The engineering of consent

Bernays in the 1920s

The modern master of propaganda and public relations -often termed the modern day Machiavelli- is Edward Bernays, Sigmund Freud’s Vienna born nephew. Based in the United States, Bernays -(November 22, 1891 – March 9, 1995)- was a pioneer in collective manipulation. To this effect he skilfully and successfully combined individual and social psychology, public opinion studies, political persuasion and advertising. He used all these to create what he termed necessary illusions which he then presented (or filtered) as reality to the masses. Bernays referred to this social process as the engineering of consent. He’s one of the first people in advertising who used manipulation of the subconscious as a tool to influence public opinion. Bernays himself believed that manipulation was needed as society was dangerous due to it’s “herd instinct”.

One of the reasons this came to mind and blog is related to cigarette smoking and women (more specifically as I mused on why I had started smoking in boarding school in Britain as an early adolescent).

One of Bernays campaigns in the 1920s was made by request of the American Tobacco Company to increase cigarette sales among the female population, among which it was considered taboo to smoke in public. To this effect, he sent a group of young models to march in the New York City parade. He subsequently told the press that a group of women rights marchers would light “torches of freedom”. On this prompt, the women lit up Lucky Strikes cigarettes in front of eager paparazzi. According to Wikipedia, The New York Times, on the 1st of April 1929 edition, printed: “Group of Girls Puff at Cigarettes as a Gesture of Freedom”. This helped to break the taboo against women smoking in public.

More on the man and his third party authorities here. Third party authorities is a method based on the statement that: “If you can influence the leaders, either with or without their conscious cooperation, you automatically influence the group which they sway”.

Portrait of Edward Bernays via wikimedia commons

A little sign of our times

Found a good photo today in the Freakonomics blog; made me think of the times we live in under a tragicomic, self-gloating and perverse light. Some food for thought, I guessed.

Thanks to Author.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shuttercat7/ / CC BY-ND 2.0

The state of the Russian advertising market

In yesterday’s Russian daily RBC, the president of Mindshare Group Russia, Vladimir Rass, conveyed that he expects the ad market will decrease 25-27%, to RUB 195-200bn (EUR 4.41-4.52bn) in Russia in 2009 vs 2008.

• The TV ad segment will fall 20-22%, to RUB 107-110bn
• Outdoor ads by 30-40%, to RUB 27.3-32bn
• Ads on radio by 35%, to RUB 9.1bn
• Ads in printed periodicals by 40%, to RUB 34.56bn

In his opinion, the amount of ads in the Internet will remain at the level of 2008 by the end of 2009, or will grow about 5%. Thus, demand for ads in Runet will total RUB 7.5-7.88bn. Managing Director of Aegis Media for Russia, Andrey Brayovich, supposes that the segments of TV and Internet will overcome the crisis faster. The Russian online advertising market grew by 5% in H1 2009. Original article in Russian here.

Five tips from Larry

I read a good list of tips for entrepreneurs from Larry Page, Google’s co-founder, in the very cool website ecorner. I like number three a lot!

Tip 1: Just don’t settle. Especially with employees, it is very important to find great people you are compatible with.
Tip 2: There is a benefit from being real experts. Experience pays off.
Tip 3: Have a healthy disregard for the impossible. Stretch your goals.
Tip 4: It is OK to solve a hard problem. Solving hard problems is where you will get the biggest leverage.
Tip 5: Don’t pay attention to the VC bandwagon. Don’t start a company just because you can. Instead, have a really good idea that is good regardless of the funding situation.

A Russian demographic catastrophe

Russia’s single and most acute problem is the demographic trend of the country. National Human Development Report, Russian Federation, 2008: Russia Facing Demographic Challenges is a study recently released by the United Nations. This report projects that Russia would lose at least 11 million more people by 2025. According to the study, “in the coming decades, the nation confronts accelerated population decrease; a dwindling of the working-age population; the general aging of the population; the drop in number of potential mothers; a large immigrant influx; and a possible rise in emigration rates”.

“The mortality crisis is one of the clearest manifestations of Russia’s long-term demographic crisis”, the report warns, with the gap between Russia and other developed countries widening since 1964. Further, life expectancy for both sexes was shortest in Russia among 33 European nations, and Russia lags far behind both the United States and Japan.

