Enhancing Your Firm's Primal Appeal

Greetings! Here's hoping that you all are having a great week!

Here's some quick thoughts on your funeral firm's "primal" appeal...

Joe & Jane Consumer are literally pounded by hundreds or thousands of ad messages every single day...your commercial on the radio, TV or newspaper ad will likely fall into their mental recycle bin unless you happen to have something truly mentally sticky or unusual in your ad visuals or copy.

We're all jaded...in fact, even I, as somewhat of a marketing geek, love to hear some cloying advertising syrup on the radio and scream "CRAP!!!" at its conclusion. I can do this with just about any product, even those charity commercials that are designed to tug the heart strings all the way down to your wallet. Nowadays, there are a lot more defenses that marketing messages must traverse in order to hit home.

BUT...shhh...don't tell anyone....there IS a secret backdoor you can use that slices through those defenses - like a cruise missile launched at a bunch of hooting cavemen...

The secret is to trigger strong primal (almost animal) instincts in the consumer. It hits dead on in some subconscious subatomic particle area in the brain which has no defense.

There, my friend, is where you want to be.

Consider the Cracker Barrel restaurant chain. They have this technique NAILED. Here's how it goes:

You walk in on a cold winter day. After your seated, you notice a real wood burning fireplace and BAM...instant positive association. Fire signifies warmth, food, safety and light. This instant visual primally connects you to the source of the fire, (ie the restaurant). The smell of the wood burning and the tangible warmth reinforces the visual stimuli to confirm what the primal monkey is craving..."HERE ME FIND FOOD, FIRE WARMS ME" etc. etc. You get the idea.

Intermingling with the trigger scent of woodsmoke is the savory fragrance of food. Hearty food dishes that fill you up and are specially created (I assume) to be comfort-food based and BAM...another primal instinct trigger! Comforting foods usually bring forth memories of childhood, long lost relatives and past holidays...two positive primal associations made with one meal. The satisfaction of a large hearty dinner and memories of Christmas at Grandma's house + a roaring fire and you've got some serious primal connections with this place.

"Hey Dan," you say, "what's this got to do with me?"

You can use these same type of tactics not only on your client families, but on the visitors to their visitation/funeral/memorial services.

Using fireplaces (real wood are the most effective) at the right times, pleasantly scented air (food based scents are strongly attractive to the primal human), temperature modification
or a water feature inside (the sound of falling water and the action of waterfalls creates positive ions in the air-both will act as primal triggers) can create the sort of primal connection with a consumer that can sway in your direction the next time they have a need...and these primal connections often surpass other obstacles, such as physical distance.

Utilizing primal attraction factors in your firm could be just the boost you need to cut through the clutter and help more people find their way to you.

Keep cool to those of you (like me) that are "enjoying" this August weather!

Best,

Dan Heaman, CFSP
The Guerrilla Director
www.guerrilladirector.com