Have you heard the story about a little quiz on a red dress that’s making its way across the web?

It all began with the BloomReach Personalized Discovery Platform, a product that combines different applications to understand what people are searching for online across various channels and devices, and then match them with the appropriate content.

BloomReach aims to understand how people see and talk about products, and to show customers how it does this, the company developed an interactive quiz built around a single red dress.

What BloomReach found in terms of engagement and results was pretty unexpected.

Launching a quiz via the ion interactive platform, BloomReach created a visual design for a red dress and then paired it with a bunch of questions that asked readers about everything from cut and color to fit and occasion. The quiz quickly went viral and had a huge participation rate after BloomReach used a multi-channel strategy of social channels, targeted email tactics and paid ads to distribute it.

With a 70% conversion rate, the quiz’s engagement rate was much higher than anyone could have anticipated; but what really came as a surprise to many who were following the survey was how differently all of the participants described the exact same item.

Consider neckline. While “square” came in as the top answer, others explained the neckline as “scoop,” “sweetheart” and “tank.” And when asked what occasion someone would wear the dress to, responses ranged from “birthday party” and “clubbing” to “gallery opening.”

To one, it was seen as fancy, and to another, it was casual. Interesting how people can have such varying interpretations, isn’t it?

While the quiz underscores just how captivating a simple visual can be in getting people to engage, it also shows how diversely consumers may be thinking about – and planning to use – our products.

The red dress project from BloomReach provides a great reminder: it’s essential to consider every perspective possible when it comes to marketing an item.