Darwin, ideas and advertising

The good, the bad and the relevant

2012-03-07T04:32:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting tendency in the marketing world for absolutism. The latest comes with the advent of social media and goes something like this. "In a world where opinion spreads quickly and virally, only good products will succeed. Bad products will be found out."

There is a real truth underlying this but the more interesting aspect is the use of the word 'good'. Humans like good vs bad, it's a very instinctive and culturally accepted concept. But survival be it 'which brands survive' or in the natural world for that matter 'which species survive' isn't really about good or bad, it's about being well adapted to the environment.

Brands that do well are well adapted i.e. they fulfil people's needs, wants and desires. They make a 'promise' to the consumer and either deliver on it or not. In the digital world brands that fail to meet these needs, wants and desires or that fail to deliver on their promises will be found out. And much more quickly than they used to be.

But this has little to do with good vs bad, a concept which has no real place in marketing or for that matter evolution.

Brands don't need to be good they need to be relevant.

What a piggy bank can tell us

2012-02-07T02:26:00.000-08:00

Humans are tricky things. We think one thing and do another. We often say what we don't think. And we like to think we know what we're doing, at least most of the time.

Sadly we are prone to all sorts of human fallibility which we carry through millions of years of evolution: instinct, emotion and our primitive brains introduce all sorts of biases and errors in our thinking and our behaviour.

This is no more pronounced than in the difficulty we have with sacrificing short term benefit for a greater long term benefit: this applies to the food we eat, the alcohol we consume, exercise, work, practicing our hobbies, revising in exams and particularly for saving.

So the piggy bank is a product designed perfectly for the human species, based on a simple insight into human behaviour. The piggy bank is successful not just because kids like pigs but because it makes putting money in easier than taking it out. And this rebalances the urge to spend now rather than to save tomorrow.

To beat our urge for immediate reward we need products that swing the balance in favour of the future: a piggy bank for; diet, for fitness, for education, for practice, for charity and for entertainment is what the world needs now.

Poetry or Craft

2012-01-10T07:40:00.000-08:00

"You can teach the craft, it's the poetry you can't teach". So said David Hockney about the teaching of art. But the same applies in so many fields; music, arts, architecture and science.

The craft is more obvious to see and many people struggle with conceptual art where the focus is on the poetry. In science too the execution (ie the craft) is so much easier to 'get', everyone understands a nuclear bomb but few can relate to quantum theory, nuclear fission or Einstein's theory of relativity (the poetry).

In advertising the same applies. The execution is much easier to judge than the idea.

Of course the craft is vital, the skill with hand and eye to create a physical thing out of nothing is amazing but the poetry part is the rarer commodity.

The 'poetry' comes from mental creativity, from the ability to think freely and the ability to have a feel for the subject.

The brain systems that deal with the poetry are different from those that deal with the craft and there is no reason to expect that the two go together. We should respect the poets and the craftsman for their skill and be in awe when the two come together in one individual.

The dangers of absolutism

2012-01-03T08:02:00.000-08:00

Humans tend to put things in boxes ( well mental boxes at least). So we can tell the difference between "right" and "wrong", "black" and "white", "dangerous" and "safe". We have evolved to think this way because in our natural environment we needed to make quick decisions to survive, to assess risk, to spot danger.

So our brains are wired to think in an absolutist way. This may be useful on the plains of Africa but not so useful when making more complicated decisions or thinking about more complex problems.

Here are two good examples but there are many more.

1. The origin of species. Creationists argue that although evolution is proven within species ( eg dog breeds, racing pigeons, wheat varieties etc ) it is not proven as a mechanism to create new species. In truth they are drawing a line where it doesn't exist. Species is a man-made word to describe a population of genetically distinct individuals that do not reproduce with other populations of individuals. Every parent gives birth to the same species but over long periods of time tiny variations build up. Eventually populations get separated and intermediary forms die out creating distinct interbreeding populations. Abolutist thinking draws a line between species but there really isn't one. There is no difference between same species evolution and the creation of new species.

