The Marketing of Social Norms/Rules

The Marketing of Social Norms/Rules

I have been fascinated with the idea of what people consider normal. What rules are we supposed to follow? Which ones can we break without much repercussion? The idea of linking norms to marketing has also occurred as a way of implementing change. This idea of social norms marketing became extremely popular in early 2000.

According to the New York Times, "Social-norms marketing is the science of persuading people to go along with the crowd. The technique works because people are allelomimetic -- that is, like cows and other herd animals, our behavior is influenced by the behavior of those around us. The technique stems from a watershed study conducted by H. Wesley Perkins, a professor of sociology at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, N.Y. Perkins found that students consistently overestimated how much alcohol their fellow students drank. In turn, these students drank more themselves, in an attempt to meet their misperceived standard of normalcy. Northern Illinois University began the first social-norms marketing campaign on a college campus in 1990, using newspaper ads, posters and handouts to deliver the message that, contrary to popular belief, most students had fewer than five drinks when they partied. By 1999, incidents of heavy drinking (five or more drinks) by Northern Illinois University students was down 44 percent. "So what is normal?

How hard it is too change the idea of normal? Is it normal to cheat, lie and steal your way through life? What is considered thin? Is it normal for most marriages to fail? How normal is it for someone to be successful...strike it rich? Everytime see a social commentary on some everyday life fact.....more teenagers are having sex, most college students have drinking problems, etc...I find the need to dig deeper. What are the actual facts and real data? Is everyone really doing it?

I find so many ads targeting young people and pushing some made up ideal of what is normal. This leads me to one of the most promoted social norm in society. The idea of instant gratification. I have observed that more and more young people are pursuing the idea of instant gratification as a religion. They look at life as with the same though on material items of "well if my friends own or buy it then I must also do they same". This has lead to dramatic increase in debt to young people. Why must your first car be a Lexus or BMW? Why can't your first home be a starter home and not a McMansion? I am curious where this mentality comes from. How did you learn about financial planning and monetary ideas? Did your parents stress the importance of savings or did you learn on your own through making mistakes?

I was fortunate enough to spend an entire day with a classroom of nine year olds. I was there as part of a Junior Achievement program that looks to teach young kids business ideas and principles. My last lesson of the day consisted of teaching the children all about credit cards, ATM cards and balancing a checkbook. We also discussed the idea of saving money. I was totally astounded by how many of the students accurately answered my questions. They knew that if you bounced a check you could get in trouble (it ranged from a monetary penalty to significant jail time in their words). The students also mentioned how you need to work hard and save money if you want to have really nice, large things (again..their words). What shocked me most of all was that 90% of them had a negative view on credit cards. The students said that if you use a credit card it is not really your money and so you should watch using them.

It seemed to that these young people had a very educated view on financial matters and that somewhere between nine and perhaps 18 years of age major changes occur. Is it perhaps they lose the idea of the value of money? Is it the current peer pressure the causes them to embrace credit cards? I am hoping that perhaps this new generation won't fall into the same traps that I have seen happen to cohorts and the younger generation. I hope the new norm will be saving versus spending on plastic.

I would love to see more social norm marketing experiments implemented to see if we can change the current norms. What if all magazines or top retail stores started using "normal" sized models? Skinny is out. Having some curves is in. Would it affect the general population's thinking? I recently saw a study of 9-12 year olds that asked them who the coolest kid was in school. Their view of cool was the computer geek....most responded that the student who had the most knowledge of computers and the Internet was the coolest kid in school. Perhaps things are changing.....