Brain Scan of America
A conversation with marketing consultant Michael Sack
October 1, 1995
The view from the pulpit today is radically different than it was just a few years ago. What does it take to speak effectively to our shifting audience?
To answer that question, LEADERSHIP contributing editor Craig Brian Larson talked with Michael Sack, president and CEO of Quali-Quant Research, Inc., a marketing firm that serves a host of Fortune 500 companies as well as various Christian organizations.
LEADERSHIP: How has communicating to the American mind changed since 1950?
Today's young people see almost 1,000 percent more images than 55-year-olds saw in their youth. Surprisingly, though, they don't have a corresponding understanding of the images they see. The ability to find meaning in print or video is much greater in people over 50.
In my research I show people pictures and ask them to select one that reminds them of some important aspect of their childhood.
Those over 35 will show me a picture and explain that it represents a theme, such as loss of intimacy: "I used to have a closeness with my parents, before their divorce, that I ache for." The picture they select will show a warmer, simpler, more positive time.
For X-ers, those ages 16 to 25, the images have no symbolism, no moral value. They choose images for color or movement or entertainment. Inanimate messages--anything other than person-to-person speech--lose value as you get younger in this culture.
LEADERSHIP: Many would assume it's the other way around. Isn't it the MTV generation that deals in images?
For X-ers, the media are flashing two thousand images a day. They can't deal with that, so they ignore the images. As a result, young people are a hundred times more sophisticated in handling images, but not in attributing significance to them. The young eat images ...
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