The Future Of Marketing Seems Utterly Terrifying

Kim Bhasin | Mar. 5, 2012, 8:56 AM | 763 | 2

The marketing buzzword of our time is "experience," and it really is the future of marketing, says Jacob Braude, VP of strategic planning at Saatchi and Saatchi Wellness in a recent column at Fast Company.

But why are marketers so in love with this trendy term?

Well, take a look at how "experience"—which Braude defines as "interactions with the physical world," such as moving to pick up a hot mug of coffee—affects you.

From his column:

"What we have learned over the last two decades is that these everyday interactions with the physical world are a kind of source code for your brain. In the same way that there is computer code behind every web page you see, your physical experiences are behind the ideas you have.

Standing in a big, open space makes you think you are powerful; riding up an escalator activates your ideas of morality; warmth triggers you ideas of affection. Each new piece of research confirms that this experiential source code is a fundamental part of the way your brain works. You just do not notice it because it takes place in your unconscious."

Since all experience is code, there's structure, which means it can be decoded and used to someone's advantage.

And what marketer wouldn't want that?

Marketing and branding have always been about battling over people's brains—to manipulate consumers' minds in a brand's favor. They trick your mind into assigning more value to things associated with a certain brand.

The more access marketers have to your mind, the easier it is for them to affect it—that's why they spend tons of money each year to spy on you and figure out your habits. A lot of people already think companies are being too aggressive in their quest for consumers' information.

Imagine a world where marketers are able to tailor a set of experiences to every bit of that code in your unconscious—the way you sense things, the way you move, the way you interact with objects, the way you think—and skew it in favor of their brands.

All so that they can get you to spend some cash on a product or service.

As if it wasn't creepy enough that a retailer like Target could expose a teen girls pregnancy even before her father knew, or that supermarkets know exactly how you're going to walk through their stores.

For marketers, cracking the "source code for your brain" is a whole new frontier.

But for consumers, it's utterly terrifying.