The new national pastime of finger pointing, failures, cheats, and the lessons for marketers

I am republishing this December post with just a few updates and links as this trend thread is developing broadly and we can benefit by looking closer at what it says about changing the 'social condition'.  Today's Washington post has an excellent article titled  Ritual of Repentance
The Post-Scandal Litany of New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer Has Familiar Echoes
 

Our headlines these days  are filled with stories of recession and financial crisis. Beyond that we feel poised at any moment to shine a spotlight on stories emphasizing failure, lapses in moral character, or outright cheats caught in the act. (ok, Governor Spitzer was was caught red handed being a complete hypocrite which only serves up the retribution more dramatically. There are however examples where it is much less clearly defined.) Moreover, we seem inclined to historic reversion of the recent boom period as we seem to be warming up the Inquisition for anyone who profited off the recent financial boom and is now seen to have done it in a manner that is newly deemed as lacking some kind of moral standard that did not exist then. The baseball saga portrayed in this initial post is a good example of a blind eye previously turned.  And since we were collectively captivated only 24 months ago with visions of endless "flips" and a very "liquid opportunities" in real estate to make capital gains, I direct your attention now to what exactly it is that changed so much in the blink of a trend's eye.   As marketers we need to acknowledge that this condition is all part of a "social correction";  economic recession is only one component of a social correction. This is the picture social mood paints for us and it follows a pattern or a process. I call them "group processes" and it is really just another word for trending. Trends are what we do (how we behave) in groups. This matter to marketers.

   
this was posted 12/15 07 ( about the baseball/steroids scandal that is now acknowledged widely)

The following question was asked rhetorically by a good financial blog writer yesterday AM:

"Is it a coincidence that America's pastime is coming under fire at the same time as American capitalism is? "

 

Even if you do not understand the current horrendous dynamics unfolding in the world of finance; if you build a basic appreciation for what social mood is and how this primary social trend, or root trend, unfolds amongst us, this question would not need to be asked even in a rhetorical manner. Social mood is not a secret. It is not a complicated perspective. And while it is not well known in general, it does allow those with the perspective to cut through and sort out what matters most to the markets we serve by telling us what primary social forces are changing and how they will affect our interests.   This subject is a case in point:

Baseball is an ever present constant of Americana and is only now being belatedly acknowledged as corrupt through the use of performance enhancers. How many readers did not suspect more than a few players were using cremes, pills, or injections of banned substances for a few years now? How many readers out there missed the 'win at all costs' mentality of our social condition these past several years?  How many belated mea-culpas or pointed fingers of accusation of corrupt behavior will we be forced to acknowledge in the coming social storm of change?

My favorite statement with regard to using social mood to see through trends to the powerful least common behavioral denominator is the phrase "How we value things changes" (things of all kinds and not just in money)
And while this may seem very obvious the point is that it is, and by seeing social mood and the trends that surround us during periods of change properly, something like this is not only  reasonably expected, but we can see many other circumstances that will also magnify and grow depending upon the size of the social inflection point.

If you were to begin to take stock of all the various and distinct 'units of association' in your life, and draw mental lines through them based on what was normal behavior these past few years, and what is quickly now becoming the new normal, you would see similar changes across many boundaries. How we socially value all kinds of things is changing and will register in every manner of our lives. The root trend is social mood. How it unfolds and matters to marketers (and everyday people) it what this discussion is all about.

So, going back to the beginning, "No" is the only appropriate answer as to the blogger's rhetorical question.  A developing negative social mood at a large degree of trend will produce a seemingly endless barrage of finger pointing, scandals, and personal attacks that are centered on a new social need to emphasize failure over successes and cheaters over true competitors. 

Perhaps the most timely reason to write about what I call the root trend is that during a turning point in social mood at such a large degree of trend, the list of topics will be endless because how we value things will be changing in an endless number of areas for years to come.  And again, this may sound like a very general statement but as marketers, it will help us to know that social mood directs us where and how to see our markets in these important times of change. This singular perspective will assist our overall assessment of strategy, our emotional positioning of brands, the manner in which we converse with our markets, and perhaps most important, how to prepare for a large social correction in all aspects of our lives.   

click "Continue reading" for four trend threads in this post:

Trend threads:
#1 Money is a reflection of our changing social condition and as our collective mood shifts to shared pessimism toward the future we can see many reflections of this change in our social associations, closer to home, and  in many non-financial aspects
#2 Shared social pessimism toward the future produces a tendency to be attracted to stories of failure and controversy, sandal and cheats. Why else would CNN offer four hours of programming on this one issue last night....was it really that newsworthy? Yea, it was according to the times we live in. So much so that we got to hear former President Clinton ask again what the definition of "is" is.......The recent baseball stories are a reflection of other stories being emphasized by the media (in general) these days but especially of our overall adjusting of where we collectively place social value.
#3 How you are seen competing at anything is a new developing social value...the social environment up till now was more forgiving....sense the polarity in this behavioral dynamic and apply it to the markets you serve, especially when you talk with them.  The shared social value of "Win at all costs" is being replaced by "Cheaters should be shunned". So economic issues can be seen to parallel social mood but How We Value Things Changes, sometime a lot and  in many more ways than those measured in money.

#4 In the longer term, the language and emotions associated with the subtle shifts discussed here in this story will change much about how your customers see and think about your products and services' place in their life. There experience of life changes as optimism toward the future is replaced with pessimism.  Even if you are selling drain cleaner, this matters a great deal to your ongoing interaction with your customers. Being ignorant of these dynamics only increases the risk of unintended consequences.