational decisions has enabled centre:mk to deliver exceptional performance under extremely challenging market conditions.

“The 2021 research live Award for UK Business Impact of the Year, sponsored by The Marketing Soc, goes to Emotional Logic and centre:mk for their clear entry that provided compelling benchmarks for their progress in the context of the wider retail sector. Impressive.” Market Research Society, 2021.

This provides powerful evidence that investment in research powers business success even (or especially) in difficult market conditions.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of award-winning research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

Christmas is just around the corner; the lights are shining and the community spirit is soaring. There really is no time like Christmas. With this being such a celebrated time of year, it can be noticed that 1 in 5 Brits began their Christmas shopping as early as July 2020. Here at Emotional Logic, we carried out some research to find out how much Brits are spending over the holiday period.

Food and drink are on the agenda

Christmas last year was a bit of an odd one in terms of spending. However, this year our spending habits are a little more traditional. According to our research the majority of UK consumers are planning on spending the same as they did in 2020 across most categories.

Brits will be spending more than they did in 2020 on food for consumption at home as well as going out for meals and celebrations – which is positive for the fashion and hospitality sector. Naturally consumers are planning on spending more money on going out for meals and celebrations as well as food consumption at home because last year consumers were less allowed out or to mix with others because of the pandemic.

Millennials will be spending more

The younger generation are planning on spending more than / significantly more than they did in comparison to Christmas 2020 – this links in with the question ‘Do you have a sense of ‘I want Christmas to be more special’ this year?’ to which 81% of 18-24-year-olds said yes to in comparison to 49% of those aged between 55-64.

The top 5 reasons UK consumers will be spending more are:

  1. More people to buy for
  2. More money to spend
  3. Inflation
  4. Make Christmas more special
  5. Money saved during lockdown

Overall, Brits aren’t planning to buy home items (cushions, curtains), tableware (glasses, plates), decorations, children’s toys and electronics – all of which have previously seen plenty of success throughout lockdowns.

Consumers will be spending half online and half in-store

46% of Brits will be buying Christmas presents for family online, followed by 37% who will buy partly instore and partly online and only 17% are planning to buy in store alone. But according to ONS data, online sales have fallen to lows which haven’t been seen since the start of the pandemic, which will give some hope to physical stores.

57% of Brits are looking forward to visiting shops in the run up to Christmas. The main themes for people to visit the shops in-store are the Christmas atmosphere (decorations, Christmas windows), to get into the festive spirit as well as the in-store shopping experience such as, excellent customer service and the ability to see the product in real life.

When asked ‘Are you looking forward to visiting shops in the run up to Christmas? (Shopping malls/centres, the high-street, outlets etc)’, millennials are the most interested in visiting stores in-store – this gradually decreases with age. This is understandable with consumers shopping online throughout the pandemic and high-street brands embracing digital presence more than ever before.

The high-street will be popular

The rise of early shopping continues: 17% of UK consumers have already finished their Christmas shopping, and 63% expect to be finished by mid-December. According to the Office for National Statistics, the total volume of retail sales had risen by 0.8% in October, compared with flat sales in September. There have been many triggers for consumers to start shopping earlier such as Black Friday/Cyber Monday, retailers prioritising Christmas essentials and stores offering discounts earlier to make sure everyone has enough time to purchase without missing out.

It is great consumers are purchasing however, challenges still remain, especially with the rise of British household bills in the coming months.

Brits want Christmas ‘to be more special’ this year

Overall, 62% of Brits have a sense of ‘I want Christmas to be more special’ this year’. The main reason for this is no other than because of COVID-19 and the Government restrictions – Brits are looking forward to having a ‘proper’ family Christmas and are wanting to making up for missed traditions last year.

According to PwC’s Christmas Survey in October 2021, two-thirds of the public plan on getting together at home with extended family over the Christmas period to celebrate. Although it is less than a normal year, it is more than last year where majority were at home with only immediate family. This means more opportunity to give gifts, increase in spend on food and drink, and more going out – hooray!

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of award-winning research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

What would the world be without colour? I really couldn’t image it, could you?

The artist Pablo Picasso once said, “Colours, like features, follow the changes of emotions,” colour is a powerful tool that can be used to form a specific image in the mind, influence mood and even influence reactions. Regardless of language or culture, we all use colours to represent and portray emotional states, whether it be going green with jealously, seeing red with anger, or feeling blue to signify sadness. Colours have their own emotional associations and we react accordingly.

