You Market As You Believe

You Market As You Believe

by John Botscharow

This is an except from Basic Training, the recently released first volume of my Web Guerrilla Journal. It explains why I am so strongly comitted to getting all of you to look at the philosophical, sociological and psychological assumptions you use in your marketing.

Today I want to talk a little about a "philosophical" concept that I mentioned in my Guerrilla Psychology series. In that series I discuss two different approaches to explanation: mechanism and teleology.

Now, you're probably wondering why is he getting into this? What has this got to do with the way I market my business?

The answer to that is simple.

Each of us has certain basic assumptions we work from. These assumptions are all grounded in a basic paradigm of how things work. Everything we do, from the way we raise our kids to the way we look at ourselves to the way we do business is grounded in that world-view.

Whatever religious or philosophical background, and we all do have one, we come from, it will fall into one of those two basic paradigms. The thing is that most of us never question or even examine our own basic assumptions about how things work.

These two paradigms are the opposing ends of a continuum, not two sides of a coin. Which one you use is not a matter of black or white, but which shade of grey is your preference. In other words, no one is a complete mechanist nor is anyone a complete teleologist (sic).

So let's look at the two opposing ends of the pole.

A mechanist believes that the universe is a giant machine that runs automatically - a perpetual motion machine. everything is governed by rules like those you learned in high school physics. Even human behavior.

Everything that will happen can be predicted based on a sufficient understanding of the laws of the universe. What this means is that the future is determined and inevitable. Rather grim picture, if you ask me.

A mechanist sees the universe as without any purpose, where purpose means a goal, a direction, a meaning. The universe has no meaning other than to exist and continue to function.

The mechanistic view on human behavior is that we are animals and nothing more. A more advanced form of animal but still only an animal. Human behavior, like any other phenomena in the universe, can be studied scientifically and explain by laws just like we use to explain gravity or why water boils.

In the mechanistic viewpoint, the question of the existence of s Supreme Being is irrelevant. Everything that happens in the real world necessarily has to have a "scientific" explanation - that is, there must be an explanation based on "natural" laws.

So much for the mechanistic view, now for the teleological.

The teleological view, in its extreme form, sees everything as part of Divine Purpose. Everything follows some grand, but perhaps unknowable, plan. Human behavior ultimately cannot alter this Divine Plan

This is the basic view of most fundamentalist approaches to religion, whether Christian, Islamic or any other religion. The concept of "election" or "predestination" is grounded in extreme teleology.

Obviously, a teleological approach needs some sort of Supreme Being or First Mover. Some One or Some Thing has to be responsible for setting the grand plan into motion and for maintaining it.

Human behavior is determined by where each of us fits into this plan. Some teleological approaches see humans as semi-divine or with divine potential. Other religions see humans as "fallen" and the divine plan is the "redemption" of the individual and/or the entire human race.

I personally find the extreme teleological approach as grim as the extreme mechanistic approach. Neither allows for human freedom to choose and shape his own future. Neither view allows for free will. We are either at the mercy of a cold, uncaring, unfeeling machine or we are at the mercy of some cold, unknowable scheme for the future in which we have no say.

As I said at the beginning, there is no one who believes in a completely mechanistic or completely teleological universe. Each of us has some of both approaches in our own personal beliefs.

The relevance to marketing is this. How you view human nature, and therefore human psychology, will affect how you market.

If you are a traditional marketer, it is because you lean to a more mechanistic approach to human behavior. That's what "It's a numbers game" is all about. Traditional marketing is based on things like the rules of probability and statistics, both "classic"

Guerrilla marketing may, at times, seem to be quite mechanistic but, IMHO, there is a lot of a positive teleological approach to it. It is only in a teleological approach that the question of free will comes up.

In the mechanistic approach, no free will is possible. We are all bound to the laws of nature and free will is only an illusion - a psychological disorder.Free will is only possible if the universe is either teleological or chaotic.

Chaos is the middle point between mechanism and teleology. Chaos is a universe where there are no rules, no plan. Everything occurs purely by random chance. IMHO, the evidence - that is, the very existence of the universe as we know it, rules out chaos as a viable alternative.

As I said, free will, the ability to make real, viable choices that have meaning is possible only in a universe that tends toward the teleological and away from mechanism. Free will is obviously possible, actually necessary, in a universe based on random chance, but the effects of any choice would be purely random, and the universe does not seem to function that way.

Guerrilla marketing, as I've said elsewhere, uses psychology to market to prospects rather than relying on the numbers game. In order to use psychology to market, that means you believe that individuals are capable of making real and meaningful choices. You believe they have free will.

Consciously knowing what basic assumptions you work from and what those assumptions mean, can only make you a better marketer. Look at your marketing strategies and tactics. If they are not working, perhaps it's because they are inconsistent with who you are and what you believe.

Analyze the basic assumptions behind what you do and make sure they are consistent with your basic belieJohn Botscharow is the atuhor of the Web Guerrilla Journal ebook series and publisher of the R Market Daily. He is also sole owner of 3 R Marketing.

This article is copyrighted by 3R Marketing. All rights reserved. You may use this article in your newsletter as long as the article is left intact and that the author information and this disclaimer are included. fs. It's not what you do or how you do it that will make you successful. It's also whether what you do and how you do it is consistent with what you believe.

More Ezine Publishing Links

Home page

Information Index