The Emoji Meter

Let me tell you about one technique in particular, the Emoji Meter.

Researchers love Likert scales—you know that 1 to 5 rating scales (1=Strongly Disagree) and (5=Strongly Agree). OK, but what does that really tell us? Do we know how they feel about a concept, product, message or service?? Nope, not really

The Emoji Meter to the rescue! Everyone loves that little smiley faces. They populate our social media messages, texts, Tweets – you name it. We sprinkle them everywhere. So why not use them to uncover “gut” level feelings customers have about a product or concept?

The Emoji Meter is a projective technique

The Emoji Meter works by showing customers a range of emotions and then asking them to choose the one that best describes how they feel. It works because it gives them “permission” to use the Emoji as the representation of their true feelings about your product.

In the world of neuromarketing, it is an established fact that 95% of consumers' thinking occurs in their subconscious minds. That’s why we invented the Emoji meter!

Cathy Fitzgerald

Why is this better?

If customers have a good feeling about a product then we can subsequently ask them to articulate what they like and dislike in order to improve it. However, if a product does not elicit a positive initial response, it will often struggle to gain traction regardless of what modifications or adjustments are made.

In the past, we used to talk on the phone or write letters to communicate, but today we send text messages or email. We believe market research needs to get with it and incorporate this fundamental communication change into our research methods.

That’s why we invented the Emoji meter!

In the world of neuromarketing it is an established fact that 95% of consumers' thinking occurs in their subconscious minds. And, the unconscious mind communicates in feelings, not words.

Good qualitative research is all about uncovering these unconscious thoughts and the language that people use to express these thoughts.

Rankings and ratings don’t tell the whole story.