A two-pronged strategy is needed to reverse these trends, the new report said, calling for the promotion of active and healthy lifestyles on the one hand, and the adaptation of social services and institutions to the needs of the aging population on the other. It also pointed to migration as a possible way to fill gaps and boost the workforce to support economic growth.

In the past 16 years, nearly 6 million immigrants have come to Russia, but the study warned that for migration to be a truly effective solution, Russian society must adjust to accept the newcomers. Another UN report said last year that the population could fall to as low as 100 million in 2050.

More news and analysis here and here. Images of the Republic of Karelia, courtesy of Eero Korhonen.

Finland and the “cleantech” sector

Finland encourages domestic expertise in clean technology, which it promotes worldwide. Testimony of this reality follows.

1. Between 1998 and 2007 Finnish companies invested 337 EUR Million in energy efficiency, saving 7,35 terawatt hours of energy
2. The International Energy Agency has established that “Finland is a model for the world” in combined heat and power generation
3. A whooping 7% of Finnish exports are in clean tech, the highest of any OECD country
4. The number of Finnish nanotechnology companies has tripled since 2004
5. Since the 1990s, Helsinki has increased energy production by 60%, and has also increased air quality

Sources: Helsinki Times and Cleantech Finland

Before – After: Eastern Finland

Summer in Savonia, Eastern Finland, can be a relaxing -albeit industrious- event. Here’s a great way to spend your time when you’ve got some Silver Birch, Alder and Aspen to deal with for winter’s wood (for your sauna, for example) and a Zetor from the 1960s to help you get the job done.

Before - Zetor on the right lending a hand

After - Ta-da!

My warmest regards and compliments to Matti and Sirkka for this incredible work. Hope to participate in this one next Summer!

Porter’s Five Forces Analysis: Revise the Classics

Michael E. Porter of Harvard Business School developed Porter’s Five Forces Analysis in 1979 as a framework for industry analysis and strategic development. The goal of the model is to derive the five forces that determine the competitive intensity and, thus, the attractiveness of a market. If profitability is high across the market, it’s attractive; if the combination of forces drives profitability of the market or industry down, it is deemed “unattractive”.

Porter refers to these forces as micro environmental, as they are forces close to the company and which affect it’s ability to serve its customers and make a profit. In the model, should a change occur in any of the forces, the company must re-evaluate the marketplace. Also, it is important to note that the overall industry attractiveness does not mean all companies in it will yield the same profitability, as specific business models within them might allow individual companies to deliver above average profitability.

The model is nice to assess the attractiveness of a market we’re in or planning to enter by stating under each epigraph the reality of the micro environment. The model’s graphic representation is as follows:

What Russian Workers Want

According to a survey made by the company Kelly Services, about 65% of Russian office workers are ready to change their job. 84% would be glad to accept an offer to work with another employer since they “do not like the tense atmosphere at their company and the unstable position of their employer”.

1/15 office workers have quit their jobs on their own accord as a result of bad relations with colleagues and top managers. About 41% of workers are ready to find new jobs due to their company’s instability. During the crisis, the work load of 72% of office employees changed; about 38% started to work less and 44% more.

According to the survey:

• over 50% of Russians would like to work at “an international company”
• 22,5% at a “young developing international company”
• 10,3% at a “Russian company with high potential”
• 8,1% at a “Russian state-run company”, and
• 7,7% at a “Russian private company”

A total of 2.400 office employees all over Russia were polled. This news item comes from Trud, edition of 22th June 2009.

In the picture, Metro Moscow escalators by Sansculotte licensed under Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0

Verano (Summer) a poem by Manuel Machado

Frutales Fruit trees
cargados, charged,
Dorados Golden
trigales… cornfields…

Cristales Glass
ahumados. smoked.
Quemados Burned
jarales… rockroses…

Umbría, Shade,
sequía, draught,
solano… easterly wind…

Paleta Palette
completa complete
verano. summer.