2. In medicine we tend to be absolutist about medical conditions, you either have it or you don't. But many conditions particularly mental health related are not absolutes; nowadays they are often described as spectrum disorders. So alcoholism, dyslexia, depression and even bipolar disorder are not absolutes, they are disorders by degree existing at different levels in different individuals.

Why is any of this important? Because when we think about a problem, we need to assess whether it is black or white (absolute) or shades of grey (spectrum). It really will make a difference to the eventual decision.

Why advertising is art not science

2011-11-24T04:14:00.000-08:00

Science works like this:

You come up with an idea, called a theory. You test that theory. Once proved right that theory becomes established and new ideas\theories can be built on the last.

The result is that science is constantly advancing. So in genetics, Darwins Origin of Species, Mendel's inheritance, Watson and Cricke's DNA, The Human Genome project. These represent huge milestomes on a pathway where thousands of theories are constantly being tested and either proven or rejected.

The arts don't work like this. Yes, there are boundless ideas and theories but proof isn't part of the game. So arts don't advance in the same way that science does.

If advertising were a science we would be constantly proving new theories that would feed into advances in the science of advertising. In truth the creative bit of advertising hasn't changed much in a lifetime. The media landscape has changed drastically largely thanks to science but the science of advertising creative effectiveness hasn't really moved on much.

Not that that's such a bad thing: book writing, movie making, song writing and Tv programming are all more art than science.

As William Goldman, the famous screenwriter once said about the film industry,"No-one knows anything". It would be a brave adman who admitted the same but maybe we should celebrate the unknown, the need for gut feel and instinct. I am not suggesting that we ignore sciences role in advertising just that we don't kid ourselves that it can be distilled down into hard facts and
rules.

Free will on challenge

2011-10-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

I won't go into the details here but a recent experiment, published in Nature, looked at brain activity and decision making. It established that by the time people reported making a conscious decision, the decision had already actually been made in the subconscious- clearly showing up in brain activity scans.

The slightly scary conclusion is that most of the time, when we think we are making conscious decisions based on free will, we are really just rationalising decisions that we have already been made subconciously and therefore without knowing it.

For any one working in advertising this comes as no huge surprise: emotion is after all much more effective than rational argument.

Bill Bernbach once said "you can say the right thing about a product and nobody will listen. You've got to say it in such a way that people will feel it in their gut. Because if they don't feel it nothing will happen".

If decision making is largely a subconscious affair, we should all spend more time studying and researching behaviour with this in mind. I always thought sitting in research groups asking people to be rational about how they behave and what they buy was a bit of a waste of time. This latest research adds grist to my mill.

Why being clever is so important

2011-10-04T03:02:00.000-07:00

Being clever. Everyone likes to think they are. But it's not just a compliment to people, we describe lots of things as clever: books, films and ads.

Research by the IPA suggests that "being clever" is a sure sign of an effective ad. People describe ads very singularly: stupid, childish, funny, informative, memorable etc, etc.

If you have to aim for one, aim for "clever".

Evolutionary psychology may help explain why being labelled as "clever" is so important. In the fight for sexual selection our ancestors would have been preprogrammed to display their intelligence. This would be done by showing their skills in storytelling, tool making, song and dance or humour.

The desired reaction would be "That's clever, so he or she must be clever and therefore their genes are worth having".

In many ways the same will apply to brands and branding. People respond to brands as if they are single entities with personalities.

No wonder ads that are described as "clever" work so well. They are doing the same job as the caveman showing off his talents but in this case we are signalling brand fitness not gene fitness.

What we can learn from Caviar about premium

2011-09-06T14:19:00.000-07:00

Why is Caviar so expensive? Because it tastes amazing or because the Sturgeon is rare and getting hold of its eggs is difficult.

Why are diamonds expensive? Because they are pretty or because they are very rare and very difficult to dig up.

