(Twitter Tip 3: Hashtag #stickyidea)
Satyagraha is direct social action based upon the principles courage, nonviolence and truth. Its founder is one of the most recognizable faces in history.
Round glasses and a hairless scalp. Without reading this blog any further can you recognize the founding father?
Of course you can! The timeless facial image of Gandhi meditating with relaxed expression is one that every person relates to. Even people who know nothing of Gandhi’s philosophies can recognize his name and certainly recognize his spectacled face. Satyagraha was Gandhi’s spiritual philosophy that later became a global ideology. It became a nonviolent method to resist political, social and economic oppression. His face is a symbol of resistance through peace. Pay attention Occupy Wall Street people.
Gandhi’s face has iconic features (See my “I Put that Sh*t on Everything” blog for more on iconic communications).
I am willing to bet that five everyday people on “the street” would recognize a cardboard cutout of Gandhi’s face, even if the facial features were blurry. The hairless head, the glasses, the head bowed in meditation, are all symbolic features of Gandhi and his life philosophies. For millions of people the symbolic features are associated with the universal principles of defiance, resistance, peace, hope, love and equality.
Albert Einstein’s electric hair has the same symbolic power. The image of Albert’s hair and the representation of advanced science are inseparable.
Gandhi’s face and Einstein’s hair are universal symbols. They are not limited by culture, race, border, or religion. Their faces instantaneously uncover a semantic net of associated words.
Gandhi = peace, hope, love, caring, nonviolence, simple, passive, etc.
Einstein = science, genius, think, knowledge, ideas, physics, e=mc2, etc.
The principles of universality are counter-intuitive to marketing practice.
Marketing professionals teach and practice, that you have to narrow the market as much as you can, then understand the market completely before an idea can be translated into strategy.
The principle of universality teaches that ideas can stick no matter the culture, geographic location, religion or race, regardless of the type of product.
What are the lessons here in making an idea sticky?
1. Some ideologies such as love, peace, and hope are intrinsically a part of human nature regardless of where people live.
2. Ideas that gravitate to the core principles of human nature are long-lasting and span culture, borders and religion.
3. All humans encapsulate these core principles into the simplest of symbols. Electric hair. Round glasses.
4. Branding agencies often take the approach of creating a symbol first, and later expecting the consumer to build the mental representation between the symbol and its meaning. There are cases where symbols have broad recognition, such as the Nike Swoosh, but more often than not logos are mysteries to everyone other than the engaged, target consumer.
The principle of universality can bring companies beyond a limited market to reach global markets. But….
There is a catch 22 here. Symbols with iconic representation can have connotations that some businesses may try to avoid, which is primarily the reason some companies choose what looks like to be an arbitrary mix of clipart for their logos.
The caution: be careful how you use the principles of universality to ensure brands do not portray the wrong product perceptions because of connotative associations. Some UPs will work. Some UPs will not. The biggest mistake would be to choose a symbol that that misrepresents a product or service.
Disney’s Baby Einstein products are an example where the logo works exceptionally well. The product boasts to contribute to the development of intelligent children. The “electric hair” iconic logo draws the mental representation of “genius” in parent’s minds. This is exactly the perception that Disney wants the parents to construct in order to sell the product! As Disney knows all too well, many parents desire for their kids to be exceptionally smart in an increasingly competitive world.
Keep an eye out for a future blog on symbols and connotation.
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