"Differentiate or die" - thanks to Al Ries, we are scared to death, in case we are the same as others...
The previous weekend, I was spending some time on Broadway before Mamma Mia starts. As i was walking down the overly enthusiastic and crowded streets, my urge to get a chocolate was triggered, thanks to the HUUUGE M&M World Screen, displaying loads and loads of chocolate. I spent almost half an hour in the store, without touching any chocolate packs...everything was in the store...i could find M&M pjymas, slippers, coffee mugs, all the things that i do not need at all...after a while being frustrated, i left the shop...and stopped by at a hotel with a lounge overlooking Broadway...
I wanted to spend some 'high quality' time in this lobby, before i go to the show. Coincidentally, the lounge was over-looking Broadway and especially to the M&M World that frustrated me, with their real lack of chocolate offer...Being hypnosised by the colors of the M&M mega, man eater screen, my eyes met the competitor brand, Hershey's...yes, they do have a shop next door...Definitely there is a chocolate makers' economic cluster on Broadway:-) Hershey's motto read 'Hershey...Chocolate Factory' exactly this is where I should have been...They are all about chocolate...how about M&M??? What were they about? At least i thought that they were about chocolate...having thought a bit...i had an 'A-HA' moment...(as good as it gets, being jet-lagged)
Why are the people still going into M&M, if Hershey's - "the real chocolate factory" was next door...."Obviously":
Hershey's is about chocolate...M&M is about the M&M World....the whole experience around eating and more than that, sharing the chocolate with friends:-) M&M is fullfilling a social need, while Hershey's is fullfiling a sugar need:-)
Long live "Differentiation"!...in the end, both brands survived to this day, thanks to their ability to position very differently for the consumers...the consumer does not need to think, but choose amongst two distinct value suggestions...
If Julius Ceasar would live in our century, his most popularly quoted saying would have been 'Branding, branding and branding:-)'
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
Dance, dance, dance!
The music...the universal language that connects us, all human beings!
Shake your body, step to the right, step to the left, stretch your hands, jump up, circle the belly...MTV is making money...by making all of us happieee....
What is behind music and dancing??? What is so exciting and addictive about them?
Why do we want to move???
Tatttabaa...taattabaa...ttaatabaa..
I discovered i had a passion for dancing from an early age, yet i never knew, why i liked it this much...so many years of exposure...i came to the conclusion that dance (accompanying the music helping to create a context to move our body in synch) is an expression of humankind's love to eachother and to life in general....We dance to connect with the life energy, we cannot touch, yet feel...connecting all of us...which is common amongst humans.
When we dance, we somehow momentarily demolish the borders, we created for ourselves, manners and ideas. All we seek is connection...and feel that we all exist together...we are part of one big community...
This is what the music industry got wrong....when they stood against file sharing between individuals on the grounds of piracy...They thought they are in the business of producing and selling songs...As a life force, human connection is critical for us to survive...like water, and kofte (minced beef meatballs). The music industry is in 'connection' business...the question for them (if they are to rise from their ashes) is to find ways to create connections by leveraging music....not by restricting access to music:-)
Shake your body, step to the right, step to the left, stretch your hands, jump up, circle the belly...MTV is making money...by making all of us happieee....
What is behind music and dancing??? What is so exciting and addictive about them?
Why do we want to move???
Tatttabaa...taattabaa...ttaatabaa..
I discovered i had a passion for dancing from an early age, yet i never knew, why i liked it this much...so many years of exposure...i came to the conclusion that dance (accompanying the music helping to create a context to move our body in synch) is an expression of humankind's love to eachother and to life in general....We dance to connect with the life energy, we cannot touch, yet feel...connecting all of us...which is common amongst humans.
When we dance, we somehow momentarily demolish the borders, we created for ourselves, manners and ideas. All we seek is connection...and feel that we all exist together...we are part of one big community...
This is what the music industry got wrong....when they stood against file sharing between individuals on the grounds of piracy...They thought they are in the business of producing and selling songs...As a life force, human connection is critical for us to survive...like water, and kofte (minced beef meatballs). The music industry is in 'connection' business...the question for them (if they are to rise from their ashes) is to find ways to create connections by leveraging music....not by restricting access to music:-)
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" vs Pinar's "Democracy of Needs" Theory
In the absence of knowledge, we human beings "LOVE" to believe in truths. We connect a couple of dots and if the theory or story is plausible, there you go...now it is the truth, since we believe so...
Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" is no different. It is a theory, not a proven fact...We still do not know to this day, yet we "think" it makes sense. Why not? There is a hierarchy of what motivates the homo saphiens. The animalistic drives are in the bottom, has a huge space in this triangle and self-actualization, etc...all the great inventions of our minds are at the top of this visual pyramid, with a small space devoted to it, telling us that only a fraction of homo saphiens evolved to make it up to the top! Very plausible story. We love to think in terms of hierarchies. Why? Because it is linear and easy for our brains. Not because it is the way life is...Hierachies are a way to organize life and homo sapiens power and work distribution. That's it....it literally exists as a concept in our brains...because it is a useful thinking tool.
We put some color to this pyramid, boom now there is no reason to believe that it does not exist...it is truth, indeed...it has a plausible story, the rainbow colors and a pyramid...yes now we believe in this....
In light of what i have gatherered regarding how our brains work and how life is, i do not buy-in to Maslow's theory any more. Instead i propose 'Democracy of Needs' (Hopefully one day, i will be credited as the person, who coined the term:)) Ecosystem of Needs would be more appropriate, yet not as catchy counterpart to Maslow's theory, hence let's go with the term 'Democracy of Needs'...
