How Brands Can Use Busyness Cues To Signal High Status?

Lachezar Ivanov
Feb 3 · 2 min read
Photo by Anthony Young on Unsplash

“I divorced my first wife, because she never hustled and my second wife divorced me, because I refused to spend any time with her. #alwayshustling”

JP Sears in the hilarious comedy bit “I’m so Much Busier Than You” on YouTube

Has it happened to you that someone asks you “How are you?”, to which you reply “Busy!”. It has happened to me. There is undeniably a trend in popular culture where we advertise how busy we are. This is often coupled with a search for offerings that either save or enhance time. But what is the ultimate Darwinian why behind this phenomenon?

Research by Silvia Bellezza and colleagues aims to give an answer to this question. Using signaling theory that is within the purview of evolutionary psychology, Bellezza and colleagues demonstrate that a busy and overworked lifestyle has become an aspirational status signal. A series of experiments reveal that individuals who display a busy lifestyle, compared to a leisurely lifestyle, are perceived as possessive of higher status. The higher status association of busy individuals is explained by higher perceived possessiveness of desired human capital characteristics (e.g., competence and ambition).

The author team further show that the effect extends to the perceptions of brands. An experiment employed three retail brands: Peapod (high in busyness, low in wealth perception), Whole Foods (low in busyness, high in wealth perception), and Trader Joe’s (low in busyness, low in wealth perception). Participants inferred that a person who shops at Peapod has more status than a person who shops at Trader Joe’s, and as much status as a person who shops at Whole Foods. Hence, by advertising that it caters to the needs of busy consumers, the Peapod brand was considered high status, overcoming the fact that it is not associated with luxury and wealth (the traditional appeals we use to build high status brands).

These findings have implications for the marketing of products that allow consumers to save time (e.g., Walmart Delivery Unlimited, a private jet). Instead of concentrating on time saving per se, advertising could focus on how well such products integrate with a busy and overworked lifestyle. In addition, brands that are associated with luxury and wealth, but do not offer timesaving benefits, could also profit from linking the brand with an aspirational busy lifestyle.

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Lachezar Ivanov

Written by

Marketer and Evolutionary Psychologist · I use evolutionary psychology to improve marketing and advertising · lachezarivanov.com

Evolutionary Inc

Marketing and evolutionary psychology insights, delivered every Monday · evolutionaryinc.com

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