I agree with marketing to the limbic system to a certain extent. I find that Lynella Grant is somewhat terse in her explanation of the subject. Of course, I enjoy the spoils of selling the ‘sizzle’ over the ‘steak’ as much as the next person – that is, when I’m doing it for your health and well being.
What specifically worries me about marketing to ‘id’ and ‘ego’ as opposed to higher brain functions over the long run as that it tends to perpetuate that type of thinking. Look where we are now because we submit to our baser instincts: “Civilised” people submit to economic tyranny, and legalised evils such as dangerous drugs and artificial fluoridation while our freedoms are eroded by evil politicians with delusions of god-hood by threat of “terrorism.” Unless you are one of the corporate giants who live in ivory towers far above the mediocrity, you have to care about the (in)actions and attitudes all around you.
Haven’t you every wondered why kids these days are so careless? They are the offspring of sensationalistic mainstream corporate marketing to YOUR limbic system. That’s Right.
You may ask “what’s wrong with that?” First, let’s look at the definition we are given in school: “It is the limbic system that contains all the primitive reflexes for our individual survival. The thirst and hunger mechanisms are initiated here, for we cannot survive without water and food…”
Humanity lives, first, according to basic survival mechanisms. Health, wealth, and well being, safety, happiness, and freedom are secondary to our basic survival mechanisms. Admit it: Most of us will give up any of those characteristics that MAKE US HUMAN in order to survive. Allow me to rephrase that: MOST PEOPLE ARE WILLING TO GIVE UP PART OR ALL OF THEIR HUMANITY IN ORDER TO SURVIVE.
For example, in order to keep other aspects of his humanity, a mediocre person might give up his real freedoms for the illusion of freedom, then give up another aspect, then another – just for survival. You will discover soon how mainstream marketers sell “feelings” (i.e. illusions of feelings) to sell their products.
Can I make an admission to you? I run into enough careless, numbskull products of society everyday that I know who are subjects of mainstream media right away. These types of people are gullible and highly suggestible – for a reason. Mentalists like Derren Brown know who they are, so he uses them for entertainment.
Dr. Derrick Londsdale puts it best at this article on health factors wherein he points out how malnutrition causes higher brain functions to revert back to the primitive limbic system.
That’s another problem with marketing to the limbic over the long term: Corporations selling their fast food, junk food utilising the most sensational commercials under the guide of astute psychological marketing experts. Meanwhile the people imbibe empty calories lacking proper nutrition, in turn making generations of babies suffering from malnutrition maladies, so they end up having careless, prayless kids who couldn’t care less if the world around them goes to hell in a hand basket – while our freedom to take proper amounts of essential nutrients and supplements to maintain our health is eroded away by Nazi death camps that exist under the guise of public health organisations.
Oh Hell Yeah, I’m being abrasive. But I’m still speaking from a healing mind when I say these things. Sometimes, you have to wake a person up to reality before their higher thought processes register. Fortunately, I know the people I’m insulting are more likely watching violence on TV or playing violent video games rather than reading this.
Yes, marketing to people’s baser instincts can be lucrative – IN THE SHORT TERM. Lynella fails to point out the pitfalls of marketing to lower level thinking in the long term: Eventually, she and her loved ones will cross pathes with lower level thinkers, possibly with dire consequences. Eventually, the same happens to us and our loved ones.
Big industry has been enjoying the windfall from marketing through mainstream media to your pleasure and survival instincts – to your own detriment. You see what I mean as I provide specific examples in blockquotes such as these under Lynella’s vague references.
by Lynella Grant
If you’ve driven yourself crazy trying to figure out why so many customers get away, relax. You can’t figure it out because it’s not logical. The impulse that makes people buy from one business instead of another is no more logical than the baying of an elk’s mating call. In fact, it works exactly the same way, through the limbic system.
The limbic system is instinctive because its older than language, faster than thinking. It controls trust. It controls attention and desire. Logic must stand aside until the limbic part of the brain decides something is trustworthy. In primitive times it was constantly alert for danger. Detecting threats spelled the difference between life and death. That function is still important today (although the risks are different).