Since this is a blog entry, i will not write a book here (which i might do one day, time availing):
Very shortly, how our brain works [according to 'General Theory of Love' and various internet sites i read so far] is my theory's foundation blocks, since once we understand how it works, all the rest, i.e., drives, motivations etc, will flow naturally
1 - Reptilian brain: core, automatic functions, very primitive, no emotions, no brotherhood concept, a lizard can eat its baby to nourish itself
2 - Limbic Brain: emotional regulator, "fight or flight" mechanism, brotherhood concept is developed...hopefully we fight together:) very crucial for humans to survive...In front of a dinasour, we had to choose from 'fight' of 'flight' options...for instance 'negotiate' was not an option:) so as humans we do need each other indeed....very old part of the brain....what makes us distinct from the reptilians is not the fact that we laugh...it is the fact that we love our babies and literally not eat them! According to the book 'General Theory of Love' (wonderfully written, fast paced book on why human beings love and need to love each other), love is the main life energy we have....love connects us to the rest of humanity, which we cannot survive without...
3 - Neo-cortex: tool making part of the brain, very very useful for precision tasks like throwing an arrow...Imagine if the men from our tribe neeeded to game hunt a deer, they would need to "plan" this incidence, since they do not have many chances to hunt the deer...so they begin to talk and plan about this experience by drawing an image of the deer on sand....here we go 'neocortex' is developed:) This part of the brain has the capacity to symbolize and make abstractions to plan an action....beyond that it is very useful to web a logic of arguements to convince others...
According to one theory, neo-cortex gives us the capacity to lie, as well....which is a preferred characteristic by females, i.e., the males who has a bigger neo cortex has become popular...which further led the way for homo saphiens to have bigger neo cortex as the time passed...due to this selection of males by the females. Why is this the case? Why do females prefer males who can lie...??? Can the answer be, even if the males cheated, they could conceal it very well:), thanks to their neo-cortex....lol... this would also suggest that negotiation is also as a result of our neo-cortex:)
So the story of triune brain is: our reptilian brain was not enough for humans to survive, they needed 'others/ group' to survive, i.e., we are tribal animals. After that given our physical weakness (for instance we do not have physical skills like a cheetah to run after a deer), we needed to make tools, first to warm ourselves in the cold nights, and second of all plan how to hunt the deer down for our next party, since we do not have vast resources, and deers are not plenty around...this planning / forecasting part of our brain later on evolved to link the concepts created in our brains needed for planning purposes into logic and symbolically presented language..which then led to our ability to convince a person, people and then masses....so to my mind persuasion is a by-product our tool making habits...which got favored by the females...and still is...
So, what are the interlinkages amongst these brain areas? First of all, they co-exist...co-live...We can link Maslow's needs to these 3 brain categories, not one to one, yet we can fit them to at least one of these brain areas....Yet let's say we are not hungry any more, our reptilian brain does not switch off and let the limbic brain take control...once limbic brain is happy, it begins to self-actualize itself.. this is not the case.Emprically we find see that people who self-actualize are usually the un-happiest...An other counter evidence, would be babies (based on "General Theory of Love"), who are fed properly, but deprived of their mothers' love, die....we cannot live without love....maslow believes that food is the requirement, the rest builds on that...possible, yet improbable...to my mind...
Just because we have food, does not mean that we can now go into the next level of 'love' and then to self-actualization.... this is not a computer game, where we need to pass through many stages to achieve our ideal end...the matter of the fact is we need food and love and tools all AT THE SAME TIME!!!
Even, i can claim that love is what we need...the rest eating and tool making are just sub-serviant to this...There is no hierarchy, there is an ecosystem of drives..our brains and evolution are not one dimensional, our brains actually carries itself what it needed to survive throughout the history... The brain parts are not designed to work in harmony, they are layered on top of each other, depending on the need of times. They actually might conflict with each other, perhaps most of the time, no wonder our inner voices....We all need these 3 systems to work together...
The non-existance of hierarchy does not mean that there is no center-piece in this ecosystem. More and more i am convinced that love is in the middle...this is the capacity we developed to CARE for each other, SACRIFICE for each other, SHARE with each other! This is the basic motivation....
How about the main need? I believe we are driven by only one thing, which is to re-create our own existence, similar to a tree so to speak...we are part of the nature....and all beings in the nature have so far had one drive, which is 'TO BE'... And for our being, unlike a tree, we need to love each other...."All we need is love" already told to our world by Beatles...i agree with them.
What makes us believe Maslow found the truth? Our neo-cortex again...since our neo-cortex receives external stimulus and evaluates to its own existing concepts/ tools/ symbols/ abstractions so Maslow's theory with a pyramid, hierarchy and color is very possible to our 'Thinking' neo-cortex..it fits into the templates it has created to perceive and explain this world....
What makes me, then to posit that Maslow is mistaken? My limbic brain:) Because unlike neo-cortex, limbic brain carries the essence of who we are and "feels" that hierarchy of needs is improbable. Neo-cortex calls this intuition...ability to sense and know without reasoning:) Even neo-cortex acknowledges that limbic brain does not need it at all times....
Hope-fully scientists will prove the workings of the brain, so that we feel that our drive to love is legitimized....and do not need to invest in lonely self-actualization paths...since we will know that once we love, we self-actualize...once we love the people we are with, once we love what we do, once we love our children, parents, friends once we love people from other civilizations, we are our self now....no need to climb Everest...we just need to love, love, love...and love...
