Are biometrics worth the trouble?

05
Sep

Are biometrics worth the trouble?

The world of biometric research for marketing is exciting, in that it holds the promise of understanding the emotional connection to products and brands. But is it worth the trouble? There’s disagreement.

Many say the insights are intriguing but ultimately not worth the additional pain in time, money, and a sort of black-box obscurity in methods. Others say the benefits outweigh these costs, particularly since we are developing a superior science for the future (i.e., some sacrifice is worth it).

What’s your view? Please tell us below. We invite your opinion!

Eric Layland

January 7, 2016

If the budget is available and the project is suitable for biometrics, why wouldn’t you want such data? If for no other reason than to compare against “traditional” methods. It’s very plausible that biometrics may yield a different set of insights that will influence future decisions.

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Jim McFarland

January 6, 2016

Any good marketing will want to explore and use technologies that help them better equip their organizations to be strong, profitable and growth oriented. Who cares what the technology is? Let’s see it to see if it will help us.

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Nestor Olivier

January 6, 2016

Interesting to look at this debate in view of today’s NYT article by Farhad Manjoo titled “On Display at CES, Tech Ideas in Their Awkward Adolescence”. Mr. Manjoo argues that we are at an interesting point in the tech cycle. He puts it as “The best new stuff is not all that cool, and the coolest stuff isn’t quite ready”. Biometric technologies have been around for some time, but their applications to a world of mobile/wearable data gathering are in their infancy to adolescence. The promise of biometric technologies, as a true Christensen disruptor, is to provide a low cost, reliable solution to the basic market research testing. Then, after proving its reliability, moving up the pricing/complexity curve. There will be early moments of awkwardness, but the gathering and analysis of biometric data will prove a powerful solution for many areas or research.

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Nick Hunt

January 5, 2016

Well, some say the your first response is always the most “true” response. So anything that can help identify true from the the obfuscated will help I think. It’ll be interesting to see how clients react to the extra $$ though.

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