Warning: Learning Copywriting from Marketing Masters Can Radically Change Your Mind

(Is the dog chasing the calf, or the calf leading the dog?)

 Doing some intense study with the Masters of Marketing Secrets and Copyblogger Authority - which has shifted my mind immensely.

This quote is fascinating from "Masters of Advertising Copy" by J. George Frederick (1925):

Two Types of Advertising Copy

Speaking loosely, there have been and are in America only two types of copy analysis and prospectus which by any stretch of the imagination can be dignified by the name of definite philosophies.

One of these two schools of advertising thought assumes in the mass-mind an almost invariable response to certain adroit and plausible appeals.

The other holds the mass-mind in somewhat higher esteem but assumes a similar responsiveness to appeals of a substantial and more or less virtuous character.

Putting it crudely and bluntly, the first is a clever and semi-scientific application of the thesis that all men are fools, while the second maintains that while men may be fools and sinners, they are everlastingly on the search for that which is good.

Needless to say, both formulas have registered great successes because each is at least founded on a half-truth.

That tells everything about how our modern media (and government) is acting and why. It also tells how people are widely rejecting that influence in their lives. And why marketing is changing drastically from what it's been up to this point.

We are really dealing with the situation of that 97/3 or 99/1 percentages. The bulk of humanity is at the effect of their emotions - which is a self-willed activity, since they created their emotional patterns and programs to begin with.

If you release all these programs, then you can get outside the traps of conventional wisdom and start living simpler and more peaceful lives.

Marketing will always be part of such lives, as it is a communication to our journey. We should each understand it fully and master it's complexities. Below is an overview which forces these into simpler statements.

Freud's Foibles

The biggest problem within marketing is that they don't understand the true motivations of humankind, since the bulk of this is based on stimulus-response studies which are in turn based on Freud's study of the insane. There isn't a similar magnitude study of the successful as Maslow did.

Advertising (and all "news" media) are into this rabid "avoiding pain instinct is stronger than seeking pleasure." And that immensely shortcuts the wealth of data which tells you why and how a person will respond to your marketing, your communication. It also leads down a more and more limiting rabbit hole (which is why more people are rejecting what passes currently for both advertising and "news".)

While the bulk of humanity is also seeking entertainment, it's not true that people are trying to always trying to avoid their personal journey. In fact, the apparency is that people have few choices other than either doing their journey or not-doing their personal journey. (To say any of us has a single journey is also in error - there are journeys within journeys and journeys following journeys. Every journey is a metaphor - if that doesn't warp your reality a bit...)

Entertainment can be said to be a simple distraction from the business-end of living. It exists with education and enlightenment as the three types of valid marketing approaches. These have application to the Hero's (Heroine's) Journey, which gives us a pragmatic handle on marketing.

Roughly speaking, there are two-flip sides to Campbell's mono-myth which are divided right at the journey start, and the rebirth/metamorphosis. You have the travel to and the return. Both halves encounter various trials.

• Entertainment is doing something else than whatever it is you should really be doing to progress on your journey. 
• Enlightenment happens at both crux points. 
• Education is needed to help survive the trials, solve the puzzles, and meet/survive all the challenges.

All of these are themselves just meta-scenes, which can be understood by Huna's four methods: objective, subjective, symbolic, and holistics. The most optimal solution solves them in all four ways at once. None of this is written in stone, there is no single correct answer, and "no school has all the teachers."

Back to our Marketing Hero

That really gives you a short-hand solution to the basic problem all the Marketing Masters never solved. Each of them had a piece of the puzzle, which is only being solved now in our Internet Age - when all the historic data is readily available in digital format.

The Marketer must work to become self-transcendant, and always create to help others live their lives in order to improve the Marketer's own.

So the motivations stem from Maslow's observations, which are actually more powerful than the motivations which are found in the Freudian-based psychology and its related research (the ones which ignore the spiritual basis of life to concentrate on the material.) Physical and Spiritual are just two of the four approaches to living (see Huna above.) A balance is required for optimal results.

(Sidebar: While Cialdini (in his "Influence" book) has studied the 7 points which marketing has used and abused to make their sales, the only more basic work along this line has been Levenson, who sorted out that the glue holding all of these motivations together were the urge to increase or escape control, security, approval, and belongingness - with an underlying motivation of "fear of death," which is actually a problem in losing/retaining individuality. See my "Get Your Self Scam Free" book.)

