I have recently finished a book that stole my attentions
like none has in many years. It’s by British
neuropsychiatrist Iain McGilchrist. Its
title is The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the
Western World.
Though it is very well written – even charming at times – it may not be an easy read for some people not accustomed to reading science books – in this case, brain science. I suggest looking at readers’ reviews at Amazon to get a feel for the book. It is a truly amazing book.
The central theme of The Master is that the Western mind has become so dominated by the left hemisphere of the brain as to imperil humanity’s future. Now, while that might sound extreme, keep in mind that we live in extreme times that seem to be getting more and more extreme.
McGilchrist examines the influence of the brain’s hemispheres on Western Culture over a 2,500-year period. You can see a summary of his ideas in the Wall Street Journal here . It's worth taking a look at.
Aside from McGilchrist’s concern that we may be slipping
into a dystopian world (the opposite of a utopian world) such as profiled in Brave New World, 1984 and Fahrenheit 451,
his descriptions of the differences between the two hemispheres are memorable
for their clarity and detail. I say this from the perspective of many years of
reading books about the brain. McGilchrist’s is without peer in its insights
into the brain’s hemispheres.
The Master has
much to offer readers, including the marketing crowd that is the largest group
of readers of this blog.
For example, he describes why the left brain is resistant to new
information regardless of how brilliantly it is presented. Further, the left
brain will generally not process new information coming into the brain unless
it has first been processed by the right brain. Knowing that, you should never
again freight an ad with copious details about the features of a product. It
simply will not get processed.
Instead of telling customers how great your products or services are tell
a story. I know you’ve heard that before, but how often do marketers really
take that advice to heart?
The right brain pays attention to stories but not lectures. Stories
should be word pictures because the right brain’s command of verbal language is
somewhat primitive. It is the visual side of the brain, so the pictures it
gets. The verbal arguments it does not.
You will find insights in The Master that could also help you with clients and others you work with/for. As an example, when you present a new idea, especially an out-of-the-box idea to a client or colleagues and get a negative response, it is almost certainly their left brains that are giving you thumbs down. Like your leg popping up when the doctor cracks you on your knee with a rubber hammer, the left brain reflexively rejects new information that does not conform to the model of reality it already has in place.
In contrast, the right brain lusts for novelty. So, if you want to sell an out-of-the-box idea to someone, start by getting the emotional, curious and story-conscious right brain involved. It is the portal to the left brain and if it likes what it sees, it will yank on the left brain’s chain to let it know to listen up and pay attention.
On a related topic, I find it interesting that marketers for some of the biggest brands (Coke is one such) have devoted considerable attention to electronic scanning consumer brains when they might more gainfully study consumers’ brains from a behavioral perspective. Hitachi now markets a brain analyzer to marketers that they clip on to consumers’ heads. I’m not a Luddite, but I think spending time learning about consumers’ behavior offers more to the marketer than reading lines on an electroencephalograph.
Maybe I’m just old-fashioned.
David,
I would seem this is exactly what Coke used to do with the I'd like to tach the world to sing and later the mean Joe Green campaigns. Any idea why they abandoned them in favor of polar bears and whatever they are doing today?
Posted by: Dick Ambrosius | May 05, 2010 at 08:59 AM
Though they were great successes I think luck more than knowledge of why they would work was involved. Clearly, Coke's marketers come up short in understanding their customers -- a fact established by the dismal failure of New Coke.
Posted by: David Wolfe | May 06, 2010 at 10:01 AM