What is colour psychology?

Colour psychology can be identified as the theory of how colours affect individuals’ perceptions and behaviours. Throughout many industries the concept of colour psychology has taken off and observations have been made. For example, in Market Research, researchers focus on how colours can influence mood, feelings and even purchasing habits.

Colour is often underestimated by brands in their product design and branding; however, the results can be amazing. A study found that colour improves brand recognition by up to 80% – take McDonald’s for example, how many children when they see the golden arches of McDonald’s suddenly have to have one? This isn’t happening just by coincidence. They’re remembering that with McDonald’s not only will they get a meal, they will get a toy to play with which results in a happy and memorable experience. All. Just. Though. Colour.

Consumers making a purchase

As we’ve identified, colour has a lot of credit to take when it comes to influencing mood, representation and even emotional states. However, it is also responsible for some of your sales.

When creating your marketing assets, it can be essential to make sure you’re using the right colour, after all it could be the make or break as to why a consumer never picked your product. In a study titled “Impact of colour on marketing,” researchers found that consumers make up their mind within 90 seconds of their first encounter with a person or a product – and around 62-90% is based on colour alone. So, technically, colour plays a huge role in whether or now your product will make it off the shelf.

Although perception of colour can be subjective to the individual, there is a general universal theme. For example, there have been studies to show that some people looking at the colour red on a pack design have an increased heart rate, leading to more adrenaline being pumped into the blood stream causing excitement. It can be noticed that warm colours can evoke different emotions like love or hate, whereas cool colours such as greens or purples can suggest either calmness or sadness. So, making sure you have a solid understanding of what your product is telling the world is essential.

For example:

Credit: The Logo Company

Gender differences

Joe Hallock had examined colour psychology in relation to gender across Western societies. In Hallock’s “Colour Assignment,” he has showcased some clear preferences in specific colours across gender. He noted that cultural perception — plays a strong role in dictating colour suitability for gender, which, can naturally influence an individual colour preferences e.g. Pink Tax for women’s products.

So, although individual favourite colours are subjective to each individual person, research identifies different genders tend to favour certain colours on a whole, with 76% of women prefer cool colours compared to 56% of men. However, universally, studies have shown that blue is a clear favourite for both men and women. One study explained why blue is such a popular colour and found that it’s connected with clean water, clear skies, authority, truth and calmness. Consequently, if you have a universal product, incorporating blue elements on your packaging might help you increase sales or target a larger audience.

The use of colour can make your product stand out from the crowd, although it might not necessarily make or break your brand, it can create a great first impression.

You can’t just focus on colour

Suddenly the reality hits in… It’s probably very clear that you can’t just focus on the colour of your product because that isn’t the only factor that contributes to a consumer making a purchase. For example, price, age, gender, and selection. Not only that, colour preference can actually change. Think about when you were younger, what was your favourite colour and has it changed as you’ve grown up? We don’t relate to the same products we did – it’s just natural evolution.

There are three key elements to successful packaging and they all have different drivers. You pack needs to first draw attention, then needs to engage the shopper and finally close the sale. The design elements you need to consider for attention differ from those for engagement and conversion. Colour plays a role at all three stages. To optimise the use of colour on your packaging, research is essential. Emotional Logic offers an award-winning online test that helps you get it right.

A consumer might have preferred a brighter, more standout colours when younger, but now as they have matured, they want to blend in and prefer more traditional colours. A consumer’s personality can also affect their decision, however, price and promotion as well as availability are huge influencers too – especially now with the rise of online shopping.

In-store you will have to focus on product standout and shelf findability. Did you know that most product packaging can be found within 3 seconds? Its crucial that you’re conveying the right messages to attract and engage past, current and potentially new consumers each time they see your product – whether it be in-store or online! To find out more on standout and shelf findability, read our blog here.

So, to conclude, although colour can play a huge role in conveying information and grabbing attention, it isn’t the only factor to contribute to the purchase decision. Carrying out behavioural science research will help you understand the truth on how shoppers really react (both consciously and subconsciously) to your packaging.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of award-winning research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

It can be noticed that stand-out varies strongly by category and that it is affected by ‘Marketing Presence’ as well as ‘Design Quality’. One example is in 2009 Tropicana changed their packaging, and the rebranding actually caused a 20% dip in sales which estimated around a US$33 million loss. One of the key reasons that the Tropicana relaunch failed was because they removed the orange and straw branding. Follow up studies indicated that loyal customers had a strong emotional attachment to that branding and ended up purchasing a different product due to lack of familiarity. This shows that consumers will only buy a product if they like the packaging – taste and health benefits alone don’t stand a chance.

