Marketing and the 7 Deadly Sins

It seems the Seven Deadly Sins are as relevant today as when Pope Gregory the Great listed them in the late sixth century.

Envy, pride and wrath are today recognised as emotions with evolutionarily adaptive functions. Envy and pride propel us to seek status and resources, whilst gluttony, lust and greed are related to the unconstrained consumption of food, sex and power. Wrath ensues if our pursuit of any of these ends is thwarted or threatened. Meanwhile, sloth is like the mirror-opposite of the other sins – a lack of motivation and drive. A unifying theme underlying all the sins is insufficient self-control, a failure to rein in the animal within.

To the marketeer, however – tapping into any of these can mean the difference between success and failure. There are only two things worth remembering when dealing with the public mind: deep down we’re still connected to the animal within, and there is really no such thing as bad publicity when executed correctly.

Greed

It may be ugly, but the dogged pursuit of wealth and power is part of human nature. Materialistic values are fostered by living in a competitive culture that inculcates the idea that wealth and status are necessary to be happy. Ultimately, greed motivates us to obtain wealth and status, and marketing has the answer to this: premiumisation.

One of the car manufacturers who really understands the power of greed is British-born Bentley. When it comes to the life-stages of luxury car ownership, Bentley plots the path from mainstream (Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar, Land Rover) to exclusive (Ferrari, Aston Martin) to aristocratic (Bentley, Rolls Royce) or exotic (Lamborghini, Koenigsegg).

The Bentley target consumer is predominantly self-made wealth, about 54 years old and worth $20m. The greatest barrier to entry for owning a Bentley is: am I old enough for a Bentley yet? Lately, Bentley started to focus on a new type of consumer: about 10 years younger, worth around $3m and again predominantly self-made wealth. The new range (Bentayga) is younger, sportier and taps into the image of power and wealth and exclusivity that comes with owning a Bentley yet brings this experience to a whole new group of younger, less affluent yet aspirational consumers.

As a whole, the super-premium market is booming. Be it cars, jewellery, skincare or baby strollers. The rise of social media, and especially the likes of Instagram and Pinterest allow for a constant display of wealth from the have’s to the have not’s. Although the conscious and the ethical consumer are often quoted as emerging trends, the premium market shows no signs of slowing down.

Envy

Envy is the emotion that’s triggered when another person achieves what we want, and we think they don’t quite deserve it. Where it can be a rather destructive emotion that longs for the other person to fail, clever marketing has turned this into a positive one: aspiration. Don’t get upset, get even. Don’t lose yourself in self-pity, get a ‘revenge-body’.

Let’s look at a couple of examples:

The ideal customer at Lululemon is "a 32-year-old professional single woman named Ocean who makes $100,000 a year. Ocean is also "engaged, has her own condo, is travelling, fashionable, has an hour and a half to work out a day."

Instead of envying Ocean – you could ‘become’ Ocean.

Lululemon apparel is now being worn for more than working out. The clothing has become a look that customers wear during their everyday lives. As a result, Lululemon is now targeting the less active consumers concerned about their image. Lululemon has recognised another segment of customers who see the brand as suitable for daily life. These customers want the brand to give them the perception of living this active lifestyle during their casual day-to-day lives, even when a workout is not part of that day.

Protein World (mocked by many experts for their apparent alienation of millions of consumers) proved this by turning an unapologetically discriminative approach into ￡2 million overnight.

The self-proclaimed ‘premium online health store’ was responsible for one of the biggest advertising gaffes (or triumphs, depending on your opinion) of 2015.

The ad features a black and white, svelte-yet-curvy, fair-haired and fair-skinned woman in a bright yellow bikini. Her hair is long and lush, her lips full, and her waist is tiny. Next to her is the simple question: Are you beach body ready?

The question is almost immediately followed by the introduction of “the weight loss collection”. As if to suggest you probably are not beach body ready, and that clearly the step to remedy that involves losing weight.