Maslow's "Hierarchy of Needs" is no different. It is a theory, not a proven fact...We still do not know to this day, yet we "think" it makes sense. Why not? There is a hierarchy of what motivates the homo saphiens. The animalistic drives are in the bottom, has a huge space in this triangle and self-actualization, etc...all the great inventions of our minds are at the top of this visual pyramid, with a small space devoted to it, telling us that only a fraction of homo saphiens evolved to make it up to the top! Very plausible story. We love to think in terms of hierarchies. Why? Because it is linear and easy for our brains. Not because it is the way life is...Hierachies are a way to organize life and homo sapiens power and work distribution. That's it....it literally exists as a concept in our brains...because it is a useful thinking tool.
We put some color to this pyramid, boom now there is no reason to believe that it does not exist...it is truth, indeed...it has a plausible story, the rainbow colors and a pyramid...yes now we believe in this....
In light of what i have gatherered regarding how our brains work and how life is, i do not buy-in to Maslow's theory any more. Instead i propose 'Democracy of Needs' (Hopefully one day, i will be credited as the person, who coined the term:)) Ecosystem of Needs would be more appropriate, yet not as catchy counterpart to Maslow's theory, hence let's go with the term 'Democracy of Needs'...
Since this is a blog entry, i will not write a book here (which i might do one day, time availing):
Very shortly, how our brain works [according to 'General Theory of Love' and various internet sites i read so far] is my theory's foundation blocks, since once we understand how it works, all the rest, i.e., drives, motivations etc, will flow naturally
1 - Reptilian brain: core, automatic functions, very primitive, no emotions, no brotherhood concept, a lizard can eat its baby to nourish itself
2 - Limbic Brain: emotional regulator, "fight or flight" mechanism, brotherhood concept is developed...hopefully we fight together:) very crucial for humans to survive...In front of a dinasour, we had to choose from 'fight' of 'flight' options...for instance 'negotiate' was not an option:) so as humans we do need each other indeed....very old part of the brain....what makes us distinct from the reptilians is not the fact that we laugh...it is the fact that we love our babies and literally not eat them! According to the book 'General Theory of Love' (wonderfully written, fast paced book on why human beings love and need to love each other), love is the main life energy we have....love connects us to the rest of humanity, which we cannot survive without...
3 - Neo-cortex: tool making part of the brain, very very useful for precision tasks like throwing an arrow...Imagine if the men from our tribe neeeded to game hunt a deer, they would need to "plan" this incidence, since they do not have many chances to hunt the deer...so they begin to talk and plan about this experience by drawing an image of the deer on sand....here we go 'neocortex' is developed:) This part of the brain has the capacity to symbolize and make abstractions to plan an action....beyond that it is very useful to web a logic of arguements to convince others...
According to one theory, neo-cortex gives us the capacity to lie, as well....which is a preferred characteristic by females, i.e., the males who has a bigger neo cortex has become popular...which further led the way for homo saphiens to have bigger neo cortex as the time passed...due to this selection of males by the females. Why is this the case? Why do females prefer males who can lie...??? Can the answer be, even if the males cheated, they could conceal it very well:), thanks to their neo-cortex....lol... this would also suggest that negotiation is also as a result of our neo-cortex:)
So the story of triune brain is: our reptilian brain was not enough for humans to survive, they needed 'others/ group' to survive, i.e., we are tribal animals. After that given our physical weakness (for instance we do not have physical skills like a cheetah to run after a deer), we needed to make tools, first to warm ourselves in the cold nights, and second of all plan how to hunt the deer down for our next party, since we do not have vast resources, and deers are not plenty around...this planning / forecasting part of our brain later on evolved to link the concepts created in our brains needed for planning purposes into logic and symbolically presented language..which then led to our ability to convince a person, people and then masses....so to my mind persuasion is a by-product our tool making habits...which got favored by the females...and still is...
So, what are the interlinkages amongst these brain areas? First of all, they co-exist...co-live...We can link Maslow's needs to these 3 brain categories, not one to one, yet we can fit them to at least one of these brain areas....Yet let's say we are not hungry any more, our reptilian brain does not switch off and let the limbic brain take control...once limbic brain is happy, it begins to self-actualize itself.. this is not the case.Emprically we find see that people who self-actualize are usually the un-happiest...An other counter evidence, would be babies (based on "General Theory of Love"), who are fed properly, but deprived of their mothers' love, die....we cannot live without love....maslow believes that food is the requirement, the rest builds on that...possible, yet improbable...to my mind...
Just because we have food, does not mean that we can now go into the next level of 'love' and then to self-actualization.... this is not a computer game, where we need to pass through many stages to achieve our ideal end...the matter of the fact is we need food and love and tools all AT THE SAME TIME!!!
Even, i can claim that love is what we need...the rest eating and tool making are just sub-serviant to this...There is no hierarchy, there is an ecosystem of drives..our brains and evolution are not one dimensional, our brains actually carries itself what it needed to survive throughout the history... The brain parts are not designed to work in harmony, they are layered on top of each other, depending on the need of times. They actually might conflict with each other, perhaps most of the time, no wonder our inner voices....We all need these 3 systems to work together...
The non-existance of hierarchy does not mean that there is no center-piece in this ecosystem. More and more i am convinced that love is in the middle...this is the capacity we developed to CARE for each other, SACRIFICE for each other, SHARE with each other! This is the basic motivation....
How about the main need? I believe we are driven by only one thing, which is to re-create our own existence, similar to a tree so to speak...we are part of the nature....and all beings in the nature have so far had one drive, which is 'TO BE'... And for our being, unlike a tree, we need to love each other...."All we need is love" already told to our world by Beatles...i agree with them.