There are three key elements to successful packaging and they all have different drivers. You pack needs to first draw attention, then needs to engage the shopper and finally close the sale. The design elements you need to consider for attention differ from those for engagement and conversion.

For example, in a typical supermarket they carry around 30,000 products that are all competing for consumers attention, and brands can design their packs to be attractive and trendy to communicate their messages and capture shoppers’ interests. Here’s how you can be ahead of the crowd:

Be different. Be bold.

Brands that have a different colour pack from their competitors actually have a higher stand-out from consumers. Although the product is similar being different and changing colour, font style and shape from the competition can serve you well. Brands who have made these changes have much higher stand-out and marketing presence, while brands who did neither didn’t benefit at all – resulting in less purchases.

However, delving into product purchasing – there is no connection between liking a pack design and creating stand-out.

Stay Relevant.

Keeping your packaging relevant to the product is important. Using the right design will allow you to speak to the market demographic you are targeting. Something that looks out of place will confuse the customer and give off the wrong message.

Creating a product specific design will trigger your customer and speed up their decision-making process to buy.

Create a connection.

When designing packaging for consumable products, it’s important to try and make a connection between the colour scheme / design on the packaging, and the taste of the product. Seeing these colours will evoke different emotions and feelings in people, and make the product more appealing, if the customer can look at the product and almost taste the freshness or sweetness of the product, then you’re more likely to make a sale.

A consumable product should satisfy the needs of the customer, even if they don’t really need it! This would result in an impulse purchase, which is how a lot of FMCG products are sold.

Unconscious cues

The shape of an alcoholic drinks bottle for example makes a massive difference as to how people perceive your brand - traditional or modern, indulgent or no frills - the right bottle shape gets this across in an instant. The effort that goes into this does not go unnoticed; it has a massive impact on sales despite consumers not really knowing why.

Our Cognipack test shows what you can pinpoint what you’re getting right on the pack, or maybe what you have to improve - including subconscious cues like bottle shape or colours.

Introduce new selling points

Imagine you were selling food products and everyone is talking about the taste, health benefits and that it is made in the UK. If you introduce a fourth element such as its carbon neutral and then just by introducing this new element you can disrupt what people are thinking about in the purchase situation. This can help you get more attention for your product (no wonder we are seeing so many new product messages all the time).

We don’t really buy food products because we need them, we are looking to satisfy emotional factors such as joy, indulgence or health. Targeting your audience and introducing new categories that match will create an increase in sales because they now resonate with the product.

How can we help?

At Emotional Logic, we have an agile and cost-effective tool suite for all explicit and implicit testing needs. Our digital tool suite can be implemented 100% online and delivers deep insight including implicit purchase drivers in a fast, easily accessible format and with directly actionable results. Carrying out this research can identify exactly what contribution your design elements (pack format, name, colour) have on purchasing decisions, allowing you to adapt designs to eliminate design elements that don’t add financial value or portray the correct messages.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

In today’s blog we are going to be discussing the difference between standout and findability, so…

What is findability and why is it important?

When a piece of information is findable, it means it is easy to locate or identify – this applies to products on a shelf too. A brand’s chance of success can increase because of its findability factor. Boost your findability factor and watch your sales soar; ignore it and you risk customers never looking or hearing about your product in the first place.

Findability measures how quickly people find a specific pack on shelf and what % get the right pack. It actually only takes a customer between 3 to 5 seconds to pick out a certain product amongst hundreds on a shelf and make a decision to purchase it or not. Which isn’t a long time at all! However, this is what happens to a normal consumer every time they’re at a supermarket. The reason why it only takes 3-5 seconds is because the consumer already has an idea about what the product is (on a subconscious level). This could be from previous usage, hearing ads on a radio, seeing a commercial or hearing a friend talk about it.

Though, it’s not that straightforward. For example, have you ever walked about a supermarket looking for a specific product from a particular aisle and struggled to find it? It can be a stressful experience – other products competing for your attention and time which often leads to distraction and lack of purchase OR not buying the right product.

