Brandwashed (42 page)

A
t this point in the experiment I began to wonder something: if covert marketing could be used to persuade us to buy all sorts of luxury brands and products, could it also be used for a more noble purpose, like nudging us to buy more socially and environmentally friendly products and even live “greener,” more ecologically conscious lives? And, after all, if Toyota can peer-pressure us into buying environmentally friendly Priuses, the Morgensons could peer-pressure their friends into buying environmentally friendly soap.

As of writing, according to the World Meteorological Organization, the past decade has been the hottest ever, a trend that many scientists attribute to man-made pollutants trapping heat in the atmosphere. In 2010, as you may recall, eleven thousand people in Moscow died heat-related deaths; floods overran Pakistan, Thailand, and Vietnam; heavy rains saturated Australia; and Indonesia and parts of China endured droughts—all tragic events that are at least in part attributable to the major climate changes sweeping our planet.

Which is why one of the goals with which I tasked the Morgenson
family was to increase awareness within their circle of friends of the crucial importance of going green, and to try to covertly persuade their friends and neighbors to buy more environmentally friendly products. Which they succeeded in doing in small yet meaningful ways.

But before the Morgenson family embarked on this last mission, I brought in an environmental coach known locally as the Green Goddess.
Sophie Uliano, the author of the book
Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life
, is a leading expert who has built a career around helping consumers begin living greener lives.

Following Uliano’s advice, the Morgenson family began using the same tactics they used to persuade their friends to buy those beautiful bracelets and those bottles of California bubbly to persuade them to live in more ecologically mindful ways. For example, the Morgenson boys began showing up at school with GreenSmart bags—eco-conscious backpacks, messenger bags, and lunch boxes that are created entirely from recycled materials. And sure enough, a number of their classmates soon started doing the same. Gina introduced these same bags to her friends as great picnic tote bags—“perfect for keeping hot things hot and cold things cold,” she told them. This little mini-experiment within my experiment worked better than even I anticipated. In the sixty days following the Morgensons’ ecological mission, ChatThreads found that the number of “green” activities the Morgensons’ friends and neighbors engaged in increased by an astonishing 31 percent. Moreover, the influence seemed to stick; according to ChatThreads’ analysis, these same friends and neighbors showed a strong likelihood of performing at least one “green” behavior or activity—or making an eco-friendly purchasing decision—each day over the
next
thirty days as well.

The fact of the matter is that peer pressure is the
only
way to make people go green. The most powerful persuader, for better or for worse?
Guilt. Naturally, most people recognize the importance of living environmentally mindful lives. We’ve read the articles and watched the TV documentaries. But in this era of media overload and instant amnesia, the influence of our peers ends up being far, far more powerful. I couldn’t help but notice that when Eric took center stage to announce to his friends what green products he was using, everyone in the room
not only listened intently to what he was saying—they later actually changed their habits.

It’s easy enough to imagine. A woman mentions to a friend in passing that she just bought a GreenSmart bag. That second woman goes out and buys it, mentions it to six of her friends, several of whom go out and buy it and then talk about it to their friends. Or a businessman is aboard an airplane, his laptop enclosed in a GreenSmart bag, when his seatmate asks, “Where’d you get that bag?” That passenger happens to be a popular blogger who buys it and gives it a plug in his widely read weekly column. A day or so later, 250,000 readers are aware of GreenSmart and its products and are “liking” the GreenSmart
Facebook page—and remember, if our Facebook friends “like” a product, we perceive it as preapproved and “like” it more ourselves. From there, buzz about the brand—and what it stands for—spreads virally, and in no time at all it has a worldwide following that’s stronger, deeper, and far more loyal than any big-budget campaign that even the savviest marketer, advertiser, or corporation could ever concoct.

In 2011, Bharat Anand of Harvard University, and Aleksander Rosinski, a former visiting researcher there, found that we are far more likely to be persuaded by a product recommendation when it comes from a source we trust and respect. When they placed the exact same ad in two different publications (one a respected print publication, the other an online news site), they found that the more respected the publication, the more that people would trust the ad. I would argue that when it comes to word-of-mouth recommendations (which we expect to be authentic and genuine rather than paid for by a company), the source matters even more. Which brings me back to the Morgensons. The Morgensons embody the American dream. They are successful, wealthy, attractive, the picturesque harmonious family living a life we all want to live. In short, we not only respect them, we aspire to be them. And in turn, we trust them.

We all have the equivalent of the Morgenson family in our own social circle. Because they’ve created a life we all somehow would like to have, we believe (consciously or not) that buying the things they buy and doing the things they do just might give us a whiff of their success, or their happiness. Just as with a beloved celebrity, our respect and
admiration for the Morgensons (or the equivalent in our neighborhood) gets transported onto every brand they recommend.

So yes, while companies and marketers have all kinds of sneaky ways of tricking us into buying their products, at the end of the day we’re not
just
being brandwashed by companies—the fact is, we’re also being brandwashed (and sometimes in a good way) by
one another
.

Here I will leave you with just one final reflection: for better or for worse, a year after my Brand Detox, I’m still coming to terms with how completely hooked I was (and still am) on the brands I love and use—from my Gillette Fusion razor, to the Clarins moisturizer I slather over my face after a long plane flight, to the Pepsis in my fridge at home.

At the same time, my failed detox helped open my eyes to the fact that I may be a marketer, but I’m also a consumer, just like the rest of us. It helped me realize that there are simply a handful of brands I cannot live without, brands that define who I am and who I wish to become. I hope this book has similarly helped you to understand your own complicated relationship with brands, and that it’s educated and empowered you to be able to recognize when you’re being manipulated—and when you’re not.

