Blog
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Choice paralysis is when we as customers, as humans, freeze when presented with too much to choose from and our planned course of action is disrupted. I myself have experienced this phenomenon all too often and I am glad that it now has a name. Typically it is when I am at a restaurant, thumbing through an intimidatingly directory-length dinner menu; from fear of missing out and at the same time wanting to get the best value I am often struck with a dilemma of making the right choice. So I may well freeze and defer the ordering process or choose something quite different altogether. On only very few occasions have I actually left the restaurant to go elsewhere. I should point out that this irritates my wife who relishes the choice; she enjoys the menu-browsing and taking time to make her selection over a bowl of olives. I do tend to fare better with a simpler or set-menu format though. It helps diners like me choose efficiently and with confidence. If I want to ask about the specifics of the menu or the specials, I can always ask the waiter for guidance.
In an article from Econsultancy the topic of losing sales because of too much choice (be it product or web navigation) is considered. The post’s suggestion is to avoid offering choice where possible and show the most common choice(s) by default with the option for the user to drill down and customise should they wish to (much like me asking the waiter for the specials board). Essentially the writer tells us that we shouldn’t worry about trying to please all of the people all of the time, and focus on pleasing most of the people most of the time with default (one-size fits-all) content. This may seem like sensible advice, but what if the default set of choices caters to a 51% majority? That leaves 49% of your audience mismatched with the content on your site.With our technology, that’s one of the challenges we overcome at Cognitive Match; matching content that best fits the profile of site users. Think of our technology as the smart waiter who already knows which menu type suits me and which suits my wife. The waiter that instinctively averts my choice paralysis while offering my wife plenty to choose from would certainly deserve his tip.
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We're looking for an intern to help out in our lively central London office (Mayfair, near Green Park).
* You'll need to commit to between 4 weeks and 3 months with us based in our fantastic Mayfair office.
* You will be comfortable making phone calls and researching online
* You'll be researching a wide variety of topics close to our business
* You have an interest in internet / digital media industry and knowledge of web technology would be ideal
* You can start ASAP
In return, we'll give you the opportunity to see first hand what makes a dynamic online software company tick & you'll gain in depth experience in the digital media & web optimisation industry.
Does this sound like you?
Get in touch using our contact form and leave your name, email, contact number and a few words about yourself & why you want to be our next intern - we'll be in touch very soon!
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We asked our team & clients this very question & common phrases we heard were “relevance”, “real-time”, “optimisation” and “user experience” - all core elements of the Cognitive Match system.
One client commented “Cognitive Match allows websites to react to their audience, transforming them from dumb shop fronts to active salesmen.” Of course, in our physical lives this personalisation isn’t just limited to retail but occurs all the time.
But what about online? Our Matching Engine is perfect for e-commerce but also has a broader reach – from publishers to advertising – allowing a better visitor experience across the whole of the online world.
Asking why we were different, many identified that being a fast, reliable and real-time system offers great advantages over traditional offline data analysis due to the constantly changing nature of online visitors. The ability to optimise content for the individual user instead of settling for 'one size fits all' was highly valued by online marketing professionals. Core to this is to identify visitors behaviour – and now Cognitive Match offers marketing professionals a tool to identify and target them in real-time.
Driving Cognitive Match’s innovation is an active academic panel comprised of some of the leading minds in Europe supporting our in-house research and development teams. This allows Cognitive Match to be a leader in making online experience more relevant, which in turn makes our clients more successful.
Tell us... What does Cognitive Match mean to you?
Comment or follow us on twitter (@cognitivematch)
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Much of what marketers call “targeting” is still based on traditional marketing segments: postcode, age, gender. The online ads world is racing towards the identification of “audiences” based on many of these segments, and as such is placing an even greater premium on the concept of “male” and “female”, alongside other geo-demographic data.
That kind of targeting simplicity led to this recent post on LifeHacker:
All you need to do is read the replies to see the general sentiment, which varies between “I did this a while ago to my Facebook… if you are an early 20s woman, the ads are almost all for diet pills” to “just get an ad blocker”.
What seems clear is this: The variance within gender can be greater than the variance beween genders
What that means is that quite frankly today I might behave like a typical “male”, and tomorrow, when looking at something else, like a “typical” female. That undermines much of gender-based targeting, and supports the premise of the LifeHacker posters: that simplistic gender targeting can be self-defeating.
I’m a big advocate of using ALL possible sources of data to drive targeting, of course, but only in a way that takes into account what is most important for each single targeting event. Otherwise, beyond complying with marketers preconceived segmentation notions, targeting won’t actually deliver returns…
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Although Cognitive Match HQ is based in the heart of London's Mayfair, our team is truly international – 15 different countries are represented amongst our growing team. We think one of the reasons we're leading the way in online optimisation is our diverse team & global perspective.In a week when our New York team move into their new offices on Park Avenue, our international reach & multiculturalism will continue to take the company from strength to strength.
Click here to see where in the world our team members come from.
