GutCheck Is Sharing The Love Today

” Cri-Man-Squa. F and C, doubletime.” — Ditching Ambiguity in Business Talk

On Monday, The Harvard Business Review posted a short piece by Dan Pallotta entitled, “I Don’t Understand What Anyone Is Saying Anymore.” Pallotta explains that “the language of Internet business models” has muddled meaning in a way that what we’re getting at isn’t even apparent anymore. Over-use of acronyms, tip-toeing around meaning, using ‘meaningless’ (and cliched) expressions, and a deadly combination of all three ends up leaving people sounding slick, but also sliding right over meaning.

Take Pallotta’s best example: “You should meet this guy with the SIO. He’s sort of this kind of social entrepreneur thinking outside of the box in the sustainability space and working on these ideas around sort of web-based social media, and he’s in a round two capital raise in the VP space with the people at SVNP.”

So why are we gracing over meaning? Maybe to make what we’re doing sound smarter than it is. Maybe to package it in a way that just, seems better. But delivering a message in such a convoluted way as to hide the meaning?  In our world, that just wastes time – or worse confuses someone enough to respond back with misinformation.  Or makes the other person feel like they aren’t smart enough to understand you and therefore less likely to want to continue talking with you.

The takeaway from this should be to really re-examine our word choices, cutting through commonly misconceived jargon to focus on specifics. Take the extra time to work out what exactly you’re trying to convey. Use your words. As Pallotta points out, while “an innovation in residential access” sounds great, “doorknob” is a hell of a lot easier to understand.

And no better way to illustrate this in a humorous fashion, than to look at the cast of The Office.   Enjoy…

Michael : Everybody in here, stat. No time to lose. Cri-Man-Squa. F and C, doubletime.
Dwight : Cri-Man-Squa?
Michael : Crisis Management Squad.
Ryan : F and C, doubletime?
Michael : Front and center, twice as fast as you would normally go. Any other questions?
Jim : One more. Why are you talking like that?
Michael : To save time, Jim.
Karen : Actually I think you could make the argument that it wastes time.
Pam : Yeah, she has a good point. I mean, for example, with the last thing you said, by the time you explained it, it actually took up more time.

Wired: Social media, locusts, and groupthink

A friend recently forwarded me this short blip from Wired about how scientists applied an adaptive network model to examine the links between mutually aware insects, creating a better predictor of when locusts will swarm. Whoa.

Basically, the study revealed that “The more time locusts spend moving together in the same direction, the harder it is for the group to reverse course, which leads to swarming. Sound familiar? People get stuck in groups that turn into frenzied action, but for us, these clusters are built around common interests, politics, and background.”

I found this really fascinating in relation to market research, in that the adaptive network model can show how people start to think like their social networks. Why do brands want so many “likes,” for instance? At the heart of it, it’s so that networks can start to swarm. After doing some super serious Googling of “adaptive network model,” I found an article written by a couple of Stanford researchers which gave a nice lit review/ overview of the theory. They wrote that in an adaptive network model:

“Presentation of a stimulus pattern to the system corresponds to activating a set of sensory units. These units pass their weighted activation along their connections either directly to the output units or to intermediate units that relay them onward, eventually terminating on output units… By repeatedly cycling through a set of desired input-output pairings, the system “learns” just those weights that will achieve the closest match (of which it is capable) to the input-output pairings.”

This is obviously ridiculous and I had to read it like five times to get it, so let’s put that in terms of “liking” on Facebook. When a person “likes” GutCheck on Facebook, it appears in his or her newsfeed. If enough of his or her friends get curious and “like” GutCheck, too, the page goes viral until eventually it’s run its course. As we start to see the this enough, we can see what kinds of grouped interests and shared “likes” people have — showing you when and why people will swarm on certain pages, brands, or videos of cats yelling at printers. Pretty cool application of theory, right? [ETA: Check out this "anatomy of a Facebook Fan" infographic -- cool stuff.]

*Incidentally, if you haven’t liked us on Facebook yet, you probably should. Updates on product, interesting reads, and some important questions. Like “who’s your favorite Muppet?“

Tapping into a phenomenon: Who’s your favorite Muppet?

It seems like whenever I ask anyone about the Muppets, their eyes light up and they start to laugh. “I’m a Grover fan. Not super Grover, though. Just loveable, furry old Grover.” or “My heart belongs to the Swedish Chef.,” said a few of my Facebook friends.  People love talking about the Muppets so much that I decided I needed to take my research to GutCheck. In light of two new releases this month — “The Muppets,” a full-length, fictional feature about the adventurous puppets and “Being Elmo,” a documentary focused on Kevin Clash, the iconic puppeteer who voices Elmo — we at GutCheck thought we’d take the opportunity to ask respondents who their favorite muppets are, and what kinds of family experiences they’ve had with the creatures.

