Lesson 2: VaEtchanan – Recite, Bind, and Inscribe: Multimodal Messaging Internalizes Your Product

VARK multimodality – Visual, Aural, Read-write, Kinesthetic– Neil D. Fleming

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” Deuteronomy 6:5–9.

This famous dictum––“Hear, O Israel…”––is a foundation of the Israelites’ relationship with God. It is anchored in multiple channels to ensure its being internalized by people of all ages and for the ages. It remains a central tenet of the Jewish faith to this day. The accompanying verses are incorporated in several media encountered daily: 1. Parents teach this tenet to their children, reciting it with them at home and outside the home, both at night and in the morning. We know that teaching and instructing any material will reinforce the material for the teacher no less than for the pupils. 2. These verses are bound up in parchment scrolls in the phylacteries (tefillin; leather straps used to bind small cubes on one’s forehead and upper arm) for men past age 13. 3. Furthermore, they are to be inscribed on parchment to be affixed to the doorposts (mezuza) in every home and noticed when entering and departing.

Thus, a multimodal approach was activated to communicate this theological message: speaking, reading, touching (on the forehead and upper arm), and observing (the doorposts). The VARK modalities address individual differences in learning and absorbing information: Visual, Aural/Auditory, Read/Write, and Kinesthetic.[1] Furthermore, the messages were to be imparted in various time and place contexts: at different times of day (evening and morning) and in different venues (at home and on the road).

******************

Branding and marketing have become complex enterprises. We all get bombarded with a company’s message in the media. Even if we’re tempted to switch the channel, the slogan or jingle may remain with us, with the advertiser assuming that we will be more likely to purchase a product associated with a familiar-sounding name or tune.

In today’s boundless communication platforms, multichannel marketing has often been the preferred strategy for promoting products. Using analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), the promotions stalk you, so you are no longer surprised (or disgruntled) to see specific product offerings repeatedly. AI sentiment analysis uses the opinions you freely share online to tailor-make an advertising barrage for you. In this efficient system, all the information we generate online never goes to waste—it becomes recyclable raw material for advertisers. 

Fees are paid to bloggers, podcasters, and other social media entrepreneurs in a virtual marketplace operating 24/7. Devising a multichannel marketing strategy requires targeted competencies and research, such as knowing where your potential customers are and which sectors visit where. These include push notifications, such as automatically following up with email reminders, SMS notifications, and Instagram and Facebook popups. The result, of course, is exposing your wares to the potential customer in the morning and the evening, at home or on the road, orally (podcasts), visually, or textually.

Career tips: 

• Maintaining an online presence is not the sole dominion of entrepreneurs as they wait for product orders. Anyone seeking a desired position in an organization can benefit greatly from regular online activity. Potential employers, even those without advanced AI technology, will peruse the internet, seeking information on their semi-finalist candidates. For instance, your fun postings, even stretching back to high school, are not anonymous. This is not to recommend discontinuing or deleting them, but you should be aware that they will likely become appendices to any official resume you may have submitted. So, take care to review them all. It’s usually best to eschew political statements. You don’t need to constrain your views to philosophize on the weather or your breakfast fare but keep in mind that there may be a price to pay for controversial diatribes. 

• Beyond your LinkedIn profile, though, you may want to try a more active online presence. This could include regular, professionally oriented postings on LinkedIn or opening up your own non-flashy site on minimal-cost web platforms. The topic of your site and periodic blogs or podcasts (whichever medium is in your comfort zone) could reflect your professional and extracurricular interests, such as hobbies or other realms you are curious about. You don’t need to be the world’s expert in art museums to create a series of research-based posts highlighting municipal galleries worldwide.

• Try this: Whether displaying your wildflower photos or background articles on jazz giants, your potential employer will be impressed with what is essentially a work sample that will feature many of your attributes: your diverse knowledge, computer competencies, systematic postings, creativity, and exposure to your communication style, literacy, and personality. If you are up to it, you might check out ways to maximize visitors to your site or optimize your posted resume by learning to incorporate targeted SEO keywords.[2]

[1] Fleming, N. D., & Mills, C. (1992). Not another inventory, rather, a catalyst for reflection. To Improve the Academy, 11, 137–155. 

[2]Joyce, S. P. (n.d.). Guide to personal SEO for job search and careers in 2021. Job-hunt.org. https://www.job-hunt.org/personal-seo-guide/