PBS Excerpt: Clotaire Rapaille Reptilian Marketing

Excerpt from PBS' "The Persuaders" with Douglas Rushkoff - Clotaire Rapaille about Reptilian Marketing Watch the entire program http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders
"Can marketers really get inside a consumer's head to influence the choice they will make? For market researcher Clotaire Rapaille, the answer is yes. He believes all purchasing decisions really lie beyond conscious thinking and emotion and reside at a primal core in human beings. As chairman of Archetype Discoveries Worldwide, he helps Fortune 500 companies discover the unconscious associations for their products - the simple "code" - that will help them sell to consumers: "When you learn a word, whatever it is, "coffee," "love," "mother," there is always a first time. There's a first time to learn everything. The first time you understand, you imprint the meaning of this word; you create a mental connection that you're going to keep using the rest of your life. So actually every word has a mental highway. I call that a code, an unconscious code in the brain." This interview was conducted on December 15, 2003. When we [are] born, we have the reptilian brain. The reptilian brain is there already. It's part of survival; it's breathing, eating, going to the bathroom. But then, in relationship with the mother, we develop the second brain, which is the limbic brain -- emotions -- and these emotions vary from one culture to another. In the relationship with your mother, you're going to imprint, make mental connection about what means love, what means mother, what means being fed, what means a home, what means all the things that are very basic for survival. [These] are transmitted by the mother to you, and you create this mental connection in the brain -- like a reference system, if you want, that you keep using. After a while, this system becomes unconscious. You do not even think about it. You know "Oh, this is a house; of course this is a house." Well, for a lot of people around the world, this is not a house. A house might be a tent or made of ice or whatever, but this is not their reference system. It might be different for others. Then, after 7, we have in place the cortex. The cortex is the last part of the brain that we develop, and that's what we suppose to be "intelligent." We are scientists, you know -- numbers and stuff like that. Now, what is interesting is the cortex, we [are] kind of aware of that. We try to be intelligent, but the reptilian [part] we are not very much aware of it, and the limbic is more or less completely unconscious. These levels are very different from one culture to another. Some cultures are very reptilian, which means very basic instinct. American culture is a very basic instinct: I want to be reached now; let's do it. [There's a] bias for action. Just now, [America is] very adolescent when other cultures are more cortex, very control, control, control. The German, the French are very controlled. They want the government to control everything, the state, the bureaucracy, the administration. The ideal life for a German person is when they just have to obey; the administration is in charge of everything and controls everything, and you don't have to worry about anything. We don't like that. We Americans, we like to have choices: My own life, I want to become whatever I am; whatever it is doesn't matter, but I want to become myself -- not something else, not what people tell me. So I'm not telling you one culture is good or bad, but just different."
My source: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6575829334936135767

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• psychology
• marketing

[EdwardJellico]

People talk about how disgusting this is and then go out and buy the stupid products these people are marketing to you. Perhaps the ultimate irony.

[csasba]

"If you're in Marketing kill yourself.

This isn't a lead in to a joke, this isn't part of the act. Just kill yourself."

-Bill Hicks

[1111atreides]

These comments reveal, I believe, the fundamental difference between liberals and conservatives. Liberals believe the masses are dumb and need protection from their own stupidity. Conservatives believe the masses should be held accountable for their own stupidity. I'll admit I ALMOST bought a Grand Am because of Jean Luc Picard but I would have called myself a dumbass for doing so, not whined to corporate America.

[dajupe]

nice way to freak out the black dude. sheez.

[gregtennant]

"The lizard's not going to listen to the environmentalist." Really? Why? Lizards don't want to go extinct any more than mammals do.

Maybe environmentalists don't know how to speak to lizards yet, and they should learn how.

[gregtennant]

"The lizard's not going to listen to the environmentalist." Really? Why? Lizards don't want to go extinct any more than mammals do.

Maybe environmentalists don't know how to speak to lizards yet, and they should learn how.

[jesusisbling]

Edward Bernays ... The Century of the Self.... Google it, watch it....

[khh1964]

my grandpa was a dairy farmer (Wisconsin) his entire life, cheese sat on the table.....

[Dekar41]

bigger cars show dominance...doesn't take a genius to understand that

[comeonewtf]

The cheese is dead. It's in a body bag.

[ashkanrabbit]

Cats out the sealed plastic cheese bag.

[TheHollywoodH2O]

Karl Treacher Says: This is a very poor representation of an industry that can actually help people interact with the things that suit them best & enhance their lives. In the US, marketing / branding means something very different from elsewhere in the world. In the US it is all about accelerating consumerism and fighting for share of wallet. This incredibly basic and a long way from what those of us who actually understand humanity live. Greed interfering with life.