Selling By Customer Stereotypes

Saw this displayed on the wall inside a Free People clothing store…

It categorizes their female shoppers into 4 types:

1. Candy (hearts): Sweet, girly, flirty, whimsy, and femme  

2. Ginger (cherries): Sexy, confident, edgy, attitude, and mysterious

3. Lou (baseball): Cool, tomboy, laid back, tough, minimal

4. Meadow (sunshine): Flowy, bohemian, embellished, pattern, worldly

So this is how they stereotype their customers “to be helpful”?

Interesting also that they don’t see that people can be complex with: multiple traits that cross categories or even in no category at all.

Moreover, people can have different sides to themselves and reflect these in different situations. 

Perhaps in an effort to market and sell more, what they’ve done is reduce people to these lowest common denominator of idiot categories.

And what makes this worse yet is that it seems to be based just on snap judgment of how someone looks coming into the store and all the biases that entails. 

How about we look at people a little more sophisticated than this and treat them as individuals, with real personalities, and not just as another empty label?  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Oh Baby, It’s Warm Outside?

I love when people can communicate through pictures effectively. 

Truly, a picture is worth a thousand words–probably more. 

This was a simple drawing to depict I assume global warming. 

– 2000 some nice mountain glaciers.

– 2020 the snow is melted.

It’s like the person didn’t have to say a word. 

But I get it. 

Also, I know there is supposedly a lot of scientific evidence for global warming.

But for me personally, I don’t see it or feel it.  

The summers, if anything, feel cooler and the Winters feel colder to me. 

I know that is anecdotal and not representative of the world. 

However, it is hard to reconcile what the scientists say, when your own eyes aren’t seeing it. 

Granted, I’m not in Alaska where, for example, the glaciers are melting, 

Still wouldn’t we be feeling something here?

Maybe a few degrees really isn’t perceptible. 

I guess time will tell us for certain. 

Hopefully, by the time we do see it, we won’t get run over by the speeding train.  😉

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

On Taste And Smell

Just wanted to share this saying (translated from Hebrew) that I like:

On taste and smell, there is no argument.

What tastes or smells good or bad to one person versus another is not up for debate. 

Each person has their own taste buds and odor senses.

Some people may be more or less sensitive to different tastes and smells. 

So there is no arguing there.

You either like or you don’t like. 

That’s your prerogative!

Don’t make a big stink about it. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Branding Israel

Please see my new article in The Times of Israel called, “Israel Rebranded.”

For decades, Palestinians terrorists have inflicted on Israelis: stabbings, shootings, vehicular rammings, suicide bombings, terror tunnels, missile attacks, and more. But aside from this overt, violent war of attrition, the Palestinians are simultaneously waging a full-blown “marketing war” against Israel for world opinion. In this war of words and propaganda, the Palestinians get rebranded and so does Israel.

Have faith in the redemption and stand up and speak out against the falsehoods and fake news, so that Israel can have its rightful place among nations and also be a “light unto the nations.”  😉

Me Myself and I

I thought this was really fascinating about how we interact with others.

It’s a theory by Martin Buber called the I-Thou relationship.

In every relationship, there are really 6 people in the room:

– Who I am.

– Who I want to be.

– Who I am perceived as.

———–

– Who they are.

– Who they want to be.

– Who they are perceived as. 

———-

Taking about a break between reality, fantasy, and perception. 

Is it any wonder that there are so many communication breakdowns and relationship disappointments. 

We need to coalesce around a unified persona of I and thou–and if we don’t know, perhaps we need to ask for clarification.

We don’t want to talk past each other. 

We want to talk to and work with each other. 

I am me and you are you. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Fight or Flight

So I learned this interesting thing about the Fight or Flight response.

Fight or flight is not just physically fighting or fleeing, but it has a much more diverse set of responses involved to perceived life-threatening events. 

Fighting (turning towards the threat)

1. Physical fighting (Protect yourself with force)

2. Non-physical aggression

– Criticism (e.g. Attacking personality or character)

– Contempt (e.g. Attacking sense of self-worth with sarcasm, shaming, insults, eye-rolling, and sneering)

Flight (turning away from danger)

1. Physical fleeing (e.g. Run/hide)

2. Non-physical withdrawal

– Defensiveness (e.g. Deflecting the attack with excuses, disagreement, counter-arguments, or blaming)

– Stonewalling (e.g. Conveying disapproval or disconnection, stop participating, change the subject, or giving the cold shoulder or silent treatment)

When you recognize that not all issues are life-threatening, then you can lower the intensity of the “Amygdala Hijack” in terms of fight or flight and instead work towards developing mutual understanding, trust, respect, and shared goals and solutions. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal and attribution of content to Dr. Britt Andreatta)

Body Morphic Disorder

So often you hear about people with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). 

