The bald man in the convertible at the red light might not actually be having a midlife crisis. Instead, purchases of luxury cars might be linked to instincts inherited from our cave-dwelling ancestors. When developing a product or its marketing strategy the preliminary questions rarely focus on a consumers’ genetic makeup. Instead, marketeers build strategies based on likes and needs.

Likes and needs only give us insight into the immediate cause of behaviour. At first glance, consumer behaviour is measured by combining consumers’ emotional states, preferences, needs, and wants. Such calculations are mostly accurate and highly profitable. E-commerce sites incorporate algorithms to predict future market trends. However, consumer trends are fickle and external factors vary. The algorithms have a blind spot.

Recent psychological research shows that asking why behaviour occurs enables better understanding and prediction of modern consumer behaviour. The Darwinian model of evolution arose by repeatedly asking why, and not just what certain behaviours have developed. The Darwinian model of behaviour theorises that all living organisms behave so to increase their chances of survival. Our cave-dwelling hunter-gatherer ancestors did not shop at Apple or debate whether to drive a Toyota or a Porsche. Nevertheless, the research shows the choices made by modern consumers are strongly connected to the same motivations that drove our ancestors' everyday decisions.

Examining the motives

Evolutionary theory in a marketing context is known as the Fundamental Motives Framework of Behaviour (FMFB). It explains that humans have evolved distinct motivations to overcome our ancestral challenges. These include desiring safety and superior status, and the desire to mate and most pertinently, to avoid disease.

One study investigated purchasing decisions of cars made while experiencing different fundamental motives. The desire to mate was heightened by showing participants images of stereotypically attractive women, whereas to evoke safety they were shown images of an armed robber. The study found that when the mate acquisition motive was activated the participants selected a unique brand of car in order to make themselves stand out. When the safety motive was activated, participants chose the most popular brand of car in order to conform. The choice of brand was irrelevant, it only mattered why participants made their decision and what motive was active at the time.

How COVID-19 is affecting motive

Normally, the most influential Fundamental Motive differs between cultures, leading to variations in purchasing patterns. However, COVID-19 pushes the disease avoidance motive to the forefront of the consumer mindset. Our ancestors developed psychological mechanisms to avoid contracting disease; this survival instinct is known as the behavioural immune system, the body’s first line of defence against pathogens. Today, the behavioural immune system manifests itself on an individual level through washing our hands before we eat and avoiding bad smells, and on a communal level through social distancing and a nationwide lockdown.  

The desire to avoid disease should cause shifts in consumer trends. With the behavioural immune system on high alert, we expect consumer purchasing patterns to converge across cultures. Assuming past patterns hold, consumers should be more willing to pay for brand new products rather than used and are likely to reduce spending on foreign goods. Market trends should show a shift in preference towards established brands, ‘flight to familiarity’, even if the product is inferior, and for brands whose values reflect inclusiveness and trust, ‘flight to conformity’. Of course, such expectations, particularly with regards to buying brand new goods, must be tempered by economic realities of lost income.

The importance of trust and loyalty

Corporates have already started to adjust their branding to become more conformist in nature. Trust and loyalty underpin many of this year’s big budget marketing campaigns such as Ford and Guinness’ latest adverts which conveyed overarching messages of community and patriotism. On social media, expect to see Instagram captions championing conformity with slogans such as ‘bestselling’ or ‘scientifically proven’, rather than ‘stand out from the crowd’ or ‘be the first’. By amending marketing slogans so that they appeal to consumer’s increasingly conformist behaviours, brands are better placed to win customers’ trust during times of fear and disease.

FMFB and behavioural immune system can be used to inform more nuanced and considered marketing campaigns. Post-pandemic, it would be interesting to measure the success of established brands like Cathedral City Cheese who use traditionalist branding, ‘the nation’s favourite cheese’, compared to Stinking Bishop Cheese whose branding semantically triggers the behavioural immune system.

COVID-19 has shown us that overcoming our evolutionary challenges continues to influence modern consumer behaviour. The current shift in consumer motives raises several questions about marketing strategy. One key question is whether marketeers should prioritise efficiency and standardise advertising across cultures, or whether a post-pandemic world could see these fundamental motives revert to their culturally based differences, requiring culturally differentiated marketing strategies. To fully understand the present and plan for the future, it is essential to understand the past.