Could marketing contribute to self-esteem?

And why social enterprise & nonprofits marketers should be asking this question

What if the 3,000 plus marketing messages we saw every day reinforced a sense of wellbeing, satisfaction and self-worth? What if marketing messages showed us that people of different races, belief-systems, sizes, tastes, and education-levels all had things in common? What if marketing messages made us feel like we all belong?

Would being reassured that we are valued and worthy around 3,000 or more times per day reduce insecurities and help us open our hearts more to others?

Most marketing thrives on making us feel dissatisfied. It’s a great way to keep us buying! By making us always feel like we are not quite good enough or our life is not quite glamorous or luxurious enough, we will always be ready to buy something that is going to make us feel better.

I remember returning from a few years living in non-English speaking countries. Not only had I been mostly oblivious to the advertising due to my lack of language skills but many of the ads had also been promoting versions of beauty and lifestyle that weren’t culturally relatable to me. It took less than a day of jet-lagged induced television watching once back in Australia for me to begin to feel completely inadequate. Who was I kidding with my low-key, lackadaisical approach to make up, skin care and beauty? Obviously, other people were noticing my lack of effort much more than I’d realised. And any confidence I had about my skin looking good for my age was a total delusion — and let’s not underestimate the wrinkles that will happen next year because of my lack of care this year!

But self-esteem is not just about us feeling good about how we look and our lifestyle choices. The often overlooked side-effect of marketing’s attack on our self-esteem and self-worth is that it separates us from others and closes our hearts. We go into self-protection mode — so worried about all the things in us and our lives that aren’t good enough that we put up defences. In this mode, we don’t really care if the products we buy were made by people receiving fair wages or if the ingredients are environmentally friendly. We just want to fill the gap.

On the other hand, when we are satisfied with what we have, we have more time to think of others and whether they have enough. When we feel safe and secure, we are more concerned with other people’s wellbeing. When we feel accepted for who we are, we are more likely to accept others who are different to us, just as they are.

It doesn’t have to be this way though. I believe that marketing CAN contribute to self-esteem — but not how it is being done at the moment. In fact, I believe that if marketing shifted to promoting a sense of wellbeing we would see significant improvements in community cohesion, social inclusion and consumption choices. I can’t see big business changing any time soon — they don’t really seem to feel any responsibility to overall community wellbeing. But social enterprises and not-for-profits should have a sense of obligation to broader community wellbeing, above and beyond the immediate needs of their overall cause — any organisation that has committed to “creating a better world” needs to consider the broader social implications of the techniques, tactics and messaging approaches they use in their marketing.

Regardless of the particular social or environmental cause you are working on, a happier, healthier, more inclusive, engaged and accepting community is definitely going to be an asset in creating a solution — so, learn to use marketing as one of the tools you have for delivering your social impact goals, not just for promoting the fact that you are doing the work.