September 8, 2004
note to self: synapses
NOTE TO SELF:
Your job is no longer about selling. Your job is about firing off as many synapses in your client
Hugh MacLeod
I'm a cartoonist.
I sell limited-edition prints.
I wrote a book.
I'm CEO of Stormhoek USA, which markets South African wine in the States.
I also draw private commissions.
Prints |
Opening | Current |
|---|---|---|
Bluetrain |
$900 | |
We Need to Talk |
$650 | |
Portfolio #2 |
$300 | |
NY NY |
$275 |
Ab.so.lute.ly.
Even as a teenager, I knew I bought clothes (or fabrics to sew clothes) in service of “what I shall be, where I shall go, whom I shall meet and what it will do for Who I Am.” I can find where every purchase, indeed every choice, still reverberates back to that.
For instance my last new food blender, which doesn’t blend well enough even to get rid of ripe-avocado lumps, was bought because it had a chef’s-kitchen look, and to help me make summer soup not only to FeedTheBody but to serve to lunch guests, to be the one with bragging rights to memorable cold soup and published recipes, to enjoy the sublime creamy pastel colors of the soup and the associated reverie of European settings and styles and convivial meals. *Meaning*, some of it through the senses, but all of it meaning. Even ritual. And when it really works, all components in place, liturgy.
I should really toss the blender and get one that works. But the literalness of lumpy food is only a small percentage of the equation.
Does this FRIGHTEN anyone else? Aren’t dopamines the same originator in any addictive activity? Could a product trap someone in an addiction like gambling? Or should we just say that the gambling industry is doing a very good job in promoting their product? I realize that almost ANY tactic we use in marketing is focused upon the same biochemical goal (albeit some on a much smaller scale), but it just chills my blood to state it like this. Reminds me of the mental state of those zombies in “Resident Evil.”
Afraid you’re right, Eric. According to Dante, anything good can be misused, any love can be misapplied and disordered. It’s Maya and Samsara, we may as well get used to it and make our way as ethically as possible.
I only wanted to say that I like your work very much; I think it is quite clever. Anyway, I also wanted you to know that I have used some of your images. Giving you all the credit, of course.
Nevertheless, if you would prefer me to take down the images from my blog I will. Just let me know.
Not one of your better cards Hugh. Surely advertising is easiest at the beginning — when you do believe — whatever you believe. It’s the ability to keep on going in the face of the tiny amount of wisdom you learn which is the soul poisoner. Youth, ignorance and a real strong desire to own a Porshe is what gets you in. Maybe trying to get out is the real test certain people are put here on this Earth to endure.
Meantime creating a new cult for yourself — “We are here to find meaning” — is about the furthest thing from spirituality as you can get. It’s spirtuality-lite. Buy-a-world-view. Pret-A-Perspective.
Do I believe that people differentiate themselves by what they want to own/try to own/try to look as if they own from others because they believe that few will ever get past a superficial reading of their being and need sterotypical-demographical driven pointers to make the grey-areas just a little bit more charcoal towards the edges for those they need to impress? Sure. Do I believe that the right collection of objects will transport these same demanding shoppers to another plane of contemplation? Bollocks.
Oh, your customer may cut you off because you haven’t micro-niched his or her desires for that particular minute of that particular afternoon when they thought for a nanosecond they might try something NEW, but underneath, they’re still running on the same rule-set. Make me beautiful. Make me feel beautiful. Make beutiful people want to be with me. Make me feel beautiful in my choice.
As long as that choice is to purchase.
For choosing NOT to purchase, for NOT throwing something away, for NOT needing approval through appearances, — well, I wouldn’t call it a spiritual movement, but I would call it one step closer to “a big idea”.
Well, Ben, we make choices to NOT purchase every day, and to purchase. Life is messy and complex.
Even higher beings are capable of choosing the great taste of Pepsi over Coke
Not one of your better replies Hugh.
Sorry, Ben. I must try harder in future
Seriously, though, you had some interesting points. But please do not think I’m trying to be some kind of marketing-is-vehicle-for-personal-salvation guru.
My point in Hughtrain is simply this: “We humans want to believe in our own species. And we want people, companies and products in our lives that make it easier to do so. That is human nature.”
Feel free to disagree with that, by all means. I’d like to see the arguments.
Thanks for the feedback, Everybody =)
The late comedian Bill Hicks had similar things to say about advertising. He said, “If you work in advertising, please, kill yourself now!”
I think the problem comes down to the definition of an “emotional” reaction to a product and a “spiritual” reaction to the same. You can’t say you want the customer to have a spiritual interaction with your company/product while at the same time looking to biologically stimulate their dopamines. Call me fundamentalist, but spirituality is NOT the “drug of the masses,” and you can’t substitute Christianity (or whatever religion) for a Coke. Spiritual reactions are NOT the next level of emotional ones.
I will agree with you here, though: I want that customer to associate greater, newer, more different and more intense emotions with my product than ever before.
If I work for a beer company, I don’t want them to just remember how it tastes, I want them to remember the incredibly hot girl they talked with at the club last night over a couple of bottles.
If I work for an airline, I don’t want them to just remember the in-flight meal (or lack thereof), I want them to remember how the flight attendent helped them get their luggage through security in time to make their flight to Pittsburgh, because this was the weekend they were popping the question.
If I work for Gerber (Hugh), I don’t want the mom to remember “well, the baby didn’t spit up this one,” I want her to feel more secure that she’s helping her child get the best start on life by giving his body everything it needs to grow.
Yes, I want my customers to have a gut-feeling deeply positive emotional reaction to my company and my product. I just think that’s a completely different animal than something spiritual.
Wow. That was much longer than I intended it to be…