Consider the temptation of a decadent double fudge brownie or the new heels you saw on your favorite celebrity. Suddenly, they pop up on your social media with a shopping link. Naturally, your first instinct is to click, buy and give in to the temptation. If you were not presented with the option, you would have given it more thought; maybe you didn’t need it, so by subduing impulse, you saved money and deflected wasteful consumption. If only it were that easy.
Humans are impressionable by nature, making them even more susceptible to the allure that can cost them a lot. Eve is a pristine example of this desire.
The boom of intelligent digital marketing and influencers has made this urge easier to satisfy quickly and immediately. The act of craving and fulfilling is breaking more than your bank balance; impulse buying is fueling overconsumption, affecting the planet like a plague.
Falling for Impulse Buying
Due to the rampant growth of the digital era, everyone now uses a combination of digital tools (such as social media, smartphones, apps, and other devices) to learn about and interact with brands. The Covid-19 pandemic has expedited this trend because people were unable to leave their houses, necessitating an increase in e-commerce.
Decision-making is an ongoing process that digital marketing capitalizes on frequently. Social retargeting is a method of reintroducing products in which a shopper has previously shown interest to a consumer when they are on a different website. This kind of digital advertising changes customers’ habits so that brands can influence a purchase at any point. Marketers can favorably affect engagement through personalized communication made possible by digital footprints.
The accessibility and the plethora of options available at their fingertips have made ingenious consumers trigger-happy, resulting in the purchase of products and services they don’t need. This is by design, as it has been observed that consumers are more likely to make purchases based on wants rather than needs because of advertising. There is also the rising concern that these targeted ads have conditioned people to overbuy things they don’t need, leading to an increase in their carbon footprint.
In Influencers We Trust
Digital marketing is one of many malleable constituents of this temptation game that is proving to be an imminent threat to the ultimate destruction of the planet. Harsh? The truth is bitter.
Let’s dive deeper. Influencer marketing has become more prevalent in recent years, which suggests that it must be effective. As the popularity of influencer marketing grows, more and more people seek advice from their favorite social media stars, such as those on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and YouTube, before making a purchase decision. Influencers can quickly use social proof because their audience already trusts them. They can do this by reaching out to their network of supporters. They are equivalent to that friend you always look up to and trust for your general lifestyle inspirations.
Influencer marketing is a clever new way to persuade consumers to spend more money. It plays with the concept of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out), which stems from temptation and trust. Let’s take the idea of seeing influencers as your friends further. If your friend shares something she recently bought that you must get, you will listen even if you don’t need that item. That’s how Influencer marketing taps into the trust of their followers. However, where there are advantages and support, there are cons, too, with overconsumption at the top.
Beyond Your Bank Balance
Allured by targeted ads and your favorite influencers will not only make your bank balance shrink and your space fill with unwanted material, but it’s also doing much worse. The predicament is not good, but all is not lost.
Let us understand the problem first. Every production makes use of resources such as fuel, water, and electricity. We need raw resources in virtually every aspect of our society, and these materials must often be sourced from far away, mined, refined, resold, and transported across long distances. Everything from Gucci bags to anti-ageing serums with the purest form of essential oils relies on natural resources like metals, trees, and fertile soil.
When an ecosystem’s resources are depleted to the point that further usage would be detrimental, we have overconsumed. It destroys ecosystems, damages habitats, and puts the lives of many species at risk by taking away their natural resources. That is how we make a carbon footprint.
The environmental catastrophe facing the World today may be traced back to overconsumption. One suggestion is to reduce our consumption as a whole. We can lessen these environmental effects and protect these resources by buying fewer goods and using them only when necessary. We can all make a difference without worrying about the relative merits of different types of plastic or wood.
Pakistan is already a victim of Climate change. Even Elon is pre-planning an exit from earth. This threat has now become a reality, with over 1/3rd of Pakistan affected, even though it is only responsible for less than 1% of carbon emissions in the World. Climate Change is a domino effect. The shoes you buy today can also be part of that.
With all this insight, we can deduce that the solution lies in being more mindful of your purchasing behavior. Would buying less work? Yes, but that decision lies with you.
What do you think?