There is a tendency to assume that price and quality are inextricably linked. We ignore rarity but this is wrong.

Salmon eggs taste similar to caviar but are relatively easy to get hold of and so are much cheaper. Cubic Zirconia looks very much like diamond but is easy and plentiful so it's as cheap as chips.

As a general rule things have to pass a basic need test: caviar tastes quite nice and diamonds are quite pretty but then the premium is almost entirely driven by rarity.

In many countries lobster used to be so plentiful it was considered peasant food as were oysters.

So why does rarity drive premium more than quality? The answer is simple. Rarity gives status to the owner and that is hard-wired in humans. Status gives an evolutionary advantage via sexual selection. But quality only gives an evolutionary advantage in certain product categories: a more accurate spear or warmer clothing.

In the great evolutionary race, status trumps just about everything else and when you think about it what else is premium all about. Premium = status not quality.

Embrace your inner Neanderthal

2011-09-02T05:50:00.000-07:00

Sharing the results of a massive, worldwide study, geneticist Svante Pääbo shows the DNA proof that early humans mated with Neanderthals after we moved out of Africa. (Yes, many of us have Neanderthal DNA.)

The Homo Erectus hand axe

2011-08-26T07:29:00.000-07:00

Homo Erectus is thought to have been around for at least half a million years.We Homo Sapiens have a long way to go to beat Homo Erectus and I have serious doubts if we will last that long.

But if success is measured in numbers rather than time, we win hands down. How many Homo Erectus wandered the planet is unknown but certainly a tiny fraction of the nearly 7 billion Homo Sapiens on the planet today.

Homo Erectus could never have populated the planet in the numbers we have because they lacked the necessary creativity.

Fossil evidence would suggest that Homo Erectus made simple tools, or more precisely one simple tool, the hand axe. Its purpose is unknown but it was probably used for cutting meat and may have also been used as a throwing weapon. It has been suggested it could have been used as a symbol of status allowing male Homo Erectus to show off their tool-making prowess.

Amazingly, they never got beyond the hand axe. Half a million years and they never invented the spear, or the knife or the bow and arrow.Somehow in a burst of creativity an early Erectus had the brilliant idea to invent the hand axe and the idea spread and then..... nothing. No more advances in weaponry.

We take creativity and the ability to come up with ideas for granted but we rarely take the time to appreciate our gift. Ideas cost nothing but our time and imagination, they can radically change our lives and even the world. How different things might be if Homo Erectus had been a little more creative.

Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes" | Video on TED.com

2011-08-22T14:49:00.000-07:00

Susan Blackmore on memes and "temes" | Video on TED.com

Novelty or Utility

2011-08-15T03:20:00.000-07:00

I am not sure who said it but as a definition of "creative ideas" I like this:

Ideas = novelty + utility

In some ways it sums up lots of the problems of coming up with great ideas. Creative people tend to obsess over novelty, businesses tend to obsess over utility. What everyone should really be aiming for is both.

But novelty is high risk. Many successful businesses have been born out of improving on an existing idea, letting someone else take the risk and create the market. The same is true of advertising: novelty is often seen as risky and so 'me-too' advertising becomes the norm.

Agencies tend to like Clients who appreciate novelty. Clients certainly appreciate Agencies who get utility.

The answer would seem simple: aim for both

Being chosen

2011-08-10T01:28:00.000-07:00

Marketing is all about being chosen:

To be chosen you need:

To be different

To be better

To be emotionally charged

All three are difficult. Achieving any one can lead to success. All three will deliver unbounded riches.

The power of ideas according to TED

2011-05-19T04:06:00.000-07:00

An idea can be created out of nothing except an inspired imagination.
An idea weighs nothing.
It can be transferred across the world at the speed of light for virtually zero cost.
And yet an idea, when received by a prepared mind, can have extraordinary impact.
It can reshape that mind's view of the world.
It can dramatically alter the behavior of the mind's owner.
It can cause the mind to pass on the idea to others.