Manuel Machado (Seville, 1874 – Madrid 1947)
Spanish poet and playwright of the Generation of ‘98

The Paper Video Pig

Last night I was looking for information on how to descale a kettle. I found a cool site with all things handy for life. Actually, the site’s slogan is “Get Good at Life”. The place is called Videojug and they basically show you videos on how to do stuff to fix some everyday problems and many other things (like How to Make an Origami Pig or an interview with a specialist on What is Bronchitis).

What I liked was how they are selling video ads. In the screen-shot I have a video about something as bizarre as origami pig making and it has an overlay on the bottom part of the screen. I also find the content is extremely suitable for this format (videos are well executed, pruned and edited, useful and purposeful (for the most part, forgive my examples). So, quality is reliable and acceptable which, for such a utility service, is critical.

As it’s a “solving-daily-issues-by-video-snaps-for-the-masses” kind of place, its content perfectly lends itself for click based non-intrusive video advertising formats.

A close call: Yeşilyurt Camii

Salah is the name of the Islamic ritual prayer. Muslims are summoned to Salah by the muezzin from the mosque; this is done by chanting Athan, the official call to prayer, which is performed 5 times per day. Here is a transliteration from the Arabic from a source including a description on performing the ritual.

Allaahu Akbar (4x)
God is great
Ashhadu Allah ilaaha illa-Lah (2x)
I bear witness that there is none worthy of worship except God
Ash Hadu anna Muhamadar rasuulullah (2x)
I bear witness that Muhammad is the Messenger of God
Hayya’ alas Salaah (2x)
Come to prayer
Hayya’ ala Falaah (2x)
Come to felicity
A-Salaatu Khayrun Mina-Naum (2x) [Fajr only]
Prayer is better than sleep
Qad qaamitis Salaah (2x) [Iqama only - not recited in Athan]
Our prayers are now ready
Allaahu Akbar (2x)
God is great
Laa ilaaha illa-Lah
There is none worthy of worship except God

Sunni and Shi’a versions of Athan differ. In the map our neighborhood mosque, also referred to in the title of the post.
View Larger Map

The Facebook Samovar

Last week Yuri Milner picked up 1.96 pct of Facebook for US$200 M, putting the company’s value at about US$10 B. After doing this, he made the following statement to the media:

We are seeing a fundamental trend on this in Russia – all our businesses are profitable and we believe that the consumption of advertising online will change. Google started this revolution and social networks will continue it. Social networks will allow advertising to be much more targeted.

Milner is CEO of DST (Digital Sky Technologies) with interests in Russia’s e-mail portal Mail.ru, social networks Odnoklassniki.ru and Vkontakte.ru and dating site Mamba, along with others. Russia’s internet audience is Europe’s 4th after Germany, Britain and France, says comscore.

Anyone for comments?

Read That Post

“Experiments are only revealed in retrospect to be turning points”.

I strongly recommend to anyone working in media, or classifieds, or publishing of any kind to read this post.

And now, back to thinking about Aldus Manutius, the Elder.

Good night!

Not Invented Here, Yes Invented Here

I normally get very edgy with people trying to persuade me that standardising is not possible blah, blah, blah or that cultural and national differences provide strong barriers to deployment of certain product groups blah, blah, blah, especially in software or services targeted to some very specific industries (automotive dealers, official ones; real estate agency networks, and so forth).

However, there is always a fine grain and some extra reading gave me some fresh perspective. I think it’s fair to remember that the Not Invented Here Syndrome, first of all, sort of came out of the perceived hard-headiness of software development teams thinking that they must do everything themselves. On the other hand, when looking into reducing fixed costs and passing “out” parts of your key business processes, I find the following quote not just fair but probably quite wise:

If it’s a core business function — do it yourself, no matter what.

Pick your core business competencies and goals, and do those in house. If you’re a software company, writing excellent code is how you’re going to succeed. Go ahead and outsource the company cafeteria and the CD-ROM duplication. If you’re a pharmaceutical company, write software for drug research, but don’t write your own accounting package. If you’re a web accounting service, write your own accounting package, but don’t try to create your own magazine ads. If you have customers, never outsource customer service.

Don’t ask me why I liked this whole post. But I did. Thanks Joel. On the other hand, I recommend reading The Power of Dynamic Value Chains for better and deeper insights.

