In her new book “I Had the Strangest Dream…The Dreamer’s Dictionary For the 21st Century”, Kelly Sullivan Walden has updated the old list of dream meanings to include 21st-century elements such as Oprah and iPods. Even in the spirit of fun, most of us wouldn’t admit these are the topics of our mid-night mental movies. Whether Walden’s new dream meanings register as true or false, what is worth mentioning is that enough people reported dreaming about spam, texting, cell phones, and hybrid cars to warrant writing a book on the topic. This may be an indicator of the power of persuasion companies have over consumers. Today, consumers are bombarded with several types of stimulation and, according to Walden’s surveys, there are a total of ten most subconsciously remembered elements ranging from the purely functional (e-mail) to more pleasurable experiences like shopping on eBay. In some small way these new “dream items” could serve as a window into the minds of consumers.

Dreams are usually just a series of nerve-ending explosions, but some also see them as our mind’s way of sorting out, in the night, what we couldn’t get to during the day. Our dreams occasionally reveal solutions for problems of every scale, such as when Descartes claimed to have dreamt up the basis for the scientific method. Companies who are “in the know” could delve deeper into this possibility and glean solutions for (capitalize on) these lucid dreamers. One possible solution could be making email less stressful by adding soothing shapes and colors. Another solution could include adding cell towers so bad reception won’t manifest into confusing nightmares for your valued customers. The goal here is building positive brand association. Along this line, ensuring consumers are seeing your brand instead of the competitors at night could mean a sale in the morning. Note to retailers: Be recognizable and memorable, and then maybe you’ll be seeing dollar signs in your dreams!

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