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Selling an Idea W HAT I have been saying recently about

17th January 1958
Page 65
Page 65, 17th January 1958 — Selling an Idea W HAT I have been saying recently about
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

the advantages of using emotional rather than rational arguments in any attempt to sway public opinion for or-against nationalization is in line with what the publicity experts have been saying themselves. It is also in line with the practice of politicians, and other public speakers, since the dawn of civilization, although some of them would be prepared to dispute it with a show of anger that completely gives them away.

Further outbursts of anger come from the people who dislike advertising in any form, and see in its latest manifestations an unscrupulous use of new scientific techniques in order to enslave the human mind, to persuade people into voting against their own interests, and to corrupt little children, so that they clamour for food that does them no good. Most of us have more faith in the resilience of the human mind, whilst accepting that the emotional approach to that mind has always been the more successful.

As for the new techniques, they often turn out to be nothing more than the old methods seith up-to-date and sometimes terrifyingly scientific names. There is some amusement, and perhaps instruction, to be derived from considering how these techniques might be applied to the present problem facing the road transport industry. Most of them have been developed in America, but there is no reason why the principles should not apply in this country.

Where jargon gets in the way of clarity, it is best ignored. A much-quoted statement, concerning the levels at which it is or is not possible to influence opinion, is attributed to an expert known as a social anthropologist, but it seems a simple enough analysis of the problem. The first level, he says, is human nature, which cannot be changed a great deal, at least in a democratic society. The second level is cultural change, and the third is the region of choice.

There is a useful distinction here, if the hauliers care to find it. They are operating on the third level insofar as they are trying to persuade trade and industry to use their services in preference to those of the British Transport Commission; and on the second level, that of culture and ideas, when they are opposing nationalization. For each level there is a separate approach, although the same medium may be used for both purposes.

Levels of Consciousness

Another idea borrowed by advertisers, this lime from the psychologists, is concerned with the levels of consciousness within the individual, and once again three of them are distinguished. There is the conscious, rational level, where the individual knows and can explain what is happening, a level where he is less clearly aware of what is going on, and would not be willing, or even able, to explain why; and the so-called sub-conscious level, where he is not only unaware of his true attitudes and feelings, but may even be prepared to deny that they exist.

Most people are now prepared to accept that there are various levels of consciousness and sub-consciousness. On reflection they would probably also agree with the conclusion that the advertising experts draw, namely that what people say may be different from what they think, and what they think may be different from what they feel so deep down in their natures that they cannot express it. Last week I gave the hypothetical example of the trader who swears at British Road Services on principle, but swears by them in practice. if people can be so two faced even with themselves, the experts who conduct Gallup polls, and other surveys of public opinion, must find their task more complicated than it might have seemed at first. To cope with the new discoveries of the psychologists the Americans have become accustomed to a new kind of public opinion survey, to which they have given the formidable name of motivational research. It more or less ignores what people say, and concerns itself exclusively with the two lower levels of consciousness, the breeding grounds for prejudices, fears, irrational assumptions, emotional urges, and so on.

A celebrated case history, where motivational research claims to have been completely successful, began when the Chrysler Corporation noticed that men were more attracted to an open car, but ended up by buying a saloon. The conclusion reached by the motivation expert was that men see in the open car the symbol of the mistress they think about in their daydreams, but choose the saloon, which represents their more dependable, if less glamorous, wife. Whether or not this is true, the experts say that a type of car midway between the saloon and the open car—wife and mistress rolled into one, so to speak—turned out to be the most successful new style introduced into the American market for many years.

Unexpressed Emotion

Most transport operators tould strongly deny that any mental processes of this sort enter into their choice of a new lorry, bus or coach. There must be many occasions, however, where the practical advantages and disadvantages of different types of vehicle are fairly evenly balanced, and some unexpressed emotion could be the deciding factor. The wife-and-mistress theory seems to be ruled out here, except for the operator who has daydreams of a harem—and a standardized harem at that. Perhaps the manufacturer would be well advised, if he can find out how to do it, to make vehicles that are most likely to remind an operator of his mother, and least likely to remind him of his mother-in-law. • The research on behalf of Chrysler was taking place on the level of choice, but the Americans hive also run campaigns with the object of influencing people's ideas. A notorious, recent, example led to a lawsuit in which, subject to appeal, a group of American hauliers were successful in securing an injunction against the continuation by a number of railway companies of practices that were causing harm to the road transport industry in general.

According to the evidence, a public relations concern employed by the railways had created several apparently independent organizations of citizens, who had then, either knowingly or as dupes, joined in the agitation against Bills that were intended to help road users. It was claimed that propaganda inspired directly or indirectly by the concern had certainly been a major influence when, in 1951, the governor of Pennsylvania had vetoed a bill to increase lorry weight allowances in the State.

Compared with this, British Railways seem innocence itself, unless I am misjudging them badly, and the "square deal" campaign before the war seems to epitomize the bluff, honest, English approach to public relations. The setting up of false-front organizations is a two-edged weapon that wounds the holder if his sharp practice is discovered. But hauliers can at least learn from America that ideas are not immutable, and can be affected by publicity in the same way as our choice of a brand.


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