This post's title is from NextStage's lead IP attorney who said, "Joseph's technology allows a programmable device to determine how a person is thinking."
NextStage received notification late in March '08 that we were getting the first of many patents on what we call Evolution Technology. You can read our IP attorney's comments at NextStage Receives First Patent.
I shared the news at the end of my This is Your Brain, This is Your Brain on the Internet presentation during the Emetrics Toronto Summit last week. This post encapsulates the portions of that presentation relevant to NextStage's Evolution Technology and the patent. I'll summarize the highlights with the following quotes from our IP guru:
- “…like nothing that has ever been made.”
- “Joseph's technology allows a programmable device to determine how a person is thinking”
- “…nothing out there was close to what he was doing.”
- “NextStage Evolution corners the market on this technology for years to come.”
- “… Evolution Technology determines how a person is thinking.”
- “…protect all of NextStage Evolution's commercial enterprise as the behavioral analytics market blossoms.”
What's a "programmable device"?
Take a look around wherever you are right now and count the number of things that are programmable, either by you or someone else. Right now as I sit in my office I count the stereo (CD changer, radio, etc.), the phones, the answering system, the computers, the printers, the HVAC system, the lighting, the fax..., I have a boxing dummy in my office that I exercise with and it's programmable depending on how much of a workout I want. A quick glance and I came up with ten things. Web sites are programmable. So's my cellphone.
What about my home? My tv is programmable. So are my recording devices (DVR, VCR, mpg player, etc.). For that matter, so is my microwave, my oven, the HVAC in my home... Heck, even my bed is programmable (sleep number). The stereo in the headboard. Almost forgot that. Some friends of ours have programmable stoves and refrigerators. We don't but they do. We do have programmable lighting in several rooms, though.
I forgot about getting from my office to my home. My car has several programmable features. My business travels are usually in planes. Lots of programmable features in those, you know.
What if I stop at the mall on my way home to pick up something, maybe a gift? Mall and store kiosks, instore help terminals are programmable, too.
Okay. Just about everything is a programmable device in today's world and there will be more of programmable devices as time goes on.
What about "how a person is thinking"?
Right now, as you're reading this, you're thinking. The fact is people can not not think. It may be conscious, it may be non-conscious. It might be day-dreaming. Your thoughts can be focused on a problem or just wondering about dinner. Making plans or remembering past times. Everybody thinks.
The even more interesting thing is that most people aren't aware of everything going on in their heads at any given time. That "going on in their heads" is significant because that's the "how a person is thinking" part of NextStage's patent. So let's consider the obvious application; how a visitor is thinking when they're navigating a web site (and my thanks to René Dechamps who said I needed to start showing graphs or no one would believe me).
For example, NextStage's technology can -- without asking any questions, without polling other internet databases, without dropping cookies, without resorting to panels, without asking visitors to fill out forms or add extra software or appliances to their computers or browsers -- determine if visitors are loyal to your site or if they're merely returning to your site until they find something better (and how long until they defect regardless of finding something better or not).
(our charts are very simple, we think. Red/Black -- as in your checkbook so in NextStage. You always want to be in the black. Red/Yellow/Green -- like driving. Red is danger, yellow is caution, green is good to go)
Likewise, NextStage's technology can determine if visitors are having a good experience on your site while they're browsing your site. Again, no asking of questions, no filling out of forms, no interrupting their browsing session or their purchasing of your goods and services.
And, should visitors not convert, NextStage's technology can determine what they were thinking about that caused them to stop and the degree to which what they were thinking stopped them.
A big buzzword these days is engagement. Fair enough. Were visitors mentally engaged -- actually focusing their attention on your site -- and not just clicking away?
Everybody knows that men and women think differently, yes? Then how about knowing -- without asking any questions -- if a visitor is male or female? (Same simple charting rules apply -- pink for girls, blue for boys). Or maybe which gender is more engaged by your site?
Most people know that a twenty-five year old thinks differently than a forty-five year old. Differences in thought patterns show up across all age groups. So how about an age breakdown of actual visitors while they're visiting?
And the best part is, because the technology knows "how someone is thinking" it can automatically make a few suggestions to your existing designs that will drive business. (Simple charting rules again -- Red = critical suggestion, Yellow = important suggestion, Green = desirable suggestion)
Currently there are sixty-five reports the technology can produce and about thirty more we're perfecting, everything from simple age breakdown to how long a given visitor will remember your brand once they leave your site.
There are lots of ways to test the efficacy of a design. Testing a new design against your entire visitor population for an hour is a reasonable way to do it, don't you think? We think knowing what people are really thinking might save lots of time and money.
Anyway, now that we have the patent, I'm a little freer talking about what NextStage does. I've always answered those who asked honestly. The challenge has always been that what we've patented is a...umm...disruptive technology. Also a core technology. There are several more patents in line now that the core patent is completed.
For example, the technology "remembers" what it's learned about how people think, react and respond to things. It can "look" at a new design, a new campaign, with the combined knowledge of almost 100,000 unique people in seconds and report on what will work and what won't, and how to change what won't work into what will.
So much for the obvious
Can you think of anything you do that you don't think about doing? Or do and don't recognize that -- at perhaps a non-conscious level -- you're thinking about?
Think about it.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Upcoming Trainings:
- "Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less" Half-day training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 13 June 08
Upcoming Conferences:
- New Communications Forum 2008, 22-25 April 08 at The Vineyard Creek Inn & Spa, Sonoma County CA
- San Francisco Emetrics Marketing Optimzation Summit, 4-7 May 08
- International Communication Association's Communicating for Social Impact, the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association at Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 22-26, 2008
- SUNY Marketing Professionals Conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 11-13 June 08
Come on by and say hello.
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