Getting to the Core

The segment about Dr. Rapaille’s three step technique to find out the true wants and desires of customers was very interesting. I had not really thought that market researchers took such a deep look into the psyche of the consumer. It was also very interesting that Dr. Rapaillle had a background in psychology of autistic children. He said that his background helped him in consumer research because he was used to finding out the thoughts of people that couldn’t talk. He belivs that consumers as a whole are like autistic children—we don’t articulate what we really want.
Dr. Rapaille’s technique was used in order to decode human behavior. He said that if a consumer is placed into a regular focus group in which they were asked direct questions about why they liked the product, what they thought of when they were told different words, and so forth, they wouldn’t actually be able to articulate what they really felt. Consumers don’t usually say why they really did buy a certain product. Therefore, Dr. Rapaille delves into the human unconscious to try to break past reason to the “primal core”—where the real reason for purchasing lies. In the first stage of his technique, he just asks regular focus group type questions. For example, he asked them what they thought of when they read the word “luxury”. He says that he only goes through this step to get the subjects warmed up and to get them conformable with the process. After this session, he lets the subjects take a break. When they return, he asks them to tell a story as if they were a four year old from another planet. He does this in order to get the subjects into a different mindset. He wants them to stray away from reason and stop being logical. At this point, they don’t understand what they are doing anymore as this is not a typical focus group question. However, Dr. Rapaille wants his subjects to be confused. The subjects again break for a moment and when they return, there are no more chairs in the room. This again serves to disorient them. He then tells them he wants them to go back to the very first time they experienced luxury. He turns off the lights and then turns them back on in order to simulate the subjects going to sleep and waking up. He believes that when you wake up, you remember things from your past you might have buried before. They then write down these memories of their first experience with luxury.
Dr. Rapaille does all of these odd things in order to discover the reptilian hot buttons that propels us into action. He believes that this reptilian code always win because we are so driven by our primal core. Once he is able to discover the code, he is able to share it with their clients whom believe in his advice and think that discovering the primal desires that drives consumers is the only way to achieve success in their products. Unfortunately the video doesn’t say what Dr. Rapaille finally discovered in his attempt to find the code for luxury. It said that various marketers of high end products had paid a great deal in order to be given his advice, so they couldn’t release the information.
After learning about the marketer’s vision for Song Airlines, I was excited. I would love to fly an airline with organic food (instead of the “meat” other airlines sometimes serve). I am a huge fan of Kate Spade, so flying with flight attendants in Kate Spade uniforms would make me feel like was part of something so chic. Thus, I immediately googled the airline and was sad to learn that it had failed. However, after thinking about it, I realized that I was probably a small majority of the population that would have really enjoyed the airline. The markets said they were targeting a specific type of woman, however, I think it was wrong to base an airline of only a woman. This is because many women travel with their families. Therefore, the husband and children are not going to appreciate the stylish uniform of the flight attendants and the children do not even know what organic means. In my research, I also learned that you had to pay for the meals—the men wouldn’t be too happy about that. Thus, I could see how Song had trouble being successful, mostly when it was in competition with JetBlue. I think that JetBlue’s vision is appealing to a larger number of people. It still has the feeling of being modern with their logo, interiors of their planes, the interesting snacks they serve, and the ability to watch satellite TV in the sky. However, it also gives the feeling that is it efficient and is not too feminine that it discourages male travelers. Overall, I thought that Song’s vision was interesting however there target market just wasn’t big enough.