What makes us believe Maslow found the truth? Our neo-cortex again...since our neo-cortex receives external stimulus and evaluates to its own existing concepts/ tools/ symbols/ abstractions so Maslow's theory with a pyramid, hierarchy and color is very possible to our 'Thinking' neo-cortex..it fits into the templates it has created to perceive and explain this world....
What makes me, then to posit that Maslow is mistaken? My limbic brain:) Because unlike neo-cortex, limbic brain carries the essence of who we are and "feels" that hierarchy of needs is improbable. Neo-cortex calls this intuition...ability to sense and know without reasoning:) Even neo-cortex acknowledges that limbic brain does not need it at all times....
Hope-fully scientists will prove the workings of the brain, so that we feel that our drive to love is legitimized....and do not need to invest in lonely self-actualization paths...since we will know that once we love, we self-actualize...once we love the people we are with, once we love what we do, once we love our children, parents, friends once we love people from other civilizations, we are our self now....no need to climb Everest...we just need to love, love, love...and love...
Friday, March 13, 2009
Mirror, Mirror Tell me!
Mirror, mirror on the wall, who in the land is fairest of all?" to which the mirror always replies "You, my queen, are fairest of all." ....sure everybody remembers these infamous lines by the Queen in Snow White Fairy Tale...
Mirror is and has been playing a very crucial role in human existence! Why do we LOVE mirrors? Why do we need to have mirrors in the gyms???
Sure there is a functional benefit/ explanation/ justification of why we want to live with mirrors, i.e., we want to 'monitor' / 'control' our physical appearance and make necessary adjustments if needed...is that it? just a monitoring tool for us??? not really...mirror has a far further significance than its bare functional value add in our society....which is linked to 'transformation' concept we discussed in our previous blogs...
Mirrors are tools enabling us to re-assure ourselves that we are or in the course of be-coming power-full! They project our image in our mind and helps us to continously prove to ourselves that we are power-full living beings...Mirrors 'tell us' (like in the case of Snow White) that we are the person we want to be or be-come!
Did you ever wonder why we have so many mirrors in the gyms??? Because as important as music, the mirrors help us to get / stay motivated...Mirrors show the movie of how we transform from 'weak' beings to 'stronger' beings by using various tools we exercise with to pump up our muscles, confidence to survive and reach our dreams in this world!!!
How far can we flex the 'mirror symbol' in our civilization?
The reason why the concept of the mirror exists, is because we want to continously feel stronger by reassuring ourselves that we do exist indeed:) We, the human beings need to feel secure at all times, at all cost! Yes, fear is ruling us...unless we begin to embrace love to save ourselves from the chains of fear...
What are the instances, i.e., concrete manifestations of 'mirror' symbol in our lives? For instance:
- Facebook: we use it because we want to talk to friends abroad:) Come on...whether we are aware or not, we love Facebook, because it makes us 'feel secure' by enabling us 'connections', i.e., group of people / our tribe we can survive in....yet more importantly it reassures us of ourselves...our existence....we want to exist...we do not want to die...we are afraid of dying...so we need to express and prove our existence over, over, over, over, over, over and over again...
so we talk about ourselves all the TIME...Descartes claimed ' I think, therefore I am'...In our new technologically advanced world, we became ' I FACEBOOK, therefore I am'....exactly we are what we claim ourselves to be on facebook...we are THE STATUS UPDATES, we are the FRIENDS we 'claim' to be connected with some-how....
We want to use all the means available to re-assure ourselves...so what else???
We consume:)
Not only 'I facebook, therefore I am'....'I CONSUME, therefore I am'...Great for the product marketers...they market objects to people to reassure who they are or who in their minds, they already are...and just want to see a mirror image in this physical world...
Completing the story circle:
Let's reiterate : WHY do we facebook or consume in the first place?
We do facebook or consume, because we feel weak! That's it! Fear, fear, fear!
What do we FEAR?
DEATH!
It is sarcastic, that even if we fear, we still die...So why do we fear?
Simple! Because we POSTPONE death...yet we still die...Fear does not end the situation...it only postpones to a later date, giving us more time in this World...How do we use this time? To enjoy the world??? Very rarely...we keep fearing death...in this time we gained...what a human drama?
So how do we POST-PONE death?
We continously EM-POWER ourselves by creating ourselves through communication, linking to other individuals and acquiring symbols of power...which are actually only ways to motivate ourselves...i.e., our will power to live...Most of the things we do during the day are just ways to motivate our individual beings to 'continue' to live...
we WANT to LIVE....WE want to live...WE WANT TO LIVE!
Why do we want to LIVE?
This is a mysterious question, being attempted to be answered by various philosophers to date...Not a clear answer to date...significant ones being, we live, because:
1 - we want to survive
2 - we want to reproduce
3 - we have a goal to accomplish in this Life, which includes creating a connection with the Divine, loving and caring for a person, completing an objective
No matter which human question we tackle within the realm of marketing philosophy, they all direct us towards the 'will to live'....this is the simple basic motivator of humanity..Independent of 'why we live'...there is an observable fact over generations that 'we want to live'!!!
Can the answer be? 'We want to LIVE, because "WE" wants to live'...??? [grammar is correct:)]Wednesday, March 11, 2009
HE-MAN: "I have the POWER!!!"
What is the main commonality between beauty, pharmaceutical, sports, education, fashion industries and He-man cartoon?
The fact is that they are all in TRANS-FORMATION business! They sell transformation to their customers.
What is Transformation?
According to Beolingus Online dictionary[http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en;service=dict-en], transformation means in genetics modification of a cell or bacterium by the uptake and incorporation of exogenous DNA or in outside world the act of changing in form or shape or appearance...The main criteria for something/ someone to transform is the fact that its physical shape has to CHANGE.
