Pheremones Work!
Dial for Men has a new product out, a body wash which is "pheremone infused." A Dial website shows a video in which 9 of 9 women appear to prefer Dial to competitive products. Supposedly, Dial shows that pheremones (a sexual attractant) work.
Today in my marketing class, I redid this quasi-experiment with some changes. I had 5 blindfolded female students smell 8 male students. Two each of the male students had rubbed one of the following on their wrist: Dial for Men Magnetic Attraction Enhancing Body Wash, Axe Fever Shower Gel, Cetaphil Skin Cleanser, and a professionally-mixed scented "attraction oil." 5 out of 5 of the ladies ranked the Dial for Men first. The unscented Cetaphil actually did as well as the Axe product! And the attraction oil was ranked last on everyone's list.
My sample of females (college juniors and seniors) appears to be somewhat younger than the women in the Dial for Men video. Both samples are tiny (9 there, 5 for me). There are other problems. Still, I'm surprised that the outcome was so clear.
If you are a guy, try the Dial! It can't hurt.
Saturday, October 03, 2009
A great deal has been written about the "capture" of firms by their customers. The latest salvo is David Pakman's "The Impact of Social Media on the Enterprise" http://dpakman.wordpress.com/ But Pakman's line of reasoning makes several assumptions. Are all firms equally impacted? Should all firms be embracing this strategy equally? If we look at the issue with some degree of nuance, we find that all is not "black and white."
Here are some more questions. (1) perhaps there needs to be a contingency framework. Under what circumstances do customers take over, when do they not? Because it's not happening across the board, equally for every firm. (2) What about a typology of "degrees of capture"? (3) What is the evolution of capture, or better, what are the different types of evolution? What are the steps? (4) Avoidance: Can firms avoid capture? Can they manage it? Do they have a say in the matter? Are there firms or firm types (certain industries, a certain size, startups vs. established firms, oligopolistic industries, who knows...) which try (or should try) to avoid "capture?"
One size never fits all.
Here are some more questions. (1) perhaps there needs to be a contingency framework. Under what circumstances do customers take over, when do they not? Because it's not happening across the board, equally for every firm. (2) What about a typology of "degrees of capture"? (3) What is the evolution of capture, or better, what are the different types of evolution? What are the steps? (4) Avoidance: Can firms avoid capture? Can they manage it? Do they have a say in the matter? Are there firms or firm types (certain industries, a certain size, startups vs. established firms, oligopolistic industries, who knows...) which try (or should try) to avoid "capture?"
One size never fits all.
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