Consumers Find Their Perfect Match

Individuals' exposure to media matching their unconscious 'visual desires' triggers something akin to love at first sight and stirs a 'buying instinct' within them, according to results published by specialist consultancy Visual Targeting.

According to the MR firm, the 'instant attraction' to visuals such as a design, ads, videos or movies resembles the psychological patterns of sexual attraction.

Founded in 2008 by visual designer Steven Kronick, Los Angeles-based Visual Targeting has developed a suite of proprietary solutions that can be used to predict and increase advertising performance. These tools uncover an individual's 'exact visual preference' and then analyze how these preferences steer 'consumer choice behavior'.

Methodologies developed by the company uncover both who is most likely to respond most profitably to existing designs, and how ads should look to perform most profitably in specific target markets.

The firm claims its team of marketing researchers, psychologists, statisticians, programmers, designers, and branding experts have proven that these tools increase visual ad performance by as much as 400%.

Kraft Foods has already used these techniques to create triangular-shaped 'Diamond Shreddies'. During the campaign, Visual Targeting found that by changing one element of the product - in this case, to look more triangular than square - to match the target market's 'visual desires', Kraft received an immediate boost in sales.

Kronick is not shy about the potential for the findings, enthusing: 'This discovery might be the most powerful advancement in the design, advertising and marketing industries that this century will see.'

Web site: www.visualtargeting.com .