Campbell's Soup: Marketing's Missing Ingredient

That is the breakthrough which came to me. Why I write it here rather than on a marketing blog is that it's so philosophical in it's native state that no marketer would accept it. Those are very pragmatic types with the mindset: "But will it make me more money?"

Schwartz' "Breakthrough Advertising" starting talking this way at the end of his book, but he missed the next step. When you stir in Campbell's Monomyth into Marketing, you see what's been missing this entire time - you also get an explanation as to why the incredibly successful marketing campaigns worked.

Marketing works when it forwards a journey with products that "make sense" (meaning, both emotionally and logically simultaneously) by filling a symbolic, practical, rational, and holisitic need - preferably all at the same time. In short, they provide a useful tool for continuing the journey (or avoiding it.)

You need only determine which part of the journey your avatar-customer/client is looking for and communicate to them with that reality/understanding.

Within those paragraphs above lies a definition of "desire" which explains what star you hitch your marketing wagon to. (Yes, a study of Scwartz' book makes this easier, although I should be starting a series of lessons on that Masters of Marketing Secrets blog soon.)

"What's It All Mean Mr. Natural?"

The shorthand version of this is then:

• Everyone has a personal journey they are on.
• People are motivated to either continue their journey or avoid it. Maslow, Cialdini, and Levenson list these.
• Marketing is communication which enables people to get tools to assist or avoid their journey.
• The consumer/client is always the protagonist (hero/heroine) of that journey, the marketer is preferably the Mentor (but could fit another archetype.)
• The best-selling marketing campaigns have provided optimal solutions of one or more (or all) of subjective, objective, symbolic or holistic natures.

There is no "bad" way to do marketing. You can run out of money to advertise with.

You cannot market something to someone they don't want or desire. Or not for very long. Once you've tricked someone once, you are shunned thereafter. The point is to treat others as you'd like to be treated, which balances things out for everyone. In order to improve your life radically, you are going to have to be working at improving other people's lives radically. Screw people over and find yourself screwed.

Too simple. None of us truly are individuals, as hard as we work at it - because we are all connected.

The point of this is to help you improve how you interact with others.

That's Marketing.

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How the Universe Works - and How to Get the Universe to Work for You (and why both candidates and all news sucks)

The Universe-as-Play-Doh theory expounded.

TRUE or FALSE: Anyone can have, achieve, acquire, become anything they really want in life - anything at all.

This statement is both true and false at the same time. It has nothing to do with heredity, or how much money your parents had, or what church you participate in, or the politics you follow - and at the same time is completely dependent on them.

Life is both what you make it - a blissful joy and inspired, glorious series of leaps of faith - and an onerous burden which makes you weep in every spare moment you aren't slaving away for someone else's benefit.

This is why politics sucks and both U.S. candidates are full of it - and why the press (and Congress) can never get anything right.

It's how can this universe deal out both torture and bliss in equal measure - and to two people who've grown up within blocks of each other and whose parents have similar income, similar upbringing, similar genetic background?

Because it's the way this universe works.

The Formula for this Universe:

Anything || Anything

What does this mean? (or "huh?")

Everything is related to everything. Those "||" symbols are whatever you want them to be. They may mean equals (=) or greater than (>) or less than (<) or can even mean doesn't equal or has no relation at all. (HUH?)

Ok, let's back up. If you study philosophy - both Eastern and Western - you'll see some key points coming up repeatedly. But only if you compare the two against each other. This is what Quantum Physics has been coming up with - age-old data which are just now proving what a handful of popular authors and "quack" theorists have known for a long time. The Universe is a bunch of Silly Putty or Play-Doh and you can make anything you want out of it.

However, at the same time, you are composed of the same things this universe is made up of, so you are also made of Silly Putty or Play-Doh and so can be pushed, and pulled, and punched, rolled, or bounced around. (Which is why you can feel very tired at the end of a day...)

It is both true and false that you can make anything out of your life - and that you can also be the total effect of everything around you. And those statements are both true and false at the very same time.

How is it that some people can make something of their lives and others can wreck theirs?

Look - in this week we have both the incredible personal triumphs of people who individually are breaking world sports performance records right and left - and meanwhile have the continuing tortures of Darfur and political bullying of Russia into Georgia. Millions are free to protest in the U.S. of whether it was right to go into Iraq and give them the same freedoms. We have seemingly insane people in control of incredible amounts of weapons and power which have been paid for by mineral reserves in their countries (oil and other fuels). At the same time, we have very brilliant people in some Academic settings (and in Hollywood) coming out with some very stupid pronouncements which show them to be very foolish when those statements become widely known.

