Illusions of the mind

This figure below is an optical illusion created by Prof. Akiyoshi Kitaoka who has been studying the reason why such illusions occur in humans. If you look at the figure below, you'll see it rotate continuously, but if you fix your eye on any one spot, the rotation stops. Why it occurs is not completely clear yet, but it teaches a lesson in perception.  Prof. Kitaoka has been gracious to allow the use of this image in Decoding Communication to explain the Third lesson of Perception.

Optical illusion of Rotating Snakes by Prof. Akiyoshi Kitaoka, 
Department of Psychology, Ritsumeikan University, Kyoto, Japan

 

Action - the first fundamental

(Inspired by the recent swift shift in economic policy action by the Indian government with inputs from the chapter on Brand Appeal from my book Decoding Communication)  

Keep pushing

Action is life. Action is doing something with a commitment to achieving an objective. It, unsurprisingly, is also the first fundamental of communication. This implies that every other aspect of communication, like transmission, interpretation and response, are founded on action. This draws from the timeless concept of causality - cause and effect, connecting the now to the future through Action.

And, for action to have a positive impact, not just any action is enough - it has to be the right action. Right action is itself quite ambiguous, and has been central to philosophical, scientific, sociological and religious debates without bias. In a broad sense, right action could be interpreted as that which is done at the right place, at the right time, by the right persons and with the right intent. While the place, time and people are the locators of right action, the correctness of intent is measured by collective values in a given cultural context.

Action is often seen as different from communication, though in fact, they are the same. Every action is communication and every communication, action manifest. Action is also the basis of Goal Achievement, one of the four drivers of human behavior. It displays a direct commitment to achieving goals, something that benefits society as a whole.

Action is imperative in building Brand Appeal, the positive attraction that many brands display. Its importance is evident because it features in all the four quadrants of Brand Appeal -  Rational, Emotional, Communication and Aspirational. Action is the seed of Rational Appeal, the appeal of logic, by displaying Conscious Effort and Utility bettering the ability to achieve a desired goal. It is also at the core of Emotional Appeal by adding Positivity and Hope to any situation. Positive Action is as essential in building Trust, the most important aspect of Communication Appeal. And, Action is also core to Aspirational Appeal by giving Winner's Attributes to the doer, often seen in sportspersons who train for years just to compete in an event, the outcome of which is completely indeterminate.

Action is life and if the etymology of the word 'inanimate' is any indication, it shows how connected life and action are. The word inanimate means 'without life' and is built from the words that mean without action.  At every level we perhaps instinctively understand that only by the use of correct action does our future comes more in our control, something that man has always wanted. Though we may often miss the obvious concatenation that sews thoughts and words to our future through the forces of positive action.

Trust in an online buying experience

Decoding Communication

What makes you trust a brand, and why does that brand sometimes miss the mark?

Among other things, it also has to do with an ability to fulfill expectations, but when that ability is delivered with  sense of dedication, trust is a natural outcome. If you make your customer's pain areas to be your delivery points, your brand's greatness becomes evident. Let me take the case of my book and its launch as an example to show how.

When you launch any product the first rule is to ensure reach and availability. With a book this becomes crucially important because a good book to a reader is like candy to a kid with a sweet-tooth. You need instant gratification. One day extra feels like a lifetime and in some extreme cases, depression takes hold if you don't find the book in time.

When several readers wrote to me saying that they had ordered the book from flipkart, I was thinking that it might have been a better experience if they  felt my book in their hand and saw it on the shelves much like the experience I enjoy myself (yeah, yeah - I've been called old-school before too). But I guess what I learnt can put me in the new-school bracket now.

My book  launched recently (and though I had slotted 3 weeks for it to reach major stores), flipkart had the  book within 3 days of my distributor sending them the books. That was fast by any standards! Then I noticed that they exercised care with respect to uploaded reviews and only verified ones were put up (something every reader expects). It only when I went on some rounds of book stores that I realized how important the flipkart experience is to a book-lover. When a book is sold-out in stores, it  can take between 7 to 10 days to reorder. Using flipkart, though the delivery is 3 days the reordering is almost instantaneous.

flipkart does two other things very well to make it a great online experience for book buying. First, like an on-ground book store, it is a good judge of books and takes a calculated risk of ordering a higher number of copies from the distributor if it thinks it will do well. Secondly, it thinks like a book reader and ensure fastest delivery by making the distributor a partner in the delivery (often picking up the book from the local city office of the distributor to ensure upcountry delivery faster).

I personally think that flipkart has a sweet-tooth for books, and when someone feels exactly what the customer feels, it is easy to trust them.