Michael Fishman's Blog

For many years, I have been acknowledging my friend, the late copywriter Gene Schwartz, for the timeless insights into human nature which he shared with me and which have helped me to be a much better marketer. If you have joined me at the Consumer Health Summit, you have doubtless heard discussions about Gene’s work and enduring legacy. More recently, a book by Dr. Clotaire Rapaille entitled The Culture Code has been a hit in the broader advertising and marketing worlds, and yet offers varied and rich lessons for direct marketers in much the same spirit as Schwartz’s classic Breakthrough Advertising, restored to print a few years ago by our dear friends at Boardroom, Inc.   It was my great pleasure to have Gene’s participation at the very first Consumer Health Summit in 1994, and to have met Dr. Rapaille just last month as one of my keynote speakers for the 10th Health Summit.  Once again, I’ve been thinking a lot about the similarities between the philosophies of Schwartz and Rapaille, and the guidance that each offered to very different, non-overlapping client communities.  A few years ago, I put some thoughts into the following short piece which I hope you will enjoy and find to be valuable:

Gene Schwartz and Dr. Clotaire Rapaille, Marketing Visionaries

I’ve had the fun and privilege of coaching many of the most successful copywriters in direct marketing, as well as in-house creative teams at some of America’s most admired magazine and newsletter publishers. But before that could even be possible, I was fortunate enough to have as one of my personal mentors in the nuances of human behavior the late great copywriter Gene Schwartz, author of the direct marketing classic, Breakthrough Advertising, which is required reading for anyone in the field.

Gene’s benefit-laden writing style was particularly well suited to the book and newsletter publishers for whom he wrote direct mail copy until his passing in 1995. Gene was so consistently successful in writing selling copy for Rodale, Boardroom, Phillips Publishing and his own company, Instant Improvement, because he knew how to identify and write to the most deeply held desires and aspirations of his prospect readers. I’ve always believed that Gene knew the collective mindset and consciousness embedded in his markets far more profoundly than could have ever been observed or elicited in any focus group.

Gene also knew that human beings, and Americans in particular, predictably favor quick and easy results, and as such his copy was always filled with big, fantastic and opportunistic claims. With Gene’s wise counsel in mind, I am frequently reminding copywriters to distill their benefit promises to the deeper desires that lie beneath the more obvious ones at the surface.

In a 1993 presentation to the executive team of what was then Phillips Publishing, Gene offered one of the key pieces of guidance that I think served his own work better than any other, because it provided the foundation for every word of copy that he ever wrote: write to the monkey brain.   That is, he attempted to secure people’s desire for his products by writing to levels of aspiration and survival that originated with our pre-human evolutionary ancestors. Thus, companies that sell weight loss products are really in the “looking good/self-esteem” business; companies that sell retirement advice are really in the “piece of mind” business; and marketers that sell organizing products are really in the “order and integrity” business.

Another brilliant observer of human behavior and the seller-to-prospect resonance that drives purchasing decisions is a self-described cultural anthropologist, Dr. Clotaire Rapaille.   Rapaille’s book, The Culture Code, incorporates the following timeless theme throughout its fascinating pages that echoes Gene Schwartz and that makes it one of the most important marketing books ever: the reptilian always wins.

Rapaille conducts group research to unconceal the most widely-held, unconscious, reptilian-brain associations with products and words – which he boils down to one or two-word phrases he calls codes – which powerfully shape consumer impressions and influence purchasing decisions. He then counsels his clients to create advertising that fundamentally captures and embeds these associations. It’s worth noting that Rapaille’s clients tend to be major brands that use general advertising methods and yet his way of looking at product presentation and ad messaging is of immense value to all of us in the direct marketing world who regularly write copy or oversee the creative process.

To follow are some examples of the codes that Rapaille has arrived at for common and important health terms. You can immediately see how the knowledge of the codes would be immeasurably valuable in driving word choices within headlines, sidebars and body copy that discuss health and our healthcare system.

health and wellness = movement

doctor = hero

nurse = mother

hospital = processing plant

fat = checking out

youth = mask

You also see that not all of the codes in the group above are affirming or complimentary. With Rapaille’s counsel, if you were conducting a campaign to raise funds for a hospital, you would create copy themes designed to offset or reverse the “processing plant” code widely held in American culture. If you were marketing a health newsletter edited to provide alternatives to the traditional “drugs and surgery” healthcare model, you might harness the disparaging code for hospital in some way to support your value proposition.

Schwartz in his day, and Rapaille as I write, although operating in different client communities and with different yardsticks for success, have both rendered enormous positive impact and value to marketers of virtually every kind of product, publication, service or fundraising activity.

Having known Gene for the last 10 years of his life, I’m guessing that he would find gratifying pleasure and vindication in the wide readership that Rapaille has found for The Culture Code, and in the striking similarities between his own “monkey brain” and Rapaille’s “reptilian” models for securing a consumer’s attention and driving purchases.

I would welcome any comments on either of these two sages or their books.