Increasing your brands findability is particularly important, especially with any pack redesigns or new products coming onto the market.

How is Findability measured?

Shoppers are asked to find a ‘specific’ brand ‘in-store’ (or online through the use of 2D packaging) and the time taken to do so is measured. The second measure is accuracy – was the right product found? Using benchmarks you can then identify whether your packaging is working hard enough and is easy to find in-store - a critical factor with today's time poor shoppers.

Findability is great if you’re measuring this for your repeat customers but what about someone who isn’t a repeat customer? You’re missing out all of those people. Your pack should also be capable of distracting people – which is what findability can’t measure alone… Our process measures all of those elements to understand the full power of your pack.

Why Findability is not enough

Imagine someone is going to the shop looking for a specific product but they get caught off guard by another product with better packaging, and actually end up buying that product instead. This is what is likely to happen. Therefore, if you only measure findability it doesn’t tell you everything you need to know about your pack whereas our CogniPack tool measures both findability and standout, and that’s important.

People don’t just go to the shop looking for the product they want and just buy it, they can get distracted – that’s the whole point. Especially if you’re a small brand, you may want to distract people from buying the brand that they already know. This is when offers and price comparison comes into play – if the alternative product is on offer and has nicer packaging, its likely you’re going to not make the sale.

What is standout? And how does it work?

Standout can be described as how early the product is spotted on the shelf. In the competitive world of retail, making sure your product stands out from the crowd and draws customers in is key. It needs to have something that makes it truly unique and worthy of catching shoppers’ attention. However, in such a competitive industry it can be challenging. Striking the right balance between quality and value will not just capture attention, but will encourage them to purchase.

The CogniPack tool uses a combination of advanced research techniques to measure how shoppers really react (both consciously and subconsciously) to your packaging. This innovative technique helps you to significantly increase attention, engagement and conversion levels – resulting in more sales. This tool is used for testing packaging designs as well as during new product development. Our CogniPack tool allows you to understand how your pack performs within the retail context and in comparison, to competitors. Emotional Logic can help you quantify sales impact of individual design elements as well as decode how your packaging attracts and engages with shoppers.

Cognipack does measure both finability and stand-out in one test - using advanced eye-tracking technology.

How can we help?

At Emotional Logic, we have an agile and cost-effective tool suite for all explicit and implicit testing needs. Our digital tool suite can be implemented 100% online and delivers deep insight including implicit purchase drivers in a fast, easily accessible format and with directly actionable results. Carrying out this research can identify exactly what contribution your design elements (pack format, name, colour) have on purchasing decisions, allowing you to adapt designs to eliminate design elements that don’t add financial value or portray the correct messages.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

Imagine the coronavirus pandemic did not happen. Do you think your business would be where it is today? The likelihood is, consumers would still be slowly moving with their lives and purchasing the same products and services. However, COVID-19 has shown that consumers do not have the needs and wants they once did – there is no going back to the old normal.

The pandemic has changed everyday life in various ways, one of which, without a doubt, is the way people use the internet, and particularly, social media. Social media has been around long before the coronavirus pandemic, but now it is not going anywhere anytime soon.

So, what exactly can businesses do to stay on top of their social game?

The rise of Social Media

The latest research from Digital 2021: Global Overview Report, created by We Are Social and Hootsuite. This report has provided insights into the state of digital – it has revealed that connected tech, such as social media, e-Commerce, streaming content, and video games, is playing an increasingly more essential part in people’s lives. After all, people have not been able to leave their homes – it is only natural to see higher demand.

For example, social media was already essential in many people’s lives pre-pandemic. However, people really could not imagine life without it despite restrictions easing. There are now more people using social media around the globe than not; for example, social media user numbers have increased more than 13% over the past year – there are 4.48 billion active social media users in July 2021!

According to Statista, a Research Department survey conducted at the end of July 2020, 46% of respondents have increased their smartphone usage. The average social media user now spends 2 hours and 24 minutes on social media each day, equal to roughly one waking day of their life every week. If you are not taking advantage of this, you are missing out.

