Remember that popular line from the movie The Wizard of Oz (1939), in which the scarecrow danced around chanting, “If I only had a brain.” Well chances are quite high that if you are reading this you do have a brain and according to the three-brain theory, you have three brains, the cortex, the limbic brain, and the reptilian brain. The three-brain theory states that by studying the three brains (cortex, limbic, and reptilian brain) scientists are able to decipher why people do what they do, how they do it, and interpret the behaviors leading up to and following their actions.
What an interesting concept, but just how are they able to do this and why would they want to? The “how part” falls under the category of psychology and the ability to read as well as interpret the actions of others, normally psychologists are the people who are responsible for diagnosing mental illness. However, in this case, there are other reasons that the three-brain theory may prove to be helpful. The three-brain theory attempts to uncover the way people look at advertising, marketing, leadership, recognition, reward, selling, and loyalty.
The cortex brain comes into play around age seven; the cortex brain is known as the command center of rational thinking. The cortex brain is also responsible for logical thinking, and decision-making, taking into account science, statistics, money, logic, control, numbers, and intellectual alibi. The best way to think about the cortex part of the brain in regards to the three-brain theory is the control center of logic or reality. If it involves logic of any kind, you can bet the cortex brain is taking control of the matter, for a logical outcome. Now that we have control out of the way, let’s talk emotions.
The limbic brain is the “brain” responsible for emotions; this part of your brain is developed from infancy and continues to mature as life experiences allow. Your limbic brain is responsible for emotions, feelings, and contradictions, after all what would emotions be without contradictory ideas? You can be sure that whatever emotion you are going through at any given moment is directly linked to your limbic brain.
That brings us to the “final brain” the reptilian brain; naturally, you may ask yourself “but I am human, how do I have a reptilian brain?” Relax, my friend this is just a metaphor because the aspects of this brain relate closely to that of reptiles in that we as human beings are born with instincts of survival and reproduction. On a side note, and not necessarily relevant to our topic, but interesting nonetheless part of the reptilian brain theory leads us back to our presence in the womb, where we begin form from embryo to fetus we look like a serpent, just another way the reptilian brain got its name. Simply put, the reptilian brain is responsible for actions of or relating to instinct, such as impulsive actions, reflexes, sex, and violence.
Still the secret to marketing and advertising is not clear, how do these brains have anything to do with it? Well, when we take into account that your future customers have brains, as well as any employees, we see that to impact out future prospects we must make a connection; a connection of the three-brains. For instance, we must appeal to an employee’s instincts, thus triggering a “reptilian” response, we must also appeal to the same employee’s limbic brain, to incorporate their emotions, and finally yet importantly, we must compromise with the rational side of the cortex brain. By incorporating all three brains into our training, marketing and advertising techniques we are all sure to walk away winners, and everyone will feel involved, appreciated and respected; win-win situation.
Mike Morrison
http://rapidbi.com/management/ http://learningprofessionals.co.uk
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_D_Morrison http://u.nu/5f2sd
This could explain why advertising doesn’t work on people like me whose Cortex functions dominate. While most people only think they make decisions logically, they actually decide what they want first and then rationalize why they should get what they desire. Only a very small percentage of people actually do make intellectually based decisions.
Interesting article! It reminds entrepreneurs what an effective communication (whatever it is, advertising, corporate communication, TV commercial, Elevator pitch …) should be. First it connects itself to the heart of the target (the heart of Homo sapiens is located in the limbic brain!), then the heart will do its job, it will disturb the cortex brain to think or to think rationally!
I think the brain has lots to do with how people should direct their advertising. For instance the limbic brain is what controls the emotions; media constantly bombards us with advertisements about the poor children in poverty stricken countries or Sarah Mcglaughlin’s songs in the background when talking about little puppy dogs. The point of this is to tug on the heartstrings of the viewers to sway them to either buy a product or get them to believe a certain view. A successful advertiser understands the audience they are trying to reach and plays to their strengths.