And by the way, I still
Cypress.

I
n my experience, we all have three bank accounts. As most of the world knows, the first is where you stash your money. The second—our “personal brand account”—is a place where we actively innovate or enhance our brand. Just as critical is our third account, which I dub our “exploration account,” a time, period, or state of mind when we learn, improve ourselves, or just plain evolve … or enhance our personal brand. When did you last set aside time to strengthen the skills you were born with? It’s pretty hard to remember, right?

The point is, a deposit into our brand and exploration accounts takes place only with the help, support, encouragement, and talent of others. And without them, this book would never have hit the bookstores, or made it into your hands in the first place.

First, a huge thanks goes to all the sponsors of
Brandwashed—
in particular Julia Steerman and the Murray Hill Center, one of the top focus-group companies in the United States, who have not only helped support some of the fascinating results you’ve just read about, but helped confirm many of my hypotheses and theories.

Headed up by Ruth Stanat, SIS International made our nationwide study on kids and parents become a reality by exploring millions of data points, which led to a host of intriguing conclusions. A big thank-you also goes to Ashan Khan, John Nuding, and John Spadaro of Zenith Media, for giving me access to some rather spectacular media habits across the U.S.

Without Anne-Marie Kovacs, who forwarded me the trailer to the film
The Joneses
months before its theatrical release and helped craft the experiment’s hypothesis and outline, the inspiration for
The Morgensons
would never have taken place. Anne-Marie also co-ran focus groups in Chicago related to many of the topics in this book. I owe you one (or several), Anne-Marie.

Which brings me back to my sponsors, without which this project would never have become a reality. I’d like to thank my number one favorite brand: LEGO. (If you’ve read my previous books, you probably know about my lifelong love affair with that company.) A special thank-you goes to LEGO senior vice president Mads Nipper, with whom I’ve worked since the birth of the Internet—that’s sixteen years, Mads, if you’re counting. Also a big thank-you to Chris Sellers from StinkyStink. You’re really an amazing guy, and I’m grateful for all your support.

Let’s pause for a moment because here comes without any doubt the most important part of my thank-you speech—the editorial team.

First of all, Peter Smith, my favorite ghostwriter. Peter and I worked together on
Buyology—
the success of
Buyology
can without any doubt be credited to his amazing work. Peter and I have worked on
Brandwashed
for close to two years. He’s more than a ghostwriter (Peter, we really need to re-brand that stupid term, eh?); he’s a mentor, creative genius, and amazing writer. Traveling as much as I do means impossible working hours and constant jet lag (can you imagine what it’s like to work with me?). Peter coped with it all, and did so with brilliance. Thanks for everything, Peter.

Close behind Peter is the team behind
Buyology
and now
Brandwashed
. First, my extraordinarily talented editor, Talia Krohn. The truth? I didn’t invent the concept for this book, and neither did I come up with the title. Both were Talia’s doing, which I think says it all. Talia has worked extraordinarily hard on this book, and performed magic. My gratitude to her skills and patience is enormous. I’d also like to thank a truly essential member of the Crown team, senior editor Roger Scholl, who has kept a critical, objective eye on this project over the past two years. Among the biggest champions of this book from the get-go were Senior Vice President and Publisher Tina Constable and Crown Deputy Publisher Michael Palgon. Tina, you did a great work in guiding the entire publication of
Brandwashed
—making everyone believe this was something special. Amy Boorstein—thank you for your guiding hand—and a special thanks to the Random House sales team, which in my mind is an essential reason why
Brandwashed
became what it is today.

Okay—let’s get this in writing once and for all—you are my favorite publisher (but you all know that).

Another big thank-you goes to my hardworking agent, Jim Levine, and his foreign-rights director, Elizabeth Fisher. Jim was one of the forces behind
Brand Sense
and
Buyology
, and I know our professional relationship will only flourish in the future.

What is a book without marketing? By now you probably know the answer: not a lot. First of all a big thank-you goes to Melissa Hobley at LINDSTROM Company in New York. Melissa oversaw the entire marketing machine—a team of more than ten people in and out of house. Melissa not only made our
Morgensons
experiment a reality, she did an amazing job overseeing the fMRI studies, the SIS studies, and all our promotion and marketing plans. Supporting Melissa is Kate Ferfecka, who worked day and night to craft online strategies and make our online visibility a reality.

Much of our online presence—our marketing concepts, graphics, and viral videos—was overseen by Jonathan Greenstein and Lara Greenstein at Juice, my favorite marketing company operating out of Canada. They know how to create magic, and I’m deeply in debt to them for sharing their amazing skills and talents with me. A huge debt of gratitude also goes to Random House’s amazing marketing and publicity team. In particular, I’d like to thank Meredith McGinnis, Jennifer Robbins, Katie Conneally, Tara Gilbride, Jacob Bronstein, and Dennelle Catlett.

But I’ve also had to learn—a lot—and in order to do so, there are a ton of people I need to thank.

Mark Fortier has been a cornerstone behind all the publicity for
Brandwashed
. Mark and I have now worked together on two books, and Mark—you are without any doubt one of the top PR people not just in the U.S. but in the world. Period.

As you’ve probably noticed, marketing and psychology go together—which is why I’d like to thank psychologist Dr. Belisa Vranich, a
Today
show contributor (and a just plain amazing person). Belisa not only oversaw many of the psychological behaviors taking place in Los Angeles, she also contributed with amazing observations and interpretations during
Brandwashed
’s journey. Belisa, you’re a true (also sexy as hell) star! Thank you. (Oh, and Krista Brunson from the
Today
show—you’re quite literally a star as well!)