You’ve heard the adage that familiarity breeds success.
Calgary communications guru Lumir Hladik has taken that formula to another level with a unique theory that promotes “brain-soothing” thoughts and images in his company’s marketing of businesses.
Hladik, president and creative director of Sutton Javelin, spent years racking his brain to develop his theory about why brains don’t like to be racked and what information brains comfortably absorb.
That theory, known as the Grand Oxygen Deprivation and Filter Theory, forms the basis of Sutton Javelin’s strategies in marketing, communications and design services for clients such as Jayman Master Builders, Boardwalk Equities, Agrium, the Calgary Zoo and the Calgary Stampede.
“Your brain absorbs 80 per cent of all the oxygen you breathe in and sometimes more, especially if you’re a busy person,” explains Hladik, who co-founded Sutton Javelin in 1989.
“You’re making decisions. You’re contending with a rapidly changing corporate or business environment. You’re learning about new things and meeting new people. And to do this your brain demands more oxygen to cope, create and understand. But it doesn’t like it. Nope. Uh-uh.
“The human brain has learned from millions of years of experience that the excessive use of oxygen may jeopardize its chance for survival. The brain likes what it knows and is preprogrammed to dislike what it does not know. Thinking hurts. Decision-making is tiring.”
Hladik uses McDonald’s Restaurants as a classic example of how familiarity breeds success.
“Restaurants can be voyages into uncharted culinary adventures — unfamiliar locations, unfamiliar food,” says Hladik, who majored in psychology at the University of Prague in his native Czech Republic.
“But McDonald’s is a celebration of sameness. Repetitive and predictable, McDonald’s is an oasis of familiarity in a hostile territory of novelty and surprise. And it works. Boy, does it work.”
If the golden arches of McDonald’s puts your mind at ease, Hladik has an explanation.
“The brain signals to us that it is pleased when it recognizes a familiar shape or impression. Ultimately, these repeated impressions have created pleasure groove patterns in our collective conscious whereby successive repetitions are accepted as positive stimuli. For millions of years, in order to survive, the brain has been trying not to work overtime so it can supply enough oxygen for the rest of the body.”
Hladik, 48, formulated the oxygen deprivation theory four years ago. “This theory is ours and it’s based on long years of studying psychology, behaviour and art. It works like a charm.”
So how does Sutton Javelin apply the theory?
“With Jayman homes, we focus on primeval cosiness and the security of softness. When people think about homes, they want it to be soft, warm, fuzzy, secure and bright. That’s what people look for. So we use those types of images. We use lights and faucets because that’s what people know and we shoot these images out of focus so it’s misty, like steam and warmth, to give it a cosy, satisfying feeling.”
Those images also target females because, as Hladik notes, “the studies show that 80 per cent of decisions (in home buying) are done by women and yet they were being ignored.”
Sutton Javelin filters information from its research to suit the market.
“If it’s an educated audience, we put in cultural stuff, like going back to the Greek times. What I mean by filters is that you perceive everything through primeval filters or stuff you’ve been familiar with for millions of years. For example, when you see a circle, the first thing that comes to mind is the sun, not the puck. Makes sense? The puck, that comes later.”
The theme of familiarity also applies to the use of marketing logos. “Why do you think that animals are so valuable and their trademarks are protected as logos, like a leopard or cougar or greyhound? Because they have been familiar for millions of years.”
