Go Logo! A Handbook to the Art of Global Branding

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Chapter 3

The Three-Pound Universe

I

t’s easy to see why, in the 1960s, commercial persuasion branding coexisted so well with

the societal persuasion changes of the times. The refreshing, satirical mood of popular

culture was all around us, vibrantly evident on stage and in fashion, music, film, televi-

sion, the club scene—and even in print. Radio and television liberated the attitudes of the

public far more extensively than did all the marches and slogans of protestors. The adver-

tising community soaked it up, and the cheeky ones started their own revolution in market-

ing communications. The problem was that most clients had not changed.

We started looking for ways to help convince

the more conservative clients that this new

cultural, sensory language was now locked

into their customers’ heads, and, in turn, we

needed to start creating fresh concepts for

brands, packaging, and graphics. The con-

sumer was now open to ideas that reflected

the cues and codes of this cultural shift.

Fortunately, help was at hand, because

there were lots of new theories from the

psychiatrists, psychologists, and sociolo-

gists about what might be going on in the

subconscious.

Maslow’s Hierarchy

Abraham Maslow, Ph.D., studied monkeys

and found there was a definite rank order in

the basic needs that monkeys chose to sat-

isfy. Thirst came first, then shelter, and only

then did they look for food and companion-

ship. When Dr. Maslow went on to study hu-

mans, he found that they acted in much the

same way. These hierarchies are still a basic

primer on how we rank our human needs

and understand our basic motivations. Many

researchers have turned these basics into

lifestyle “types” to segment target audiences

into different sociodemographic classes.

Brand planners use different sociodemo-

graphic profiles to match specific brands

with specific audience segments. They try to

focus on those consumers who theoretically

demonstrate the social behavior characteris-

tics that the brand can target with its market-

ing communications.

Wunderman, the merged successor to my

old company, Cato Johnson, breaks these

typologies into segments titled Explorers,

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The Basic Motivations within

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Aspirers, Succeeders, Reformers, Mainstream,

Strugglers, and the Resigned. Other global

corporations use titles such as Aspirers,

Achievers, and Creatives, among others. I’ve

consistently found that solely as stand-alone

words, these evocative descriptors can be

useful in stimulating the imaginations of

creatives and clients in brand-planning ses-

sions. However, these descriptions, without

visual explanations, are still just words.

It is vital to note that the stereotypical im-

ages that make up the mosaics we use in

our work are quite purposely drawn from

film, the media, and other cultural sources

that audiences have seen many times. Until a

large number of subjects or activity-defining

pictures or illustrations become so ubiqui-

tous that they have taken up semipermanent

residence in the memories of very large

audiences, constructing these kinds of visual

metaphors is impossible. In a switch on the

research truism that people can’t tell you

what they don’t know, they can tell you

how they feel when exposed to ideas they

can see. This method of creatively construct-

ing original concepts from very familiar

pieces is sometimes called “scrap art” by

severely left-brained clients. This usually

isn’t meant as a compliment, but these care-

fully designed pieces do use “scraps,” and

sometimes the result is a work of art. Andy

SELF ESTEEM

FROM OTHERS

Enlightenment

Discovery

Control

Status

Security

Escape

Survival

Transcendence

Self-actualization

Aesthetic needs

Need to know and understand

Esteem needs

Belongingness and love needs

Safety needs

Physiological needs

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