Sculpture

Manna Groups term for the ability to create persuasive messages. Sculpture’s premise is, a just cause unjustly decided is the fault of its communication.

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To succeed in business you must be able to communicate persuasively and the most powerful realization of persuasive communication is to be first in the mind of your customer. The promise and purpose of Sculpture is to present the means by which you achieve that position.

Sculpture presumes an understanding of what messages are and how people turn them into meaning. A message is information translated into a form that can spread. People render meaning from the messages they receive, but they will only accept meaning that reinforces their existing beliefs. Most existing beliefs are built upon emotions, thus meaning will never be rendered if the message is emotionally discordant.

This explains why you cannot become first in the customers mind by claiming to be better than an existing product or service. In fact claiming to be better is not only ineffective, it is harmful. Why? Because before a customer can agree that something new is better they must first accept their existing beliefs are flawed. Few people will set aside time to evaluate something that makes them feel flawed.

The way to become first in the mind of your customer is to link their existing beliefs to the product or service offered. Sculpture uses messages to create this link. That does not mean that messages are used to create beliefs. In sculpture messages are used to evoke beliefs.

Imagine you are tasked with creating a commercial for a cookie dough company. The smell of fresh baked cookies is a powerful sensation, but how does one communicate smell via pictures and sounds? The answer is to Sculpt pictures and sounds that bring to mind past first hand experiences with freshly baked cookies. Assuming these messages are received in an environment that does not conflict with the smell of freshly baked cookies, the customer will render the messages into meaning that triggers the recall of freshly baked cookies. If the smell of freshly baked cookies is powerfully recalled the customer will believe the sculpted picture and sound stimulus to be a stand in for the smell of freshly baked cookies.

Messages powerful enough to stand in for beliefs are the most important persuasion assets available. Why? Because these persuasion assets stimulate a rendering of your product in the mind of your customer each time they are experienced. And that is the very definition of becoming first in the customers mind.