Have you ever walked down the aisle of a plane whilst heading overseas and looked with envy at those business class seats? Of course you have. You wouldn’t be human if you didn’t. So, what stops you booking the fare in business class?
Price?
Probably but not for everyone. The problem is that there’s a perfectly good alternative – to which you’re heading – that will get you there at the same time as those travelling in business class for around a quarter of the price.
My suspicion has always been that a sizeable minority of economy class travellers can afford to fly business but baulk at the differential in price for 20 hours of discomfort.
That’s why the airlines make you walk past these seats. You know they’re getting better food and French Champagne. Best of all they actually get to lie flat and sleep.
You won’t be surprised to find out that the marketing of envy has been with us for a long time and that many industries have locked onto it. These days it’s called the fear of missing out or FOMO.
FOMO was what Adam and Eve had in the Garden of Eden. Don’t eat the fruit of that tree He says. Could you imagine the anxiety that the couple felt? What did they do? Exactly what He had told them not to. Apparently.
Industries such as airlines are not alone. Real estate agents have been using FOMO marketing for decades to flog houses. Tell me you haven’t been on a holiday where you have looked at the window of an estate agent flogging their stock. These days though it’s more likely to be a glossy internet ad with 20-30 HD shots.
The age of social media has also created a new dilemma for people frequenting each other’s social media sites.
That’s right, the research indicates that FOMO can lead to mental health issues but it also appears to be rewiring the brain and affecting people’s buying habits.
There’s nothing like a little anxiety or feelings of inadequacy to gird the loins of advertisers and marketers.
That’s why they pick and choose people with a large following to promote their client’s products. It no longer matters if you have the best product as long as Kim Kardashian is using it and posting it on face/gram you’re almost guaranteed instant success (unless of course it’s a personal security device).
Cigarette companies did it for years with beautiful people jetting off everywhere whilst lighting up a fag. My personal favourite was the ads for Alpine (yes they did call a cigarette Alpine). These ads usually had some Nordic bloke skiing down a powdered slope enmeshed in pine trees looking all fit and healthy then lighting up and being surrounded by beautiful women. Made me wanna go out and light up myself.
So, I guess what I’m saying is that social media has fed our neurosis that those people with whom we’re connected are all doing better than us because they post the highlights of their lives (holidaying in a fancy resort, dining at a three-hat restaurant or driving their fancy new German car or living in that McMansion).
Never mind that 29 days out of thirty they’re kicking back in track pants and a tee shirt whilst surfing the web and looking at other people’s posts (including yours). The holiday was probably booked on a credit card for which they’ll come to us for debt consolidation purposes and the car is leased. The McMansion? The bank probably owns 95% of it.
So, take everything you see on social media with a grain of salt. It’s mainly bollocks and people acting out their own fantasies and trying to attach a brand to something that has no business having a brand attached to it – a person. It’s a look-at-me medium to promote the highlights of their lives.
Sure, there are people that post by the minute but that says more about them than it should ever say about you.
Remember that technology comes and goes. 10 years ago nobody had heard of face/gram. I’m betting 10 years from now no-one will remember it.
We’ll all be hanging out with our AI partners too busy to check people’s posts.