Kinesthesis is defined as the ability to sense the position and location and orientation and movement of the body and its parts.

I asked a colleague, a professor of neuropsychology, to explain it in more detail and found this term to be a fascinating phenomenon. *Note -I try to metaphorically/analogously relate just about everything I learn to strategic planning for an organization.

Thus:

Kinesthesis~(As explained by my colleague) when you move, you sense it. When you reach to pick up a gallon milk jug, you are immediately aware of the precise level of flex, stretch and grasp you must use to pick up that gallon of milk. As the milk jug empties, you visually sense the difference in weight or volume and your kinesthetic awareness modifies your level of flex, stretch and grasp.

Here's the set up for the strategic metaphor....

In front of you are two seemingly similar objects. One is a basketball; the other is an eight pound exercise ball. No marking indicates the difference and perceptually you do not see any difference. Your response to picking up, tossing and moving the basketball are pre-conditioned and your use of kinesthesis provides you with the correct response or positioning of your body to lift move and toss the ball. Immediately you reach for the eight pound exercise ball. As soon as more resistance or mass is detected-a difference is perceived- by the brain a series of adjustments in movement, muscles and positioning are instantaneously and impulsively triggered and you are able to lift and balance the eight pound ball.

Amazing stuff….neuropathways firing, receptors alerting, muscles responding, firing more receptors and neuroresponses, and memory….memory now manages to be stored with a “caution objects are heavier than they appear” flag. The very next time you see two basketballs together you will process the information to be sure that you do not in fact have one basketball and one exercise ball. You have been reconditioned in a matter of seconds.

So let’s apply this pattern to strategic planning and my current favorite key term, positioning.

Positioning- or the place a brand occupies in the consumers mind relative to the competition -is an active and passive strategic planning process. In the passive sense we rely on the experiences (conditioned responses) of the consumer to continue to position our product and react to our product as they always have, creating a brand loyalty. In the active sense, we must be critically aware and consistently analyze if that position is really where we want to be, and if not, create a set of strategic and tactical maneuvers to position our offerings where we desire them to be.

Reflect on the concept of butterball.

Not the chubby fourth grader who ends up walking the mile during Phys Ed.

Butterball with a capital B.

Oh, the turkey. Yeah, you got it. Trimmings, Gramma's kitchen, Grandpa’s tobacco, chestnuts scooted to the side of your plate, a few slices of pie too many, falling asleep to John Madden’s voice….your brain is firing away at your experiences with Butterball. Indeed, it might be that your family enjoys ham for Thanksgiving, but Butterball made you think of Thanksgiving. Why? That is the positioning in your mind that thanks to years of marketing communication and years of stored personal experiences have secured Butterball a cozy spot on the couch next to you and your Thanksgiving holiday tradition.

So what if Butterball would rather you think of turkey as say Sunday supper? Butterball strategizes, “maybe we should not just be about Thanksgiving. Maybe we should be about family time together. Maybe people can have turkey dinner with the trimmings every week.”

Yumm….Obvious increase in sales for Butterball, and well, turkey is actually low in fat, tasty and not a budget breaker for the consumer. Butterball is fully aware of the original position in the consumer's mind-just like basketball-it has a specific set of experiences and concepts all interconnected in the brain. However, Butterball seeks to change the conditioned response-Thanksgiving- and "move" the perception of its brand to a weekly family dinner occasion, thus repositioning its brand, or reconditioning their consumers. Butterball hopes that a few well placed, well timed, well targeted messages will have the same effect as the eight pound exercise ball...a new flag signals an adjustment in consumer's mind.

It becomes Butterball’s responsibility to adjust the position in your mind-your brand kinesthesia. How can they do that? Well, they must first identify or analyze where Butterball is in awareness and set of experiences-much like the basketball-a conditioned response. They must determine and analyze where they really want to be. This is a mini-brand audit...aspired identity, communicated identity and image all pulled together and synthesized. Finally Butterball arrives at a strategic plan to change the consumer response- brand kinesthesia. They are tasked with communicating Butterball as something different-much like the exercise ball-so that responses change and families use a weekly family dinner as turkey day.

Analysis-Synthesis-Kinesthesis.

A process for strategic positioning which in turn provides reinforcement- a flag- to organizations and consumers that things are as they both desire/perceive them to be. If you aren’t convinced that strategic positioning is a must for your organization, then let me know how that three pointer from the top of the arc with an exercise ball works for you.

If you want to learn more about your positioning, just ASK.

DC

DC is the name affectionately given to Debbie Coleman as she lamented to her students on the credibility of the brand name Debbie. DC is/has served as an adjunct faculty member in Marketing and Branding Management and currently offers her strategic insight to those in need of a fresh perspective. You can email her at dcolemanaskcommunications@gmail.com