So what KIND of change?
Usually it is connoted with positive change in state, i.e., going from weak state to a more powerful state.
WHY is there a Change?
Because the transformed organization has a NEW MISSION and execution of this mission requires a NEW Body:)
HOW does Transformation occur?
The organism needs tools to go forward in a new body towards the new mission. These tools can be internal tools (like reflection, change in assumptions) or external tools like He-man's sword:) A caring environment is also key to support you as you go through transformation [not a prerequisite, a nice to have criteria]
Pharma, beautification, education, sports, fashion industries, they are all promising the customers transformation, ...i.e., customers we want to be trans-formed...Let's go back to He-man to understand the transformation concept better [Firstly i believe that if we cannot understand a concept simply, we cannot understand its application in complex matters, which only dilutes the core concept]
He-Man ("The Most Powerful Man in the Universe!"[1]) (IPA: /ˈhiː.mæn/[2]) is a heroic fictional character in the Masters of the Universe franchise. He is the alter ego of Prince Adam and also the twin brother of She-Ra. The character's name comes from the word he-man, which was once used to describe a strong, masculine and virile male. He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.
The planet's inhabitants are dealing with the aftermath of the Great Wars, which devastated the civilizations that once ruled supreme over all lesser beings. The Wars left behind advanced machinery and weaponry known [He-man's sword] only to select people. An early incarnation of the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull gives He-Man some of these weapons, and he sets out to defend the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor
[Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/]
So the storyline is clear:
1 - Prince Adam has a mission: He wants to defend Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor
2 - Prince Adam has a tool: He has the sword that em-POWERs him to BE-COME He-man. He becomes " The most powerfull man in the Universe"
3 - Prince Adam has a loving/ caring environment, with our famous Orko:), Sorceress, etc, which only helps him to flourish
So, how is He-man linked to the industries mentioned before? Simply through transformation...All these industries em-POWER people with tools to BE-COME some-BODY else:)
a - Pharma industry: If you feel weak, you just need to drink vitamins, magic pills, there you go:)
b- Beauty industry: If you want to have power over men simply, just look pretty;)
c - Sports industry: If you want to be respected as a strong person, literally become strong physically
d - Education industry: If you want to BE-COME useful and earn money/ accomplish any other goal in life, you need the tools education supplies you with (e.g., information, perspective, connections, etc)
e - Fashion industry: If you want to become a powerful man, you need a Rolex:) and wear expensive suits
and many more industries are built on marketing transformation to their customers:) For instance Edward Bernays (we owe him the the honor of creating public relations/ marketing) leveraged feminism movement to market cigarettes to women...so if women wanted to become powerful, they had to do what their male peers were doing, i.e., smoke a cigarette:) Did you know that initially men used to wear high heels to avoid mud on the streets...once men stopped wearing high heels (subject to research, potentially because streets got better infrastructure), the industry leveraged women's desire to be on the same level as men and marketed high heels to them, which in time become even more connoted with elegance and femininity.
What other underlying common concepts are there beyond 'transformation' with which humans relate to the world? According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman [http://www.marketingmetaphoria.com/deepmetaphor.html], there are 7 main deep metaphors which marketers need to leverage, i.e.,
1 - Balance
2 - Transformation
3 - Connection
4 - Container
5 - Journey
6 - Resource
7 - Control
I also do agree with this list of deep metaphors at first glance. These are basically the SIMPLE activities early homo saphiens did to survive and more importantly to reproduce, i.e., these are the ways in which humans used their environment to survive/ reproduce.
Marketings' main input is homo saphiens...hence we must master these concepts if we want to have a place in the history of marketing and contribute to our civilization. Bonne chance!
The fact is that they are all in TRANS-FORMATION business! They sell transformation to their customers.
What is Transformation?
According to Beolingus Online dictionary[http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/dings.cgi?lang=en;service=dict-en], transformation means in genetics modification of a cell or bacterium by the uptake and incorporation of exogenous DNA or in outside world the act of changing in form or shape or appearance...The main criteria for something/ someone to transform is the fact that its physical shape has to CHANGE.
So what KIND of change?
Usually it is connoted with positive change in state, i.e., going from weak state to a more powerful state.
WHY is there a Change?
Because the transformed organization has a NEW MISSION and execution of this mission requires a NEW Body:)
HOW does Transformation occur?
The organism needs tools to go forward in a new body towards the new mission. These tools can be internal tools (like reflection, change in assumptions) or external tools like He-man's sword:) A caring environment is also key to support you as you go through transformation [not a prerequisite, a nice to have criteria]
Pharma, beautification, education, sports, fashion industries, they are all promising the customers transformation, ...i.e., customers we want to be trans-formed...Let's go back to He-man to understand the transformation concept better [Firstly i believe that if we cannot understand a concept simply, we cannot understand its application in complex matters, which only dilutes the core concept]
He-Man ("The Most Powerful Man in the Universe!"[1]) (IPA: /ˈhiː.mæn/[2]) is a heroic fictional character in the Masters of the Universe franchise. He is the alter ego of Prince Adam and also the twin brother of She-Ra. The character's name comes from the word he-man, which was once used to describe a strong, masculine and virile male. He-Man and his friends defend Eternia and the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil forces of Skeletor.
