"When You're Downtown..."

“The Persuaders” was an extremely intriguing film covering many important aspects addressed by marketers on a day to day basis. For example, in a world now overwhelmed with advertisements, how does any one company manage to break through? Also, do consumers make purchase decisions? The answers to such questions are pivotal to any company trying to survive in today’s crazed business environment. As such, marketers need to come up with specific means of gathering important marketing research data to figure out how to more effectively market to consumers. “The Persuaders” explored several of today’s marketing approaches, including the infamous Dr. Rapaille’s controversial method.

Dr. Rapaille’s believes that consumers purchase decisions are driven by natural instinct buried in our deep unconscious. For example, Dr. Rapaille questioned why anyone living in Manhattan would ever think that a Hummer intended for off-roading would be an appropriate choice of vehicle. He maintains that anyone thinking logically would never purchase a Hummer if they were living in a city such as Manhattan, and therefore, there have to be underlying factors affecting our purchase decisions. It is these underlying natural instincts and impulses that drive us to act a certain way that are the focus of Dr. Rapaille’s work. In order to identify these natural instincts, Dr. Rapaille performs a three phase experiment in which he seeks to understand our true beliefs and natural drivers. Essentially, his process is a psychic journey in which he seeks to move past participants’ more conscious emotions and into their primal cores. It is here that the doctor believes we actually make our purchasing decisions.

In the first stage, the doctor seeks to understand the participants by reaching out to their cortex. Here, he is giving participants a chance to demonstrate how smart they are and to get comfortable within the setting. For example, in the film Dr. Rapaille was trying to uncover what the true drivers of “luxury” are for consumers. As such, in the first stage he would ask participants questions like what words are used whenever someone tries to sell “luxury” to them. Then, in the second stage the doctor seeks to reach into participants’ emotions. He does this by asking participants to tell intriguing stories. For example, in the film Dr. Rapaille asked participants to tell him a story as if they are a 5-year-old from another planet. After this phase of the experiment, participants start to become confused, and the doctor likes it that way. It allows him to proceed on to the third phase of the study in which Dr. Rapaille has participants lay on the floor, relax, and go back to the mindset they have upon first waking up in the morning. Dr. Rapaille claims that respondents can then remember things they had completely forgotten about, and he uses this to help him identify our primal urges, or what he calls “reptilian hot buttons.” Dr. Rapaille then says that he can use the “reptilian hot buttons” to develop the “code” for what is being studied. This “code” is the result of these primal urges, and it is what drives us to act as we do. For example, the “reptilian hot button” uncovered by Dr. Rapaille when studying cheese in America versus France allowed the doctor to assist a French cheese company break into the American market. According to the doctor, the “reptilian hot buttons” led to a “code” of “dead” for cheese in America, but in France, the “code” for cheese is “alive.” As such, cheese in America has to be marketed and sold very differently than it is in France. For example, Dr. Rapaille says that his uncovering of the “reptilian hot buttons” for cheese in America brought upon the necessity of storing cheese in plastic bags and then refrigerating that cheese. According to the doctor, the plastic bags represent body bags and the refrigerator represents a morgue, thus correctly matching the “code” of “dead” for cheese in America.

Personally, I think that Dr. Rapaille is doing an excellent job of ripping of large corporations. He analysis of cheese and comparisons of plastic bags as the “body bags” and refrigerators as morgues was enough to tip me off that he is running a huge scam. Additionally, I have never been one for the Freud school of thought regarding urges from the subconscious. I don’t think that what attracts me to cheese versus another is whether that cheese appears “dead” to me, and I am more than happy to purchases cheeses not refrigerated and overly packaged. In fact, I prefer it. Also, Dr. Rapaille claims that by the end of the third phase, participants are able to remember things for 30 years back that they have long since forgotten. I think that participants “remember” things because they feel pressured to, much in the same way that Freud absurdly convinced so many of his patients that they had been sexually assaulted. I believe that there certainly are underlying factors that influence our purchase decisions, but I think that a lot of it has to be examined on a more personal level. We all have our own perceptions of everything we come across. This is how we define our world. It’s also how we define what products and services are important to us. In my opinion, to truly understand what drives us, you have to begin by respecting that people are individuals, and our decisions are far too complex to be summed up by a “reptilian hot button” or simple “code” word.

