Apple Encourages Subliminal Creativity?

Posted by mikezillion at March 25th, 2008

Subliminal advertising was a big thing a few decades ago. Then they realized that it didn’t translate into immediate sales, and the trend died out. But marketers these days are looking further down the road than the immediate sale. We’re learning now that brand identification can lead to later sales, or even unconscious actions, if planned carefully.

A new study about the longer-term impact of subliminal exposure to recognizable corporate logos shows that the brand identity does carry a message which affects the viewer’s behavior. In this case, flashing an Apple logo briefly and incidentally while testing an unrelated skill encouraged users to think more creatively in a subsequent test than flashing an IBM logo.

The product placement folks are going to enjoy playing with the implications of this. And the question for you and all the other marketers out there is: “What does your brand identity imply?” For example, what do each of the following names do to the observer’s stream of consciousness?

Put a random object next to each of these names, and notice how the name colors your perception of that object. A Penthouse telephone is very different from an Oprah telephone, or a Disney telephone. Once you’ve got that image in mind, how will it affect the next actions you take?

How can your brand make conscious use of that subconscious brand recognition factor?

Posted in Culture, Marketplace|  | 

Violence…is pretty universal.

Posted by mikezillion at March 19th, 2008

They’re always looking for ways to control the marketplace of ideas. I am a big support of protecting minors from having any access to pornography, but I surprise myself when it comes to violent video games.

Violence, unlike sexuality, is a part of life from the very beginning. I don’t think there’s anything particularly mature about wanting to blow somebody else up. It’s one of those emotional issues which we all need to learn to deal with right from the very start.

Sexuality, on the other hand, is something which arrives later in life. Freud might argue that point, but I contend that it’s worth preserving the innocence of youth around issues of sexuality.

I don’t see the argument for restricting children from access to violent video games. It’s not as if the games teach them anything they won’t come up with in their own imaginations in the face of ordinary childhood life. We can’t insulate them from their anger or frustration, so why should we limit their access to tools and techniques for learning how to deal with it?

I don’t play video games. Never have. I have friends who do, and they don’t seem any more or less inclined to use violence than I am. It’s just a way that they deal with those feelings. I deal with mine in other way. So do you.

Restrict children from access to pornography because there is a valid reason for doing so; they are not yet mature enough to understand those issues. But even the youngest of babies get frustrated and scream. Don’t pretend that you can protect a child from rage.

Posted in Culture|  | 

Failure x 7 = Success

Posted by mikezillion at March 3rd, 2008

Have I mentioned recently how much I love Seth Godin? He’s the marketing guru who’s fond of pointing out that the best way to build a market is to make something that people will either love or hate, and ignore products aimed at the middle.

His latest gem came in the briefest of blog entries:

the products and services that succeed wildly are the ones that everyone expected would fail

He followed this up with some examples, including The Beatles, in a later blog posting.

It seems to me that the barrier to success used to be access to the tools to make and publish your dream. Now, it’s just the genuine passion you feel about what you do, and the stubbornness to believe that you are right in the face of your first seven or so market failures. Seven is an arbitrary number, but the idea is that you put enough examples out there until your unique slice of the planet discovers you and recognizes that you’re the only one giving them exactly what they are looking for.

Posted in Ego|  | 

No Porn Renaissance

Posted by mikezillion at March 2nd, 2008

I’ve been reading a book called Medici Effect about innovation, and it’s interesting to note how the desperation for reward can inhibit creativity:

“One group was told that they would receive a $5 reward if their solution time to the problem was in
the top quartile and $20 if their solution was the fastest. The second group did not get these instructions…. (The) group that had no chance of getting a reward solved the problem
significantly faster than the people who did.”

I think about how desperate companies in the porn industry are these days, as the paradigm shifts from expensive and exclusive content to free and commodity content. The point at which innovation is most valuable seems to be the point at which it is also the most inaccessible.

The Medici family spurred the Renaissance by bringing together experts and thinkers from a wide variety of fields, and offering them the opportunity to cross-pollinate their ideas. The concept of “renaissance man” doesn’t mean someone with a job and a hobby, but rather someone with broad expertise in many fields. However, the carelessness and sense of play which comes from having a hobby seems to be elemental to truly innovative thinking.

Success is a product of many, many failures. But there is no reward for failing multiple times in the same manner. Look how many companies are now trying to use the same formula to make money with porn. No matter how many of them fail, there is no innovation being generated if none of them tries something different.

Maybe I should start capitalizing the word Porn.

Posted in Creativity, Marketplace|  |