Tweet This!The Golden Paradise …
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Saturday night is movie night at my house. That’s when my wife and I curl up on the couch, pop the cork on a nice bottle of wine, and relax.
It’s usually some chick flick or another. And I’m OK with that. But this Saturday night was different.
We watched a movie called “Laurel Canyon.” Yes, I know that sounds like a chick flick. But hang in there …
Meet Jane … one of the central characters.
Jane is a hard-living, free-thinking rock-and-roll record producer, who happens to own a lavish mansion in Laurel Canyon, a suburb of LA.
Her character is based loosely on folk rock icon Joni Mitchell, who actually lived in Laurel Canyon in the 60s. As you can see, Jane looks like something out of Woodstock.
The Laurel Canyon property is vacant, and Jane’s straight-laced son and his super-conservative bride-to-be, Alex, are scheduled to move in.
Sam detests his mother’s bohemian lifestyle, but will be interning as a psychiatrist at Julliard while Alex prepares her doctoral dissertation in genomics. And they desperately need a place to bunk — just for a couple of weeks.
Then at the last minute Jane needs a place to record. And it just so happens there is a studio at her Laurel Canyon home. So before Sam and Alex’s plane even touches down at LAX, Jane, her latest boyfriend, Ian, and his band, have already moved in.
Upon Sam and Alex’s arrival at Laurel Canyon, Jane offers Alex a haul on the communal bong … to which Alex politely declines. And Sam and Alex settle uncomfortably into one of the guestrooms.
Can you see where this is going? Free sex, booze, drugs, and rock-and-roll put together with a couple of serious, intellectual prudes.
Each day Sam heads off to the hospital, and Alex works away in their room on her paper while the band records.
Every once in a while they bump into each other in the hallway or kitchen with hilarious consequences.
Eventually Jane coaxes Alex into the studio as an impartial ear. And the next thing you know they’re laughing and joking and passing joints around.
Then one night Sam calls to say he’ll be home late. And Alex is all alone looking on as Jane and her boyfriend carouse in the pool.
One thing leads to another and the next thing you know Alex is in the pool with Jane and Ian and our once shy, uptight heroine is playing tonsil hockey with both of them.
Lots of room for the plot to thicken from this point forward, and it did. But the main point that makes this movie interesting, to me at least, is the way it plays with the conflict between the thinking, rational side of human life, and the sensual, emotional side.
This movie was endearing because it showed Alex getting back in touch with her inner child. She gradually changed from being inhibited and uptight, like an adult, to spontaneous and alive, like a child. And we loved watching that transformation. Why?
Because that’s what we all secretly long for. We don’t like to admit it, but we long to regress … to shed our stiff, hardened, adult shell, and vent the wild, childish emotions that linger beneath the surface.
The responsibilities of adult life are so burdensome and unrelenting that most of us tend to sentimentalize our childhood — like a golden paradise lost.
Dependent and carefree, life was full of fun and wonderment then. Impulsive, trusting, courageous, and spontaneous, we lived our lives in a state of pure joy. That’s how we like to remember our childhoods anyway.
And if we feel we suffered as children in some way, we crave the fantasy all the more. Our repressed yearnings to reconnect with the simple, uninterrupted bliss that childhood represents are even more intense.
The more stoic and seemingly dedicated to duty and responsibility a person is, the more vulnerable they are to anyone who knows how to rekindle their childhood dependencies. It’s a constant, tiresome battle to keep the inner child bottled up inside.
Encourage his escape in your marketing, and you can transform careful, cynical, calculating shoppers into spontaneous, trusting, impulse buyers.
Indeed, the careful crafting of your selling
persona is central to this objective …
The first bond — between a mother and her infant — is the most powerful bond of them all. A mother’s love in this context is unconditional. The child is smothered in warmth and affection, and can do no wrong.
In adulthood, many of us crave to be shielded from the harsh judgments of the world.
We long to plunge into a warm womb of loving attention and swaddling comfort … free to do anything we please, whenever we want, never judged, even if we behave badly.
Can you think of a marketing persona who triggers this kind of infantile regression?
Sure, Richard Simmons. Richard doesn’t care how many bonbons you snuck out of the cupboard last night … or what kind of fibs you told about how many hops, skips and jumps you did yesterday.
He loves you just the same, darlin’ — UNCONDITIONALLY. You can still come and play in his clubhouse.
