UM: Is Happily Ambitious an Oxymoron? - Graeme Hutton - MediaBizBloggers

Do you think you are successful? Ambitious? In this era, when the economy still seems to be challenged, our own personal successes and ambitions can become much more pronounced to each of us.

To gain a deeper appreciation of success and ambition, Simmons offers about 20 questions on the subject. Universal McCann's marketing and communications survey, Media in Mind, which is linked to Simmons, expands this by a further 25 questions. What can these 45 questions tell us and what are the implications for marketers?

Ambition in its archetypal sense is a young, primarily male characteristic. Men under 35, especially those under 25, are twice as likely as the general adult population to agree with statements such as: "I like to have possessions others envy." or "People are impressed with…the technology devices I use" and "…owning a luxury car...."Women under 35 follow a similar pattern except that retail therapy takes on an added dimension since they agreed they "like shopping at prestigious stores,"while Women 25-34, index highest on "I like having expensive jewelry or watches."

If you are targeting $250K+ "high earners", owning a luxury car often appears to be a key status symbol. It indexes at 286 among this group versus the general adult population. No other success metric comes close for this income group.

Curiously, ambition and happiness do not appear to be the same personal mindset. Just as being ambitious has an inherently younger male slant, being happy has an opposite older female bias. Media in Mind implies that, as you become older, happiness is more prevalent than ambition. This finding is corroborated by Barbara Stauch in her recent book The Secret Life of the Grown Up Brain.As Stauch observes: People feel better as they get older. They feel more in control and they feel grown-up and handle the stress of life. Not only is their judgment better, they actually feel more cheerful, and focus more on the positive than they did while young.

Yet what attitudes indicate or help make any of us feel happy? For instance, would you agree with any of the following three statements: a) I am satisfied with my life, b) I am very happy with life as it is and c) I am happy with my standard of living. Chances are pretty high that you'd definitely agree with at least one of these statements, as do 77% of US adults. If you're lucky, you'll be in the fortunate 10% that agree with all three.

We probed our Media in Mind database and what distinguishes being happy can be encapsulated in four key attitudinal statements:
· I am good at what I do.
· If at first you do not succeed, keep trying.
· I am able to balance what's important in life.
· It's important to feel respected by my peers.

What is striking about this list is the need to maintain an equilibrium between a) a strong internal gyroscope focusing on what we actually do and what we need to do and b) the desire to balance that focus with other aspects of our life and gain positive feedback from others we value.

So what are the implications for marketers?

1. Actively treat our target prospects with respect. We consistently see Americans culturally relate success and happiness to both self-respect and mutual esteem. Social media only increases this expectation.

2. Assiduously align the brand's product plan to our audience. Avarice is clearly a trump card in marketing to young adults and some wealthier cohorts. For example, if we're in technology, making our device conspicuously cool is a major prerequisite for victory.

3. Encourage relevant feedback and interaction via user communities to help consumers feel reassured, reaffirmed and happy about their brand choice.

George Santayana, the Spanish-American philosopher, noted Knowledge of what is possible is the beginning of happiness. That's a seductive insight and I'd like to agree except I intuitively suspect that raw, unbridled ambition simply refutes the status quo of the possible. And in their purest forms, ambition and happiness are probably quite opposite constructs.

Graeme is SVP, Director of Consumer Insights & Research, Graeme is responsible for ensuring that all appropriate proprietary and syndicated research tools and resources are applied in the development of consumer insight strategies, for a total communications research platform--from TV to chat rooms--which informs the efforts of Universal McCann and its agency partners. Graeme can be reached at Graeme.hutton@umww.com

Read all Graeme's MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Curious Thoughts from Curious Minds - MediaBizBloggers.

Check us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggers.com
Follow our Twitter updates @MediaBizBlogger