Conquest Launches Automatix Implicit Testing Tool

UK brand research specialist Conquest has launched a tool called Automatix, which uses avatar-based online technology combined with cognitive science and implicit testing techniques, to uncover implicit 'truths' about brands, advertising and products.

The Kensington-based firm offers a range of brand tracking, NPD, communications testing, retail, product and packaging research, using quant and qual methods. An existing avatar-based online tool, Metaphorix, taps into 'the power of the metaphor' to access consumers' unexpressed thoughts.

The new Automatix solution is founded on the premise that the human mind is dominated by implicit processing - emotionally or intuitively. To remove the need for explicit questioning, the tool looks at speed of reaction and accuracy in a word association task, while the firm's avatar-based animations present the respondent with a series of online visual metaphors to engage with - allowing attitudes to be expressed intuitively without a need for words or numbers. Findings are then merged and can be studied further to expose hidden and overlooked associations.

Heinz and Ebay have already made use of the tool to uncover implicit advertising messages which may have been missed by explicit testing.

Web site: www.conquestuk.com .