"vMEME profiling can be applied to competitor analysis by using hard edged competitive guerilla marketing to ruthlessly analyze the DNA (the plan and control center) of a competitor, and see how thy respond to particular challenges."

Creating The 'People's Bank'

"I've been conducting environmental scans of South Africa since 1982, profiling the whole country," reveals Don Beck, who contributed to the ending of apartheid by applying memetics to reframe race-based issues out of genetic determinism. Drawing on sports psychology experience with the Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints and Texas Rangers, Beck's positioning paper "Hearts and Minds Strategies" was used by South African Rugby Springbok coach Kitch Christie for the side's successful 1995 World Cup campaign.

Beck was approached by Nedcorp Investment Bank (one of the three largest banks in South Africa) to help coordinate its re-positioning strategy. "Using my environmental scans and statistical data we decided to segment their banking institutions to fit the population's meme-map. Instead of one monolithic core bank, we created the People's Bank for the PURPLE/RED vMEME, 'Permanent Bank' for the BLUE vMEME, and the Ned Banks' for the BLUE/ORANGE vMEME. This differentiated each banking entity within the local community.

"We redesigned their corporate identity to target different kinds of needs, which went beyond race categories. The People's Bank had more circles and direct access to create a sense of free-flowing banking. The Permanent Bank had a 'Rock of Gibralter' sense of stability to harness the BLUE vMEME's saving priorities and long-term future view. With Ned Bank we translated the ORANGE vMEME's marketing/business orientation, imprinting a sense of success into the architecture.

"Then I trained all of the customer contact people using tailor made criteria so that they could understand why people in that particular banking environment see money differently. Developing total systems of personnel assignment is an example of producing natural systems that fit the people, as opposed to cookie cutter systems."

Nedbank has subsequently sponsored the Hockey Development Fund, the Sports Trust, the 1996 South African Olympic team, and hosts the Million Dollar Golf Challenge and the Inter-Provincial Hockey Tournament.

THE VALUE MEME: ITS CODES & CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE

LEVEL: COLOUR CODE: POPULAR NAME: THINKING:
Level 6 Green HumanBond Consensus
Level 5 Orange StriveDrive Strategic
Level 4 Blue TruthForce Authority
Level 3 Red PowerGods Egocentric
Level 2 Purple KinSpirits Animistic
Level 1 Beige SurvivalSense Instinctive

CULTURAL MANIFESTATIONS & DISPLAYS:
Level 6: People, feelings, equality, sharing, authentic, ecology.
Level 5: Success, technology,consumerism, winning, image, status.
Level 4: Meaning, truth, discipline, flags, hymns, traditions, uniforms.
Level 3: Power, action, empires, conquest, rebels, gratification, glitz.
Level 2: Rites, rituals, taboos, superstitious, tribes, ancestors.
Level 1: Food, water, sex, warmth, protection, cans-bands.

Note: There are two other Value Systems-MEMES: The Yellow vMEME (natural, systemic, integrative, knowledge-driven, with a strong sense of self-principle and personal choice-making) and The Turquoise vMEME (holistic, global, and collective individualism) that are now just appearing in several of the complex, future-oriented streams of thinking in our society.