How could all these facts be both true and false at the same time?

It's just the way this Universe is set up.

And you can do something about it. Or let it slide. Your choice.

And you have always had this choice. Always.

Let's seem to diverge here and cover another couple of points which will give us more understanding of the above.

Good vs. Evil

There is extreme good in this world and also extreme evil. Evil, however, is not a potent force. It is really just a lack of good. Evil exists where good isn't. Like turning on a light in a dark room. Or "watching the sun come up". You can't go into a room and shovel out the dark. The dark doesn't come cloying up to you and envelop you in its overwhelming grasp (regardless of Hollywood special effects) . Just turn on a light - or light a candle - or wait for the daylight to break.

Evil isn't anything but a poorly directed force for good. When you take that same amount of force and put it to a different, positive use, then good results.

You may have seen footage of soldiers rolling through villages on tanks and other armored carriers. Now you take that same amount of fuel and those same engines and take the amount of steel in those tanks and turn them into trucks. Now that same weight of materials can be bringing medical and building supplies to those same villages. And the people in those tanks can be trained in construction or as healers and be bringing new life to those they visit.

It's what they are used for. What's their purpose? What's their intent?

Free Will vs. the Universe (aka God)

(Here's where I may lose a lot of you as readers - and this really just proves the point of everything I've said above if you do drop off at this point.)

Taking up God at all shows me both to be daring and a menace at the same time. God is personal to everyone, even atheists.

Some have defined God as the Universe - and can make some pretty good arguments down this line. I bring this up only as a point of illustration. Because we need to talk about Free Will, which is usually put into the same line of country as God.

OK - let's just say that Free Will and the Universe are working together and at odds at the same time. (This way more of you will hopefully continue to follow the logic of this article.)

Universe and Free Will. People have Free Will. People can decide to do whatever they want. Even slaves can decide to do things. That's one of the reason people make poor slaves. And why animals (particularly pets) respond better to affection and love than any amount of harsh treatment. Animals have choices to make, every second of their own existence - just like us humans. (But we'll stop there for now, drawing the lines at animate entities...)

Those Quantum Physicists above tell us that because this Free Will (also called Mind) exists at the lowest levels of particles, it also exists at the greatest parts. One statement down this line: you find whatever it is you are looking for.

This is true in all their experiments. It seems that they couldn't turn around without finding their own footprint in the same sand they were studying - that whatever they intended to study was affected by what they were thinking. Which tended to mess up their ideas of being able to do any scientific experiments at all - which were supposed to be "double-blind" studies and so on. And this also explains the recent review of scientific literature which found that on a rough average, 50% of all scientific studies contradicted the other 50%.

Because, regardless of their attempts to exclude personal bias and attitude - whatever the scientists were thinking affected the outcome of their experiments.

What does this have to do with us?

Whatever you think or consider affects the world around you. In fact, it's been said that you create your world - the experiences you go through daily are affected by your attitudes and considerations about how things "ought" to be. Whatever your world-view is - creates that world which you view.

But wait - there's more...

Now, the universe is apparently unlimited in scope. And actually, there is no limit to anything. There are no shortages, except those humankind have created. As a species, we've been able to feed, clothe, and house all of us - every single individual - since sometime between the first and second World Wars. Fact. For all the limited energy sources around, there are literally tons of energy sources which haven't been tapped. The U.S. Patent Office is filled with tons of these. (Study Tesla if you want to see some fascinating examples of free, untapped energy sources.) And there are more oil resources under the forests in Canada than Saudi Arabia has left. As well, the minerals frozen under Siberian soil make the mines we have other places look like we were digging in the garden with a spade to find interesting rocks.

Universe unlimited in scope and resources - what do we do with that? Answer: anything we want.

But those around you - and this is historically proven - who try to "motivate" you deal mostly in the false concept that there is a limit to things. They push the idea that there is only so much to go around. Politicians are great at this. "Redistribute the wealth from the rich to the poor." "Tax the rich more - because there is only so much to go around." (Tell that to these same politicians who approve the Federal Reserve to print as much paper currency as they want - the real source of inflation...)

Others like to tie up oil and natural gas deposits so that we can go to war over them. Jokes on them - we just invent more when we get close to running out. (Invent - isn't that some sort of mental process? Hmm...)

Free Will and the Universe work hand-in-hand to create this world around us. (And some have even said that this world we see is really just a necessary illusion, but save that for another day...)