“The Persuaders” also spent a good time covering a then-newly created airline called “Song.” Song Airlines was headed up by parent company Delta, but the creators and marketers of Song decided that they wanted to create something vastly different from the feel of Delta for Song. After conducting focus groups and evaluating its marketing research, the creators of Song decided that a very important segment was being overlooked in the airline industry: women. Now in theory, I think that Song had a fairly good idea; however, once put into place, Song Airlines essentially destroyed itself. To begin with, the idea of creating an airline targeted at women is intriguing, but I think that perhaps it was created too early. Women are becoming more educated and more independent. Their new levels of education and independency combine to give them the opportunity to spend more money and spend more solely on themselves. As such, an airline catered to women is in theory a good idea, but I think that it’s still a bit too early to make a move for this segment. Also, although Song might have been on to something in targeting women, Song was definitely targeting the wrong type of woman. The woman identified as Song’s target customer, or “Carrie,” sounds like she would be traveling almost exclusively with her family. She doesn’t sound like the kind of person who would be making frequent business trips and thus demanding services catered towards her specifically. In fact, Song defined “Carrie” as a married mother, and as such, she will need an airline that also caters to her husband’s and children’s needs. Additionally, even if they would have gotten it right by targeting the career-driven, independent woman, they would have had trouble finding a consistently loyal customer base. Airlines make a lot of revenue by striking deals with companies to provide their travel accommodations. However, such a deal could be very difficult for an airline like Song because companies would certainly not want to encourage, or even force, their male employees to use an airline designed specifically for women. And even if Song targeted predominantly female professions and companies, there will always be male employees who will need travel assistance as well.

Aside from the target group the airline went after, the entire marketing campaign seemed to be a complete and total disaster. Worst of all were the terrible TV advertisements. Now don’t get me wrong, I love Andy Spade’s purse designs as much as the next woman. However, Andy is an expert when it comes to selling simple, classic purses and not airlines. His advertising idea to downplay Song’s features and instead search for the “soul” was awful. After all, a persistent theme in “The Persuaders” was that we as consumers are swarmed more than ever with a whole variety of advertisements. Add in the fact that we’re busier than ever and you have a bunch of consumers that just want advertisers to cut to the chase. The reality is that consumers are not going to expend the extra time and effort to research more into advertisements, and so you have to be up front with them. Also, asides from not articulating Song’s benefits, Andy’s advertisements didn’t even articulate what Song actually was. No one would have a clue from his ads that Song is an airline, and so how could the creators have anticipated anyone to seek out their services? The company even became aware of this a year into operations when it discovered that consumers recognized its advertisements, but had no idea what the advertisements were even supposed to be advertising for. Also, Song went after the wrong venues when it came to advertising for its airlines. The airline was supposedly created for a married mother that sounded like your typical run-of-the-mill housewife, and yet they were advertising at concerts and night clubs. As a marketer the most important part of your job is to assure that your marketing efforts are reaching the right target audience, and this failure to pick the right venue definitely helps explain why Song failed miserably. Additionally, the other vague and abstract marketing efforts were lost on me. For example, the book with the words “Cheer, Cry, Vomit, Bitch and Hope” printed up the spine in an effort to intrigue customers through stories that I suppose were once again aimed at showing the “soul” of Song was outrageous. As a female, I would never even be enticed to read such a book, not to mention the fact that I would never then use it when making my travel decisions. The bottom line is that Song was trying too hard. Its marketers and creators wanted to create something revolutionary, and they thought that they had to be completely revolutionary in all of their marketing efforts as well. However, in the end it was too out-there and just ended up getting lost on consumers.