Mobile phone is First

Mobiles have become our first screen. App Annie’s recent State of Mobile 2021 report also reveals that mobile now accounts for a vaster amount of individuals time than live TV. The average Android user spending up to 4 hours on their phone each day – consumers have been adapting and changing their habits, so, have you? Consumers are all about ease, and they are only concerned about getting what they want. Creating targeted mobile ads and making their decisions for them might be your best bet to attract new consumers. After all, you are no longer competing with your competitors: you are now competing against their last, best experience. Ensuring your content is easy to read eye-catching will drive your current consumers to stay loyal and new consumers to shift.

Despite the movement towards social self-care and reducing screen time that we saw in 2019 and early 2020, people are not turning their backs on social media just yet. People were starting to wake up to the fact that screen time was not enjoyable and was causing bad habits, especially in the younger generations. However, COVID-19 has reverted the adjustments because, face it, what else was there to do? Although, consumers have been introducing new hobbies because of lockdown, mobile phones and social media have continued to be on the rise – especially; because of the introduction of screen apps such as TikTok that could keep you entertained for hours.

Platforms: Who is the most popular?

In the UK, the only anomaly in social media usage was for TikTok. The average number of social media accounts per user is 6.9 for 16 to 64-year-olds – this means that there is an overlap on social networking sites. Naturally, users will have their preferred app, but consumers will spend time on each platform, so you have time to target.

Facebook is still the most popular platform, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Globally “researching products to buy” is one of the key reasons why consumers use social media – which is now up to 27.5% because of the pandemic. This solidifies the importance of having a social presence and guiding consumers to your website or product pages.

Although TikTok is not the most popular app, it has become a raging success because of the pandemic. Data from Sensor Tower indicates that the TikTok Mobile app was downloaded roughly 57 million times in June 2021 alone – I wonder how consumers we have subjected to targeted ads or influencers on these platforms are influenced and how their purchasing habits change as a result of it.

Twitter did not get as big a bump as the more visual platforms that make for more entertaining doom scrolling: and is now second from bottom on the world’s most used social platform – so does Twitter have to up its game?

According to HootSuite, the majority (70%) of Twitter users are male also, the target demographic is 25-34-year-olds – this is a very niche market.

Despite Twitter having fewer active users, they are still succeeding in particular areas. For example, 82% of adults aged 18 and above now consume news online: which is significantly more than the 64% who say they watch news content on TV. That is where Twitter excels. Despite claiming three times fewer monthly active users, Twitter is almost as popular as Instagram when it comes to news content with 59% of users regularly getting news updates from Twitter – social media users can select which sources and publishers they trust when searching for the latest news.

However, one issue Twitter ran into was removing millions of fake accounts, which resulted in an 8% hit on its share price. Though, it had to be completed for the credibility of its business and advertising.

Reaching new and old Audiences

Recent data from eMarketer shows that digital channels now account for nearly 6 in every 10; ad dollars spent around the world. Changing the way you use digital and social media platforms to advertise over the coming months will have to be modified to ensure that activities are as efficient and as effective as possible:

  1. Contextual targeting: For example, if a consumer is on a tech eCommerce site such as Curry’s, it might be a good idea to run ads for your brand of laptops as consumers are already interested in the overarching topic, so they are more inclined to make a purchase or click on the targeted ad.
  2. Do not focus on short-term stats. Look at what has been consistent throughout; all consumers have increased their phone and social media usage over the past year and a half, and it is unlikely that they will resume their pre-COVID-19 self-care habits. Making sure your website or product page is suited to mobile will benefit your business a lot.
  3. Creating content: content creating is not like it used to be. Having a personal brand and standing out against competitors will give you an edge against your competitors. Being memorable is the most important thing. Brands and businesses can change their approach. For example, there has been a 62% rise in video views from 2019 to 2020. Posting a standard image and caption does not sell it to consumers in this day and age.

Overall, social media is not going anywhere anytime soon, with 2021 looking like it will be another critical year for social media (marketing), as consumers are more active than ever before. Brands that can effectively communicate their message and invest time in relationships with consumers (old, current, and new) and employees will succeed. Hootsuite has explained:

“The smartest brands will understand where they fit into customers’ lives on social media, and they’ll find creative ways of fitting into the conversation.”

Be aware of the arising platforms and new ways to engage with your target demographic to cut through the noise.

Whether you need the insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

Did you know that 27.6% of the 7.74 billion people in the world are now digital buyers? That means that, more than one out of every four people is an online shopper. Crazy, isn’t it? Now more than ever it’s important that you are prepared for the rise of eCommerce.

