THE PERSUADERS
Have you ever noticed that your purchasing decisions are taken unconsciously? Have you ever felt analyzed while you are shopping? I suppose that the majority of people have never thought about that. However, Dr. Rapaille, a recognized marketer guru, believes that we (consumers) are driven by unconscious needs, impulses and associations. Dr. Rapeille has been analyzing the behavior of customers for a long time. Moreover, he has been cooperating with a broad range of major companies with the objective to find out the hidden desires of consumers.
As far as his opinion is concerned, the key assumption in his researches is that he doesn’t believe in what people say, he only believes in what people do. He highlights that everybody has a mental code which lies very deep in our brains. Therefore, to analyze accurately the customers’ real preferences which lead them to purchase and to decode their mental associations, he identified and developed a 3 stage technique: PAST REASON, THROUGH EMOTION AND TO THE PRIMAL CORE.
- Reason: when Dr. Rapaille starts a focus group, he lets participants talk about a product, an idea or a topic. Although they usually think they are making a good job, he uses this initial stage not as a way to study their insights but as a way to prepare the field for the following stages.
- Emotion: This step consists of letting participants tell an invented story. In the example shown in the video, they had to tell a story as if they were trying to explain it to a 5 year old from another planet. The main purpose in this step is to persuade them not to be logical and reasonable anymore so as to let their imagination run wild. In this stage focus group members feel disoriented as they don’t understand the meaning of such a strange activity. Nevertheless, this is an essential step to achieve Dr. Rapaille goal.
- Primal core: in this final step, Dr. Rapaille looks for the members’ primal insights. The way he arranges everything drives them to feel as they were not in a focus group. He has them lay down so as to give them the opportunity to feel enough comfortable to remember their first experiences about a topic, an idea or a product. He mentions this final stage as the reptilian hot buttons and as he literally says “the reptilian always wins”.
Summarizing, what he gets with his 3 stage-technique is to recover the first and primal feelings customers had with a product to identify real connections which drive them to purchase it. This is a clear example of what we discussed in the “Kenna’s dilemma” chapter because first impressions not always lead to successful results; in every step marketers take, they have to assure that all issues are covered from their origins.
Concerning the Song’s example, its marketing strategy to appeal its target was very ambitious but not well oriented. What they pursued with its campaign was to create a lifestyle around the brand. In fact, they were able to create it but not the way they had expected. People felt identified with Song’s ads but they didn’t realize the meaning or the company’s purpose. Thus, although trying to be innovative and proactive –as their campaign was well thought and developed- they forgot the most relevant point in any campaign, which is selling the product.
Have you ever noticed that your purchasing decisions are taken unconsciously? Have you ever felt analyzed while you are shopping? I suppose that the majority of people have never thought about that. However, Dr. Rapaille, a recognized marketer guru, believes that we (consumers) are driven by unconscious needs, impulses and associations. Dr. Rapeille has been analyzing the behavior of customers for a long time. Moreover, he has been cooperating with a broad range of major companies with the objective to find out the hidden desires of consumers.
As far as his opinion is concerned, the key assumption in his researches is that he doesn’t believe in what people say, he only believes in what people do. He highlights that everybody has a mental code which lies very deep in our brains. Therefore, to analyze accurately the customers’ real preferences which lead them to purchase and to decode their mental associations, he identified and developed a 3 stage technique: PAST REASON, THROUGH EMOTION AND TO THE PRIMAL CORE.
- Reason: when Dr. Rapaille starts a focus group, he lets participants talk about a product, an idea or a topic. Although they usually think they are making a good job, he uses this initial stage not as a way to study their insights but as a way to prepare the field for the following stages.
- Emotion: This step consists of letting participants tell an invented story. In the example shown in the video, they had to tell a story as if they were trying to explain it to a 5 year old from another planet. The main purpose in this step is to persuade them not to be logical and reasonable anymore so as to let their imagination run wild. In this stage focus group members feel disoriented as they don’t understand the meaning of such a strange activity. Nevertheless, this is an essential step to achieve Dr. Rapaille goal.
- Primal core: in this final step, Dr. Rapaille looks for the members’ primal insights. The way he arranges everything drives them to feel as they were not in a focus group. He has them lay down so as to give them the opportunity to feel enough comfortable to remember their first experiences about a topic, an idea or a product. He mentions this final stage as the reptilian hot buttons and as he literally says “the reptilian always wins”.
Summarizing, what he gets with his 3 stage-technique is to recover the first and primal feelings customers had with a product to identify real connections which drive them to purchase it. This is a clear example of what we discussed in the “Kenna’s dilemma” chapter because first impressions not always lead to successful results; in every step marketers take, they have to assure that all issues are covered from their origins.
Concerning the Song’s example, its marketing strategy to appeal its target was very ambitious but not well oriented. What they pursued with its campaign was to create a lifestyle around the brand. In fact, they were able to create it but not the way they had expected. People felt identified with Song’s ads but they didn’t realize the meaning or the company’s purpose. Thus, although trying to be innovative and proactive –as their campaign was well thought and developed- they forgot the most relevant point in any campaign, which is selling the product.
David - Good job with this one.
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