Covert is when the consumer doesn't know he told you. The covert research is what we're getting most excited about. That reduces the number of clicks. One of the things we've found is that the more clicks required for a purchase, the less likely the purchase will happen. Others have observed that when consumers look at text online, they don't really read it.
People look for visual cues as they go through a site, and they go through very quickly.
For Mr. Zahner, the lesson of that finding has been that the ideal online sales message is simple and presented as a list. That, he says, is the best way to get the point across, or to sell something to a consumer and get him or her to come back and use the service again. More subtle factors also come into play. There is a certain psychology of color. Similarly, while the Web is relatively young, its look is already governed by widely accepted parameters that marketers violate at their peril.