Don't underestimate the importance of gossip

2011-04-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

How has The Mail ended up the second biggest online newspaper in the world, with over 40 million unique visitors? Is it its intellectual rigour? Its revelatory reporting? Its impartial political stance? Its progressive approach? Or is it that we continually underestimate the importance of gossip.

Recent research suggests that language may have evolved primarily as a tool to help socialising through gossip. Humans it would seem use gossip like apes and monkeys use grooming, to bond in social groups. Gossiping causes the release of natural endorphins helping us relax and feel more secure. When analysing language we see that across all cultures over 60 percent of language serves little purpose beyond that of socialising through chi-chat and gossip.

Products that tap into the most fundamental human requirements usually succeed and those that make us feel better top the list. If reading The Mail feeds an instinctive need for gossip which triggers the release of endorphins and makes us feel better then this may go someway to explain the 40 million online readers.

Advertisers have long since discovered that emotional sells harder than rational and the more instinctive those emotions the better: pride, status, safety, pleasure, sex, fear, anger, hope and jealousy are all emotions that sell. We can now add gossip to the list.

What is the point of art?

2011-04-11T07:50:00.000-07:00

Humans are unique in their use of art. And art has always been seen as an almost spiritual force. Artists have a God-given talent that cannot be explained by biology alone. No known animal has artistic talent? Animals might use display, bright colouring, song or mating dances but not art! But wait, what about the Bower Bird.

The Bower Bird produces the most amazing bowers ( posh nests to you and I ). It then decorates them meticulously with lost of pretty, shiny things. Certain species of Bower Birds even make paint from berries and spit to decorate the inside of their bowers. Bower birds have a particular penchant for blue ( a bit like Picasso ). Some Bower birds are better than others at their art and every individual bower is unique. If you asked a Bower Bird where its artistic skill came from it might explain it as a God-given talent. "I don't know how or why I do it, I just feel compelled to create and then I get a feel for what works and what doesn't. It is almost as if I am possessed by the spirit of form and beauty", it might say.

Of course we know better. Male Bower Birds have evolved this way because female Bower Birds are attracted ( and it would seem impressed ) by the male's artistry. Of course the male Bower Bird doesn't know this, he just feels compelled to create beautiful, blue art. This then impresses the chicks (or hens in this case) and the male Bower Bird passes his artistic bent on to the next generation.

I hate to say it but maybe that's all art is? Yet another evolved mechanism to impress the opposite sex. Biology has a horrible way of reducing all those things that seem so spiritual and so uniquely human. But then there does seem a certain arrogance in believing our instincts and talents are somehow more spiritual than those of our fellow animals.What's good for the Goose is surely good for the Gander or the Bower Bird or for Picasso for that matter.

Brain size and social groups

2011-03-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

The frontal cortex is the big bit of your brain above and in front of your ears. Its role is complex but it is particularly important for all those mental processes that are key to our success as a social animal. Things we take for granted like; being able to work out cause and effect, being able to put ourselves in other people's shoes and being able to engage socially through language all use the frontal cortex.

Interestingly if you look at primates, apes and humans there is a correlation between the size of the frontal cortex and the size of the natural social groups. Humans, at least early humans, tended to live in groups of around 150. This is a big number compared with most primates and necessitated good social skills and hence a bigger frontal cortex.

This 150 number is interesting. It would seem we haven't shaken off our caveman ancestry and even today few people have more than 150 friends. This even seems to play out on social networks.

We evolved to socialise with a limited number of close kin and friends. The internet may help us reach out to hundred's or even thousands of individuals but unless our frontal cortexes increase dramatically in size ( which isn't going to happen ) we simply aren't socially sophisticated enough to deal with too many friends.

Who do you think we are kidding?