Protein World’s posters became news because of their unspoken communication. Consumers took an unremarkable piece of creative, read into it, and didn’t like what lay beyond the surface. Envy led to anger, and that anger drove virality on global social. Protein World tapped into this and created the biggest brand story of the year. Such sophisticated cultural reading of unsuspecting content is a particular condition of post-modern urban elites.  Protein World showed a deep intelligence of the way that social really works, not the way we’d like it to work, and other brands should take note.

Pride

Whereas the success and status of others can provoke envy, pride is what we feel when the success and status are our own. Pride, like envy, is a human universal and is another of the sins considered by psychology to be an emotion. Whereas envy, triggered by the success of others, is aversive, pride is rewarding and thereby encourages us to persevere. Marketing’s answer to pride is justification.

So why should I spend my hard-earned money on a premium priced eyeliner? Well, because I’m worth it. With that straightforward statement, L’Oreal has come up with one of the most recognisable brand slogans. The fact that an intern came up with it when asked why she bought L’Oreal makes it even more authentic.

Pride allows a reward, and rewards can come in many forms. Under Armour uses pride in your accomplishments with a surgical precision like no other brand. Constant messages reinforcing pride of achievement, combined with imagery of extreme endurance have put the brand in a league of its own. ‘You are the sum of all your training’, or ‘I will be more than a pretty thing’, or the clever ‘I will be praised, I will be judged, but I will not be distracted’ appeal directly to people’s sense of pride.

And why shouldn’t you be proud if your ‘less than 2% body-fat achievement’ allows you to show off your toned physique in an Under Armour compression shirt?

Wrath

Anger is one of the core emotions and its survival function is clear. When a threat to ourselves or our kin is perceived, the activity of the sympathetic nervous system intensifies, the heart races, adrenaline flows, as the body prepares to confront the situation. In today’s world, anger can often be triggered by a lot less. Examples are intense envy or threatened pride. When channelled correctly, anger can work wonders in marketing. A commonly used strategy is reverse product placement.

Are you angry at those pesky brands that represent a distorted view of reality by using underage, and underweight girls to promote a view of unobtainable perfection? Well, you are not alone! Dove has consistently reverse positioned itself as the brand that promotes ‘real beauty … from within’, a brand that embraces ‘imperfections and curves’. Dove’s campaign for ‘real beauty’ is a cleverly disguised campaign that taps into people’s anger with ‘fake beauty’.          

Looking at its rival Unilever (the maker of Dove), Procter&Gamble was soon to follow. By making their brand Always the poster child tapping into the anger of women – rightfully so – by still having to deal with gender equality in this day and age was nothing short of genius. The ‘#LikeAGirl’ campaign basically went out there to look for an enemy, someone to get really angry with. Digging deeper into the causes of the drop in confidence of women during puberty, a big impact on girls was to be defined by a set of rules, like beauty and submissiveness. Society constantly dwells on gender differences, sending out the message that leadership, power and strength are for men, not for women. And that boys should be raised not to be a girl as if being female was ‘not good enough’.

By harnessing that anger, and allowing Always to become the platform to right this century-old wrong, the brand was able to prove that you can reconnect with a young consumer base, and make a feminine-hygiene brand – typically a low involvement category - more relevant.

Lust

As with anger, the evolutionary function of lust is obvious. Our drive to mate ensures the continuation of the species. Lust is the basic driver for seeking sexual gratification, passionate love helps us focus our efforts on pursuing a particular mate, and companionate love encourages long-term bonding, which is beneficial for raising and supporting offspring. In marketing, lust was one of the first sins to tap into, and it was encapsulated perfectly in the simple slogan ‘sex sells’.

It is incredibly hard to find a category that hasn’t been guilty of using a scantily clad woman or man to flog a product; from cars to beers, from clothes to perfume, from shoes to … charity (think PETA).

