Marketing to the “Reptile Brain”

Here’s a transcript of a 60 Minutes II story about psychologist and marketing guru Dr. Clotaire Rapaille.

Rapaille takes marketing strategy much, much deeper than “owning a word” in the consumer’s mind.

Here are a couple things to think about that link this story to Radio:

If you can sell coffee by selling memories of the coffee smell, if you can use a woman’s primal instinct to care for her family to sell paper towels, if you can design a commercial airliner by focusing on our need to travel comfortably, from the design of the windows, to the lighting, even to the feel of the jet when you enter….

If you can do all this, then how can you justify that “variety” or “most music” is all we should aspire to when we market our radio stations to these very same consumers?

Consider one of Rapaille’s “creations,” the PT Cruiser:

“You know and I know some people look at this and just say, ‘It’s ugly,'” said the reporter in this 60 Minutes II segment.

“That’s why some people love it, some people hate it,” says Rapaille. “Nobody is neutral.”

And that’s a good thing?

“That’s perfect,” says Rapaille. “That’s exactly what we want. We want the intensity.”

Does your station invite – or provoke – the intensity?

Or does it settle into the invisible middle?