January, 2011 | PrairieSkyGroup

Metaphor 3: You Never Hear the Metaphor That Kills You

While it is fun, it is not necessary to make up metaphorical language about beavers. Rather the point is that we think metaphorically. A metaphor exists in the brain as a connection of synapses and neurons. It can be expressed by language. Knowing this, we can create messaging based on language that fits naturally into the narratives we already have in place in our heads and that are activated by metaphorical thinking. The most influential metaphorical language construction is the “frame.”

Metaphor 2: The Bark of a Tree Never Tastes Bitter to a Hungry Beaver

When we are children and are held by our parents, we feel warmth (temperature) and learn to associate warmth with affection. What happens in these two cases is that our brains do something called neural recruiting. Two neurons each holding different concepts begin to be connected. The more often that two things are associated together, the more the neurons that hold each of these two things begin to connect or wire together.

Metaphor 1: You Can’t Put a Duck Bill on a Beaver and Call It a Platypus.

One of the key building blocks of thought is the metaphor. It is also a building block in market and sales messaging. Metaphors are actually mental structures in the brain that are independent of language, but can be expressed by language to help us understand something. When we activate innate metaphors in people’s brains with language, we are then communicating with the unconscious parts of the brain and often have a greater chance at influencing thought than conscious reasoning or the use of facts and logic.

The Words We Use

Words are important. For those of you who want to do SEO, or competitive site SEO anlaysis, or just drop those irritating words from your writing and vocabulary, here’s a reminder on Word Cloud Generators.

Steve Jobs

I once got a job offer from Steve Jobs. I say this not in the “My mother petted Secretariat” sense because I hate name dropping. But his name in the news got me reflecting on our conversation and the value of doing what you are passionate about.

Marketing and Selling Using Ancient Narratives

We are our stories. It is who we are and how we think. Our brains are wired for stories and narratives. We identify with familiar stories. They evoke emotions and expectations and hope. If you want to sell something, convince someone of your position, or market your products or services, you first need to tell a story. Here’s why.

Cognito Ergo Sum* NOT!

If 95% of our thought is unconscious, how do sales and marketing address this in their communications? If we want to change minds, we need to change brains. Even in a B2B marketing or sales world, relying on logical persuasion, features, advantages and benefits is a poor and partial way to get a prospect to buy. Understanding how the brain works, how we think, and how to activate the narratives we want, will make our sales and marketing jobs easier.

Segmentation

90% of marketers use only demographics such as company size or SIC code for segmentation. They do this because other forms of segmentation are more difficult. I believe there is a hierarchy to levels of segmentation, and that there are levels that are much more productive than demographics. The hierarchy from less productive to more productive levels of segmentation and from easy to difficult is: 1) Demographic, 2) Buyer, 3) Persona, 4) Behavioral and 5) Narrative.

Monthly Archive: January 2011