Each year there has been a gradual increase in the number of online shoppers but because of the coronavirus pandemic it has grown substantially. For example, in 2021 there were 900 million more digital buyers than in 2020 – maybe because consumers couldn’t get out to shopping malls or highstreets or just because they find it more convenient to shop online.

The truth is, shopping online is becoming more and more like shopping in person and with major online exclusive events such as Amazon Prime Day, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday contributing which offer huge discounts that can’t be found in-store – it’s important that you maximise the behavioural nudges on your website to get shoppers to buy and users to stay.

So, how can you be more prepared for the digital age?

Behavioural User Experience Research. User experience is how a customer feels about the interactions they have with your website, your values and your products or services. UX is probably one of the most overlooked aspects of online shops – brands pour a lot of money into getting people onto the website (through ads, design and product research) but they often realise that the sales aren’t as high as they’d hoped.

However, most of the online browsing process happens subconsciously and even if we interview people about their experience, it will only reveal a fraction of what has actually happened – which isn’t exactly great. This is why we use neuroscience and implicit tools to help media owners, brands and retailers understand more deeply how their content is processed by audiences.

Staying on trend, adding new features and services to your online site will get more attention and engagement from users. Here is an example of a case study we received from a past client and the new insight we provided them with:

Brief:

Four major publishers of automotive media wanted to understand how their motoring magazines impact on the buying process for new cars. Emotional Logic conducted research to quantify the impact of magazine exposure on buying behaviour and derived new principles for placement of advertising.

New Insight:

Our study combined a large-scale study with 3,000 current car buyers with eye tracking and biometric measurements.

The study proved that motoring magazines play an important role for readers to help shortlist cars, decide on their budget and also identify their favourite car. Our study proved that brands that advertise in the publications are more likely to be shortlisted, favoured and that adverts work very closely with editorial to influence consumer decisions. As a result, advertising placement in motoring media increased by 15% in a static market place.

Throughout this research we used a range of techniques such as the use of cohort studies where we create an experimental design to accurately asses the impact of media exposure on your audience (including hard to measure implicit reactions), eye-tracking which reveals what captures shoppers’ attention and what triggers pack engagement, and biometric measures to identify stress and excitement levels and pinpoint specific triggers for emotional reactions. We can maximise the impact of your digital presence and increase your sales conversions.

So, does it work? From our own decade of website optimisation research, we have noticed that those who carry out research with us increase their average order value by 25% and increase the time spent on site by 200%.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

We are all creatures of habit and understanding consumer beliefs and behaviours are extremely important. In order to keep up with (and perhaps even influence) those changes, brands must deep dive to uncover the truth.

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted nearly every routine in day-to-day life. The extreme measures and duration of lockdowns and business closures have forced consumers to re-evaluate their choices and ‘habits’ – whether that would be going to a shopping mall, eating out at a restaurant, or meeting up with friends. These habits had to come to quite a sudden stop.

Before the ‘new normal’, consumers would stick stubbornly to their habits, resulting in little to no behavioural change. And now, because of COVID-19 consumers have had to adjust to every twist and turn – which really has opened their eyes. Think With Google have noticed different consumer behaviours, for example, in the past year 1 in 4 clothing shoppers have bought from a new brand or retailer; 75% of womenswear and 83% of menswear shoppers said that they will continue to buy online from these same new retailers over the next 6 months.

Even though this specific consumer behaviour change (shopping habits) might be coronavirus specific, consumers are open to trying different brands and products. Now more than ever. As mentioned, we are all creatures of habit, and these habits are beginning to be broken. Our behaviours are driven by unconscious influences (System 1 reactions) that cannot be tackled with traditional messages – its time to change up your marketing.

People know what to do, but don’t do it

We don’t need to tell people that smoking is bad for their health, or that more exercise would make them live longer. People know the facts. The reason why they are not taking up desired behaviours is because unconscious emotional drivers are keeping them trapped in current habits. To truly change behaviour, we need to identify what is driving current habits – something our award-winning Motivation Deep Dive delivers reliably.

Behavioural Science lets us truly change behaviour. Here is an example of a case study we received from a past client and the new insight we provided them with:

Brief:

A major health charity experienced problem converting awareness for the cause into support and donations. Although people saw it as a worthwhile cause, they were prioritising other charities. Emotional Logic was asked how the charity could get people to turn their positive intentions into action.

