Anthony Robbins AWAKEN THE GIANT... - Lemma Coaching

IF YOU DON'T HAVE A PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE,
SOMEONE ELSE DOES
The mission of Madison Avenue is to influence what we link pain and pleasure to. Advertisers clearly
understand that what drives us is not so much our intellect as the sensations that we link to their
products. As a result, they've become experts in learning how to use exciting or soothing music, rapid
or elegant imagery, bright or subdued color, and a variety of other elements to put us in certain
emotional states; then, when our emotions are at their peak, when the sensations are their most
intense, they flash an image of their product continuously until we link it to these desired feelings.
Pepsi employed this strategy brilliantly in carving out a bigger share of the lucrative soft-drink
market from their major competitor, Coca-Cola. Pepsi observed the phenomenal success of Michael
Jackson, a young man who had spent his entire life learning how to heighten people's emotions by the
way he used his voice, his body, his face, and his gestures. Michael sang and danced in a way that
stimulated huge numbers of people to feel incredibly good—so much so that they'd often purchase one
of his albums to re-create the feelings. Pepsi asked. How can we transfer those sensations to our
product? Their reasoning was that if people associated the same pleasurable feelings to Pepsi as they
did to Michael Jackson, they'd buy Pepsi just as they bought his albums. The process of anchoring new
feelings to a product or idea is the integral transference necessary to basic conditioning, something
you'll learn more about in Chapter 6 as we study the science of Neuro-Associative Conditioning. But for
now, consider this: any time we're in an intense emotional state, when we're feeling strong
sensations of pain or pleasure, anything unique that occurs consistently will become
neurologically linked. Therefore, in the future, whenever that unique thing happens again, the
emotional state will return.
You've probably heard of Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist who, in the late nineteenth century,
conducted conditioned-response experiments. His most famous experiment was one in which he rang a
bell as he offered food to a dog, thereby stimulating the dog to salivate and pairing the dog's
sensations with the sound of the bell. After repeating the conditioning enough times, Pavlov found that
merely ringing the bell would cause the dog to salivate—even when food was no longer being given.
What does Pavlov have to do with Pepsi? First, Pepsi used Michael Jackson to get us in a peak
emotional state. Then, at that precise moment, they flashed the product. Continuous repetitions of
this created an emotional linkage for millions of Jackson's fans. The truth is that Michael Jackson
doesn't even drink Pepsi! And he wouldn't even hold an empty Pepsi can in his hand on camera! You
might wonder, "Isn't this company crazy? They hired a guy for $15 million to represent them who
doesn't even hold their product, and tells everybody that he won't! What kind of spokesperson is this?
What a crazy idea!" Actually, it was a brilliant idea. Sales went through the roof—so high that LA. Gear
then hired Michael for $20 million to represent their product. And today, because he's able to change
the way people feel (he's what I call a "state inducer") he and Sony/CBS just signed a 10-year
recording contract that's reputed to be worth more than $1 billion. His ability to change people's
emotional states makes him invaluable.