Transformer. Change Agent. Leader

I follow an interesting blog on marketing and strategy and came across some fine insight about XXIC business transformation needs. Basically the author states that in these times, we need to think way bigger than we used to. The era of large corporations making incremental changes is giving way to the era of small ones making huge predicaments. Of course one would argue that business transformation comes from aligning stakeholders with a shared sense of purpose into new ways of doing business, setting processes or entering a market.

But, in fact, it’s just people (as in individuals, the human subject matter of the mix) who can actually make or break this. And, according to this author, in order to make them tick, you need to maximize purpose, maintain a bifocal focus, and make change safe.

• Maximise purpose: do you see the value and virtue of “co-creating purposes”? If not, get with it!
• Maintain a bifocal view: watch the horizon and keep your eye on the small footsteps – at all times, see both
• Make change safe: nothing matters more to your organisations’ survival, yet nothing scares people more than change. So be aware of what freaks your people out and make sure you address it, making a safer environment for them to take risks and embrace change. “Understand the organisations’ specific fears”; reward change agents.

If you like what you read here, go for the full original post from Idris Mootee to get more insights into this approach to organisational transformation.

Stalin’s tall buildings (Stalinskie Vysotki)

I am currently staying for a few weeks in one of Stalin’s Seven Sisters. Specifically, the one on Kudrynskaya Ploshad, in Moscow. According to Khrushchev, Stalin had said the following prior to this project:

We won the war… foreigners will come to Moscow, walk around, and there’s no skyscrapers. If they compare Moscow to capitalist cities, it’s a moral blow to us

I am not sure the architectural value of these could be considered a main attribute, but the history of the project is of certain interest. It seems it was the Municipal Building in downtown Manhattan that both impressed and inspired Stalin’s orders to the architects who were commissioned these buildings.

Perception (mis)management

The phrase perception management has often functioned as a euphemism for “an aspect of information warfare”. A scholar in the field notes a distinction between “perception management” and public diplomacy , which “does not, as a rule, involve falsehood and deception, whereas these are important ingredients of perception management; the purpose is to get the other side to believe what one wishes it to believe, whatever the truth may be“.

I shared this information on perception management with a colleague of mine just as I came across it, and he sent me the following and positively interesting interpretation on the issue:

Please bear in mind that the Truth is absolute, simple, universal and unique (“Truth is Truth”).
Perceptions of Truth are relative. Therefore, facts (which are perceptions of Truth by human beings) are relative. The Truth of the human mind is also relative therefore, perception of that which is personal Truth.

Only WISE PEOPLE may perceive the TRUTH, although they call it by different names. Truth shall triumph. That is why the Truth is singular, but the perceptions are plural.

I found this statement of special interest and highly relevant to the world we live in. However, I am not sure all of us would agree that facts are “perceptions of Truth”… Read and interpret at your own whim!

Smoking away

I work and live in countries where smoking is prevalent. Last night I had diner next to a 60 year old man who, while he ate, let a concatenation of cigarettes pretty much smoke themselves on the ashtray next to him. Today, it occurred to me to check just how much smoking is going on in these parts. As I imagined, the countries in which I spend most of my time are the world’s most notorious smoking centers. Just looking at the map of smoking males aged 15 or plus, I came across the following data in a recent World Health Organisation atlas.

With 60% and above smoking in that gender age group we have: Russia, Romania, Turkey, Tunisia, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia, Republic of Korea, Cambodia, Yemen, Kenya…

Just for comparison I looked at my country, Spain, at 40-49% and also Finland, at 20-29% (like Canada). On the low end places like Sweden, below 20%, alongside Oman or Barbados. The low end has an interesting mixture of countries, which indicates that a number of different and possibly mutually exclusive factors contribute to low smoking indices. I leave this to another post.

More in 10 Facts about Global Burden of Disease; Tobacco Free Initiative of World Health Organisation

Image courtesy of darkroastedblend

Concern – Dissonance – Change

Just came across a great sentence on change: “The first step needed to produce lasting change is profound concern (or dissonance) that the path we are on is no longer working”. This is in the book The Change Masters, by Rosabeth Moss Kanter