The planet's inhabitants are dealing with the aftermath of the Great Wars, which devastated the civilizations that once ruled supreme over all lesser beings. The Wars left behind advanced machinery and weaponry known [He-man's sword] only to select people. An early incarnation of the Sorceress of Castle Grayskull gives He-Man some of these weapons, and he sets out to defend the secrets of Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor
[Source: http://www.wikipedia.org/]
So the storyline is clear:
1 - Prince Adam has a mission: He wants to defend Castle Grayskull from the evil villain Skeletor
2 - Prince Adam has a tool: He has the sword that em-POWERs him to BE-COME He-man. He becomes " The most powerfull man in the Universe"
3 - Prince Adam has a loving/ caring environment, with our famous Orko:), Sorceress, etc, which only helps him to flourish
So, how is He-man linked to the industries mentioned before? Simply through transformation...All these industries em-POWER people with tools to BE-COME some-BODY else:)
a - Pharma industry: If you feel weak, you just need to drink vitamins, magic pills, there you go:)
b- Beauty industry: If you want to have power over men simply, just look pretty;)
c - Sports industry: If you want to be respected as a strong person, literally become strong physically
d - Education industry: If you want to BE-COME useful and earn money/ accomplish any other goal in life, you need the tools education supplies you with (e.g., information, perspective, connections, etc)
e - Fashion industry: If you want to become a powerful man, you need a Rolex:) and wear expensive suits
and many more industries are built on marketing transformation to their customers:) For instance Edward Bernays (we owe him the the honor of creating public relations/ marketing) leveraged feminism movement to market cigarettes to women...so if women wanted to become powerful, they had to do what their male peers were doing, i.e., smoke a cigarette:) Did you know that initially men used to wear high heels to avoid mud on the streets...once men stopped wearing high heels (subject to research, potentially because streets got better infrastructure), the industry leveraged women's desire to be on the same level as men and marketed high heels to them, which in time become even more connoted with elegance and femininity.
What other underlying common concepts are there beyond 'transformation' with which humans relate to the world? According to Gerald and Lindsay Zaltman [http://www.marketingmetaphoria.com/deepmetaphor.html], there are 7 main deep metaphors which marketers need to leverage, i.e.,
1 - Balance
2 - Transformation
3 - Connection
4 - Container
5 - Journey
6 - Resource
7 - Control
I also do agree with this list of deep metaphors at first glance. These are basically the SIMPLE activities early homo saphiens did to survive and more importantly to reproduce, i.e., these are the ways in which humans used their environment to survive/ reproduce.
Marketings' main input is homo saphiens...hence we must master these concepts if we want to have a place in the history of marketing and contribute to our civilization. Bonne chance!
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Feeling vs. Thinking
This is and still continues to be a hot and mysterious topic for the psychologists....Being related to the fundemantal drives of human beings, it is the key assumption, and foundation for marketing...marketing needs to know / or at least assume how human beings work to drive their behavior....it is almost like pushing a button on the human mind for her/ him to act in favour of what you want her/ him to do...
So the question is what initiates our action??? The debate has been on whether we 'humans' are rational beings or not....many schools of thoughts...yet in 21st century, feeling (rightly so to me) has gained a more promiment place in how the marketers at least assume about their main inputs, i.e., the homo saphiens...
We have a tendency to 'want to believe' that we are very rational, and our brain is an analytical computer, taking the input in, computing the 'most' rational solution...A nice thinking/ hypothesis...'too good to be true' in my terms...hence a clear sign for not to believe in something (a major criteria indeed, since perfection is only a concept, it has never been and never will be concrete by definition. Perfection cannot exist in what human beings do...we can only infer it from the nature and try to emulate it....)
Rationality trying to have a 'perfectioned' human nature is also too good to be true...Human beings are not thinking robots, but feelings animals who are equipped with thinking to solve some problems they encounter/ create themselves or use it to communicate to their fellow group members...at best a tool for justification of irrational actions by rational underpinnings...trying to give a 'too good to be true' image to others.
As many researches have shown after one other (not to be deliberated here, feel free to look up on the net, available everywhere if you really want to see it), thinking makes us understand, feelings make us to take action...Hence understanding is NOT enough to take action. Simply it! Understanding is NOT enough....and potentially NOT necessary...to take action....Majority of our actions are nevertheless automatic, habitual actions to survive...and the rest are feeling based, justfied by rational tools....like 'logic'...hence what i claim is you do not need to think logically to act...you can act, and can be very illogical...this does not mean that the outcome will be unwanted either...logic only dictates whether an outcome is '1' or '0' like computer's operating system...yet it does not have any judgement or self direction mechanism. Hence logic is Moral neutral...what this means is acting logically would not even mean doing 'good' for the humanity and i even claim that it will ONLY ENDANGER our species...if feelings are not the main mechanism to direct us.
Feelings ,i.e., our hormones make us tick...That is simply it. So does it mean that some people do not feel and hence look very rational on the surface. Of course not...They only try to camuflage their feelings, either because they are not appropriate or because they simply are not aware of them...
What we should not forget is humans having born into a world with dinasours had to act quickly...hence feeling dominated...i.e., 'fight' or 'flight' depending on the hormonal level of the homo saphiens. Our ancestors did not think about for instance 'negotiate with the dinasour' as a plausible option...because it would not work out;) very simple reasoning...
So how do the feelings impact us? Feelings make us as the name suggests (thanks to the person who coined it) it makes us 'feel'....you know it either unconsciously, sub-consciously or through collective consciousness....Feeling means knowing without the awareness of knowing...just knowing that 'it is as is'....apperantly according to a latest brain research we become aware of our actions, once we act...THIS IS CRITICAL...We want to be IN CONTROL of our actions...Yet it is proven that there is a lag between when the body is aroused, hormones are released and prepared to act in a certain way and the time when human beings 'say' they 'decided to act'...actually what is happening is our feelings already prepared us to act in one way or another...we simply observe it...Thanks to our 'ego' we believe we made the decision...Imagine a world, in which we knew that we do not decide, but our body does...would be scary....and depressing...hence this knowledge has not been widely marketed, yet;)
So what is the link between feeling and thinking? Are they totally seperate?