Stop right there. Let’s talk about those “risks” for a moment. First, let’s talk about the cause behind the risk. Secondary autonomic reflexes are taught to us through our presiding culture.
For instance, we display “knee-jerk” reactions to sensitive subjects like sexuality by prudish parents and other “teachers.” Kids end up hating that reaction and – Voilà – here comes Hollywood to save the day with teen sex movies pandering to baser instincts rather than education – then kids end up being sequestered by their peers if they haven’t seen the latest teen sex movie or heard the latest porno-oriented rap album or succumb to peer pressures.
Average Kids are specifically trained to be addicted to video games through sensationalistic marketing, first through marketing, then through the game itself. Then the parents are trained through a mainstream media mixture of half-truths to have “knee-jerk” reactions to video games that they are somehow good for their kids. “Why would they lie?” is the paw parrot response. “If we can’t trust the media, who can we trust?” is their trance logic response.
People living in a decadent culture succumb to authority figures who represent their beliefs. Mainstream media is treated as an “authority” figure in decadent culture. In the report by Alan Hall from the Socionomics Institute, “Authoritarianism: The Wave Principle Governs Fear and The Social Desire to Submit,” we can see how beliefs based in fear cause people to succumb to authorities who represent their fears.
Mainstream marketers are deeply dependent on those mainstream, “knee-jerk” reactions, so they know how the general public thinks and reacts; they depend on those learned, cultural responses. Albeit, they are irrational, they are also dependable demographic responses which drive the economy for a decadent culture.
I hope that I have not insulted my reader insofar. I happen to know you’re here because you are above the mediocrity of which I speak.
Court the limbic system. Provide reasons for the limbic mind to be interested in you. Let it get to know and like your personality, the unique flavor of the business. Once it decides it’s interested (or not), it hands the matter off to logic, which waits to be called up.
The logical mind evaluates the arguments and facts. It considers the pros and cons and arrives at its best choice.
The mind then defers the final decision back to the limbic mind; it says Yes or No. The final decision isn’t logical, and rational thinking plays a secondary role. Although it’s willing to let you think it runs the show, that’s not true.
Step Four – Action = the sale–if you’ve done it right; or a missed opportunity
Step 2 is supposed to come after Step 1, but sales people usually want it first. It doesn’t work that way. Most Web sites and business ads start directly with logic, unaware of the vital importance of the limbic system. But getting the buyer to purchase without its blessing is a long shot.
You ever heard the phrase “sell the sizzle – not the steak?” Mainstream marketers are talking about feelings. Mainstream marketers actually believe they are “selling feelings.” They believe that the item they sell is the delivery device for those feelings. In a way, they’re right.
When a drug company advertises sunshine, happy faces, and floating like a butterfly, they are advertising feelings which their target market seeks to obtain. Never mind all the rancid side effects mildly reported with gentle, soft spoken voices amid the happy, flowing feelings and the green, green grass in that commercial. That big pharma company knows they sold their product because they sold all those “good, wholesome” feelings to their otherwise suffering target market.
Another example is a car commercial. What about that catchy tune playing in extra high fidelity over the airwaves with the heavy backbeat? Doesn’t that grab you as you watch the “conquering hero” power his way through unbeaten pathes in his big, potent SUV? Intense feelings of potency and power are being sold to their otherwise impotent target market.
As you see, human frailty is the target of these advertising techniques. These commercials are carefully crafted to fill an emotional void caused by decadent society. Feeling threatened by “terrorism?” Voilà. Here comes the terrorist pushers to make you feel “safe” (by ripping another one in the constitution). Let’s face the facts: Mainstream marketers believe that they are selling you your reality since your reality is based on your feelings – and they are selling you your feelings. How does that feel to you when I say that?
Successful businesses make more money because they speak to the deeper (emotional or instinctive) concerns of their specific market. They engage their buyer’s limbic mind in a unique and noteworthy way–a way that matters to them. The value of that company’s products and services, which are seldom unique to them, are secondary to making that strong limbic connection. The ability to do so doesn’t depend on their size, bankroll, or how long they’ve been around, but on understanding what their customers really want.