“We’re all here together, trying to do the same thing - trying to stay positive, trying to eat healthy, and trying to get the exercise in. So if you need us, we’re here for you! That’s why I love my site so. It helps people, and that’s what I’m all about. Join the Clubhouse, and let’s get started once and for all!”
I love the tentative language. If Richard’s customers ever stopped trying and started doing … what would they need him for?
Every market segment is different, of course. There are those that find Richard’s brand of absolute regression a little smothering and intense. For them, a later stage of childhood proves more alluring.
After the bond between mother and child, comes the pre-pubescent oedipal triangle of mother, child, and father.
A boy wants his mother to himself, a girl wants the same with her father, but they can never have it this way. Unconditional love is gone. And now, the loving parent must instill some discipline and deny some of the child’s selfish whims.
Children actually love a little discipline. It makes them feel the parent cares for them. And certain markets are filled with adult children who will be thrilled as well when you show them a little tough love.
Dr. Phil’s persona is a prime example of this dynamic at play.
While Simmons molly coddles you with kindness, tells you it’s not your fault, and helps you to “try,” Dr. Phil calls you on your crap. And some people just love him for that.
What is your excuse for being fat? "I don’t have time to work out? I’m too busy working?" Get real!
Life Law #1 is "You either get it or you don’t." What is making you fat? It isn’t your schedule or your metabolism or your willpower. Stop making excuses. Stop choosing to be overweight.
Still other market segments respond best to a regression that corresponds to the rebelliousness of adolescent years.
Here, rather than trying to personify a parental role model, the pitchman personally exemplifies the regression, seducing us with a childlike naturalness.
Adult life is full of boredom and compromise, and when confronted with a particularly charming child, we find ourselves longing for our own golden past.
Lurking just under the surface within all of this is a little “enfant terrible,” waiting for a chance to be let loose.
A pitchman that exudes a natural exuberance and mischievousness can awaken the regression. Frank Kern’s new persona is a great example.
Impish children have a fearlessness and spontaneity about them that we adults have lost. They have not yet learned to become inhibited and self-conscious.
When Frank Kern streaks perilously across town on a pair of motorized roller skates, slurs profanities, and dispenses beach bum business advice, we secretly envy him. We want to be “naughty” too.
Brazen, blissfully uncaring, never taking himself too seriously, he infects you with his lighthearted spirit. This is character crafting at its best.
As I’ve said many times before, selling demands fantasy. You are painting a wondrous picture of your prospect’s future life. A life they must first visit in their imagination.
Adults don’t fantasize well. Their imaginations have been beaten out of them. Being a mature and responsible adult is not a fantasy. It is a duty.
Your target must regress.
Which aspect of personality would you rather sell to: The mature, pickle-up-butt side, full of cynicism and rationality? Or the impulsive, carefree child inside … courageous, trusting, and innocent?
I rest my case.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.SellingtoHumanNature.com.
He is also one of the leading Web conversion experts operating online today, and originator of the 5R System (TM), a strategic process for engineering enhanced Internet profits. For a free overview of Daniel’s system, click here.
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4 Comments »
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Let us know what you think. Or ask us anything. Or offer your own sage advice.
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– Clayton
Comment by Bernie Malonson — June 24, 2009 @ 10:38 am
Daniel,
Nice post. You make some great points about reaching behind the rational to touch base with the gentler side of people, where their emotional hot buttons lie.
People are skeptical and they desperately want the solutions that we are offering. I am noticing more and more of people getting weary, of looking for integrity in the offerings from the marketplace.
This is a great opportunity to become the trusted advisor, mentor or coach.
Good marketing!
Bernie Malonson
Comment by Beau Smith — June 24, 2009 @ 11:18 am
Great post as always, Daniel. Can I use this to rationalize my own childish behavior?
Beau Smith
Comment by Arturo Ovies — June 24, 2009 @ 1:05 pm
Good stuff, pretty clever and to the point.
I loved the way you explained Richard Simmon’s unconditional love. I admire the guy because he is the way he is regardless of other people’s opinions. I think that’s the way I’ve always wanted to be.
That struck a cord on me.
Thanks
Comment by Shane — October 13, 2009 @ 1:08 pm
Great read once again.
I’ve been trying to quantify your writing style for some time now. The analogy I came up with is: You write with boxing gloves.
Direct…to the point…hit your readers upside the head with needed information.
Keep it up.