HYPNO-TISING (eBook)

The Secrets and Science of Ads That Sell More...

Mark Young (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
228 Seiten
Houndstooth Press (Verlag)
978-1-5445-2610-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Imagine if you could create advertising messages that were so compelling, so hypnotic, that you could motivate consumers to make an immediate change in their behavior by buying your product or service. What would that do for your business? In this book, Dr. Mark Young takes you through the complexities of neuroscience and consumer response to demonstrate how they are applied in common scenarios with real examples from the advertising world. HYPNO-TI$ING is a blend of hypnosis and advertising that explains how you can improve the outcomes of your advertising campaigns and change the playing field to your advantage.

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VI

6. Metaphors

The Father of Hypnotherapy

No discussion of hypnosis or neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) can be complete without discussing Dr. Milton Erickson. Erickson was an American psychiatrist and the father of modern hypnotherapy. Although Erickson was the leader in hypnosis, he only used formal hypnosis in one-fifth of his sessions (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010). The real unique skill of Erickson was his use of metaphors.

Erickson understood and mastered the premise that anything that assumes trance causes trance. In other words, you do not have to formally induce someone into a trance state in order to deliver unconscious commands or information.

The Wikipedia page on Erickson (Wikipedia, 2020) sums up how well he used this metaphor model:

Erickson believed that the unconscious mind was always listening and that, whether or not the patient was in trance, suggestions could be made which would have a hypnotic influence, as long as those suggestions found resonance at the unconscious level. The patient could be aware of this or could be completely oblivious that something was happening. Erickson would see if the patient would respond to one or another kind of indirect suggestion and allow the unconscious mind to participate actively in the therapeutic process. In this way, what seemed like a normal conversation might induce trance, or a therapeutic change in the subject.

The basic principle that Erickson subscribed to is that what assumes trance causes trance (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010).

Erickson maintained that trance is a common, everyday occurrence. For an example, while waiting for buses or trains, reading or listening or being involved in strenuous exercise, it is quite normal to become immersed in the activity and go into a trance state, removed from any other irrelevant stimuli. These states are so common and familiar that most people do not consciously recognize them as hypnotic phenomena.

The same situation is in evidence in everyday life, however, whenever attention is fixated with a question or an experience of the amazing, the unusual, or anything that holds a person’s interest. At such moments people experience the common everyday trance.

Because Erickson expected trance states to occur naturally and frequently, he was prepared to exploit them therapeutically, even when the patient was not present with him in the consulting room. This would be similar to how we are not present with a consumer when they encounter an advertising message. He also discovered many techniques for increasing the likelihood that a trance state would occur. He developed both verbal and nonverbal techniques and pioneered the idea that the common experiences of wonderment, engrossment, and confusion are, in fact, just kinds of trance. We will explore these later in this work.

Clearly, there are a great many kinds of trance. Many people are familiar with the idea of a “deep” trance. Earlier in his career, Erickson was a pioneer in researching the unique and remarkable phenomena that are associated with that state, spending many hours at a time with individual test subjects, deepening the trance.

That a trance may be “light” or “deep” suggests a one-dimensional continuum of trance depth, but Erickson would often work with multiple trances in the same patient—for example, suggesting that the hypnotized patient behave “as if awake,” thereby blurring the line between the hypnotic and awake state.

Erickson’s belief that there are multiple states that may be utilized resonates with Charles Tart’s idea, put forward in the book Waking Up (Tart, 2001) that all states of consciousness are trances and that what we call “normal” waking consciousness is just a “consensus trance.” NLP also makes central use of the idea of changing state, without it explicitly being a hypnotic phenomenon.

We are all in constant states of trance throughout our day, and many times we move from one trance state to another one. Being involved in a movie or watching a sporting event is trace state. Think of the emotional and sometimes illogical responses, such as yelling at a player or an official through a television or wearing a lucky hat or shirt to watch the game, that people have at sporting events or even watching them on television. It is because of the trance state that the viewer has entered.

Trance is simply a time of extemporaneous focus. Think about the last time you attended a great movie. As you became deeper and deeper involved in the movie, outside stimuli drifted off and your peripheral vision narrowed. You stopped noticing the other people sitting in the theater with you. You disconnected from noticing the temperature of the room. This trance state is created by the power of great storytelling.

Erickson was a master storyteller. His patients would become enthralled with his detailed and colorful stories, while the entire time Erickson was delivering both direct and indirect instructions to their unconscious minds.

Many of Erickson’s patients would feel and get better within a single session but had no idea why it happened, since it was done at such a subliminal level that their conscious mind was not aware that it took place (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010). Erickson understood that in addition to strong rapport, the more prestige and credibility he developed, the more authority and command he would have over his subjects.

One example of this was a case where the parents of a young man sent him to see Dr. Erickson regarding his use of marijuana. Erickson asked the young man if he smoked pot. The young man answered, “Yes.” Erickson went on to ask him if he could quit; the young man again said, “Yes.” Erickson then said, “Stop it. And now go home and leave my office.” It is reported that the boy did stop using the drug and the parents were happy with the outcome (BT10 Fundamentals of Hypnosis 04, 2010).

For marketers, an example of how a brand can build authority over their consumer base is what Apple has done. People will stand in line for the latest iPhone, even though the differences could be nearly indistinguishable from what they already own.

An Ericksonian metaphor is the result of an interaction between two different domains—in other words, something being similar to or reminiscent of. As humans, we live in a metaphorical state and it is nearly impossible for us to communicate without the use of metaphors. Examples include, “I feel pumped over that movie,” “That really drives your point,” and “That last exam was a walk in the park.”

No one actually attaches themselves to a pump during a movie, drives points at anything, or walks in a park while taking an exam. These are simply metaphors that allow us to place language and an event into context.

Music is also a metaphor. While the melody or sound can help place us into a trance state, the lyrics can deliver many deep meanings at an emotional level through indirect messages. Think back to music of your youth. When you hear a specific song, it can take you back in time. Think about how songs can become representative of a relationship or a feeling that you have for another person, like how couples often have “their” song.

Music as metaphor is used to drive certain feelings or themes in movies. As an example, consider the song “Eye of the Tiger” in the Rocky movies. The beat and style of the song is a hard-driving, pulse-lifting cadence, while the lyrics use the metaphor of a tiger to drive the high emotional charge in the scenes it is attached to.

In visual forms of advertising, metaphors are created by merging two seemingly unrelated images or concepts together in an effort to create symbolism. Metaphors can be used to reinforce the value of the product or to make it seem more personal. They can also be used to create a specific brand image. An advertising metaphor often combines a verbal phrase with a visual image to enforce the dramatic effect.

Armed with all this information, imagine if you could create advertising messages that have such deep resonating meaning far beyond the consumers’ conscious mind. Erickson has given us that road map with his explanation of using metaphors.

Tropicana orange juice used the metaphor that their juice is “what sunshine tastes like.” Think of the multiple meanings that your unconscious mind can derive from this: the sun is bright and feels good, the sun is natural and healthy, Tropicana is grown in sunlight, not manmade. All of these meanings and more can be transferred to the product in the consumer’s mind, without the consumer understanding why.

Another example would be Disneyland making the self-proclamation of being “The Happiest Place on Earth.” This statement sends the mind on a search for a description or example of what the happiest place on earth must be like.

Rapport—He Really Likes Me

Another concept, and gift if you will, from Erickson was the understanding of rapport. Rapport is an English...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 7.12.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Betriebswirtschaft / Management ► Marketing / Vertrieb
• ISBN-10: 1-5445-2610-5 / 1544526105
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5445-2610-2 / 9781544526102