Guilt in Marketing and Advertising
It started with a run that included our poodle Dudley and our neighbor’s black lab Tessie. At one point, next to a stream, I unleashed the dogs and they bolted. I waited and called, then gave up, and backtracked to search for them.
Walking up-river, I heard prayers and rounded the bend to see a large crowd. It was a Jewish congregation celebrating the new year with the tradition of tossing one’s sins—in the form of bread—into the flowing water. Individuals tried to shoo away the dogs, which gobbled up “sins” as fast as people cast them. I hissed at Dudley and Tessie to recross the water. They ignored me.
Bread consumed, the dogs ran pell-mell, scaring everybody under the age of five. The sound of the shofar was drowned out by barking. I walked along the bank until I found shallows and forded to grab the dogs.
What good can come from disrupting the sacred? It inspired me to blog about guilt.
The Science of Guilt
Guilt is tied in with our empathy system, which is based on mirror neurons. These neurons mimic—in our minds—what we see other people doing. That is why we wince when we see someone else slit a pinky on a razor blade, and they are what makes laughing contagious. Others’ suffering and joy become ours.
Guilt in its many guises—Catholic mothers, Jewish mothers, Puritan mothers, Sally Struthers—has been under attack in recent years. Scientists, though, find that it is important to maintaining a civil society. People with a higher guilt quotient are more likely to be altruistic than those with low levels of guilt. Don’t feel enough guilt and you are more likely to hurt others; the extreme is sociopathic behavior.
Guilt is part and parcel of any good customer relationship for three reasons. First, happy customers will feel guilty if they leave you. Second, you can avoid triggering guilt associated with your product. Third, guilt can be used to spur action.
The Power of Obligation
Most people never think of guilt in relationship to marketing, but California vintner Manfred Esser does. “You treat your customers so well,” says Esser, “that you create a sense of obligation to come back to your product or service. And, even more than that, to become ambassadors for your company. They actually feel guilty if they forget about you.”
Alleviate Suffering
Don’t try to market your product as guilt-free. It will not work. Individual guilt is a complicated internal process that you can’t control. At best, you can try to avoid pressing customers’ guilt triggers. Frito-Lay offers a great example of how to do this. For years, they tried to market snacks as guilt-free, without success. With their new campaign geared toward women, Frito-Lay turned to pop neurology for help. Their findings:
• Women’s communications center in the brain is larger than men’s, so women can process more complex ads.
• A memory and emotion center (the hippocampus) is proportionally larger in women, so they want ads featuring characters with whom they can empathize.
• Women feel guilty a lot, so make sure your product doesn’t trigger guilt. (Frito-Lay’s solution: market SunChips’ healthy ingredients and benefits over regular chips).
The result was different packaging, new bag sizes, new products, and a new campaign.
Guilt Prompts Action
Nonprofits have a long history of using guilt to get donations. Think of the images of starving children, or the Band Aid lyrics to “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time?” People don’t like feeling manipulated, but guilt can do a great job of moving the complacent to act. Guilt must be sincere; contrived guilt will not work. It needs to fit your brand and your goal, and must be unique. For example, Saatchi & Saatchi took an impressive, creative twist for Cordaid, comparing the cost of a new handbag with the (much lower) cost of feeding a hungry person for a week by donating to their fund.
So let’s raise a toast to guilt. It helps us do the right thing, it helps the economy, and it helps me blog. L’shanah tovah!
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Mea Culpa Diem
Guilt in Marketing and Advertising
Walking up-river, I heard prayers and rounded the bend to see a large crowd. It was a Jewish congregation celebrating the new year with the tradition of tossing one’s sins—in the form of bread—into the flowing water. Individuals tried to shoo away the dogs, which gobbled up “sins” as fast as people cast them. I hissed at Dudley and Tessie to recross the water. They ignored me.
Bread consumed, the dogs ran pell-mell, scaring everybody under the age of five. The sound of the shofar was drowned out by barking. I walked along the bank until I found shallows and forded to grab the dogs.
What good can come from disrupting the sacred? It inspired me to blog about guilt.
The Science of Guilt
Guilt is tied in with our empathy system, which is based on mirror neurons. These neurons mimic—in our minds—what we see other people doing. That is why we wince when we see someone else slit a pinky on a razor blade, and they are what makes laughing contagious. Others’ suffering and joy become ours.
Guilt in its many guises—Catholic mothers, Jewish mothers, Puritan mothers, Sally Struthers—has been under attack in recent years. Scientists, though, find that it is important to maintaining a civil society. People with a higher guilt quotient are more likely to be altruistic than those with low levels of guilt. Don’t feel enough guilt and you are more likely to hurt others; the extreme is sociopathic behavior.
Guilt is part and parcel of any good customer relationship for three reasons. First, happy customers will feel guilty if they leave you. Second, you can avoid triggering guilt associated with your product. Third, guilt can be used to spur action.
The Power of Obligation
Most people never think of guilt in relationship to marketing, but California vintner Manfred Esser does. “You treat your customers so well,” says Esser, “that you create a sense of obligation to come back to your product or service. And, even more than that, to become ambassadors for your company. They actually feel guilty if they forget about you.”
Alleviate Suffering
Don’t try to market your product as guilt-free. It will not work. Individual guilt is a complicated internal process that you can’t control. At best, you can try to avoid pressing customers’ guilt triggers. Frito-Lay offers a great example of how to do this. For years, they tried to market snacks as guilt-free, without success. With their new campaign geared toward women, Frito-Lay turned to pop neurology for help. Their findings:
• Women’s communications center in the brain is larger than men’s, so women can process more complex ads.
• A memory and emotion center (the hippocampus) is proportionally larger in women, so they want ads featuring characters with whom they can empathize.
• Women feel guilty a lot, so make sure your product doesn’t trigger guilt. (Frito-Lay’s solution: market SunChips’ healthy ingredients and benefits over regular chips).
The result was different packaging, new bag sizes, new products, and a new campaign.
Guilt Prompts Action
Nonprofits have a long history of using guilt to get donations. Think of the images of starving children, or the Band Aid lyrics to “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time?” People don’t like feeling manipulated, but guilt can do a great job of moving the complacent to act. Guilt must be sincere; contrived guilt will not work. It needs to fit your brand and your goal, and must be unique. For example, Saatchi & Saatchi took an impressive, creative twist for Cordaid, comparing the cost of a new handbag with the (much lower) cost of feeding a hungry person for a week by donating to their fund.
So let’s raise a toast to guilt. It helps us do the right thing, it helps the economy, and it helps me blog. L’shanah tovah!