The readers on Wil Wheaton's blog are an amazing lot. Trolling around the site today, I came across a link to this terrific article analyzing the Star Trek "red shirt phenomenon." So what does Star Trek have to do with marketing?

Matt Bailey, found of SiteLogic, walks us through his analysis. Here's his introduction...

In my seminars, I enjoy teaching analytics because the fun is in finding effective and memorable methods to help people understand the concepts. One of my favorites is an analysis of the Red-Shirt Phenomenon in Star Trek.

What? You don't know about the Red Shirt Phenomenon? Well, as any die-hard Trekkie knows, if you are wearing a red shirt and beam to the planet with Captain Kirk, you're gonna die. That's the common thinking, but I decided to put this to the test. After all, I hadn't seen any definitive proof; it's just what people said. (Remind you of your current web analytics strategy?)

As a die-hard Star Trek fan, I found the analysis interesting... But what matters more is how Matt looks at the data from many different angles. He looks at the data objectively and digs through the episodes to uncover unexpected connections. And his conclusion is fun to read, even if it isn't exactly helpful to the Red Shirts.

Anyway, my point is this...

• It's easy to make assumptions about what works and what doesn't work.
• Our gut feeling may be right, but we'll never know if we don't measure.
• Turn the data inside out... Keep looking for connections.
• The data might be leading us in the right direction... but we have to careful not to be sidetracked or infer cause-and-effect relationships that aren't correct.

I'm working on doing a better analysis of my tracking data. I would love to hear what tracking analytics program you're using and how you are using the data...