Making meaning
We are a peculiar species. For example, many of us continue to risk our long term survival for the pleasure of puffing on a stick of nicotine, while others make it very difficult to walk by wearing uncomfortable high heel footwear. Read more »
“Though experience be our only guide in reasoning concerning matters of fact; it must be acknowledged, that this guide is not altogether infallible, but in some cases is apt to lead us into errors.” - David Hume
“The invalid assumption that correlation implies cause is probably among the two or three most serious and common errors of human reasoning.” - Stephen Jay Gould Read more »
“People ask me, ‘Steve, how do you get so funny?’ I say to them, ‘Before I go onstage I put a fish in each shoe. That way I feel funny.’” - Steve Martin
The funny thing about comedy
Aristotle believed that comedy arose like tragedy from improvisations around specific festivals. Tragedy arose as a prelude to the dithyramb (an ancient Greek hymn in honour of Dionysus), while comedy was originally a prelude to phallic songs and processions which were part of ancient Greek fertility rites. Aristotle would be considered a snob today, and he viewed comedy as a lower form of poetry, dealing with people of lower virtue, who were unimportant, undignified and, to coin a word, ‘laughable’. By contrast, tragedy dealt with stories about serious, important and virtuous people. Unfortunately the second book of his Poetics which was specifically about tragedy has not survived (some medieval texts are believed to be translations of the original). Read more »
Into another world
My favourite film of last year was Inception (you can read about marketing inception here and the psychology of inception here). For those who haven’t seen it yet (and please do if you haven’t), the plot involves the main character played by Leonardo di Caprio entering someone’s dream world with a team of helpers in order to plant an idea in the dreamer’s mind. As with similar ‘Voyage and return’ plots, Leonardo’s character starts the movie with a shadow (his wife’s suicide) hanging over him, restricting his mental world and opening him to the potential of a voyage into the unknown (with the promise of a return to his home). He finally returns home after a strange and dangerous voyage of discovery, a changed man. Read more »
“Culture is the collective programming of the mind.” - Geert Hofstede
A world of symbols
What makes us all so interesting to researchers and marketers is our enquiring mind, and nothing shows this more vividly than the web of beliefs and ideas that we have created to make meaning from the complexity of the world around us. A very important part of this framework is the vocabulary of signs and symbols that help remind us of our link to the world and each other. Read more »
“I’m working on a dream
Though sometimes it feels so far away
I’m working on a dream
And how it will be mine someday” - Bruce Springsteen
Working on a dream
The American Dream is deeply embedded in the dreams of many, and for a few lucky people has been played out for real. It is the heart of the national ethos of the United States including the promise of the possibility of wealth and success for all, based on their equality at birth and their inalienable right to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as written into the country’s constitution. This theme comes up in classic American literature of Mark Twain, Hunter S. Thompson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller and many more. It’s even written into the title of Barack Obama’s biography, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream. Read more »
The evolution of emotions
Although some key emotions can be clearly seen on our faces (read more here), our emotional lives are complex and intricately bound into the behavioural strategies we have evolved over thousands (perhaps millions) of years to improve our chances of survival and success. Each emotion tells a story about our immediate goals, our perception of the context we find ourselves in, and our interpretation of the events in our lives. Read more »
I have just watched Short Cuts again, one of my favourite films directed by the great Robert Altman (The Player, M.A.S.H., etc). The movie is based on a series of nine short stories by Raymond Carver (plus a poem) with a total of 22 characters taking part in the the scenes. While Carver’s original stories are all independent, Altman magically creates a movie which feels whole and complete, with many great performances (who can’t fail to love a movie with Lyle Lovett and Tom Waits in the cast as well as a long list of Hollywood ‘A’ list stars). Above all he achieves the unity by subtly forging a series of links between the different stories and scenes. The different scenes provide a vivid representation of the randomness and chance of life and also of the sometimes surprising connections that exist between different people. Read more »
“Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I may remember; involve me and I’ll understand.” - Chinese proverb
Connecting the dots
The tremendous advances in brain science (along with changes in the media landscape) mean we need to rethink how we engage customers, taking on board some of the lessons of neuroscience and behavioural economics, and sometimes going back to ancient wisdoms which preceded the rise of rational approaches to consumer behaviour, especially in the West. The truth is that most of our decision making is unconscious, emotional and highly context dependent (especially social context). Read more »
Questions, questions
After watching the world go by for a while, you may still have some unanswered questions which means it may be time to start a conversation with your customers. Although more than 90% of communication is non-verbal, there is a huge amount to be learnt from listening to consumers (and asking the occasional question), especially when this is done in the right way. Read more »