Thinking to me serves for four functions in the civilization:
1) Observation of a feeling: Once the feeling is activated to act, the brain observes this and translates as its own 'decision making', hence 'i think, therefore i act'....since we do not want to believe 'i feel, therefore i act' [except for the artists, extraordinary people or women, who are left by men on their own...hence do not feel pressurized not to talk about their feelings]. Hence feelings become thinking due to ego of homo saphiens.
2) Mass communication of a feeling: We are very intricate animals, we only understand what we see...we canNOT understand what we do not see, i.e., in the brain, we are not exactly sure why it does work, the way it does...although we understand how it works...
A feeling by nature (even if you are aware of it) is an energy, which we have a difficulty to explain...what is energy??? this is the fuel of the force, i.e., action...so how do we explain it and make it understandable for every homo saphien, who have A UNIQUE combination of feelings and how to feel these feelings...so we use our language over a logical framework to communicate and coordinate with one other. It is like Ruby on Rails in Open source software development, i.e., the communication language amongst the programmers is Ruby and they use 'Rails' framework to organize and structure their communication
3) Self and mass justification of a feeling: Our feelings are the way they are...it is usually (unheard) of to change feelings...takes a LOOOOOOONG Time....it is easy to look at history and see how many fights have been as a result of long standing irrational grudges amongst groups of civilizations...The thinking helps us to RE-CODE the feeling information to justifyable logical system to try to convince our fellow citizens, ourselves that we made the right decision and we want to 'FEEL' good about it...so thinking is utilized to feel good:0 very interesting, isn't it?
4) Understanding of feelings: As human beings we are not so much aware of our feelings, we do not need to, since we act in any way (if you buy in to an earlier arguement). The job of thinking is linking individual pieces of information to create understanding...so that we become aware of what we felt...hardly we understand why we felt that way in a particular moment. But at least job of a thinker is to be able to compertmantilize, analyse and integrate feelings, so that we understand more and more how we act.
So all in all...feelings, feelings and feelings are the major starting point for a marketer, whether this is a feeling of one individual person or any interest group, including a nation...it is all about feeling...if you want to act now, want to understand yours or others actions, and try to see beyond what is visible, feel how you feel, feel how others would feel....Marketer's job is to IGNITE these feelings....nothing else...nothing more...but nothing less...This is IT!
So the question is what initiates our action??? The debate has been on whether we 'humans' are rational beings or not....many schools of thoughts...yet in 21st century, feeling (rightly so to me) has gained a more promiment place in how the marketers at least assume about their main inputs, i.e., the homo saphiens...
We have a tendency to 'want to believe' that we are very rational, and our brain is an analytical computer, taking the input in, computing the 'most' rational solution...A nice thinking/ hypothesis...'too good to be true' in my terms...hence a clear sign for not to believe in something (a major criteria indeed, since perfection is only a concept, it has never been and never will be concrete by definition. Perfection cannot exist in what human beings do...we can only infer it from the nature and try to emulate it....)
Rationality trying to have a 'perfectioned' human nature is also too good to be true...Human beings are not thinking robots, but feelings animals who are equipped with thinking to solve some problems they encounter/ create themselves or use it to communicate to their fellow group members...at best a tool for justification of irrational actions by rational underpinnings...trying to give a 'too good to be true' image to others.
As many researches have shown after one other (not to be deliberated here, feel free to look up on the net, available everywhere if you really want to see it), thinking makes us understand, feelings make us to take action...Hence understanding is NOT enough to take action. Simply it! Understanding is NOT enough....and potentially NOT necessary...to take action....Majority of our actions are nevertheless automatic, habitual actions to survive...and the rest are feeling based, justfied by rational tools....like 'logic'...hence what i claim is you do not need to think logically to act...you can act, and can be very illogical...this does not mean that the outcome will be unwanted either...logic only dictates whether an outcome is '1' or '0' like computer's operating system...yet it does not have any judgement or self direction mechanism. Hence logic is Moral neutral...what this means is acting logically would not even mean doing 'good' for the humanity and i even claim that it will ONLY ENDANGER our species...if feelings are not the main mechanism to direct us.
Feelings ,i.e., our hormones make us tick...That is simply it. So does it mean that some people do not feel and hence look very rational on the surface. Of course not...They only try to camuflage their feelings, either because they are not appropriate or because they simply are not aware of them...
What we should not forget is humans having born into a world with dinasours had to act quickly...hence feeling dominated...i.e., 'fight' or 'flight' depending on the hormonal level of the homo saphiens. Our ancestors did not think about for instance 'negotiate with the dinasour' as a plausible option...because it would not work out;) very simple reasoning...
So how do the feelings impact us? Feelings make us as the name suggests (thanks to the person who coined it) it makes us 'feel'....you know it either unconsciously, sub-consciously or through collective consciousness....Feeling means knowing without the awareness of knowing...just knowing that 'it is as is'....apperantly according to a latest brain research we become aware of our actions, once we act...THIS IS CRITICAL...We want to be IN CONTROL of our actions...Yet it is proven that there is a lag between when the body is aroused, hormones are released and prepared to act in a certain way and the time when human beings 'say' they 'decided to act'...actually what is happening is our feelings already prepared us to act in one way or another...we simply observe it...Thanks to our 'ego' we believe we made the decision...Imagine a world, in which we knew that we do not decide, but our body does...would be scary....and depressing...hence this knowledge has not been widely marketed, yet;)
So what is the link between feeling and thinking? Are they totally seperate?