2011-01-28T03:00:00.000-08:00

Here's an interesting thing,"90 percent of us believe ourselves to be in the top 10 percent of overall intelligence and ability." Which just goes to show that at least 80 percent of us aren't very good at seeing ourselves in our true light. This doesn't include me, obviously.From all the research groups I've been in over the years I reckon about 90 percent of people also claim not to be influenced by advertising. Yet their actual behaviour suggests otherwise.The obvious conclusion is that people's self perception is usually at odds with reality. Why then do we bother asking people directly in research what they think of things? We show them an ad or a few pictures, ask for their comments, ask if it changes their view or behaviour. It might make us feel better but the response often doesn't reflect reality.The best creatives, artists, film makers, storytellers, writers, scientists, poets, business people and researchers have an intuitive feel for human behaviour based on observation not based on asking people what they think. Why........because what matters is what people do, not what people say they do.

Repugnant Transactions

2011-01-05T07:03:00.000-08:00

Listening to Freakonomics radio at the weekend I came across the term "repugnant transactions". I thought it worth writing about just because it's such a brilliant term. It is used by economists to describe transactions that are considered by society as repugnant. The examples they gave were prostitution and the sale of body organs.

I thought the most interesting was the sale of kidneys, currently illegal in every country except for Iran (or was that just propaganda). The interesting thing about kidneys is that we all have two but only need one. Thousands of people each year die needing a new kidney and the problem could be eradicated pretty much immediately by allowing the sale of kidneys. Of course there are lots of very good arguments why this would be bad; from a moral, ethical and even the good old "slippery slope" argument. But it makes you think doesn't it. After all, it really is life and death we are talking about.

I am not sure what it has got to do with our business but may be some repugnant transactions are not so repugnant after all and may be there is a role for marketing.

Here is a list of a few transactions I can think of. Some illegal, some legal, some both. On a scale of 1 to 10 which do you think are most repugnant? The sale of body organs, the sale of eggs and sperm, the sale of endangered species, the sale of sex, the sale of religious ideas, the sale of weapons, the sale of tobacco, the sale of narcotics, the sale of hand guns, the sale of people, the sale of pornography, the sale of secrets, the sale of stolen goods, the sale of assassination services and the sale of hunting.

As I said, makes you think doesn't it: political nightmare, economists heaven, marketing opportunity?

Framing

2010-12-22T01:32:00.000-08:00

An interesting bit of behavioural economics. Framing is the use of language to create context for choice. It's more easily understood by example. Two petrol stations at opposite sides of the road.

One offers a discount for cash and has a big sign that says:
DISCOUNT FOR PAYING CASH
Credit £1.35 per litre, Cash £1.20 per litre

The other, imposing a surcharge for credit, has a small sign, just above the pump says

Cash £1.20 per litre, Credit £1.35 per litre.

Of course they are the same put they feel very different and without a reference price it is the language that acts as a frame of reference to help make a decision.

Price works in a similar way in that we use the price of similar products to judge whether the price we are paying for something seems ok. That's why so many retailers price establish products and then offer deep discounts all the time. The never ending Allied Carpets Sale is simply anchoring the price above what it sells at to give the impression of a bargain.

Framing is pretty fundamental to marketing. Brands position themselves within the context of their markets using framing and people choose products by using their own economic frames of reference.

Framing is particularly important for advertisers because relatively small changes in language can have a huge impact on the derived meaning that people take out. In advertising we tend to talk about positioning. In behavioural economics we would call it framing.

Storytelling and human evolution

2010-12-06T08:04:00.000-08:00

Storytelling is one of those things that is so much a part of humanity that we rarely give it a second thought but we should. Storytelling evolved for a number of good reasons. Fistly, it is a quick way of teaching and learning without having to risk trying something out. Stories teach us about good and bad, about dangers and risks and about failure and success. It is much better to learn that a wolf is dangerous by listening to Little Red Riding Hood than by trying to pat a wolf. So telling children storys has a genuine purpose.

Our cavemen ancestors would have told storys to their children as a way of teaching them safety and therefore improving their chance of survival.