New Insight:

Our Motivation Deep Dive technique revealed that consumers connected with the charity rationally but not emotionally. They understood the need but did not feel a connection with the cause. This was due to the imagery used in communication.

A revised brand image and new communication campaign generated double digit growth in fundraising income over several years.

Throughout this research we used a range of techniques such as the use of NLP Depth Interviews where we apply language patterns from Neuro Linguistic Programming to allow respondents to reveal the underlying drivers of their behaviour, implicit testing to identify unconscious biases that your audience is holding (this will help you develop messages that cut through the noise) and correlation analysis which analyses which emotions drive behaviour (ensuring focus on emotions that make a difference). We can change habits with Behavioural Science.

So, does it work? Absolutely. Our unique Behavioural Change Model will help you understand the unconscious emotional drivers that are keeping consumers trapped in current habits.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.

English Tourism Week is an annual celebration of English Tourism. And it appears to have come at the perfect time now that the Government’s roadmap is going ahead as planned. This event will kick-off the tourism season. This week-long celebration (22nd – 31st May, 2021), coordinated by VisitBritain, highlights the economic importance to local economies as well as raising awareness of the quality and range of products and services that businesses and trusts have to offer to encourage more domestic breaks post-pandemic.

VisitEngland director Andrew Stokes said: “Our annual event to celebrate and champion English tourism has never been more important, providing a timely opportunity to show the outstanding offer here on our doorstep as we head in to the critical summer season and to support local businesses and visitor attractions, who have lost months of vital trading, as they reopen and rebuild.”

English Tourism Week is important as it brings all of England’s tourism industry together under one big campaign. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, we were not able to travel to prevent the spread of the virus so ETW went virtual in 2020 – but still gained a lot of traction. However, with the case numbers dropping and Government regulations loosening up, we can begin to go on day trips again and help build back up the tourism economy. Which is what A LOT of Brits plan to do!

VisitBritain have run a domestic tourism forecast throughout the whole pandemic to provide an estimate the impact the tourism sector has faced. In the latest forecast it shows that domestic tourism spending is estimated for a recovery to £51.4bn in Britain; which is up 51% in comparison to 2020. They are also estimating a £13.5bn in domestic overnight tourism spending, as well as a £38.6bn in leisure day trip spending.

Having said that, according to the VisitBritain Data (Wave 30), since the ease of the Government restriction, Brits are looking for their first adventure out and staycation with 22% of UK adults claiming to have planned and 17% to have already booked their next domestic overnight trip. And 14% are currently intending on taking a domestic overnight trip by the end of June.

The Yorkshire & Humber is the third most popular destination for an overnight domestic trip during spring periods with a 12% share. With Traditional coastal/seaside towns and countryside or village having significantly higher shares among both spring and summer intenders than other destination types too. So, if this is you, you know what you should be marketing!

Also, the likelihood to take day drips in the short term continues to increase with 25% of adults anticipating on doing so in the next 2 weeks. The day trippers are more likely to be visiting rural or coastal destinations, especially during spring and summer periods.

Over the next few months, outdoor areas (such as. beaches, mountains, trails.), outdoor leisure/sporting activities and predominately outdoor attractions are the most likely things to do. Brits feel safer being in the open outdoors instead of being indoors – this is perfect for tourist attractions such as The North Yorkshire Moors or the Lake District. Which, in the lead-up of English Tourism Week and bank holiday, it falls perfectly!

Tourism minister Nigel Huddleston said: “English tourism has so much to offer, from rural retreats to city breaks. I can’t wait to get out there exploring and I urge everyone to join me in supporting our fantastic tourism sector by taking a domestic holiday over the coming months.”

VisitEngland are encouraging people to share photos and social media posts to show support to the sector, in order to rebuild and revive, using the #EnglishToruismWeek21 or tagging @VisitEnglandBiz!

For more information please register for your free copy of our Post-COVID Consumer Report where we will disclose the key holiday trends for 2021 and beyond.

Whether you need insight to adjust your strategies for existing brands to the new normal or are thinking about launching new products we can help you get it right. Emotional Logic is a specialist behavioural insight agency and we offer a range of cost-effective research solutions to ensure your strategy connects with the constantly shifting needs of the consumer. Please get in touch for a free consultation.