The Parallels Between Marketing and Psychological Intervention

This is my first year ever in my life studying psychology. When I started my Master’s here at the New School, I thought I would be learning about the ways in which people think. I knew I would study subjects such as social psychology, freudian theory, and the science behind connection.

I knew I’d expand my knowledge in the subject of psychology, but I didn’t know was that what I learn can be used to make a real difference in the world.

Human nature is an interesting thing. We are so impacted by the world around us. I know this very well. I have worked in entertainment and marketing for years so I’ve seen the malleability of the human mind. People can be forever impacted by words on a sign. They can be urged greatly. A piece of artwork can make someone ponder their life.

Real impact starts in the mind and moves into action. Some could call this “manipulation,” but it can be used for the good.

It never really occurred to me that the same “marketing techniques,” as I’ve always called them, could used improve the lives of children in Uganda. By understanding the pathways of someone’s mind, you can urge them to take a specific action. My experience working with my fellow students and with War Child has been very eye-opening for me. It has enlightened me to the vastness of what psychology can really do for the world.

In marketing, you start with an objective. Next, you identify your target audience, assess the barriers between your audience and your objective, and create a plan of action accordingly. In psychology, as I’ve found, it’s not much different.

We started with a clear objective: To get children who have signs of mental illness to seek psychological health services.

Next, we learned to put ourselves in the shoes of the children of Uganda. We can gained perspective and empathy by creating “personas.” Each of our personas detailed the journey of a child from Uganda, their interests, and their beliefs. It helped us to understand why these children are not seeking mental health services — identifying barriers such as lack of transportation, absence of parental guidance, spiritual beliefs, community stigma and judgement. We also spoke to a community member and Uganda native, as well as consulted our War Child contacts about their personal experience working in the community to gain a broader sense for the population.

In my opinion, learning about the lives of the children has been the most important part of our entire project so far because it gave us the perspective to the inner workings of minds that can be very different from our own. More than that, it showed me the similarities in mindset that we share with these children. It gave me a sense of hope that our goals in working with them can be attainable — we just have to be creative.

After attaining a better understanding, we have started to brainstorm about possible solutions to reach our objective. Myself and each of my group members have each come up with a plan of action and we are waiting on review by War Child to see which of our plans they like the best. It’s exciting to know that our work will hopefully be implemented and can make an impact!

Learning the mind and how to create a desired action is intensely useful and interesting to me. The most profound thing that I’ve gained from my experience with my group members and War Child so far is definitely a sense of power — the power to use our knowledge of psychology to create positive change.