You need to send a “mating call” of attraction. By knowing your buyer’s desires, you understand they’re looking not just for products or services, but the good feelings that they expect to go with them. Your ability to deliver that feeling, in a variety of ways, is evidence of your enhanced value to them. They buy because they want that intangible “something” that makes you stand out from the rest.
In a nutshell, fill that emotional void and you sell your product. All you need to do to recognise how that void stems from negative social mood. In fact, the stock market is one of the best indicators of social mood: Negative mood = bear market, Positive mood = bull market. In the report by Alan Hall of the Socionomics Institute, “How Will the New Social Psychology Affect Military Action?” We see how negative social mood has led to war. Social mood is perpetuated by mainstream news reports since they guide public opinion.
Another example is to study the demographics of a market. For instance, If you’re selling dating services, then look for where there are the most available singles and/or swingers on the dating scene. When you find that area, then you know you’ve found a place where there are the most unsatisfied relationships and unrequited love. The people in these areas have emotional voids that may never be fulfilled; they’re like bottomless pits because they’re so spiritually bereft. They don’t understand love. Therefore, there are other markets that can sublimate those voids such as fattening fast foods which can substitute for love…
When people allow their opinions to be influenced through the pleasure center of their limbic systems, they are using that product to sublimate that emotional void. For example, there are a lot of impotent guys out there, so they accept the illusion that a body deodorant has women going crazy over them. Although it’s an illusion, it’s instant potency.
A buyer’s limbic system decides in an instant and doesn’t change its mind. That part of the mind constantly scans for one of two things: What it likes (attraction) and, equally important, what it dislikes or fears. Anything else hardly rates a notice, indifference, and that includes most information. It has already decided from the context even before the words are heard or read.
This kind of inflexible thinking goes back to the constructs of belief. An integral Part of that “knee-jerk” response trained into secondary autonomic behaviours is rigidity in thinking. Most people believe that they are being “strong willed” by not caving into ideas that contradict their reality. In fact, this is an amazing weakness by which marketers take complete advantage according to the following rules: People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.
If this sounds political to you, then You’re Right. Hitler used these rules and nearly took over the world. Cult leaders, Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Marshall Applewhite used these rules and commanded such loyalty that many of their followers willingly – even eagerly – died for them.
Yet, these rules are not only tools for madmen, but for entertainers, evangelists, marketers, politicians, salesmen, seducers, etc.
Yes, we have crossed into unholy territories: People who market to the limbic system to take advantage of human frailties are devil’s advocates. These are not healing minds. These are evil minds.
Don’t assume the limbic mind is only alert to face-to-face exchanges. Printed materials, ads, Websites, packaging, facilities and every other component of your operation all must face its scrutiny; it can spot the inconsistent signals you don’t even know you’re sending. You can make your business limbic-friendly with no more expense or effort than you already spend.
Jarring or inconsistent signals turn the limbic mind off. They may seem minor, but they cost you big time. The limbic mind doesn’t decide by words (content), but by more subtle signals that people send without intending to (context). Its reaction is almost instantaneous. It can be fickle, if you don’t continue to amuse, or if you fail to deliver. It can also be determinedly loyal when the connection forged with him/her is strong and personal.
Remember to be a reliable devil’s advocate. Become reliable by filling that emotional void on a regular basis. Always fulfill their reality by following these simple rules: People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.
Make people feel sexy and loved with your product – no matter how disgusting and unhealthy it might be. Deliver those feelings with your product on a regular basis to an otherwise emotionally impotent target market, so you can have regular customers.
Fulfill their perspective on reality and keep it full; this means pushing objectivity and logic only insofar as it fulfills the reality of your target market. Mix lies with truth when half truths aren’t enough.
By wooing the limbic system, you’ll get the attention of the only buyer that matters (the ones with money). So assess your business practices and promotional materials to ensure they acknowledge its crucial involvement. When they’re limbic-friendly, all your other sales efforts will yield greater returns.
There are two things that mediocre people crave. If there are two things that lower level, compulsive, suggestible, gullible, “knee-jerk” people crave, it’s authority and instant gratification. Think about it. What’s the number one unnatural thing that has had kids addicted for centuries since it was discovered?
