excerpts

Preface for the European "Anti-American Sentiment" Report

If anti-American sentiment is the catalyst that binds EU global thinking, American business requires a clearer insight into the causes and implications of that attitude.

In THE UNITED STATES OF EUROPE: THE NEW SUPERPOWER AND THE END OF AMERICAN SUPREMACY [Penguin], journalist T.R. Reid reports that while Europe has not yet reached the point of articulating a unified foreign policy, anti-Americanism may serve to accelerate that result.

In a recent study of European public attitudes toward the United States,……

excerpts

Marketing Response Analysis

Differentiating between similar products involves the fusiform gyrus, a part of the brain in the hollow of the temporal bone underneath the ear. It allows us to identify subtle differences between items that may seem look similar.

In BLINK: THE POWER OF THINKING WITHOUT THINKING, Malcom Gladwell describes the cognition that generates reactions to "little things" as how "little things can make a big difference", and concludes that the process might sometimes be more accurate than reason.

The Consensus Research Group magazine cover testing procedure is an interesting application of Gladwell's "Blink" theory. Developed in 1974, the technique goes beyond the rational explanations offered by newsstand or single-copy purchasers of magazines as to why they select one publication over another---or why they prefer one cover over another.

Instead, the study design positions 16 different magazine covers on a rack located in a central shopping area, including two different versions of covers for the test magazine.

Those versions may include different cover subjects, single vs.multiple cover subjects, graphics positioned below the logo vs. interfering with the logo, cover billing of issue content, color, typface or other variables.

The positions of the two test versions on the rack are rotated from interview to interview.

Respondents are asked to examine the rack, and then select a copy of the test magazine.

Findings have reached 70% to 30% selections for one version of the test cover over the other, indicating the extent to which "Blink" type responses can drive product selection without "considered" decisions.