The Story of the Elephant and the Rider
Watch this video of Jonathan Haidt to find out why we should concentrate more on the subconscious than the rational mind.
Johnathan Haidt is an American social psychologist, Professor of Ethical Leadership at New York University's Stern School of Business, and author. His main areas of study are the psychology of morality and moral emotions.
Haidt studied at Yale University and the University of Pennsylvania. He then performed post-doctoral research at the University of Chicago and in Orissa, India. Haidt was a professor at the University of Virginia from 1995 until 2011, when he joined the NYU Stern School of Business.
Haidt’s first book, The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom (2006), explored the relationship between ancient philosophies such as Stoicism and Buddhism and modern science. His second book, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion (2012), examined how morality is shaped by emotion and intuition more than by reasoning, and why differing political groups such as progressives, conservatives, and libertarians have such different notions of right and wrong. His third book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure(2018), was written with Greg Lukianoff, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
He has been named one of the "top global thinkers" by Foreign Policy magazine, and one of the "top world thinkers" by Prospect magazine. He is among the most cited researchers in political psychology and moral psychology and has given four TED talks. In 2019, Haidt was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. - Wikipedia
Why trust is disintegrating
At Seer, we call it the Trust Deficit.
Our understanding of the subconscious mind explains why so many people feel so angry and frustrated with government, media, business and brands (as well as with other people). The trust that much of our societies are built on has been eroding, partly because organizations have been trying to communicate rationally. The subconscious, non-rational mind does not believe what it hears.
The result of generations of dysfunctional communication are stark and chastening. Edelman’s 2019 Trust Report is a sobering read if you are invested in changing public behavior at scale.
Only 1 in 5 worldwide feels that the system is working for them, with nearly half of the mass population believing that the system is failing them.
Worldwide: 56% trust business and 47% trust media.
Read the full report here: Trust Barometer
If brands disappeared, would anyone care?
The meaningful brand imperative
“The 2019 survey finds that 77 percent of the world’s brands could disappear without so much as a second thought from their customers. This is three percent more than in 2017.
Meanwhile, 58 percent of the content created by the world’s leading 1,800 brands is poor, irrelevant and fails to deliver. This is in a world of content overload, where every minute of the day sees 470,000 Tweets, four million YouTube videos watched and 49,000 photos posted on Instagram.
It’s a pretty sorry reflection of marketing today, and it’s even sadder when you take on board that 55 percent of consumers believe companies – the same ones who can’t even do content right – have a more important role than governments in creating a better future.” - Emma Hall, More about advertising.
Read the rest of the article here: Meaningful Brands
A company’s most valuable assets are intangible
EY (Ernst & Young) believe that trust could be a company’s most valuable asset. 81% of consumers think ‘the behavior of a company is as important as what it sells.’ What’s more, almost three-quarters of consumers would ‘boycott a company they no longer trust.’
Trust is your most valuable asset
How are you solving the brand + trust equation?
Between 1975 and 2015, the ratio of tangible assets to intangibles for the S&P 500 has essentially inverted: S&P 500 companies now manifest 85% of their value in intangible assets, like brands.
A company’s intangible assets are fragile
According to agency and media giant Havas, 77% of all brands could disappear tomorrow without a second thought from consumers. More worryingly, only 9% of consumers feel a strong connection with brands and companies.