I’ve been sitting on the 7 Deadly Sins for a long time, mainly because I wanted to share other articles that helps the general public get a better understanding of hypnosis
Whereas this 7 Deadly Sins Marketing is more to understanding how psychology can help in marketing your business to reach a level of success
So yea, if you are an entrepreneur or a business owner, this is for you
But of course, you can read this even if you are not the above
Maybe you are thinking to start a side-hustle or planning to start your own entrepreneurship journey right?
Or perhaps you just like psychological elements and how things work
On and off, I do share this little golden nugget with a couple of friends, with one just recently, and so I decided
What the heck, let me just post it up and let everyone know
For the record, this is just a marketing concept which I personally don’t use
I probably could… just that I don’t feel like actively doing it for various reasons
Introducing 7 Deadly Sins Marketing
Ok so what are the 7 Deadly Sins?
You probably know some of them by now, maybe not all of them by heart, or maybe you do
Just to recap, the 7 Deadly Sins are pride, lust, wrath, envy, gluttony, greed, and sloth
Naturally, the 7 Deadly Sins have been used widely in all sorts of places, from religion and mythology, to games and shows
Whether or not there are demons that rule or embody such sins, it is in human nature to have such vices
And of course, the opposite of the 7 Deadly Sins are the 7 Heavenly Virtues
Each Sin has an equal and opposite Virtue
Following the above order, the 7 Heavenly Virtues are humility, chastity, patience, kindness, temperance, charity, and diligence
Now back to psychology and marketing
We might not like it, but we have to agree that negative stuff spreads like wildfire, and positive stuff just not as fast
You might disagree with me, and that’s fine too
Just look at media and social media
Negative news generally gets a greater response and engagement as compared to positive news
This goes all the way back to prehistoric times, when humans were just on survival mode and you want to spread the news of harm cause you want your family to survive
See a sabretooth tiger, run! See a flower, ok cool but is there a tiger around us?
And this is still in our psyche even after so many years of evolution
That’s why negative news has a greater impact on us, it triggers something deep within
A plane crash and everyone go bonkers but did we just forget that easily 10,000 planes fly every day with no issues?
Yet that single piece of news triggers fear of flying, fear of travelling, etc
Marketing Through the 7 Deadly Sins
Going a full circle back to the 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing
Now, I’m not saying this will make your customers more sinful or that you have to have such sins yourself
No… please don’t do that
Rather it is an understanding of this concept, and tweaking your marketing and advertising to add maybe one or two things to trigger or draw out that emotional factor
Whether it is to make your brand more memorable, or to get the product sale, you can allow your creativity to flow with what you want to do
And I will be sharing a couple of notable brands and how they brand themselves or even how they do their ads
To be fair though, those brands might not have such intentions to work with such an angle
Rather, it is my interpretation of I see their marketing efforts along the lines of the 7 Deadly Sins
This will be a long article, because I will be going through each sin and how it can be used in your marketing, so save this article somewhere and return to it when you need to
At the same time, I don’t want it to get too long, so if there are any questions, feel free to PM me here
There are other marketing techniques too, which if there is interest, I may cover next time š
1. Pride
The deadly sin of pride, or hubris as you might have heard that before too, is excessive overconfidence to the point of arrogance
Pride is a “normal” state is a confidence in oneself, which is fine really
It’s the sinful version, where one might even look down on other people
A simple way to understand this, is ego (which also has a normal ego like self esteem, or an extreme version like egoistical)
When we want to use pride in marketing, we are, in a way, stoking their ego
I’m not saying to stoke (or stroke) their ego until they become arrogant ok?
It’s more like they feel they have achieved something or have a higher status by getting your service or product
One example will be Apple, they have marketed their products to be the crĆØme de la crĆØme, like you are topnotch if you have the latest iphone
People rush to be the first to purchase when the new phone comes out!
And now you got bragging rights!
Of course, there could be other reasons for that happening, but you get the picture
Another example will be Rolex, similarly, if you have a Rolex watch, you are there
People aren’t rushing to buy Rolex, but this is something which, if they make it, they want to get it to show off their achievements
Both market differently of course, Apple talks about innovative and sleek design, while you just can’t forget that crown logo of Rolex and their gold watches
Regardless, that’s pride – status and achievements, to make themselves feel good or better than other people
2. Lust
Lust is usually thought of as sexual desire, although you can also lust after power for example
So lust seems to be more of a desire for something, maybe even to an intense or extreme level
That’s the sin, whereas for marketing and psychology context, we shall focus on the sexual desire
Thus it is to make one more desirable to others, feel more attractive
Similarly, it doesn’t mean to make your customers lustful ok?
