Sorry Google, YouTube Captions Aren’t for the Deaf. They’re for Your Robots.
March 5th, 2010 posted by Xander Becket 12:38 pm | View Full Story
Google, who owns YouTube, rolled out auto-captioning for English language videos yesterday. All videos with a clear English audio track will have automatically-generated captions.
At the press conference a deaf engineer did the product demo and students from the California School for the Deaf in Fremont came on stage. Google is painting this development as a service to the hearing impaired.
But that’s not Google’s true motivator.
Changing audio into text lets Google spiders index the content of YouTube videos.
The spiders don’t understand audio so they can’t index videos for search. But with YouTube audio available in text form, a huge and invisible chunk of the web is opened up to Google’s search technology.
This will be a watershed for Google. It is a good time to buy Google stock. The company will make a lot of money selling advertising on these newly-indexed videos. Here’s what to expect: …View Full Story
She argues that people fall into two categories — the interesting and the happy — and she backs up her findings with academic research. Take the quiz in her post to see where you stand.
Her theory is a bit too pigeonholing for my tastes (and her commenters’ too), but she’s on the right track. People either tend to want to do more or are happy where they are.
So which are your customers? Here are some common traits in each group, adapted from Penelope’s quiz:
Happy People Traits
Live close to family
Homogeneous social circle
Friends who pray
Friends who are fat
Conservative
Interesting People Traits
Have lived all over the place
Diverse social circle
Goal-oriented
Buy the best things
Strong opinions on subjective topics
I see the difference in two circles I run in. Dickinson people are chock full of interesting; my college friends have started companies, traveled the world, and move cross-country on a regular basis. Yet nearly all of my high school friends live quiet lives within driving distance of their families in York.
Contentment is the issue here. Driven people always push forward and embrace change. This manifests as unhappiness with the present and a history of interesting adventures. But people who are content with their situation see no reason to change up what’s working and tend to turn down life-changing (and interesting) experiences.
Which are you? As Penelope says:
People with interesting lives do not get offended that they cannot be happy. Happy people are offended that they cannot have interesting lives.
If you’re offended you’re probably happier than most. Lucky you!
My fiancée and I went on a shopping trip a few weeks ago, I got caffeine-addled and wrote down my thoughts on retail store mind control.
I wrote last week about my weird experience at the Gap. I’m convinced now that I was put into a highly-suggestible state and when I refused the suggestion my subconscious reacted negatively.
Sensory manipulation at Gap is subtle. But Abercrombie smacks you in the face with it. Here’s how they mess with your senses to get you to buy more clothes.
That Rancid Smell
The perfume inside Abercrombie is so strong you can smell it from 50 feet down the mall concourse.
…Smell is thought to be the most closely linked to emotion because the brain’s olfactory bulb, which detects odours, fast-tracks signals to the limbic system, which links emotion to memories.
As anyone who’s caught a fleeting whiff of an ex’s perfume can attest: smell jogs emotional memory. When a retail store can get a “fast-track” to their customers’ emotions they use it.
In this case, you’re reminded of other times you’ve smelled that smell and the emotions you were feeling. With any luck you were inside an Abercrombie store and exposed to their feel-good visual stimulation.
People More Attractive Than You
In every Abercrombie store gorgeous models hook up with each other on oversize posters.
When you view images like this, your brain reacts just as if it were you in the picture. As Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide, puts it:
Mirror neurons allow the brain to automatically imitate the actions of somebody else. So if I see you smile, or lick an ice cream cone, or do something X-rated, then my mirror neurons light up as if I were smiling, or licking an ice cream cone, or doing something X-rated.
When you look sexy pictures your brain acts as if you were actually in the image yourself. You’d be hard pressed to find a more positive emotion!
So now you’re feeling like your fooling around with models and being reminded of other times you’ve felt like that. What’s next?
Blasting Music
The music in Abercrombie is deafening. You can barely hear what someone else is saying over the bum-bum-bum of some indie rock song. But what effect does this have on your brain?
This less-than credible source says that continuous, bumping, heartbeat-like music induces a suggestible mental state. I won’t vouch for that, but I do know that every store I’ve been plays music continuously. And many songs have a thumping iambic beat.
Music like this plays at the Gap too. And one of my most powerful memories, for no apparent reason, is standing in a conference hall at a leadership seminar in 10th grade and feeling physically overcome when Sheryl Crow’s “Soak Up the Sun” came over the loudspeakers. I’d heard the song before and felt nothing, but my reaction at that time was overwhelming.
Abercrombie music has the same tempo and they blast it. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence.
The Walls are Closing In…
They lay out the store entrance like adjoining men’s and women’s bathrooms. When you look at the store from the outside straight on you see nothing but a wall, and to enter you need to pick a side.
Once you’re in the store you’re completely enclosed. It’s impossible to see, hear, or smell the outside world.
The difference in ambiance is startling - you go from a bright, bubbly, fluorescent mall to a loud reeking cave.
The only light in the place shines on the clothes. The ceilings, walls, and shelves are all painted black. Spotlights illuminate the merchandise just like an actor on a black stage.
The store layout draws your attention to the product and there’s no escape route in sight.
Now you can look at the clothes in peace!
REMEMBER THIS
You’re standing in a completely fabricated environment designed with one goal - get you to buy clothes. When you walk in the door you’re assaulted by the perfume, bombarded by the blasting music, stared down by beautiful people and you can’t see the outside world.
