If you’re a marketer worth your salt, you’ve probably thought deeply about your customers’ needs and desires. But when’s the last time you considered their mindset?

A mindset is a mental state that affects how we interpret and respond to things in our environment. In a recent The Insightful Leader Live webinar, Kellogg marketing professor Angela Lee walked us through some of the mindsets that shape our consumption habits.

This week, we’ll share some highlights from her presentation, as well as some recent research on the plight of younger workers.

Understanding mindsets

You may have heard of mindsets in the context of education or career development. People with a “fixed” mindset tend to see abilities as set in stone: predetermined, perhaps by genetics. If you’re bad at math or public speaking, you’ll always be bad, because that’s just how you are. People with a “growth” mindset, on the other hand, tend to see abilities as in flux, influenced by practice or training. With a growth mindset, if you’re bad at math or public speaking, you believe you can improve your skills by taking a course or finding a mentor.

But there are plenty of other, lesser-known mindsets, too. Indeed, as Lee explained, research has identified several mindsets that impact purchasing behavior.

Comparison mindset: Having a comparison mindset ups our likelihood of purchasing something. This mindset can be primed by asking consumers to make a number of simple comparisons, like deciding which of two animals is faster. Then, when customers are presented with an array of say, chocolates, they are more amenable to making a purchase. “They have already skipped the step of ‘should I buy chocolate or not?’ They are already in the stage of, ‘Which one should I buy?’” says Lee.

Agreeing mindset: Being in an agreeing mindset—primed by exposure to statements or ideas with which we agree—makes us more open to consumption opportunities. We might be more likely to say “yes” to a pleasant vacation destination, or to a more exotic experience, like eating scorpions or starfish. Marketers would be smart to steer clear of programs or contexts—or even controversial news stories—where consumers are likely to disagree with the content as they pitch their products.

Depletion mindset: A depletion mindset is triggered by acts of removal. Think: emptying our pockets, unpacking luggage, or dumping out a water bottle. In this mindset, we aim to conserve and replenish. This means we might be inclined to consume more snacks or purchase more goods, and we’ll also be stingier when we are asked to share our limited resources with others. So a depletion mindset could lead to less charitable giving, for instance.

Want to learn more about how to market with mindsets in mind? You can read about two additional mindsets—or watch Lee’s entire presentation—here.

Why younger workers just can’t get ahead

Since the 1970s, the wage gap between young and old workers has risen dramatically in high-income countries around the world. In the United States, for instance, the gap between workers over 55 and those under 35 increased by 61 percent between 1979 and 2018. What’s holding younger workers back?

New research by Nicola Bianchi, an assistant professor of strategy at Kellogg, suggests much of the phenomenon can be explained by older workers disproportionately occupying jobs at the upper tail of the wage distribution. With older workers occupying senior positions and few new ones being created, younger workers are stuck in low-paid positions.

Bianchi’s analysis found that over time, workers under 35 have become more likely to enter the job market with progressively lower wages, and then see slow wage growth throughout much of their careers.

This suggests that their plight isn’t simply the result of experience suddenly becoming more valued in the labor force. If younger workers were being disproportionately penalized for inexperience, you’d expect to see them earn low wages for a while, “but at some point, they should gain more because they are getting more experienced,” Bianchi says. “But we don’t see that. For the first 18 years of their careers, they keep losing. Their wage growth over time is worse than what it used to be.”

You can read more about Bianchi’s research here.

See you next week!

Susie Allen, senior research editor
Kellogg Insight