GUILT = PROFIT?

I’m sure that everyone has at least encountered one small business either on tiktok, instagram or facebook. A familiar line heard in all of these short 30 second videos displaying the product are along the lines of “I made 50+ orders today only to get 300 likes,’ or pop up ads on websites that are basically screaming “Are you really going to leave this website that so many people put their efforts in without even signing to our newsletter?!’. Although each business uses a variety of methods to keep their customers engaged nothing beats the powerful marketing technique of Cause-related marketing or in simple words, the power of emotions which in this case, Guilt.

The attack on our ego automatically triggers the human ability to sympathise, and like, and comment on such videos. It sounds absurd to read about it now but I haven’t even gotten to the crazy part yet, It actually works. According to OptinMonster, an additional 2-4% of visitors can be convinced by their pop ads to be email subscribers and publishers are seeing a 600% increase in email signups when they use exit-intent technology that detects when a potential customer is about to leave the page. These can be prime examples to many studies like that of Bagozzi et al. 1999 and Soscia 2007. Burnett and Lunsford (1994) even have listed some of the kinds of guilt that businesses target like financial guilt, social responsibility guilt, health guilt and moral guilt.

Guilt is a very strong emotion that can be manipulated to achieve the wrong things but at the same time it can be used to obtain the best things for society. One of the types of guilt mentioned was social responsibility guilt. It is seen that 76% of the consumers of today said they have either purchased or would consider purchasing a brand or product if the brand follows and fights for issues that both the consumers and the brand supports, for example: close to zero plastic waste. They showcase their support through advertisements that will relate to consumers on an emotional level.

Guilt can be intense enough to get consumers to change their habits through the help of guilt tripping. For example, governments structure their cigarette advertisements involving a family suffering the after effects of smoking which would cause the main smoker to change their ways for the future of their family. This technique brings out both the health guilt that it was intended for but at the same time it brings out moral guilt to consumers who smoke that they may just be hurting the ones close to them. This changes their mindset about smoking which then brings social benefit.

To summarize, guilt tripping proves to be a very effective tool and, when done correctly, can gain potential customers but also possess the risk of losing them as not all consumers will be comfortable with this style of marketing and they could take offence to it.

So next time you come across a 20 year old tiktoker trying to make you feel guilty for buying mass produced goods and not their organic lipglosses, remember that they have the same agenda as those of the ‘evil corporations’ - Profit.