Retail chains use all available methods to increase sales, and one of the most effective is triggering reactions in your brain.
January 22nd, 2010 posted by Xander Becket 6:18 pm | View Full Story
Kate and I were on the first leg of our shopping trip and we walked into the Gap to look for some jeans for me. I got a really nice pair of Gap 1969s for Christmas so we looked for more. I found three pairs my size, all different styles, and went to the counter to pay.
I handed over my jeans. The clerk noticed the size and picked up a pair laying next to her.
“These were a return and they’re your size. Would you like them?” she asked.
I thought, “She’s upselling me, just say no. You bought the jeans you want, get out of here without spending any more money.”
“No, thanks,” I said. “I’m all set.”
Mission accomplished.
We walked around the mall for about another hour then got in the car to leave. As I strapped in my seatbelt I thought, “Man, I should have bought those jeans.”
Wait, what?
It was flabbergasting. I couldn’t shake the feeling - my mind kept reminding me that I should have bought those jeans. Plans to sneak back to Park City began forming in my head. I contemplated calling the store the next morning to ask them to hold them for me. These thoughts were completely irrational given my decision, yet they persisted.
I had already made the decision not to buy the jeans, but nevertheless I felt a need to get them.
Which makes me think that I was purposely made to feel that way.
Am I crazy? Has anything like this ever happened to you?
Retail Manipulation: How They Get You to Buy More (Part I)
January 8th, 2010 posted by Xander Becket 4:38 pm | View Full Story
Me, shopping
Last Sunday night my fiancée Kate and I got a babysitter and went to Park City to cash in our Christmas gift cards. I don’t usually shop retail (especially for clothes), but the after-holiday specials cut out most of the markup.
On our way into the mall we got coffees at Starbucks. BTW I usually hate shopping. But shopping + caffeine was actually exhilarating and productive.
My mind raced the whole time. I pounded out the ideas on my BlackBerry and, after decoding them later on, I had tons of ideas for new blog posts!
They all have to do with the tricks retail stores use to get you to spend more. The first realization came as we visited Forever 21.
Create Value through Scarcity
Fendi Store - Nothing's in There?
When you go into a high-end specialty store (like Fendi or Gucci) you never see tons of clothes. All of the products are spaced out and sparse. It feels almost…empty.
Forever 21 Store - Packed with Goods
Then go into Forever 21. It’s packed to the gills with merchandise. There’s something for every style, trend, and fashion. And there’s a much longer line at the checkout register.
Which wins?
Well both, but for different reasons.
You expect to see quality stuff when you shop at Gucci and Fendi. And they lay out the store so sparingly to give you the (subconscious?) impression that there is a limited supply of product.
It’s Econ 101 to know that as supply decreases the value per item increases. Pre-entrance branding has already primed to expect product quality. You’ll be a little more willing to shell out $200 for those shoes when you only see 3 pairs in the whole store.
Forever 21 has no international branding to support a perceived-value game like the big boys. So they slash the per-item margin and load the store up with tons of clothes. More choices at less cost means that you have a great chance of finding at least one thing that suits you.
They make their money when a ton of people buy one or two things. It doesn’t matter that you only spend $20 (rather than $200) because 1 in 3 people that walk in will do the same. At Fendi it might be 1 in 10. Or 1 in 20.
The Difference
Forever 21 gives you the choice to find what you want, and Fendi says “Here’s what we have, and there’s not much to go around, so it’s worth paying a premium for.”
All of this, of course, is communicated subconsciously by the store layout.
Manipulations of your decision making process make it easier to part with your money. And there are tons more subtle ways retail stores do it.
Next week we’ll cover the sensory tricks stores use to lull you into a highly-suggestible state. And I’ll share my experience with being ‘brainwashed’ at the Gap.
December 18th, 2009 posted by Xander Becket 12:41 pm | View Full Story
As most of you know I’m a huge fan of TED talks. They’ll change your life.
Susan Blackmore’s presentation on memes and temes struck me to the core and altered my perception of reality and marketing.
She talks about memes and how they influence the world around us. In the most basic sense, memes are units of culture. Earrings, computer monitors, cars, any idea that is passed along and copied is a meme.
You might have heard the term in relation to internet memes (see Kanye West and the Star Wars Kid). People take the central idea and share it all over the place.
Richard Dawkins coined the term “meme” in his 1976 book The Selfish Gene as a way to explain the spread of ideas and culture. He observed that these memes work just like genes in their “desire” to be multiplied.
So your need to tell your best friend about the coolest new website works just like your sex drive. Genes make their hosts want to copy them and memes make their hosts want to share them. Human minds are prime meme-replicators because we have the brain capacity to understand and communicate abstract ideas.
Memes and Marketing
Now I’m not doing Blackmore or Dawkins any justice in my explanations. But if you think of brands, products, and brand narratives as independent entities that want to be spread and want to go viral you can come to some pretty exciting conclusions.
A great idea influences the behavior of its host to share it. It has agency. It wants to get out and tell the world.
If your product sucks nobody shares it, obviously. But maybe it’s because your meme is evolutionarily deficient. If your product/story/mission/meme is worthy, people actively try to spread it. Hugh Maccleod calls this the social object. Seth calls it the purple cow. Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell call it fostering word-of-mouth marketing.
They all reflect the same idea: your meme needs to be good enough to thrive in the cutthroat world of ideas. But once it is, it makes people share it.
