Modeling Journey

The Cat loves cheese. This story is therefore appealing on more than one level.

Clotaire Rapaille, the professor of codes, delves into the early imprinting on people's minds, in order to find out why people prefer certain things over others later on in life. Scoffed at as a flake by some, this French intellectual turned marketing on its ear with his amazingly practical and actionable findings on all manner of things.

Take cheese. He was hired by a French company whose cheese was booming in France and a bust in America. He gathered his focus groups, delved into what cheese meant to them, going back to their earliest recollections, and found out one simple fact which revolutionized the way the French client marketed their cheese in the US. To the French, cheese is alive, and you do not put it in a fridge, just as you would not put a pet dog in the fridge. But to an American, cheese is dead, and it is best to put it in a bag and in the fridge. "I know that plastic is a body bag. You can put it in the fridge. I know the fridge is the morgue; that's where you put the dead bodies. And so once you know that, this is the way you market cheese in America." The thought of living cheese (shown in the French client's ads) horrified Americans. So the French client put the cheese in body bags (plastic) and sales took off in the US of A.

Then the professor turned to the US election to be, and predicted that George Bush would beat Al Gore. Why? Well first a few quotes from Rapaille to set the scene (from PBS.org Frontline interview):

"Once you understand the code, you understand why people do what they do. For example, the code for the French -- once you understand the code, you may understand why [French president Jacques] Chirac reacted this way to Bush, because for the French, the code is "to think." That's it: to think. "I think, therefore I am" -- not "I do," "I think." The French believe [that they are] the only thinkers of the world and that they think for the rest of the world. They believe that Americans never think; they just do things without knowing why. And so in this situation, where Bush say[s], "Let's do it," the French say, "No, wait, think; we need to think." Now, what you have to understand about the French culture is "to think" is enough. You don't need to do anything with your thinking. The French philosopher would say, "I think, therefore I am," where in America you have Nextel, this campaign, fantastic, "I do, therefore I am," not "I think." I think they're right on target with the American code."

And:

"You know, when we get this very first imprint, there is no need for interpretation. At a certain time, my clients and I do the analysis together. At a certain time, they go, "Wow -- oh, I knew it." The "wow" is when they discover the code. For the first time they get the code of coffee, [they] say, "Wow." Because they're American, they use the code all the time. They have the code in their mind, so of course they knew it."

And:

"It's a discovery, and once you get the code, suddenly everything starts making sense, and now we understand why the Americans behave like this. Now we understand why coffee this way works and coffee this way doesn't work. I understand why a small $29,000 Cadillac cannot sell. I understand why -- because it's off code."

Now, back to George Bush and Al Gore:

"Rapaille said that in the late 80's, Lee Atwater, then working for George Bush père, hired him to do an archetype study of the presidency. Though financing ran out before Rapaille could complete his work, he was able to gather useful material in the wordassociation sessions. Participants compared the chief executive to a "movie character"; they said he could "make people see things." From this, Rapaille was able to identify the core emotional nubbin. Fatherhood? Celebration? Nationalism? No, no. The presidency is: "cheap entertainment." "What does he make, $200,000 a year?" Rapaille asked. "That's a lot cheaper than Oprah." This code is a problem for the two probable presidential nominees. "Gore is boring," Rapaille said. "This is a real problem. Bush is not very intelligent. But then, who cares? Americans have never been impressed by intellectuals." So Bush's mediocre mind is not nearly the handicap that Gore's leaden personality is. Rapaille gives Bush the edge, but neither one of them interests him much. He openly pines for Bill Clinton the icon (not the politician). Mistakes weren't Clinton's only asset. America's code, according to Rapaille, is built around "hope." That's why Clinton's slogan in 1992 "was simply brilliant," Rapaille said." (From The New York Times Magazine article Does the Smell of Coffee Brewing Remind You of Your Mother, by Jack Hitt, May 7, 2000).

Where does that leave Bob Rae versus Stephen Harper? Clearly Rae is closer to Bush while Harper is closer to Gore in the above comparison.

So the only remaining question is: Are Canadians like Americans in that they see politics as entertainment? If they do, Bob Rae is a shoo-in, and Harper can start going through the yellow pages looking for a mover ...

Your thoughts?