If you like to understand what makes modern consumers tick, perhaps you could review the list of seven deadly sins, such as lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride which have proved necessary, at least in part, for man’s ability to reproduce and find sustenance.
The market forces at constantly at play for almost every single consumer product out there. Wether it’s the lowly tobacco, gambling and alcohol promotional tricks or the much celebrated low cholesterol, no sugar added, containing Omega-3 and no trans fats food products, the millions of years of evolution imprinted in our DNA do leave us vulnerable to certain types of exploitable behavior.
For mankind, part of the human experience has to do with adaptation. It’s very clear some companies will exploit our evolutionnary shortcomings to their advantage, throwing all ethics out of the window. However, cultural changes greatly help humans evolve and those who are caught abusing our somewhat fundamental human flaws are usually singled out.
Professor Herman “Dutch” Leonard, from the Kennedy School, at Harvard University spoke about this matter and provides amazingly lucid insight, including practical examples. Fortunately, Sarah Abrams from Kennedy School Communications published a piece about the event
It’s a must read for anyone interested in understanding part of the way consumers decode, influence and use the market forces at play, from the standpoint of the deadly sins which appear very fundamental in the way we connect, socially, economically and otherwise to our world.
Tags: market forces, consumer market, connect, modern consumers, deadly sins, cultural changes, evolutionnary shortcomings
