Clotaire Rapaille...What a Name!

I wanted to start this post by saying that Dr. Rapaille seems like a fascinating man. However, because of the confidentiality of his findings and the brevity of the interviews with him, I am not completely sure how his methods are any more advanced than brain scanning technologies such as FMRI, or brain signal readings, such as those in the Today Show clip we watched on Monday.

The premise behind Rapaille’s method is that because consumers are unable to accurately voice what it is they really want, you have to tap into their unconscious to uncover their unspoken needs. This compels me to research his methods further, because judging by his New York mansion, his cars, and his flocks of Fortune 500 followers; he is obviously doing something right.

From what I was able to gather about Dr. Rapaille’s research method, the first step he takes is to blatantly ask people what they think of first by prompting them with a certain product or product category. In the video clip, the prompt was luxury, to which subjects responded with phrases such as “high quality.” He describes this as starting with the cortex, or letting people voice their conscious thoughts and associations with the prompt.

Dr. Rapaille’s next step involves uncovering consumer emotions. He does this by asking participants to describe the prompt to him as though he were a 5-year-old from another planet. At this point, Dr. Rapaille seemed satisfied with the fact that his participants seemed unsure about tasks ahead of them. The first task was characteristic of a more typical form for marketing research, so I can understand the confusion at such a deviation from the “norm.”

In the final step of Dr. Rapaille’s research method, he brought participants into a room with no chairs and pillows, pens, and paper on the floor. He turned off the lights to create a quiet and almost dream-like environment, wanting participants to go back to their very first experience with or exposure to the subject-matter the researchers are trying to understand. Rapaille believes that the scribbles and words that appear on paper after this exercise hold the code that marketers must use to most effectively sell their products. Rapaille reveals what he calls “Reptilian Hot Button,” or the source of the unspoken needs of consumers.

After going through this process and analyzing the findings, Rapaille comes up with succinct codes to guide marketers in everything from product design to advertising campaigns. For example, Rapaille’s code for SUV was “domination,” which explained why smaller SUV’s manufactured by Cadillac were not selling. His advice was to beef up the vehicles, and tint the windows, giving the car a look and a feel very much in line with the code that Rapaille revealed. Another example involved Rapaille’s advice to French cheese companies selling their product in the United States. In France, cheese is treated almost as though it is alive, and therefore is never refrigerated. In the United States, however, the code that Rapaille revealed showed an underlying desire for safety, in that the cheese needed to be pasteurized and refrigerated to ensure freshness; a completely opposing view to that of the French. I assume that if you asked a consumer what they look for in cheese, they would say something about the taste, when in reality, they are looking for something else. That something else is what Dr. Rapaille is known to reveal.

Delta Airlines made an attempt to tap into the underlying needs of consumers by creating Song, a new, hip subsidiary of the company put in place to compete with Jet Blue. The goal of Song was to create a new culture around flying, and one way they wanted to do this was to not only appeal to an untapped segment of air travelers, but to engage in unique marketing efforts to break through the clutter found in today’s ad-saturated environment.

After learning about song, I was left with mixed feelings regarding the potential success of the concept. Song realized that existing Airlines were ignoring women’s needs, and decided to fill this gap. They created a profile of their target customer named Carrie, a woman living in a dual-income household, with 3 children, multiple cars, the means to purchase high-end goods, but the desire to be practical and save money. Targeting a new, and in some cases unexpected, segment has proven successful for a number of new and innovative products, which made me think this was a smart move for Song. An example I had in mind was the Nintendo Wii. The obvious target for a video game would be young boys, but Nintendo chose to target this particular system to families, and the product is wildly successful.

Despite this realization, I was torn as to whether or not targeting a woman like Carrie would in fact be profitable for the company. I asked myself – how often will a working mother of three engage in air travel? I have had limited exposure to members of this segment, but regardless, I am hesitant to believe they travel often enough to be the most worthwhile segment to which to cater expensive marketing campaigns.

Overall, The Persuaders discusses the need to break through the ad-clutter that consumers experience on a daily basis. There are very few mediums remaining that have not been touched by an ad of some kind. This presents a complex task for marketing students, but at the same time presents an exciting challenge.