There is a direct shortcut to the sub-conscious by merely displaying anything suggestive but it is never without risk. The recent campaigns by Tom Ford perfume and American Apparel left little to the imagination and ended up upsetting consumers. Unfortunately for American Apparel, shoppers have had enough of crude sexualised imagery and the retailer is seeking to tone down its trademark in-your-face sexualised advertising after declining sales.

Gluttony

It’s tempting to think the amount that people eat and drink is simply about personal choice. This assumption is reflected in the idea of too much consumption being a sin – gluttony, a woeful lack of temperance born out of poor character. However, psychologists today roundly reject the idea that over-consumption can simply be attributed to a person’s free choice. The amount we consume is heavily influenced by environmental factors including food availability, price and portion size – collectively known as ‘obesogenic’ factors. Increasingly the finger has been moved from the individual (the ‘victim’) to the manufacturer (the ‘enabler’). The tobacco and alcohol industry have long been blamed for enabling poor choices, and have now been joined by the food and non-alcoholic beverage industry when the witch-hunt against trans-fat, hormones, artificial ingredients, coconut oil and sugar really took off. In the world of marketing, however, every setback can also be turned into an opportunity: indulgence was born.

Faced with an ever better-informed consumer and an ever more protective government, there were only two strategies to cope: adapt or re-purpose.

Most brands were very quick to adapt and swap the harmful ingredients for good ones. The prime examples are sugar-free sodas (same taste, none of the sugar - Coke) and fat-free cheeses and yoghurts (Philadelphia Ultra-Light) that allowed consumers to continue to indulge without any of the risks.

When there was a genuine risk to the experience (alcohol-free whisky anyone?) or flavour (soy based Nutella anyone?) the products had to be carefully re-purposed to transition from ‘everyday’ to ‘special occasion indulgence’. Magnum’s ‘Dare to go Double’ and Haagen-Dazs’s ‘Lose Control’ campaigns justify occasional indulgence as a treat.

Sloth

Unlike the other sins, which are largely about excess and disinhibition, sloth reflects a lack of motivation. Another way to think about laziness is as ‘task avoidance’. This last, little sin is the one that represents a real headache for marketers out there.

The Internet and technology have become so smart that life is becoming very easy for us. And it will only get better, faster and smarter. Everything we do is more effective, requires less effort and as a result, we have more free time. We don’t need to spend hours to get things done. All because of technology.

We don’t need to have a real-life conversation with each other anymore to know something. If you want to find a certain place, just use Citymapper instead of asking someone for instructions. There is even an application that makes clear who wants to share his or her umbrella. Based on your location, umbrellas light up if the owner is up to sharing it with you. Or are you in for a cuddle? Just check the Spoonr app and discover who in your neighbourhood would also like to cuddle.

E-commerce is upgraded. In combination with services like Collect&Go, this can generate a lot of time-saving for consumers. Goodbye to stress in full supermarkets, waiting at the cash register and losing time by searching for a parking spot during rush hour. Shopping is done in a few minutes now. Even the first prototypes of automated cars are a fact. Between now and a few years from now, people won’t need to get their driving license anymore. Saying “bring me home” will be sufficient.

Due to all these effective applications and technologies, consumers become more dependent. What used to be seen as innovative, is now the new normal. People no longer need a lot of time to get things done. For almost every task, there is a technology that allows you to do it better, easier and faster.

Shopping will become predictive based on a thorough understanding of your personal data and behaviours. The actual purchasing will be done by Echo, or robots, or any device in your house.

At this stage, it becomes likely that marketing will cease to exist, or that it will be automated. With robots talking to other robots determining the best proposition for their owner based on a suite of parameters. Or maybe that’s the time when we just sit back, relax and enjoy a Foster’s – because we’ve earned it.

Sources:

Campaign, 2016 - Daily Mail, 2015 - The Guardian, 2015 - Business Insider, 2015 - The Psychologist, 2011- Bentley, 2015 - How cool brands stay hot, 2016