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I am creating a landing page targeted to men of age 18 to 45 years. It's supposed to promote a nationwide recruitment effort of temporary workers needed in production plants.

The photo of a smiling factory worker will be used on the top of the page next to the main slogan.

What is better regarding conversion rate : a male worker or a female worker?

Same question asked differently : should I use the "identification to self" approach or the "sexual attraction" approach?

rk.
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majimekun
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    To my knowledge a female front figure/voice generally creates a calm and trust in the beholder (which in the scenario can be either a man or woman). So in the scenario you describe, where a visitor will in the blink of an eye determine whether they want to "go into business" with this recruiter or not I would from the top of my head argue that a female front figure would generally produce the higher conversion rate. – AndroidHustle Jun 07 '13 at 11:01
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    Perhaps you could argue that including such a photograph is only a distraction. You might well expect no photograph to outperform both male/female variants. – Brendon Jun 07 '13 at 11:34
  • @Brendon well, if you take a look at most of the slides from http://www.slideshare.net/ioninteractive/50-landing-page-best-practices-13034333 , you'll notice that a model is almost always present on a landing page. And it's a woman most of the times. – majimekun Jun 07 '13 at 11:45
  • I'd have expected there to have been some relevent academic research on this topic - otherwise it would be an easy thing to A/B test. – PhillipW Jun 07 '13 at 11:52
  • @PhillipW Unfortunately, I can't A/B test for this project. That's why some proved facts/researches would be highly welcome. – majimekun Jun 07 '13 at 11:55
  • @AndroidHustle Thanks a lot for the comment. My gut feeling says exactly the same but it would help If I could have something to back up my claims when I have to explain my artistic choices to my manager. – majimekun Jun 07 '13 at 11:59
  • I can't find the article, but I know I've read where you want a female image, because a male image can appear threatening to women and a source of competition to men. That said, I strongly suggest @rk's answer. Images that are clearly of models can be a turn-off and a reason to question the legitimacy of the web site. – Dane Jun 11 '13 at 21:25
  • Sex sells = much more of a marketing topic than UX – DA01 Jun 24 '13 at 03:44
  • But, to answer it in a UX manner = this is what A/B testing is for. – DA01 Jun 24 '13 at 03:44

1 Answers1

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I would rather go with actual workers than models. If you are asking this question on UX Q&A site, I would give you the UCD approach rather than the cogsci approach to marketing.

  • By using actual workers in actual working conditions, you run the advantage of being transparent and conveying much more information through the image than what you could have done using models.

  • If the 'teams' in the factory are composed of men and women, then show that. Else what is the point of showing a picture of female workers when they are working in isolation? Are you saying 'We have men and women workers. They do not work together, but, you can catch a sneak peak during lunch hours. Come work for us!'

Twitter made this video (not quite seriously) but it still went viral and did the job (arguably) better than a serious commercial would have.

rk.
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  • +1 I agree. Using real life pics rather than stock photos is always better in my opinion. More trustworthy and not as stale as a stock photo easily get. – AndroidHustle Jun 07 '13 at 13:06
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    How long until someone counters with "but real people are ugly!"? – crdx Jun 12 '13 at 09:49