Interactive Marketing and Psychology with Dr. Susan Weinschenk

Submitted by josh.braaten@ra... on 02/14/2012 / 0 Comments

If you’ve ever been interested in the psychology of interactive marketing, you won’t want to miss February’s MIMA event: The Top Ten Things Every Interactive Marketer Needs to Know About People. Dr. Susan Weinschenk, Founder of the User Experience Institute, shares experiences from her extensive experience in human computer interaction and the psychology of design and marketing.

I asked Dr. Weinschenk a few questions to demonstrate the value psychology can bring to interactive marketing campaigns, and why you’ll want to register for this month’s event.

Interactive marketing is still a relatively new field compared to marketing and psychology. How long have marketers been benefiting from the science and theory of psychology?

It seems to vary by individual. I know some marketers who have always applied research in psychology to their work, but many other people in marketing are just now getting interested in what the science of psychology can bring to their knowledge. There have been some very exciting developments in psychology, such as relatively new studies in the psychology of unconscious mental processing. Some marketers may not be “up” on the latest.

We’ve gained significant ground in helping interactive marketers and psychologists understand how our brains work in recent years. What changes in technology have contributed to these scientific advances?

I think the main technology that is giving a lot of insight is fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging). This allows researchers to see where brain activity is happening in the moment, and is a vast improvement over older techniques that just measure activity in the outer areas like the scalp.

Other relatively new techniques exist, such as eye tracking, and neuro marketing devices that record respiration, galvanic skin response, and facial expressions. None of the tools are perfect. In my opinion fMRI is the best we have so far when it comes to research.

You’ll be sharing 10 tips from your book, 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People, at the February MIMA event. Is there an 11th thing that you can share with MIMA blog readers as a sneak peak?
That’s cheating! Well, ok...Some of your blog readers may know about a principle in design and in art called the “Golden ratio”. It’s a fairly complicated mathematical idea that there is an ideal height to width ratio that all humans deem to be the most pleasing. It’s been written about a lot -- google it and you will find hundreds of references that talk about how to use it to layout a web page grid, to decide on the size and shape of your product packaging, even how to change someone’s face during plastic surgery to conform to the “golden ratio ideal”. The latest research shows that using this ratio of 1.618 for height to width isn’t special at all. People prefer rectangles to squares, but it doesn’t ahve to be 1.618.

So there you go... a little tidbit you can talk about at your next party!

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Josh Braaten, MIMA Programming Directors

The February MIMA event will be held on February 22, 2012 at Solera in Minneapolis. Register now and let Dr. Weinschenk bring the science of psychology to your interactive marketing efforts.