You’d be right in thinking that shame and guilt are negative emotions, but they can actually be used to create successful marketing campaigns. What marketers really need to know is that both emotions have different effects on consumers.
When it comes to getting the most out of using these emotions in marketing, my research shows that both shame and guilt need to be utilised in distinct ways because they trigger separate effects. The key is that consumers who feel ashamed are best targeted by campaigns which offer a ‘big picture’ solution to their problems, whereas those who feel guilty respond better to a smaller, short-term fix.
Marketers can manipulate shame and guilt to cause a positive outcome by pairing those emotions with the appropriate messages.
So the marketing manager of a fitness club could develop a strategy to draw in new members by inducing shame. The advert could prompt these feelings and focus on the bigger picture, such as ‘Are you overweight? How ashamed do you feel? Stop overeating, join our fitness programme and feel healthy all the time!’
To get the best impact by inducing guilt, the advert should suggest a small scale commitment, such as ‘Overeating again? How guilty do you feel? Stop overeating and come to yoga classes once a week!’
Marketers can actually measure consumers’ tendencies to either feeling guilt or shame and customise their messages to suit these emotions. By using a scale that was developed by George Mason University, called The Test of Self-Conscious Affect-3 (TOSCA-3) which distinguishes between the two emotions, marketers can measure consumers’ tendencies to feel guilty or ashamed. This is useful for marketers working with government advisory websites, ‘Overeaters Anonymous’ and other online diet programmes like Weight Watchers.
My own research at Desautels Faculty of Management, carried out with Indiana University and the University of Washington into more than 250 consumer responses, found that the point is to either emphasise detail or wider outcomes, depending on the emotion caused by the marketing, as part of a successful strategy. These tailored messages can be spread across the whole marketing strategy, from blogs to forums.
So putting online or pop-up ads on websites would mean that consumers can see these messages while they’re searching for information or buying products online. Or marketers could ask consumers to take a short survey which actually measures chronic tendencies to feel either guilty or ashamed when they log in, and then customise the ad message based on the data.
When marketers using strategies that depend on these emotions pair guilt with a small commitment and shame with the bigger picture, marketing will have the best possible impact. It’s all about the perfect combination.
By DaHee Han, Assistant Professor of marketing at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.
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