Comments on: Non Conventional Tips For Executives: Saving on market research by tapping into natural insights. Remote viewing ability and its applications in marketing and advertising

By: Sam Kumar

Sam Kumar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 20:05:30 +0000

Here’s an interesting discussion about why this approach my find difficulty in getting adoption in executive suites.

Why managers won’t think: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5952.html

It also lists some of the “deep metaphors” used by Zaltman.

I also can’t resist recommending George Lakoff’s books on metaphor, _Metaphors we live by_ and _Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things_. Some of his recent books have been more topical, as some of these cognitive approaches have proven very effective for influencing national politics.

By: Sam Kumar

Sam Kumar — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:06:05 +0000

This reminds me of Gerald Zaltman’s book _How Customers Think_. He says that surveying customers and just implementing what they say often fails. It fails because it’s too surface level, and doesn’t plumb the depths of customers’ needs and desires. A better approach is to understand how customers metaphorically think and feel about the market. His approach has customers pick pictures and create collages, narrate the reasons for their choices, and construct a deeper understanding of their vision. Steve Jobs famously didn’t use focus groups to design the iPhone; he worked at understanding their feelings and desires to arrive at a design.

More about Zaltman here: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/14/zaltman.html

More metaphysically, there’s also the story of how Barabara McClintock won the Nobel prize for the discovery of transposons and their role in the evolution of corn. After breeding many generations of maize, she felt that by listening to what the corn was telling her through their patterns of white and dark kernels, she arrived at her insights on their genetics. This immersion seems to open the mind to a new level of insight.

By: Sahara

Sahara — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 23:54:43 +0000

This is not Bull at all… In fact, one of the big reasons people (marketers)
fail is because they do not actually care about the client — They will
say or do whatever they think will persuade/induce/trick the buyer into
buying. Your post has a much bigger implication — that we are all connected
and we are all wanting the same things.

So, yes, I know remote viewing is possible and that it is not difficult to learn.
I learned how in a weekend seminar with Silva Mind Control way back in the
early 80’s. It works — but if you try to use it to manipulate others… you will
lose the ability. It seems — for me at least — to require that I actually care
about the people I am trying to see/read/understand.

The world is awakening to what the Buddha and many ohers have taught
all along — that you get back what you give out. If you try to cheat or
manipulate others — you will be cheated and manipulated.

If, as a marketer, you truly desire to provide real value to your customers,
then their minds and hearts will be open to you — and you will be able to
“read” their minds.

Getting into an alpha state is key — it slows your mind to the frequency
of the Earth’s communication channel, where we can all “phone”
one another just by “seeing” it so.

OK, I’ll get off my soapbox — but I am just saying that I agree with you
that marketers and other business professions could benefit greatly by
thinking not only “out of the box,” but also out of the mind (the logical
and rational mind that is in denial of reality).