Storys have been used throughout man's history to teach; parables in religion, analogies and metaphors to help us understand complex concepts, fairytales to teach morals and ethics.

And because storytelling has become so intrinsic to human society I believe it has taken on another purpose which has resulted in natural selection. Storytelling ability has become another form of signalling and has therefore come under the pressures of sexual selection. Good storytelling signals intelligence, status and experience and as such is positively selected for.

Good advertising and great brands understand that storytelling is a very powerful way of communicating products and services. Analogies, metaphors, parables and fairytales all have a role to play in advertising. Humans get storys and we should use them whenever we can.

I do wonder why so many businesses don't understand the power of storytelling and still insist on running advertising that is cold, rational and carries no storyline. The next time you have to judge creative work ask the question, "What's the story?" And if there isn't one ask "why".

The economics of choice

2010-12-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

There is lots of evidence that too much choice is not a good thing. There have been several experiments that demonstrate that people faced with too much choice are less likely to buy than when faced with a more limited choice. The classic experiment was done with a selection of jams. People passed a booth with either 24 different jams to choose from or only 6. Thirty percent of people went on to buy when given the smaller choice yet only three percent bought a jar when given greater choice.

One explanation based on behavioural economics is that of "opportunity cost." When we choose something be it jam, a car or a school for our kids we compare our initial choice with alternatives. Although our initial choice may remain the favoured one, each time an alternative presents with something that our initial choice doesn't have, we weigh up the opportunity cost of what our choice doesn't have.

For example, we might choose a school because it is nearby, has a great atmosphere and good teachers. We look at a school a bit further away. On balance it is not as good but it has amazing sports fields. The opportunity cost is now the sports fields that our first choice of school doesn't have. Every additional school we look at may have aspects that create opportunity costs for our school and the more schools we look at the more we diminish the satisfaction in our original choice. Of course in the end our children have to go to a school so we make the best choice we can and have to deal with the fact that by looking at too many schools we have reduced our satisfaction in the eventual winner. When it comes to jam though we can decide in the end to not bother buying any one at all. The opportunity costs of too much choice simply over-rides the will to buy.

There is an important lesson here for all marketers particularly retailers: you have to balance enough choice to meet people's needs without giving so much choice that the opportunity cost effect kicks in. And when we do display a range of products it is important to think through the "opportunity costs" we create in the minds of our customers when they are forced to choose from the range on display.

The power of signalling

2010-11-28T05:58:00.000-08:00

In the animal world status gets you the best choice of mate and most animals display their status by the way they look and act. Humans do it too, with the brands that they buy: the car, the clothes, the jewelry, the food we order, the wine we drink all send out signals and are all part of our instinctive need to show status.

Signalling works, which is why the animals that signal best, get to mate and pass on their genes. Sometimes this can be taken to an extreme. Male birds of paradise have evolved some of the most flamboyant displays. It seems an inconceivable waste of time and energy so why have they evolved this way. Simple really.... if you're a male bird of paradise, getting the girl is everything. Whatever it takes to get the best mate wins and the traits that helped get that mate are passed on through the genes to the next generation.

In advertising we would do well to remember that people buy into brands that they think signal the right things about them. When we think about creative ideas we should always ask the question what will this brand signal when the owner uses it. Rational product benefits are all well and good but just like the bird of paradise sometimes it is the irrational benefits that dictate whether a brand will succeed or fail.

Memes and Genes

2010-11-06T12:54:00.000-07:00

I love the idea of memes. Richard Dawkins originally coined the phrase in his book, The Selfish Gene. The idea is that a meme is a unit of social currency like a tune or a catch phrase or an idea. Memes work like genes in that they are self replicating. They do this by being passed from one person to another usually through speech ( or nowadays the internet ). So an idea starts in someone's brain and is transmitted to someone else where it then exists in their brain. Like genes, memes are under the pressures of natural selection. Well adapted ideas thrive and spread. Those that are badly adapted tend to die out. And like genes memes can mutate ( as proved by the game, chinese whispers). So memes drive cultural evolution like genes drive biological evolution.