This is a psychiatric disorder where people are obsessed with their real or perceived body flaws. 

Often their notions of a physical flaw is widely exaggerated like someone who has a barely noticeable mole, but they see it as a major blotch on their skin that everyone must be staring at and repulsed by.  

People with this disorder may often stand in front of the mirror starring at themselves obsessing over these minor imperfections. 

But there is something major that is missing here. 

And it is the polar opposite of BDD.

I would call it the Body Morphic Disorder (BMD). 

My notion of BMD is where people are similarly obsessed with their bodies, but rather than real or perceived flaws, they are focused on real or perceived notions of their body’s beauty and  perfection!

Instead of looking in the mirror and perceiving problems and feeling self-loathsome, these people are excessively vain and see themselves as a (near) perfect specimen of a human being. 

“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”

Or the equivalent of ain’t I just grand!

It’s funny-weird that we perceive criticism and self-contempt (BDD) as a psychiatric disorder, but we don’t generally see narcissistic self-worship as a personality disorder!

Yet any extreme is a bad thing. 

Excessive loving or hating of your physical self–is the kiss of death when it comes to seeing things the way they really are and being a genuine human being. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Perception Is Reality

Sometimes, one person’s clothing hook is another person’s elephant trunk.

Or maybe it’s the other way around that some creative person looked at an elephant and thought:

“Oh my that trunk of his would make a great clothing hook.”

Life mimics art and art imitates life.

And that is flattery both ways. 

Either way perception is reality. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Wouldn’t You Like To Be A Govie Too

Some people have a negative perception of government workers (“govies”).  

They think that it’s just a cushy job with a lot of free time and benefits. 

Sort of like the photo above with the lady streched out over her laptop, eyes half shut, and with the lightbulb above her head–thinking up great ideas for running the government and regulating the people. 

Ah, no–it’s not like that at all. 

Okay, maybe a little for some people. 

Having been in both the private and public sectors about 40-60 of my career, I can tell you that there is plenty of unproductiveness (i.e. dead weight) wherever you go. 

But there is also a lot of hardworking (some super hardworking) and really smart people too. 

Yes, there are meetings (lots of them) and paperwork (piled high), but there is also a good amount of out-of-the-box thinking and trying to figure out how to do more with the same or less.  

There is also some really big thinking like how to win the next Big One (i.e. war), how to protect the country from deadly terrorism, disasters, weapons of mass destruction, and cyber attack, how to partner with others around the world to achieve big ambitious projects and peace, how to colonize outer space, protect the environment, and improve the economy, healthcare, education, and so much more. 

Not all the big thinking is good thinking–some of it is unrealistic, biased towards this or that constituency, counterproductive, or even corrupt. 

But many govies really do want to do a great job and save the world!

If you think there isn’t plenty of hard work, passion, dedication–you’re wrong.

If you think, everyone is doing the right thing for the right reasons–your delusional.

Like with people all over the world, there’s a mix of good and some not so good, but overall, there is lots of opportunity to lead, problem solve, and do good and great things with real effect, nationally and globally. 

And if for that alone, being a govie is an amazing career move where you can have an influence on matters of tremendous importance and lasting impact. 

Wild perceptions and pictures can be deceiving–instead think about the hero that you can and want to be. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

People That We Meet Each Day

This piece of art sort of reminded me of the Sesame Street song “People In Your Neighborhood.”

So, who are the people in your neighborhood?

The people that you meet each day.

We meet and interact with all types of people…funny and nice to mean and scary. 

Sometimes, you can see it on their faces–or especially in their eyes–who they are and what are their intentions. 

Other times, looks can be grossly deceiving, and we really have no clue who or what we are dealing with–psychopath or good samaritan.

Lately, as I meet or pass people, I see them on two distinct levels:

One is the physcial body they are in…their outward manifestation…the shell or outer casing that houses “them.”

Two is the soul or G-dly spirit on the inside…the real them…the part that lived before and will live on even after the outside body is long gone. 

Our bodies are just housings for our souls…some people have physical disabilities, almost like a car that has broken parts over time…but what is inside perceives the greater reality and in a sense is both facilitated through and limited by our bodies–whether whole or broken. 

Sometimes, I feel like I am just looking right through the person and am really seeing their inner essence soul. 

Looks are just outside…inside is the real people we meet each day. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)