Language
seems to be the obvious answer for the first memes to be spreading efficiently,
before the time that there was a printing press or even monks
or other literate people. Susan Blackmore suggests that language was created
with the purpose of spreading memes. The moment imitation within the first
humanoids started, the transmission of ideas was born. The human became a
replicator of ideas!
What are exactly qualities
of a good replicator? Richard Dawkins presented the theory of replicators:
- Longevity:
A physical replicator does not need to last forever, but it must exist long enough to be replicated. - Fecundity:
A replicator needs to make a certain number of copies to persist as a replicator. - Fidelity:
A replicator needs to have a certain degree of accuracy in its copies.
Richard Brodie describes three ways of penetration, which relate to the fundamentals of a successful replicator. He describes three processes; conditioning (repetition), cognitive dissonance and the use of the Trojan Horse to spread memes; ideas being replicated.
Conditioning, or repetition works according to the following process; If we hear something repeated often enough, it becomes part of our programming. Advertisers and salespeople know this well. Any good book on sales will tell you that most customers do not buy it until they have been asked five to seven times. It takes that many repetitions (read also my post about Religion) to implant the “Buy me” meme in the customer. The second way is through a mechanism known as cognitive dissonance. When things do not make sense, our minds struggles to make them make sense. In a way you alter your own perception to accommodate your own feelings, you change your perspective. The third way new memes enter our minds is by taking advantage of our genetic buttons in the manner of the Trojan horse. We tend to pay special attention to for example warnings of danger, cries of children, and sexual attractiveness. Chrysler did the same with a campaign where they used the song “I Drove All Night” from Celine Dion with their commercials, as such that the feeling of feeling good would be connected to the car, even after the campaign.
However penetration suggests that there is a push effect, there is also need of a pull effect, as described by Malcolm Gladwell a company is in need of three sorts of people who help spread the message. These are the missionaries of your idea. These three types are called Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen.
Connectors are the gossipers who know everyone else and ensure that information moves fast through the population. They know many people in different walks of life. They provide links between social networks. The second type of people are Mavens; they are helpful people with expert knowledge of those who are important in some area, and so they can introduce the idea to that strategic “someone” who can be vital to the further success of the idea or product in that area. The message needs to be spread fast enough to be spread again, therefore the Salesmen come to act: they are the people who share the idea with passion and make the receiver enthusiastic. They add what Gladwell calls “stickiness” to an idea (meme). Stickiness gives a message impact; it “sticks” to your memory-bank, so you cannot get it out of your head.
Additionally one more element could be added; be the first in the brain of the consumer, have the “first mover advantage”. Robert Aunger argues when the rate of growth is this fast, the population of replicators rapidly satiates the environment. So in a competition, the replicator with the highest initial concentration, when multiplied by its growth rate, wins the race. Thus initial conditions have a large impact on the final composition of the population. In effect, this kind of growth gives an evolutionary advantage to those first on the scene. Once a solution is found, it becomes difficult for any later arrival to invade the population and dominate it, regardless of how good it is.
If companies show the best intention and dictate values that are not only for their own self-interest will consumers copy their values? In what sense does a consumer contribute in passing on brand values? Having a good image with values, does this make it easier to spread your message?
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