For those of us that work in advertising the idea of memes is important. We must ensure that the ideas we develop are culturally well adapted and are likely to spread. The best ideas as we all know don't just find their way into people's minds but are talked about and spread on the internet. Our ideas or memes can then be judged by how many minds they end up inhabiting and the effect they have in changing peoples behaviour.

In developing advertising ideas we should always ask the question "is this idea likely to act like a meme and how well adapted is it to its audience?"

We should also recognise that advertising is a very powerful way of driving cultural change and perhaps we should start to treat it more like we might treat genetic engineering........with respect!

Bedroom layout

2010-11-06T07:39:00.000-07:00

We all like to think we are in total, rational control of the decisions we make and have long since escaped our inner ape. But we really haven't. It would seem that even interior design is influenced by our prehistoric instincts. Some research into bedroom layout looked at our preferences regarding placement of bedroom furniture which it would seem reflects the safety worries of our ancestors. According to a paper in Evolutionary Psychology, our choice of room layout is remarkably consistent with the physical environment prehistoric men and women preferred.

University of Munich psychologists conducted an experiment with 138 volunteers. Each was presented with one of four floor plans for a bedroom. Participants were presented with movable symbols representing items of furniture — and asked to arrange the room to their liking.

The researchers were interested to see if their choices would reflect an inbuilt urge to feel safe from predators. For cave dwellers, night-time safety “can be maximized by choosing a sleeping place that (a) allows detection of a potential aggressor as early as possible, (b) allows you to remain hidden from the aggressor as long as possible, and (c) allows for maximum reaction time in case of an attack.”

The question is "Are our design choices driven by those same needs?"

The study suggests they are, 83 percent of the participants “positioned the bed in such a way that it offered a view of the door from the resting position,” allowing them to quickly spot an intruder.

Seventy percent of the participants “positioned the bed to the wall opposite the door without leaving space between bed and wall. Hence, a significant majority of the participants chose the maximum possible distance between bed and door."

The evolutionary explanation is pretty obvious. Those cave dwelling ancestors who followed a few simple safety rules when it came to sleeping were more likely to survive and pass on the behaviour to their offspring. And the simple rules:

1. Make sure you see the predator before it sees you

2. Sleep as far away from the cave entrance as possible

3. Don't leave a gap behind, between you and the wall where preditors or other dangerous animals like snakes and spiders can sneak up on you.

Jargon makes us stupid

2010-11-06T01:16:00.000-07:00

I keep hearing this."Consumers aren't stupid!" Business chiefs seem to love saying it, "Never forget our consumers aren't stupid and with the internet, if our products are bad we will be found out " It all sounds very sensible and rather obvious.

But wait, think about it a bit more. "Consumers aren't stupid"?.

Let's dejargon this for a second and rephrase it as "People aren't stupid". Let's call them people because that's what they are. "People aren't stupid." Is this true?Well some people are stupid, if by that we mean they have a low IQ and some people are very clever. It's actually pretty meaningless because intelligence hasn't got that much to do with the ability to pick good or "bad" products. Really what's important is that products meet the needs of the person whose buying them. We shouldn't be saying, "Never forget our consumers aren't stupid and with the internet, if our products are bad we will be found out" but simply recognise that "people are getting better at picking products that meet their needs and the internet doesn't half help."

The point about jargon, even apparently harmless words like "consumer", is that it makes are thinking less clear. Some how by branding people as consumers we see them as a homogenous group, we dehumanise them and tend to generalise our associations with the word. We would probably never say "people aren't stupid" and certainly wouldn't expect to be venerated for our wise words. I think it was David Ogilvy who once said "The consumer isn't stupid, she's your wife." Now where do I start!

My First blog post

2010-11-04T10:10:00.001-07:00

Hello world!