What is the danger of combining processed sugar consumption with limbic system gratification?
Pure processed sugar is instantly gratifying to the limbic system; then the kids get used to it. Read that article again by Dr. Lonsdale on what happens to the central nervous system when we bypass all the natural flavours and complexities in natural, unprocessed foods on a regular basis. That processed sugar is instant gratification on a silver platter, so kids get addicted to instant gratification – not necessarily the sugar itself; you see, that sugar also carries sensual and emotional gratification along with it, albeit, temporary. And you know as well as I do that sugar is not the only addictive thing…
Where does authority come in? Authority comes in the form of parents or other “authority” figures who serve up that sugar under the pretense of rewards and treats. Most people don’t understand that kids are especially sensitive and susceptible to sensually and emotionally addictive substances; their young sensibilities are not matured enough to understand seduction of their senses – especially when they are instantly gratified.
Parents and teachers think they’re rewarding kids for a job well done at Krispy Kritter Donuts, then wonder why their kids cry uncontrollably after they eat their sugar. Parents and teachers are condemning kids at a young age to a life of addiction to instant gratification, a characteristic unbecoming of high achievers (as I discuss at the Law of Attraction article).
What happens when these kids grow up? They become adults addicted to instant gratification. They become victims of their own addictions. I can fill volumes with what adults of this nature do, but I’ll leave that to the soap operas, horror movies, porno movies, and every kind of bizarre fetish. I’ll provide a few key examples:
Victims go deep into debt because they want to be instantly gratified with something they don’t have rather than save their money properly. The “authority” figure at the bank says “it’s OK” because they have “good credit,” so they can take plenty of time to pay off their debt…
Victims get into deep trouble with their neighbors. They tend to react to situations violently rather than think them through. Violence is instantly gratifying to these people. This is especially true when their “authority” figures justify the violence – or even better – provide a mode for that violence.
Did the Victims think about how to stop the “terrorists” after 9/11? No. They simply went along with “authority” for the instant gratification of a violent reaction to someone who was known to be connected with the terrorists.
The problem with that solution is that same “authority” was also known to be connected with the same “terrorists” at least a few times in the past. As a result, Victims allow further restrictions of their freedoms as they succumb to their reality based in fear.
What do you do as a marketer in this situation? You do the same thing you did before. Your target market was instantly gratified with your actions before, therefore, you can do the same again – even under false pretenses.
Under the guise of “defending freedom” and finding “weapons of mass destruction,” an entire country became subject to genocide from depleted uranium weaponry – all in the name of instant gratification of the Victims.
Yes, these are the pitfalls of marketing to the limbic system. Now, look at the trouble we’re in… Of course, the Victims do not accept the reality of this situation because they are too “strong willed…”
The authority figure in this situation also followed ALL the rules for marketing to the limbic system: People will do anything for those who encourage their dreams, justify their failures, allay their fears, confirm their suspicions, and help them throw rocks at their enemies.
Obviously, when you do one or more these things with the intention of providing instant gratification to your target market, you have a customer for life. Unfortunately, that life is unnaturally short because the limbic system has been trained to believe all the crap that’s been handed to it as “good and safe.”
I apologise for the vitriol. I know that I’m not insulting my readers because I know you’re above the mediocrity. I’m only blunt and harsh when necessary, but this is a blunt, harsh reality that was handed to me as well.
I hope the readers of this article understand these harsh realities. You should further understand as an advocate of good healing minds everywhere that the same methods may not work to “snap” docile minds out of their lower level thinking.
“Shocking the monkey” may work on monkeys, but we’re still human here – no matter what. We are spiritual beings intimately attached to physical bodies. This is the reason why I completely advocate higher level, spiritual feelings as opposed to “logic” which is easily blocked and defeated by the critical faculties of compulsive, “knee jerk” thought patterns.
Yes, I can work the limbic system like a devil’s advocate, but I happen to know that humanity is better than that. We just need a wake up call. No, not another 9/11 – something more on the order of Rahab, a wake up call – from God. Thanks for your time.
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