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NO 1:
Fantasy or reality?
When Bafana Bafana left
Johannesburg for the African Cup of Nations Football
tournament in 2008, there were those who believed that the
trophy would soon be back in South Africa. To them it was
almost a reality that Bafana Bafana would be the African
Champions! To many other South Africans however, that is pure
fantasy!
In the well known Chinese Novel
“A Dream of Red Mansions” the following quote deals with the
interpenetration of reality and illusion. It juxtaposes
“truth” and “fiction”, or reality and illusion: “Truth
becomes fiction when the fiction is true; Real becomes unreal
where the unreal is real.”
What is the point? How often
do we see this in our daily lives? Take Dan Brown’s Da Vinci
Code for example. Fact or fiction? The same applies to PC /
Sony Play station games, or Internet pornography for that
matter!
Why the lesson in Chinese
literature? Let’s go back to the first game played in the
2006 Soccer World Cup.
A 24-year-old respondent in a
focus group conducted just after the opening game at the
Soccer World Cup, told us of how he sat down to enjoy the
first game on television and realized that his hands and
fingers started moving automatically in an effort to
manipulate the behaviour of the players on the field!
Yes, you guessed it! He had
playing the FIFA World Cup Soccer game on his PC during the
months leading up to the kick-off, and got so involved in the
fantasy of the PC games, that when confronted with the real
thing live on TV, he unconsciously tried to manipulate
reality.
The question? How many
consumers move between reality to fantasy each day? What are
the implications for businesses and brands? What are the
implications for research? What should be measured – fantasy
(e.g. the way I see myself or want to be seen using a
particular brand), or reality?
Fantasy or reality?
Do you know the difference?
Why don’t you contact us with
your thoughts at:
info@consumerlab.co.za
NO 2:
Do you have Levi's® genes?
So you think you have the freedom to decide which brands you
buy? Yes, you realise that our brand decisions are
influenced by various external forces, and yes, you may even
realise that some of these forces escape your consciousness.
But you believe that ultimately, through a combination of
emotion and reason, you make cognitive decisions about which
brands you are going to buy. In other words, you are able to
exercise your own free will. Well, think again. What if
the choices you think you’re making are actually being
driven by forces beyond your control?
For centuries scientists have argued whether human
behaviour is best explained by “nature” (what we are
born with) or “nurture” (how we are conditioned).
Even within psychology the behaviourists argued that all
human behaviour is learned, while the psychodynamic school
(Freud, Jung and others) argued that human behaviour is also
influenced by “what we bring into the world”, such as deeply
held compulsive instincts and archetypal behaviour (a
behavioural imprint inherited from past generations).
Marketers and researchers consequently focused all their
attention on these psychological forces shaping human
behaviour. Maybe they wasted their time, … neurologists are
currently suggesting that physiological and not
psychological forces have the biggest impact on behaviour.
Because of this, they argue that the principle of free will
is a matter of some scientific doubt!
This greater focus on the physiological impact on
behaviour literally came about by accident:
In September 1848 a foreman on a
construction site was involved in an accident which resulted
in a tamping iron accidentally passing through his skull.
Despite serious injuries to the brain, the foreman survived.
Accidents happen, but what makes this incident remarkable is
that after the accident the foreman’s personality changed.
Before the accident he
was a capable and efficient with a well-balanced mind. After
the accident he became fitful, irreverent, impatient and
grossly profane. It was only during
the mid-1990’s however, that this accident featured again in
the news when the behavioural neurologist Antonio Damasio
offered an explanation for the poor man’s change in
personality. He concluded that although the foreman’s
intelligence remained intact after the accident,
his ability to make rational decisions
and to reason became severely handicapped
because his
ability to feel emotion was damaged as
a result of the brain damage.
Another example of the physiological impact on behaviour is
evident in the story of a previously well behaved American
who during the late 1990’s suddenly started to become
involved in child pornography and paedophilia. Just before
he was sent off to prison, authorities detected a brain
tumour. The moment the tumour was removed, his paedophilic
tendencies disappeared. The unlucky patient experienced a
re-growth of the tumour and, you guessed it – a simultaneous
resurfacing of his paedophilic tendencies, making the
link between brain matter and mind matters harder to
dismiss.
Luckily few of us develop brain tumours or are involved in
accidents resulting in brain injuries. But all of us have
genes – that part of our DNA that carries the genetic
instructions for our development and functioning, and the
blueprint or building blocks of our existence. Genes
work at every level of the neural process. They are the
fundamental building blocks for both the structure and the
functioning of the brain, and impact on how our brains
respond to different inputs. Our genetic make-up impacts
directly on our state of mind, including the way we
experience, think and behave.
Recent studies show that naturally occurring genetic
variations - called polymorphisms - affect our emotional
reactions and thoughts. Evidence shows that depending on our
genetic makeup - or
genotype
- we may be more or less sensitive to emotional stimuli and
may have a greater or lesser control of our emotions and
impulses. Since our emotional responses impact on our
rational decision making, our genotypes will impact on our
behaviour. So yes, your genes may have the final say
whether it is going to be Diesel or Levi's jeans!
What are the implications of this discovery? On a
philosophical level the whole idea of an individual taking
responsibility for his/her own actions is being challenged,
creating an interesting moral dilemma!
For those of us involved in marketing, the fact that
physiology plays a role in governing personality and
therefore choice could render our marketing ambitions and
best laid plans a little less assured. How do we for
example, contend with a formidable and unmalleable DNA
component that is pretty advertising resistant? For the
researcher who believes he/she has conquered the mindset of
his target consumer this could be a levelling setback –
losing power where consumer genes kick in.
Marketing and research may be facing an interesting battle
on a metaphysical frontier: where mind meets matter. Can
marketers ever hope to appeal to, and researchers hope to
understand the inherited preferences of the gene pool?
So what car were you born to drive?
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