How did you get here?

I am absolutely thrilled that Matt is traveling again. Defining the dream in one simple idea: Let's dance!
Dancing is most probably one of the most underrated ways of discovering things. When is the last time you used dancing to think? We don't often think of our body's as part of our minds and I think we are moving further away from being aware of how we move.

For me, one of the most amazing things that has come out of the field of neuroscience in relationship to marketing is how we store and remember words. Simple words like knife and fork, often used together can be saved in two completely different parts of the brain. "Fork", or at least your personal concept of it could be saved in the part of the brain related to taste. "Knife" on the other hand may be saved under touch, perhaps reflecting an early experience of being cut.

The implications of this fact about how the human body works is extremely significant. How can we continue to believe that brands are primarily built via the stalwarts of marketing communications: printed and audio-visual media. The richness and depth of what a brand depends on how deeply we engage all the senses. Loyalty seems to be related to the richness of these associations and how many parts of the brain light up in association with a brand. Do you know where your brand is remembered? And how it got there?

Ironically, the more people become obsessed about the shapes of bodies, the less we are using them to learn and observe. I think this is related to a reduction of our awareness of how our bodies move. I once read a description of a character by Thomas Pynchon. He observed that the character was in fashion, based on the way he walked. The hips tilted slightly forward with the feet falling outwards on the stride. Do we see such descriptions of characters today? Are we aware of or looking at how people move?

The photo above is from from an attempt to break the world record for a Tai Chi performance. Tai Chi has always been dancing with a purpose. I wonder when brands will learn to dance.