Essentially, when we use lust in marketing, either the product or service is to make them more beautiful and attractive, or we make the product or service attractive to the customer
First thing that comes to mind, are beauty products
Pretty straightforward
Makeup products, slimming treatments, skincare routines, you name it, all of them target women and make them more attractive to other people
Dove does an interesting spin, where they focus on reminding people of their natural inner beauty
That’s their main marketing style
The other version, to make the product or service more attractive to the customer, will be like cars
If you ever recall, TV commercials selling cars, why is there always an attractive lady there?
Why are there showgirls at car shows?
Now of course, to be fair, different cars might market differently because it depends on how they want to brand themselves
Like Volkswagen brand themselves as a family car so maybe they don’t show that many girls in their ads
And it doesn’t have to be girls either
Anything that makes their product or service attractive, maybe even sexually provocative can work
Like this advertisement video from M&S where a seductive voice was used to describe their food!
Hence, lust in advertising and marketing – making your customer desirable, or make your product or service attractive to them
3. Wrath
Wrath is usually described as uncontrollable anger or rage, where one might seek vengeance on the object of fury
To be clear, anger is a normal emotion, I define anger as an emotion to protect or defend oneself, like to defend against an injustice
Anger is ok at the right time, wrath not so much
Now obviously, I am not telling you to make your customers angry, or vengeful
Rather how to incorporate this element into your marketing or business (if it is possible in the first place)
To me, the wrath of marketing is to beat the competition, win over someone, or to seek a type of revenge upon others
Since you are likely a business owner or entrepreneur, the first part probably stands out already
Yup!
Every business tool, or marketing agency, that sold their tool or marketing service to you so you can literally “beat your competitors”!!
So you can outrank them on Google Search with the latest in SEO marketing, or you need to have this cutting edge technology so you can trump your competition out of the park!
Another version of this is seminars and courses that teach you how to win in arguments or negotiations
One more that easily implements wrath in their marketing are games, especially those that have fighting, PVP elements
Because if you want to win everyone else, buy this value pack to get more resources and beat the other players
Or since you lost to this player, buy this now to win them!
Now you might notice that this element works well with the marketing of pride, and yes, if you can combine them, it will work even more effectively
That is the wrath of marketing – to win or beat your competition or other people
4. Envy
Envy is caused by coveting someone’s possessions or traits, which then creates discontentment or resentment
Perhaps you are envious of someone’s wealth or fame, and it can have three side effects
- Spreading rumors or gossip to bring down their reputation
- Feeling grief at their happiness, or joy at their misfortune
- Experiencing a deep hatred and resentment
We can literally see this happening in social media already
A celebrity might post something good, and the haters give dislikes and horrible comments
And if that same celebrity post something bad, the haters will thumbs up and say they got what they deserved or similar
Right, we can see that happening in Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, etc
The envy of marketing is to share about your competitors’ weaknesses and enhance your own strengths
Especially when there is a rivalry between two companies, businesses, or brands
Pepsi versus Coca-Cola has one of the best examples as their advertisements are poking the other, making fun of each other, putting the other down etc
Another big example is the rivalry between McDonald’s and Burger King
The following video by Forbes shared that Burger King had a lot of attack ads towards McDonald’s which creates a lot of brand loyalty
Now we can see this competition and rivalry can actually spur the respective businesses to innovate new products and marketing ideas to outperform the other
And perhaps due to herd mentality, this can also gather loyal fans to stay true to your brand which promotes engagements in social media
In addition, your customers might also participate and actively share your strengths and target the rival’s weaknesses
A bit like how iphone and Android users engage in conversation
Marketing through envy – making your rival’s weaknesses more obvious or promoting your strengths excessively
PS. I know my name McKing has both McDonald’s and Burger King, but unfortunately, I have no links to them besides being their customer (once in a while)
5. Gluttony
The deadly sin of gluttony is the excessive indulgence and consumption of food and drink
Now there are actually five types of gluttony, according to Thomas Aquinas, who was an Italian Dominican priest, a philosopher and theologian (from Wikipedia)
They are, eating too expensively, eating too daintily, eating excessively, eating too soon, eating too eagerly
The gluttony marketing style is to make them hunger for your product, whether it’s expensive or cheap
Naturally, this marketing style might work best for food and drink related businesses
For the first two forms of gluttony, “to eat too expensively” and “to eat too daintily”, what comes to mind?
