Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Hug factor and rise of happiness mechanics
Brands are looking for the switch to turn consumers on to products
IT SEEMS that being happy has become a duty. We are expected to be happy, but we have less and less time to get happiness from personal relationships, friends and family. Our sense of connection and personal attachment is being transposed on to machines, we speak through devices and use machines to express ourselves, not only physically, but on many levels.
We seem to be emotionally stuck and have a lesser capability to function in a psychologically balanced manner. This could result in consumers subliminally reaching out to brands for an emotional experience as we typically crave what we feel deprived of.
This need for connection has created a craving or a gap that brands are now looking to fill, but there is also pressure from the consumer, for something more, something different that is going to create a sense of happiness and excitement. We just need to think about why we want brands to make us feel something. Are we turning to brands for some kind of emotional fulfilment? What is the implication?
Ask Afrika explored this in the annual Icon Brands survey and explored Happyology and the Happiness Industry (as defined by Will Davies) further, looking at what it means for brand owners and for individuals.
The Happiness Industry or Happyology may be stimulating our need to experiment or try new products. From the perspective of the individual this endless pursuit of happiness can become difficult.
According to the Harvard Business Review, consciously pursuing happiness can drain the sense of joy we get from the really good things we experience.
Davies says the Happiness Industry becomes exhausting and a moral obligation. Pascal Bruckner says: “Unhappiness is not only unhappiness, it is worse yet, it is a failure to be happy.”
Yet there is a social drive for us not only to appear happy, but an expectation that we should be happy all the time.
This results in a search for emotionally fulfilling and sensory experiences through brands. Social and sensory experiences boil down to memorability, and happiness has become a brand issue to manage.
Coca-Cola came fourth overall in the Ask Afrika Icon Brands awards and its Hug Me vending machine activation is a perfect example of getting the right balance of social and sensory experience through marketing.
Sarina de Beer, managing director of Ask Afrika, says: “I supposed there is also something to consider if we hug machines, and you will probably know of many more instances and examples where we are migrating basic needs to technology for fulfilment.”
Coca- Cola is even using machines to connect nations through its Happiness campaign, doing this brilliantly with India and Pakistan.
An interesting study was shared by Ask Afrika at the recent Esomar conference on happiness through media channels. When looking at print, the researchers found the largest increase in happiness after exposure to a specific media moment, but this increase was from a low base.
Cinema showed the biggest increase after the media moment off the highest base. Cinema is associated with a happy space, we relax, feel happy, and typically share the moment. It is crucial to capture the social and sensory elements.
The Ask Afrika Icon Brands study uses a nationally representative random sample: 15 690 consumers were surveyed, representing more than 23.3 million adult South Africans. An enumerated area sampling design was employed and the universe included all communities with more than 8 000 inhabitants aged 15 and above.
The data was weighted using the Statistics South Africa’s population mid-year estimates and audited by respected independent experts BDO and Dr Ariana Neethling.
The survey holds value in understanding which brands are getting it right. It can also provide, to marketers wishing to target the entire population, the requisite tools to track trends and gain greater insight into the South African consumer mindset and behaviour.
The survey also provides insights into a diversity of products that target only part of the South African demographic, says De Beer.