Adam Taubenfligel is an author & co-founder, creative director and responsibility lead at denim brand Triarchy.
There is a tenet I live by that goes like this: You will never be able to control what happens in life, but you will always be able to control your reaction, and your reaction creates your reality.
When applied to business, it takes an interesting turn. How we react to market trends flows down to how we market products and then how consumers react to impulses. Inevitably, this shapes the industries we operate within.
Fast food, fast fashion—they rely on the shortest possible impulses to ensure swift sales and to ensure no one has time to examine business practices before purchasing. Hence, fast.
When we try to get customers to react to impulses just to buy, we aren’t contributing anything to the greater good. Instead, we are fueling an industry that we all want to keep alive without acknowledging that this behavior will ultimately kill it.
Calling In The Problem Versus Calling It Out
A friend of mine recently pointed out the importance of calling people in versus calling them out. It’s worth exploring in this context.
Let’s examine this point. Take a company that has some responsible business practices but they aren’t applied fully to the end product. If that is marketed as “sustainable” to a consumer, it’s akin to toxic-free paint on a wall of asbestos.
Going further, let’s look at a company that highlights how little water it uses when making a product, yet that product is made entirely of synthetic materials. Low-water washes lose their sustainability marketing value when applied to garments made of plastic, which is why the plastic part is often left out.
What happens at the point of purchase? A customer gets flooded with messaging about water savings, and they genuinely think they are making a responsible choice.
This is doubly damaging because consumers looking to make mindful shopping decisions have just been duped.
The point here is that if you are going to disclose one amazing thing, you need to also disclose all the non-amazing things. Give people the information to make an educated decision. Don’t rely on sharing only the icing on the cake, and not the whole cake itself.
The Five-Minute Rule As A Consumer
As a consumer, I like to apply the five-minute rule. Along with being an interesting way to reduce the amount of “stuff” you buy, it’s a fascinating experiment on how the brain works.
Our brains love impulses: the dopamine rush we get when we see something we like and have to have. That’s why so many impulse buys are positioned next to the checkout line, so that we don’t have the ability to discern if we actually need or want them.
Try this: Next time you’re shopping online or in person and you want to buy something, put it down for five minutes, walk away, grab a coffee, go to the restroom. Wait for the dopamine rush to subside, and then return to complete the transaction. It will alarm you how often you no longer want whatever it was.
This is why our closets are full of clothes we don’t wear, because companies are betting on the fact that we aren’t smart enough to give ourselves this pause.
So, give yourself the pause. Not only will this keep more money in your wallet and prevent less stuff from cluttering your house, but what you do buy will matter more and likely last.
The Five-Minute Rule As A Marketer
How do we apply the five-minute rule to business? Put down the marketing message and come back later to see if you really should use it, or even want to use it becasue you know better.
Ask yourself: Is it greenwashing to signal the virtues of low-water washes on pants made of plastic? Yes, it is. And the only way you’ll be able to hear this truth is if you take that pause before you push go on that next campaign.
This mindset in business will allow stronger, more meaningful messaging to come through that doesn’t rely on greenwashing tactics. Consumers don’t appreciate it, so why wield it on them?
What will come from this clarity is messaging that’s informative of the product. Regardless of what that product is made from, there will still be a place for it even if it isn’t being made as well as it can be.
As a result, consumers can make more informed choices, and brand owners are more motivated to improve the product and proudly improve the marketing alongside it.
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