In everyday language, the guilt complex is defined as a sense of regret or remorse experienced for not having acted according to the tenets of one's conscience. It's a state of being that pervades our existence: according to psychologists, we spend at least two hours a day in its company. It's an uncomfortable but also necessary presence: without guilt, we'd be thrown in catastrophic anarchy. In fact, guilt plays a fundamental adaptive role in the life of humans, by favoring socialization and the strengthening of social bonds.

But guilt can also be induced at will. More or less surreptitiously, marketing managers and PRs make use of this burdensome state of mind to push products and services. Marketing people often try to instill or assuage this negative emotion in potential buyers.

Non-profit campaigns do it routinely, by pointing the finger on a social transgression, such as not recycling household wastes or failing to support a worthy humanitarian cause. But profit organizations make use of guilt, too. FIAT for instance reminded consumers that buying a foreign car was tantamount to economic treason, by commissioning an advertising campaign designed to induce a sense of guilt for the damage presumably inflicted to the national economy.

Another instance is when marketers try to leverage the guilt we experience about the consequences of our actions (or inaction) on the people we love most. It could be about a father who feels guilty about buying a luxury good, because he might be depriving his children of necessities. Marketing people know full well that this is a formidable obstacle to the consumption of "superfluous" goods, and some luxury brands have been quite effective in cushioning such negative emotions, cunningly suggesting persuasive reasons to go ahead and buy the luxury item, such as in the magazine ad for Patek Philippe watches, which famously says that you can never own the expensive watch because you are merely keeping it to pass it along to your offspring. Another instance is the Kinder Bueno TV ad, where the actress blatantly refuses the male offer for an extra-rich cake, by retorting: "Are you trying to make me fat with pimples?!", and then goes on to stuff herself, free of guilt, on the presumably less caloric snack being advertised.

But is guilt an effective marketing ploy? Not if the manipulative intent is self-evident. In that case, the consumer consciously acts to decrease the potency of the guilt message. In fact, only moderate appeals to guilt seem to work. A strong sense of guilt is usually accompanied by irritation if not rage, emotions that tend to play against the marketed brand and are disincentives against buying.

by Isabella Soscia,
Assistant Professor of International Marketing Research, Università Bocconi