Blog 6- Persuaders

I really enjoyed a quote from the video The Persuader: “Consumer’s are like roaches –you spray them and spray them and after awhile it doesn’t work anymore…they develop immunities.” Consumers are driven by unconscious needs and impulses. They want to be entertained. While in New York standing in Time Square, my husband asked, “what is the point of Times Square?” My answer was that it is just a huge marketing scheme! Looking around I couldn’t even concentrate on one ad because there was SO many of them!

In the video it talked about how by the early 1990’s a newer approach to marketing came to the floor- one that leapt over what the product did to what the product meant. Companies like Nike and Starbucks are engaging in a pseudo spiritual marketing. Nike has commercials about people’s relationship with running not necessarily about the features of the shoes. Marketers have gone out to find why people joined cults or were loyal to a brand and found out it was for the same reason: they need to belong and make meaning. Companies now have to maintain a meaning system. Tide is no longer a laundry detergent- every detergent cleans your clothes…it is a much deeper thing- it is an enabler, a liberator, and the heart of the family.

Clotaire Rapaille is one of many market researches claiming to have figured out consumers’ hidden desires. He conducts a series of 3 stages concerning the 3 brains on focus groups. He feels his technique provides insight on why people choose the products they do. He goes past reason to the final core. The first stage Dr. Rapaille performs is the Intelligence Stage- he starts with the cortex. In the video, the focus group was asked to say any words that came to their minds about the word “luxury.” Dr. Rapaille refers to this process as the “washout session” because it allows the participants to showcase how intelligent they are about the topic. Dr. Rapaille doesn’t really get anything beneficial from this stage, but it must be completed so he can get down to the real stuff later.

The second stage is the Emotions Stage- this is the limbic part of the brain. The objective for this stage is for participants to throw away their intelligent or logical thinking and enter into a new state-of-mind. Dr. Rapaille asks them to tell a story to a 5 year old from another planet. The group now does not understand why they are doing what they are doing which is exactly where Dr. Rapaille wants them to be.

The third stage is the Instincts Stage- this is the reptilian part of the brain. When the focus group came back from their break all the chairs were moved out and there were pillows and pads of paper on the floor. Dr. Rapaille says that when we wake up in the morning, we can remember things that happened long ago that are kept hidden in the back of our minds. Dr. Rapaille is hunting for their primal urges- he is after the “reptilian hot buttons” that compel us to action. His theory is that the reptilian always wins!

Dr. Rapaille develops “codes” for products. Through the years he has told car makers to beef up the size of their SUVs and tint windows because the code for SUVs is domination. He told a French cheese company that they were “Off Code” with their advertising in the American market. In France, cheese is alive and does not belong in the refrigerator. (I laughed when Dr. Rapaille said it was like how you don’t put a cat in the refrigerator because it is alive) However, in America, cheese is dead. Americans need to see it wrapped up in plastic (“a body bag”) and put in the fridge (“the morgue”).

Another topic to be mentioned about from the Persuader is Song airlines, a subsidiary of Delta Airlines. Delta is known for being old fashion air travel so they felt that Song could be their way of persuading us that they can compete with hip low cost carriers like JetBlue. They wanted to do their Ad campaign in a way that was emotional and optimistic. I liked their idea of downplaying the airlines new features in favor of something much more intangible- its soul. Creating something that communicates on another level is very important these days. I think it was a good idea that Song was trying to cater towards women’s needs and desires; however, I think they went a little too far with limitedly targeting “Carrie.” I liked their tag lines of “founded by optimists, built by believers” and “we are not an airline, we are a culture.” Sadly I think they missed something with their great idea because people couldn’t connect their marketing efforts with the airline. People didn’t know if they were a travel agent or airline? Overall I think the experience that Song airlines was trying to create was a good idea. I feel that Song had bad timing into the struggling airline industry. I guess the real question about creating experiences is should marketing be aimed at the head or the heart? Is less more? Is elegance simplicity? Can simple be beautiful?