Thinking to me serves for four functions in the civilization:
1) Observation of a feeling: Once the feeling is activated to act, the brain observes this and translates as its own 'decision making', hence 'i think, therefore i act'....since we do not want to believe 'i feel, therefore i act' [except for the artists, extraordinary people or women, who are left by men on their own...hence do not feel pressurized not to talk about their feelings]. Hence feelings become thinking due to ego of homo saphiens.
2) Mass communication of a feeling: We are very intricate animals, we only understand what we see...we canNOT understand what we do not see, i.e., in the brain, we are not exactly sure why it does work, the way it does...although we understand how it works...
A feeling by nature (even if you are aware of it) is an energy, which we have a difficulty to explain...what is energy??? this is the fuel of the force, i.e., action...so how do we explain it and make it understandable for every homo saphien, who have A UNIQUE combination of feelings and how to feel these feelings...so we use our language over a logical framework to communicate and coordinate with one other. It is like Ruby on Rails in Open source software development, i.e., the communication language amongst the programmers is Ruby and they use 'Rails' framework to organize and structure their communication
3) Self and mass justification of a feeling: Our feelings are the way they are...it is usually (unheard) of to change feelings...takes a LOOOOOOONG Time....it is easy to look at history and see how many fights have been as a result of long standing irrational grudges amongst groups of civilizations...The thinking helps us to RE-CODE the feeling information to justifyable logical system to try to convince our fellow citizens, ourselves that we made the right decision and we want to 'FEEL' good about it...so thinking is utilized to feel good:0 very interesting, isn't it?
4) Understanding of feelings: As human beings we are not so much aware of our feelings, we do not need to, since we act in any way (if you buy in to an earlier arguement). The job of thinking is linking individual pieces of information to create understanding...so that we become aware of what we felt...hardly we understand why we felt that way in a particular moment. But at least job of a thinker is to be able to compertmantilize, analyse and integrate feelings, so that we understand more and more how we act.
So all in all...feelings, feelings and feelings are the major starting point for a marketer, whether this is a feeling of one individual person or any interest group, including a nation...it is all about feeling...if you want to act now, want to understand yours or others actions, and try to see beyond what is visible, feel how you feel, feel how others would feel....Marketer's job is to IGNITE these feelings....nothing else...nothing more...but nothing less...This is IT!
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Post ist Tot!
Today i learned that my insurance company 'tried' to contact me via direct mail for over one year and a half...yet since i was traveling due to work, i did not get my post or even if i did...amongst 500 posts that i receive, i failed to see their mail, notifying me that my bank did not accept to automatically transfer premiums from my account to the insurer's account...
The issue is now clarified thanks to a lady in the insurance company, who thought about sending me an email, warning that 'I need to pay NOW NOW...' Well...thank you email....I literally declare today that direct mail is dead...not sure why companies still try to intervene our lives by directly mailing....still..in a digital world....where even people meet online and get married...:)
My advice to the companies who want to transform themselves and adapt to the New Brave World with unimaginable number of interactive potential...is to use digital form of interactive communication as their mainstream communication channel....The old world companies still want to monologue with their customers...we tell the customer....many many times...if the customer does not respond...well what else could we do??? they need to understand that they should not keep killing trees....to send direct mails to the customers....Who wants to keep direct mail business is the National Post Companies...not the customers:)...
Customers want interaction and feel valued:)
The issue is now clarified thanks to a lady in the insurance company, who thought about sending me an email, warning that 'I need to pay NOW NOW...' Well...thank you email....I literally declare today that direct mail is dead...not sure why companies still try to intervene our lives by directly mailing....still..in a digital world....where even people meet online and get married...:)
My advice to the companies who want to transform themselves and adapt to the New Brave World with unimaginable number of interactive potential...is to use digital form of interactive communication as their mainstream communication channel....The old world companies still want to monologue with their customers...we tell the customer....many many times...if the customer does not respond...well what else could we do??? they need to understand that they should not keep killing trees....to send direct mails to the customers....Who wants to keep direct mail business is the National Post Companies...not the customers:)...
Customers want interaction and feel valued:)
Why do we Blog?
...It has been a while that blogs have been around. Now there are serious bloggers on the web, even microblogging was invented and in full circulation thanks to Tweeter:)Why to blog now in the blogocean?My answer would be 'If not NOW, WHEN?':I love comtemplating ideas and de-mystifying the 'Secret' in the world....beyond that i consider myself an I-generation ['I' stands for 'Internet' and 'Individualism']...two pillars put together...it was a natural outcome for me to try out blogging...
In this blog, i will deliberate upon philosophy behind marketing.. will explore answers to questions like 'Why does marketing exist?, Who are we, the 'Human beings'?, What makes us believe?, Why do we live?, What is the role of marketing in our civilization?, How can we market ideas, people, habits?, What are the marketing tools we have available?, What are the new tools being invented?'.
Here I am...Hopefully this blog will enable me to connect with many of you around the world and become a platform of mutual understanding, sharing and growth.
In this blog, i will deliberate upon philosophy behind marketing.. will explore answers to questions like 'Why does marketing exist?, Who are we, the 'Human beings'?, What makes us believe?, Why do we live?, What is the role of marketing in our civilization?, How can we market ideas, people, habits?, What are the marketing tools we have available?, What are the new tools being invented?'.
Here I am...Hopefully this blog will enable me to connect with many of you around the world and become a platform of mutual understanding, sharing and growth.
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