Graham Rous
Graham is the owner and Creative Director of Nection
Prehistoric Marketing
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Grot was a caveman. He lived with his companion Greta in a cosy one-bedroom, open-plan cave. Grot loved nothing more than going out with the boys in search of some tasty Sabre-toothed Moose. While he was gone, Greta cleaned the cave, tended the veggies, fixed the holes in Grot’s Bearskins, and kept up with the gossip in the other caves of the Clan. Life was great…
Until it wasn’t.
One Tuesday afternoon, Grot got home from a successful hunting trip and proudly showed Greta the Sabre-toothed Moose he had bought back. He was no expert on the ways of his partner but he sensed he was in trouble.
Greta pointed at the dirt floor. “We need a table”, she said.
Grot grunted, meaning he didn’t know what a table was.
‘It keeps the Moose off the ground’, said Greta. ‘It’s the latest thing.’
Grot scowled and adjusted the heavy side of meat on his shoulder. He struggled to see the point of this table thing but Greta wasn’t put off.
‘I saw one in another cave. It was awesome,’ she said.
‘Whose cave?’ Grot demanded, ‘Who could have such a fantastic thing?’
‘The Jones’s’, said Greta eagerly. ‘They had something else too. They called it fire.’
‘Fire?’
‘Yup, I want one.’
‘What? Why?’
‘It’ll be very decorative. And I thought we could heat up the Moose before we eat it. That’ll be nice. Other people will want to come and hang out – maybe even the Jones’s.’
Grot grunted again, meaning it would be nice to have the Jones’s come over.
‘And,’ said Greta, patting her stomach gently, ‘it’ll stop any Sabre-toothed Moose from stealing our… baby.’
It took some time for Grot to process this information, but once he did, he set about getting some fire. He even made a table. The cave was the talk of the clan – just in time to welcome their new daughter Mabel.
Modern Marketing
Greta and Grot’s motivations are clear. Fire gave them:Safety, comfort and enjoyment, security for their family, companionship and social acceptance, and an advantage over others.
Good for them but is any of that relevant today? Everyone’s got a table and you haven’t seen a Sabre-toothed Moose in a while. We have warm homes, online ‘friends’, and dinner that comes to our door. So what can we possibly learn from a cold caveman? Well, more than you might think.
Social media has changed everything — and nothing. Being human is not a fad.
The huge progress we’ve made since those times was made possible by big modern brains. In modern terms they are super-fast, voice-activated computers with a vast amount of memory. The only drawback is that we are still using the original Operating System. It has never been updated since the original installation.
That operating system lies just below the surface and we only have to scratch it to find we still want things that give us safety, security, acceptance and love. We crave approval and social status by sharing things that are liked by our clan. We can’t help ourselves; we all know the Jones’s and we want to keep up. These desires are hard-wired and impossible to shake — they’re part of what makes us human.
Marketing to big-brained people can be tough. There are so many platforms and channels, keywords and metrics, and a never-ending stream of tweets, blogs and posts. How can you get them to listen?
In order to sell a product or service today, you have to hack our prehistoric programming. Shape your message to appeal to our most basic desires rather than focus on the qualities of that product or service: A vacuum cleaner equals a safer environment for our children; a new shirt offers confidence, attraction, and hopes of companionship. The delighted customer will share his or her experience with their clan and they will take care of the rest.
So it turns out our caveman cousins knew a thing or two about marketing. They were also good at home décor. And if you’re wondering, Greta, Grot and baby Mabel all lived happily ever after in their warm modern cave until…
The Jones’s got a wheel.