Our screening criteria was wide open, with the only custom question verifying that the respondent was familiar with the Muppets or Sesame Street. We talked to 10 respondents, making sure we found at least a couple from different age groups (18-29; 30-39; 40-49; etc up to 60). We found 10 respondents in no time, and while they all had varying degrees of enthusiasm (from “I loved them they were my FAVORITE MUPPETS!!!” to “i don’t know, he just seems fun”, for example), the chats were very fun to conduct and we ended up with some great insights.

Overall, it seems like Kermit and Miss. Piggy are the front-runners, with 8 out of 10 of the respondents mentioning the pair when asked “What first comes to mind when you hear ‘Muppets’?” Why do people like Kermit so much?

“hes funny and demonstrates thinking logical to some extent” – 24 year old female, NY

“[I like] his can do personality” – 52 year old male, VA

The other sleeper pick was Fozzie Bear; half of the respondents mentioned him as a favorite as well.

“he’s just cute and goofy” -47 year old female, MO

“Fozzie! haha! i love d way he has his mouth open! lol! too funny! i like his orange get up and his phrase ‘ Wocka Wocka Wocka!! lol” – 26 year old female, NY

“he just seems fun and he looks kind of goofy, which adds to the humor of him” – 30 year old male, PA

Every respondent mentioned having memories of watching the Muppets with their families — ” it used to be a tradition on christmas to watch the muppets christmas with my family when i was younger” said our 24 year old female respondent. Another 23 year old female respondent said, “at Christmas we had these special muppet dolls for each of me and my siblings.”

All of my respondents either had children or were expecting (my pregnant respondent was THRILLED to talk about showing her new baby Sesame Street). Not surprisingly, 7 out of the 10 respondents said they were planning to see the Muppet movie, and would try to bring their children. We heard things like:

“my girls have been begging since they saw the 1st preview” – 41 year old female, Pennsylvania

“Yes even though they keep saying that they are ‘too kiddish’ to go I know they will love them, the muppets are timeless and have that magic twinkle that seem to get into your heart” – 37 year old female, Georgia.

One mentioned that movies were too expensive right now, but they might rent the DVD. Another one who wasn’t planning on going said, “I might [take my stepson]. I try to get him to watch the muppets, but he says they scare him.” (!!!)

Overall, we had a great time hearing people’s enthusiasm for the Muppets. One woman called Statler and Waldorf, “an ‘old timer’ version of “beavis and butthead” and said “I had a best friend that we would pretend to be them and make fun of lots of things… I really enjoy them.” We were thrilled that the tool allowed us to spend an afternoon discussing characters we loved with people who were happy to oblige.

We’d love to hear your feedback as well! Who are your favorite Muppets?

From angsty X’s to optimistic M’s: What do generational shifts mean to marketers?

In the last week, three writers from different generations have sounded off to better explain why and how they define themselves, especially in the midst of Occupy Wall Street and the biggest economic recession since the Great Depression.

Millenials feel betrayed by their parents, teachers, finger paints, summer camp, macaroni and cheese, Double Dare, Snick, and everything else that told them they were special snowflakes. They now listen to bearded white guys sing forest folk music and have to think about DIY crafts because they can’t afford to buy all the things.

New York Magazine author Noreen Malone writes about the sense of entitlement instilled in Millenials by their parents — something that now will not be delivered on as they learn that a liberal arts degree, it turns out, does not guarantee them a job anywhere. Or Healthcare. Or their dreams. But they remain optimistic because GCHAT and INTERNET and ETSY and who wouldn’t be optimistic in a world like that?

Fleet Foxes just want to harmonize and live their lives.

Generation X sees Millenials as whiney babies who don’t even know grunge so who cares? At this point they are so used to being kicked in the face that they expect everyone else to be kicked in the face, too, apparently, because that’s the way the world goes. Gizmodo writer Mat Honan writes about being tired, bored, and sick of everyone’s bullshit. In short? It seems like Generation X is full of angst.

Reality Bites (pretty hard, too)

Generation Catalano, or as I like to refer to them, “The Carter Babies”, feel like they’re somewhere in between Millenials and Gen X-ers. They are not quite as optimistic or forward-looking as Millenials, but also not as bitter or nostalgic as Gen X. As RollingStone online editor and Slate contributer Doree Shafrir writes:

“This urge to define generations is also about a yearning for a collective memory in an increasingly atomized world, at least where my generation is concerned. Indeed, where the Millennials tend to define themselves in terms of the way they live now, people in my cohort find fellowship more in what happened in the past, clinging to cultural totems as though our shared experiences will somehow lead us to better figure out who we are. …Generation Catalano is never fully comfortable with its place in the world; we wander away from the periphery and back again.”

So what does this mean to market researchers and advertisers? Well, for starters, it should mean that marketing toward young adults is going to be more nuanced than one could initially believe. Being aware of the differences in a generation’s collective experience — their cultural and rhetorical contexts — is incredibly important to messaging, branding, and even the media through which we design our advertisements, press releases, or consumer engagement.

What generation are you a part of? Do you ever resent being grouped together, or do you enjoy knowing you have a cohort to share the world with?