Browser choice – an interesting signal brands should capitalise on

If it’s Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox then you’ll be pleased by recent research from Michael Housman. On Internet Explorer? Probably best to look away now.

Housman analysed data from 50,000 people who his recruitment software company had helped find call centre or customer service jobs. He discovered that browser choice was an accurate predictor of job performance.

People who opted for a non-default browser, like Chrome or Firefox, lasted 15% longer in their jobs than those with a default browser, like Internet Explorer. That wasn’t the only difference.

 They were 19% less likely to miss work through illness and after 90 days they were generating client satisfaction levels that it took Internet Explorer users 120 days to reach. Impressive differences.

But what explains the variation? Housman puts it down to the fact that by choosing Chrome or Firefox users made an active decision – they took the effort to seek out a better browsing solution than the one pre-installed on their PC.

“I think that the fact that you took the time to install Firefox on your computer shows us something about you. It shows that you’re someone who is an informed consumer,” he explained to Freakonomics Radio. “You’ve made an active choice to do something that wasn’t default.”

An experiment to test the marketing application

Targeting consumers by their browser choice is useful for marketers too. Perhaps people who avoid the mainstream, default browser choice might do the same in other markets? A mainstream brand might target default browsers, but a challenger brand focus on non-default browser users.

ZenithOptimedia tested this hypothesis by questioning 224 nationally representative lager drinkers about their brand of choice.

My colleague, Claire Linford and I then split the results by their favoured browser. The results were clear-cut. Only a third of lager drinkers who used Internet Explorer preferred a beer from outside the mainstream, top 5 lagers. However, 56% of those who didn’t use a default browser preferred a non-mainstream lager.

Default browser users preferred mainstream choices, non-default browser users liked challenger brands. Just as browser choice gave Housman a clue about job performance it can identify brand preference for marketers.

Marketers should be interested in this experiment for broader reasons beyond the targeting opportunity. First, if marketers are buying ad space via an auction, then it makes sense to hunt out under-exploited opportunities – browser choice is one such opportunity.

Second, demographics are increasingly unhelpful in predicting customer behaviour. Much better to look at uncovering small signals which indicate a personality or customer type.

First published on: https://wallblog.co.uk/2016/04/25/browser-choice-an-interesting-signal-brands-should-capitalise-on/#ixzz470vWxChz

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