Unit 12 - Affluence Flashcards
Affluence
Affluence implies having the economic means to privately afford leisure time and luxury consumption
Leisure time
As individuals in society, we make choices as to whether we should spend more time in leisure or working
We should rationally balance our leisure time to maximize utility
Each person will have a different perspective on this, and some like to work or do leisure more than others
19th and early 20th century
Through the 19th century and early 20th century, workers unions pushed for 40 hour work weeks (8 hours a day) and weekends off
Wages increased to allow for a comfortable life
6 hour work day
With basic needs met, there was a continued union push in the 1920s for establishing a 6 hour work day plus weekends (30hrs/week)
During the great depression, the gov’t supported reduced working hours to try to spread employment out
7 deadly sins were greed, glutton, envy, lust, pride and sloth. What is the meaning behind this?
Culture frowned upon high consumption, and it was ideal for people to consume less than they need
Working Class Consumption Growth: What caused it
As goods became available in dept. stores and mail order catalogues came out, consumption increased a modest rate as people were demonstrating a greater interest in reducing their time working
Government worries of consumption in early 20th century
With a fairly closed economy, the federal government and producers of the early 20th century worried that without increased demand among the middle and working classes, the economy would stagnate.
Corporations influence on consumption
Aim to encourage consumption beyond basic needs because they make more money
You really only need one or two pairs of shoes, but corporations make you feel like you need shoes for numerous different occasions
How to accelerate consumer demand
Increase pay for working class, but push back against reduced working hours
Improve access to credit
Planned obsolescence
Advertising
Increase pay
Henry Ford increased his pay to employees so that they could afford his cars
Planned physical and psychological obsolescence
Products now break down easier, and people feel teh need to buy new items sooner
This allows for consumption to increase over a person’s lifetime because people will buy things even when they don’t need to
Significant Overconsumption
consuming too much at a collective level
Too much is being consumed to be sustained leading to catastrophe for species unless something changes
Misconsumption
At an individual level, this is when someone consumes in such a manner that it undermines his/her own well-being (sub-optimal consumption)
Social Identity and Consumption
- Checkpoint for post-midterm 2
Decisions to make purchases are part of an attempt to find meaning, status, and identity (results in misconsumption)
Such decisions are heavily influenced by the cultural environment (of which advertising is a part)
Products are no longer sold by Advertisers, instead lifestyles are sold, with products/brands acting as conduits to the lifestyle
Tim Horton’s connected being Canadian with drinking their coffee
Conspicuous consumption
When you buy things for status reasons, not just for their functional benefit
Consider the $400 toaster, this is purely for status and not because a $400 toaster is exceptionally better
Everyday conspicuous consumption is now about fitting a certain standard, so that you don’t stand out
Status Seeking
Focus of members of society then becomes maintaining and enhancing status
Problem: Status is a Zero Sum Game so at a societal level economic growth may be doing nothing to improve total ‘happiness’ and in fact may be reducing it through encouraging misconsumption and overconsumption
Social Marketing & Persuasion: Commercial Marketing
Commercial Marketing: persuasion driven by industries that want you to consume their product
Social Marketing & Persuasion: Social Marketing
Social Marketing: Governments, NGOs and other parties influencing people to change their behavior to support the social good
Early Efforts of Social Marketing
Much of it used high cognition marketing, seeking to explain facts
involved mostly injunctive norm messaging, telling someone how they should behave
Often with an unintended message that says most people do the wrong thing
Limited effectiveness in changing behavior - the Tragedy of the Commons affect leads to self-interest often overriding “moral” messaging about doing the right thing
Recent efforts of Social Marketing
Has increasingly used low cognition tactics
Often employs social identity fears and Descriptive Norm Messaging to make good environmental behavior desirable and poor environmental behavior undesirable
Descriptive Norm messaging
Descriptive norm messaging: an effort to ‘normalize’ good behavior, and denormalize the behavior you are trying to stop
Also uses celebrities, public figures and humor to persuade people
Consider the Crying Indian Ad
Descriptive Messages
Identifying what others are doing and using self-concern about fitting in to influence behavior
More powerful than using injunctive norms alone
Consider the energy usage letter sent to homeowners, comparing people to their neighbors
Are marketers focused on the Long run or Short Run
Commercial marketers know that there are some short term effects of marketing, but the majority of efforts are aimed at changing long run views
Long run change involves changing habits, norms and beliefs
