Snigonometry: Quick, Affordable, Predictive
All right class, take your seats. Today we are going to explore one of the more elusive issues in promotion development. Raise your hand if you believe that pre-testing of offers is an important aspect of the science.
OK, since it’s almost unanimous, who can tell us why so few marketers do it?
Yes, Mary. Not enough time? Very good. Bill? Too costly? Most assuredly. Peter? Limited reliability? Quite. Thus the quandary of uncertainty that faces the promotion professional.
But there is a solution. A simple, low-cost, highly accurate tool for predicting promotion success probability. Amazingly, few marketers are aware of or understand this technology. It’s the Digital Ocular Reflex Snigonometer test. Developed in the early part of the millennium by Dr. I. M. “Shorty” Cutter, the DORS test can be easily conducted by a single practitioner with a sample size of only one respondent.
There are two levels of snigonometry: 1) topline and 2) bottom line.
Here’s how topline testing works: Find an acquaintance with an IQ in excess of his or her age. Take the person’s hand in yours (that’s the digital part) and gaze deeply and steadily into his or her eyes (the ocular part.) The position should be similar to that taken by a male proposing marriage – although snigonometry can be practiced safely by either sex, and in fact works quite well with same-sex partners.
Without losing ocular contact and with expressed sincerity, pose a two-part behavior/benefit statement. “I’d so much like you to (insert behavior here), that when you do I will (offer reward here)!”
For example, here’s a test case from the university archives: “I’d so much like you to rent a car from National, that when you do I will actually enter you into a sweepstakes!”
Now, without moving a muscle, maintain ocular contact with the respondent for 15 seconds. If, during that time, either or both of you snigger, the promotion premise is likely flawed. A snort or a guffaw indicates a high failure quotient.
OK, let’s experiment with this together. Everybody pair up and assume the snigonometry stance. Try this example, remembering to gaze sincerely: “I’d so much like you to buy a $5 box of Kellogg’s cereal, that when you do I will actually give you 100 AAdvantage miles!” No sniggering now, Mary, you must wait for the full 15-second gaze.
See how easy snigonometry is? It’s amazing that more marketers don’t use it.
That’s topline snigonometry. Let’s move on to bottom line. Suppose your proposition passes the 15-second no-snigger period. Like it possibly could with this example: “I’d so much like you to buy Pepsi, that when you do I will actually give you a custom CD!”
If no snigger is forthcoming, you must now invoke a qualifying “however” question. For example: “However, to claim this reward you will have to open at least 10 packs of Pepsi, clip proofs, save bottle caps, and mail the whole mess with $2 postage and handling.”
Hold your gaze and wait for a snigger.
The remarkable aspect of snigonometry is the ease of tallying results – because topline and bottom line sniggers are actually interchangeable. Over time, research has proven that one-snigger propositions have a 69 percent chance of failure. Two sniggers increase the mortality potential to 94 percent.
That’s the truth.
On the Other Hand:
Since 70 percent of brand purchase decisions are made in the store (according to the possibly biased Point of Purchase Advertising International), mega kudos are due to the Pepsi people for their front-end execution on the Choose Your Music promotion at retail. Somehow they managed to harness technology to create an amazing “listening center” built right into the P-OP display. Consumers can press a button and actually hear selections of the artists tracks. Zounds! It is a shopper stopper.