High end restaurants that show the richest of ingredients, the classiest of preparations, all for a tiny morsel of food
Whereas the third form of gluttony where one might “eat too excessively” is also pretty straightforward
The all-you-can-eat buffet, with loads of different types of dishes, just pay one price and eat as much as you want
We can potentially expand this to include experiences and activities
Such as to go on a cruise and have as much fun and activities with no extra charge
In addition, when we look at the last two forms of gluttony, “to eat too soon” and “to eat too eagerly”
We can translate that into impulsive actions or, think of those special promotions to buy now or forever hold your peace
Of course, you will need to make your customer salivate first before you can make them “buy now”
You can’t just say “buy now” and expect them to buy ok?
Building up that hunger for your product or service will be crucial for this marketing style
Classic gluttony marketing – create expensive experiences, all-you-can-eat activities, make them hunger and salivate before the buy
6. Greed
The deadly sin of greed is the desire to want more and more, usually for wealth, and may include material possessions too
This has a pretty straightforward marketing style which is to make more money
And this can literally work for anything that might potentially generate more money for your customers
From investment plans to target the regular guy, to business tools for business owners to make more sales
We can see this happening pretty easily
Now, I will caution here, that in fact, it is usually because of greed, in which investment and job scams work too
Like not doing much and earning a decent sum sounds like a great deal! It’s not!
But people don’t realize how fishy it sounds and fall into such investment and job scams because of greed
Now the other version of greed marketing is to have more of something, like making your money work for you better
Think of the supermarkets having promotional sales where you can buy a heck of a lot of items because of huge discounts given!
Yup, like Lazada’s and Shopee’s mega sales, monthly sales, etc
All those double date sales which a lot of businesses are doing too, like 2.2, 3-3, 9.9, 11.11 etc
I mean, think of the Black Friday sales in America…
All of such sales and promotions give you the idea that you can acquire more items with less money
This is different from gluttony’s promotion, because this is a hunger for that special unique product or service, whereas greed is to acquire as much as possible even if maybe you don’t even need it
And yes, you can combine, but let’s talk about that later at the end š
Marketing via greed – who doesn’t love having more money? Or saving money?
7. Sloth
Sloth is an interesting sin that may afflict the mind, body and soul with indifference or laziness
While the other deadly sins might commit an act, sloth has a lack of
Sloth marketing is to make things easy and of convenience
And unfortunately… sloth marketing might potentially increase sloth as a result…
So the marketing of convenience can lead that business to success, yet that same convenience might cause “negative” side effects in people
One of the major players in sloth marketing (whether they know it or not) is Grab
It is so easy to just order food through the app and get it delivered to you without needing to step out of the house!
Which naturally reduces your activity levels, and if you don’t exercise regularly to begin with… shrug
Any business that does delivery can increase sales by reminding people they do delivery
Because that reminder can trigger them to feel lazy so they will order a delivery
Also, some businesses might sell a done-for-you thing, it could be another business or a product
And that might work because you don’t need to do anything
Now some of my clients think that hypnosis is like that
That you come and see me, I snap my fingers and poof your issues are resolved and you are cured!
No, it doesn’t work that way
I’ve never marketed my business in that manner, because truthfully you need to put in some mental work too
However yes, if there are any coaches that will hold your hand and give you all the instructions so you do not need to think about anything
That could be a slothful marketing of the mind
Sloth marketing – convenience for people, make it so easy they barely need to lift a finger
Combination Of The 7 Deadly Sins
Ok so you have gone through all the 7 Deadly Sins of Marketing and you got to admit you deserve a pat for reading all the way!
If you can figure out one of the sins that you can use in your marketing, that is great
Now of course, you can potentially combine a couple of the deadly sins which can create a greater effect
Lazada for example, makes it convenient for people to order stuff (sloth) and they combine with the double date monthly sales so people can buy more stuff (greed)
This is Lazada’s 11.11 video ad back in 2022 and we can see clearly the greed and sloth elements
Biggest sale? Free shipping?
I don’t know if you might consider the girl pretty enough for the lust element haha but that’s at least 2 of the 7 Deadly Sins already
Now a crucial thing about running a business is that we got to keep innovating and brainstorming new ideas
Perhaps you want to use the 7 Deadly Sins to make your brand and business more memorable
Or maybe you want use 1 of the 7 Deadly Sins to do some marketing for a product or service
Once you figure it out, stick to it!
Another thing to note is that you might have different products or services and they each can utilize a different deadly sin to market with
Let your creativity juices flow in enhancing your brand, business and sales~
Feel free to comment any questions below, or share your ideas with the 7 Deadly Sins if any
And if you need to ask me anything personally, you can contact me through the chat button or through my Facebook
Cheers!
