About a month ago, Daisy Whitney over at the New Media Minute sent me a copy of “Personal Effects: Dark Art.” It was the first print book I have read in a long time (since I got my Kindle, in fact). And, picking it up and turning the pages felt kind of strange. However, it made me appreciate the vast differences between print and electronic books.
The book, for those who have not read it, is about an art therapist named Zach Taylor who is trying to solve a bizarre mystery involving murders supposedly committed by a blind man with air tight alibis. Zach interacts with his patients (who are all suspected or convicted criminals) primarily through art. He asks them to draw, sculpt, and compose pieces of art which he believes reveal information about the individuals and the crimes that landed them there. The book, both directly and indirectly, suggests that images and sound contain a great deal of information that cannot simply be communicated by speaking. This message is reinforced by the multimedia elements throughout the book. Physical clues are included that readers can sort through -- pictures, business cards, and a drivers license. Individuals can also call phone numbers and listen to characters’ voicemails and visit websites that offer additional information and images. Even the look and feel of the pages in the book communicate something and help set the tone for the story.
The book’s use of visual and auditory elements to enhance the communication between the author and the reader brings to mind Jerry Zaltman and his consumer behavior research. The premise of Zaltman’s work is rooted in cognitive psychology which reveals that individuals generally do not think in terms of words or numbers, but rather in terms of images and metaphors. This poses a challenge to any company (or psychologist, in the case of “Personal Effects”) that wishes to understand what someone truly thinks.
Historically, companies have attempted to understand and predict consumer behavior by asking questions and measuring responses or by observing behavior (for example in focus groups) and trying to extract generalities. Zaltman, however, believes that these methods yield a poor understanding of consumer behavior and result in suboptimal business decisions. These traditional methods are insufficient because there is a disconnect between how people think and how companies have traditionally attempted to measure those thoughts. To remedy this, Zaltman developed the ZMET test which asks consumers to spend some time thinking about a product and gather or produce a series of images that represent their thoughts and feelings. Individuals then have a conversation about these images with trained interviewers who attempt to discover underlying thoughts (what Zaltman terms deep metaphors) and their relationship to one another.
After finishing up "Personal Effects: Dark Art", I went back to reading on my Kindle. And, while I love the device, it lacks a traditional book’s ability to set the tone and to otherwise communicate a message through cover art, font selection, and even paper choice. Because individuals think in terms of images and metaphors, it is not surprising that some individuals have been hesitant in adopting the ebook platform. According to Imran Khan, 72% of individuals cite the look and feel of paper books as a reason not to purchase an e-reader. While this number seems large, the statistic (and the overall study) are subject to the same shortcomings that Zaltman discusses in his research. For example, this figure does not reveal the intensity of the feeling or its underlying emotional motivation. These hidden factors, if properly understood, could help ebook companies to increase consumer adoption.
Changes to new technologies always bring about costs and benefits that consumers must weigh. Other forms of media have experienced similar consumer reservations in their transition to digital. While these reservations are important, their significance cannot be understood solely through traditional forms of market research.