The Universe has all the raw materials to do anything you want with - anything any of us wants. And Free Will is the molder. We just have a few billion souls capable of independent thought and action. Which is what makes this world of ours so interesting... And gives politicians and theologians their jobs (not to mention Academic types), because they are all trying to mold thought and thinking around them into what they consider better form.

What they consider is the key part of that sentence. They are neither more right or more wrong than anyone else. And the amount of followers or weapons they can muster proves them neither more right or more wrong.

So any problems we've had - any lack or limitations - has been us and our attitudes toward what we confront (or let slide). What we've been fighting all along is our own ideas. Really nothing more than that. And practically - this is all that's ever held us back...

Ancient Philosophers have already been there - done that.

(I've used that word again - philosophy. Almost as bad as bringing "God" into this...)

The oldest philosophy on this planet (which has traditions of helping the Egyptians build their culture, among many) has some interesting insights into this. It's called Huna Kahuna (or secret of secrets) among other things.

Anyway, what has survived from their long oral tradition is a set of seven principles, two of which are interesting to us. The first, "The world is what you think it is." We've covered that above. It's just taken Western Science a long time to get back to what was known before we ever started having scientists.

If you drill down below this, a later principle from this ancient philosophy, "Effectiveness is the measure of truth." This is why we have Ethics. What is good for the goose isn't always good for the gander. And the farmer who raises geese has a different purpose which may affect the lifestyle (and life-length) of those geese.

For people to roll tanks into a neighboring country makes sense to them, but little sense to those they roll over, or people watching this from a distance. When governments harass opposition in their own country and drive the place to wreck and ruin - that somehow makes sense to them, but little sense to others.

So you have to consider your own thoughts and see if your exercise of Free Will is the best you can do - and is the best for the world around you.

You see, the Universe works on a big Harmony point. Billions (and soon Trillons) of people on this planet, all capable of affecting others around them. Consider every person a single voice in a chorus. Whether that chorus sings in harmony or cacophony is up to that chorus. The choir leader can't make them sing better - it's their individual choice. He can help them, cajole them, give them special instructions, but the singing itself (or silence) is the decision of that individual in the chorus.

That's Free Will and this Universe. How they interact and how they work together.

How to Make the Universe Work for You

OK, we've covered a lot of ground here. Now lets see how you can improve that life you're living.

You can see above that all self-help and personal development, as well as all the -ism's in the world are all tied into this formula I laid out at the beginning. All religion and all politics, all economics - everything is tied into this.

If you want to improve something, you have to change your thoughts about it. How you consider something is will make and has made it so. If you don't like the way something is in your life, then you only have to decide better.

Now, there's some help for you. You may be thinking that some things are too big for you to handle. Well, yes and no.

Single people can start trends. People can work in their own neighborhoods to create change which helps people around them. People can blog and post comments and influence other people. If you stick at something for long enough, it can result in tremendous good in the world. Look at what Mother Theresa accomplished with her single life. Or Thomas Edison, or any writer you admire.

And you can get help in whatever you want to do or change or improve.

Remember that Universe above? Well, it wants to give you anything you want to improve or change. You can get an unlimited amount of help from the Universe - it's got unlimited resources, after all.

Hopefully by now, you don't think I've gone off the deep end. You've followed the logic up to this point, right?

Intuition and Bright Ideas come from the Universe - because you've imposed your Free Will on it with a situation to solve. Try this some night: just before you go to sleep, ask that question which you haven't been able to find an answer to. Pay attention to your dreams and what you're thinking about just when you wake up. Just lay there awhile when you wake and listen to yourself think - what was rolling through your mind? Probably a hint of what you need to do. If not, then if you pay attention to what happens in your life through that next day, you'll probably get something a little odd happening. Someone will say something, or you'll hear something or see something and AHA! you have a solution to that question - or at least a new way of looking at the problem.

Because Anything (Everything) || Anything (Everything). The universe is giving you all the help you need - you just have to ask...

I don't need to beat you to death with more examples here.

If you keep at this point of asking the Universe for inspiration, you'll always get it back. Just the way things work. When you study any amount of philosophy or religion, you'll keep seeing these same points come up, over and over.

Because it simply is the way things work.

And spread the word. Discuss this idea with your friends. See if they can get it to work for them. See if this is workable for you. How effective is this truth?

You can have, do, or be - achieve, acquire, accomplish - anything, ANYTHING you want in your life. It's all in what you think about yourself and your life - and it shows up in that world around you.

Now you know exactly why Olympic athletes excel, why politicians make stupid decisions, and why main-scream media (and Congress) gets it wrong more often than not.

Have fun with this.

After all, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain - right?