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The Importance of Our Mental Frames of Reference

by Ulli Appelbaum on May 11, 2018

I firmly believe that our perspective, the way we look at the world, our lives and our work, limits our ability to innovate. But I also firmly believe that “changing perspective” is not that difficult with the right tools. Our brain doesn’t resist when nudged properly.

This is true when developing positioning strategies and this is true when uncovering insights.

Many, many years ago, I went to Japan for vacation. I remember being in this tiny bar in Shibuya at 1 am drinking with and talking to a Japanese friend when he made me realize that the Asian’s perspective of the world  (also expressed by their maps) is quite different than the one we have in the “West”. Sounds obvious in hindsight but how often do we think about that. And act upon it.

In marketing, we call this “empathy”, the ability to see the world from another person’s perspective without judging and without necessarily having to agree with that point of view.

This world map with Antartica at the center is another great visualization of this point. Strangely familiar yet different.


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About Ulli Appelbaum

I am an award-winning marketing and brand strategy consultant with over 25 years of experience building succesful brands around the world. I am the author of the award-winning and best-selling “Brand Positioning Workbook” and the “Brand Positioning Development Method Cards” as well as the “Aha!, The Ultimate Insight Generation Toolkit”, already used by tens of thousands of marketers and strategists around the world.

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