In Public Broadcasting Service’s documentary, The Persuaders, personnel in the advertisement industry are attempting to discover the key in finding the secrets of the consumer’s mind. Song Airlines, a branch company set up by Delta, was a project they established to test certain marketing beliefs. Market research gurus like Clotaire Rapaille and Frank Luntz are both two men leading this field of marketing research. Although their practices are completely different they are both striving to achieve the same goal.
In the midst of a failing economy, Delta set up Song Airlines to prove that they were still one of the best. Delta want to show us that by setting up Song Airlines, “They to can compete with hip low cost carriers like Jet Blue.” Song set up a team of marketers to decide on the best way to reach out to their audience. The team decide the best way to gain customers was to target women and focus on what they would want in an airline. To do this, Song’s marketing team hired the designer Andy Spade to develop their image. At this point in time, I’m not exactly sure if it was wise of Delta to attempt to start up a completely new airline. Instead I believe they should have put their money toward modifying their current airline rather than attempting to start from scratch. The idea to mainly focus on the interests of women and focus on the homey feel wasn’t too intelligent. Rather than finding a common ground to catch the eye of both men and women, Song only focused on the one gender and lost buyers rather than gaining them.
Clotaire Rapaille’s theory was if he could understand a persons unconscious mind, then he could unlock the secret that give them the desire to consume. By going inside of the mind of the American shopper Rapaille is able to decipher the code of why people do what they do without even realizing it. Rapaille said, “Why does a person need a Hummer to go shopping,” to prove the point that people do thing for unknown reasons. Rapaille’s theories are brilliant. By making a person do a certain task with out thinking allowed Rapaille into the unconscious mind. Once he was able to see what the person truly wanted, his employers could simply give the consumer what they wanted.
Like Rapaille, Frank Luntz knew giving the consumer what they wanted was the key to increasing sales. Although they shared this common belief Luntz had a different way to accomplish the idea. Once he figured out what a person wanted, his job wasn’t finished. Luntz believed by wording what you were trying to say in a certain way, you could sell anything. By carefully choosing certain words Luntz though he could persuade his targeted audience to vote a certain way or buy certain products. No matter what anyone cares to believe, Luntz’s ideas work. For example he was able to change how people viewed the Estate Tax by changing on simple word, estate to death. By changing the name to the Death Tax, Luntz destroyed all remaining support to the Estate Tax.
Although marketing teams are trying to achieve the same goal, to sell their product, they have different theories on how to make their goal reality. In some cases their theories work, but in other they fail and people loose their jobs. Rapaille and Luntz are both very intelligent men with brilliant ideas. They both have proven that their ideas work and due to years of observations and listening they have figured out some reasons why consumers consume. The rest still remains a mystery.
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