Marketing Psychology and Consumer Behaviour
Would you help an elderly person cross the road for a Nickel?
Would you charge a pedestrian who ask you to show them direction?
Let’s explore what do we mean by Market Norm and Social Norm.
Market Norm is the monetary value for any given task/job, it governs what you are willing to do for how much money, where Social Norm governs one’s willingness to help for a social cause, it may or may not have token of appreciation in terms of gift as good gesture.
The key aspect here is the Value Proposition for each individual scenario, when you perceive the worth of the job/task at hand from Market Norm, you always compare it with the equivalence worth of its substitute task in the market and put an estimated price tag to it. At the same time due to the social construct we have in our minds make us oblige to work for any social cause, we always have the tendency to adhere to the Social Norms with freewill without any monetary prejudice. This was experimented with a group of lawyers, at first they were asked to offer their services to the needy retirees, at 50% discount, they simply denied the proposition. When the same group was asked to help the retirees with their services for a Social Cause, most of them accepted it willingly. Strange Right!!
This is because at first when they were asked to give 50% discount, the lawyers view it through the lens of Market Norms, thus denied stating it wouldn’t do justice to their expertise, here the comparison is with nickel to nickel, what you offer and what benefit you expect out of it, they compared it with the profit returns, they would expect for the same work in the market. In the second scenario, when they were asked to help the same retirees, but his time for a Social Cause, they agreed unanimously as now they felt the obligation to help the needy, a sense of returning the favor to the society at large.
But do these Market Norms and Social Norms play any significant role in our relationship with our friends, family and colleagues? Well the answer is Yes!!
If a friend asks for 50 bucks you would hesitate a bit before lending but the same friend if asks for a treat you won’t mind spending even 100 for the same. Here again the trick is the monetary cost and emotion. Money is in itself an emotion which empower other emotions and make us vulnerable.
What if we blend in the Market and Social Norms together?
Let’s understand this with another social experiment.
A group of participants were given a chocolate and were asked to draw as many circles as they can on the square field/box on a computer screen, using a computer mouse, within five minutes. The second group were given the same task without any gift or monetary benefit and the third group was given same 5 Rs chocolate but this it was mentioned that it was worth Rs 5. You expect the first and third group to complete the task with same enthusiasm right?
Well that wasn’t the case, the first group drew 168 circles on average and the second group drew 162 circles at an average, which is a very slight difference when compared to the third group which drew only 136 circles on an average. Confusing Right!!
The third group didn’t perform as well as the second and third group, because they saw the worth of the task as 5 Rs, though it was mentioned the chocolate was worth 5 Rs. They compared the nickel for nickel, thus did the task half-heartedly while the first group was more than delighted to get a chocolate for such a small favor, but the strange thing is that the second group also did pretty well, that’s because they viewed the whole experiment as an social outcome and thus were happy to be a part of it.
These social experiments shows that we humans have a really interesting emotion for money and thus whenever the things are portrayed or perceived from the lens of Market Norms we are very much excited to do tasks which results in gain of wealth and much reluctant to do the tasks which lessen our wealth. This perception changes completely when we are shown the social effect of our actions.
Next time when someone asks for help try asking what you will get in return and enjoy the strange look on their faces!!
Marketing Psychology and Consumer Behaviour
Murtaza Choolawala
Geologist, Marketer
Hi, I am Murtaza, an enthusiastic researcher. Always curious to learn new things and to connect with people. Tech and Marketing are my obsession, and Research and Analysis are my Passion.
Marketing Psych 