Portals & The 12 Languages of the Mind

Posted by on August 1, 2010

How to Attract and Hold Attention Through Visual Display

Sunday 1st, August 2010

Portals help us move from one state of consciousness to another.
Portals create intrigue in paintings, photographs, literature and movies.
Portals say, “Come on in. Stay awhile.”

We’re teaching you about portals because customers prefer to spend their time in places where there’s more to explore, the lure of discovery, a promise of adventure. Do you offer these things? In your store, your offices, your landscaping?

Go to the mall and you’ll see that most of the stores have no entry portal, no doorway. They stand wide open, naked, with nothing hidden or obscured. This makes it easy for you to wander into them and just as easy to wander out. Stores without doors see a lot of traffic with low curiosity and no commitment.

A door creates a threshold barrier, but once you’ve passed through it you’re insulated from the world you left outside.

Customers spend more time in stores with doors.

A signal received in one language of the mind can reinforce, or contradict, a signal received in another. Signal reinforcement deepens perception. Signal contradiction elevates interest.

There are 12 languages of the mind that supply the components of concrete, analytical thought. It is these 12 languages that enable our perceptual realities.

  1. Shape – angles send a different message than curves.
  2. Numbers – a language of relativity. Many or few?
  3. Phonemes – sounds represented by letters of the alphabet.
  4. Color – often combined with shape and radiance.
  5. Proximity – near/far, large/small, left/right, up/down, etc.
  6. Music – any sound that isn’t a phoneme.
  7. Radiance – energy sent outward or sucked inward.
  8. Motion – fast/slow
  9. Symbols – messages with secondary meaning.
  10. Taste – tongues do it.
  11. Feel – skin and muscles do it.
  12. Smell – noses do it.

Control the signals and you control the perceptions.

Control the perceptions and you control the conclusions.

Control the conclusions and persuasion is accomplished.

Don’t worry, once you’ve seen some examples you’ll realize this stuff isn’t nearly so complicated as it sounds.

Sean Taylor
Sean@WizardofAds.com

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