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Consumer Behavior
The Psychology Behind Symbolic Products
It's not what the product does for you. It's what it says about you.
Updated January 4, 2024 Reviewed by Ray Parker
Key points
- Products communicate implicitly, so things that consumers can’t say themselves, products can say for them.
- While symbolism reaches its full expression in luxury marketing, companies can use it in all industries.
- Patagonia and Toyota’s Prius are examples of brands that have come to symbolize sustainability.
When it comes to communication, the actual explicit words only go so far. Suppose your significant other stands angrily over a dirty dish sink, saying, "Are you planning on doing the dishes today?" Then, chances are there's a deeper implicit message that's even more valuable.
For products, the dominant mode of communication is implicit. We can see this most clearly in the luxury industry. Any old tote bag can carry one's belongings, but luxury buyers pay a massive premium for high-end products, largely because of what products symbolize: taste, status, and wealth. It's generally pretty awkward to brag about these things explicitly, so products step in to do it implicitly.
In this way, products become symbols for implicit messaging. It's not just what the product does for the consumer. It's what the product communicates about the consumer. The core concept which enables this type of implicit communication is called product symbolism.
How can a logo signal something greater than the product itself? And how can companies create this rich symbolism in the first place?
Let's dive in.
Symbolism and Social Signaling for Sustainable Products
While social signaling is seen most fully in luxury products, many other industries can get in on the action. Luxury items signal attributes associated with status, but the symbolism isn't limited to these values alone. Just about any trait that is valuable to the consumer can become part of the product's symbolism.
Consider sustainability. Many consumers hold this value in high esteem and want to advertise this quality to their social group publicly. However, it's grating when people openly talk about their vegan meat diets or how often they compost. Morality has a branding problem. Explicit, moral claims feel pretentious. And so people turn to products to communicate these ideas implicitly.
Toyota successfully tapped into social signaling within the automotive industry by building a subsidiary brand around Prius, one of the first hybrid vehicles to launch in the U.S. market. The Prius became a symbol of sustainability. It communicated this to the greater social world. As one research paper described it, the Prius "functions as a mobile, self-promoting billboard for pro-environmentalism."
The skeptic might argue: How do we know for sure that this specific signaling feature provided value to the consumer, above and beyond the car itself? Maybe people simply enjoy the Prius for the product's functional, utilitarian traits.
It turns out that the financial value of social signaling can be quantified. Research from Duke University found that Prius owners were willing to pay a significant premium for the privilege of signaling. In this study, consumers were given the option to choose between the same exact vehicle with identical features. The one difference was a Prius decal. It turns out that customers were willing to lay down big bucks for that symbol—up to $4,200.
Symbolism can be big business.
Protecting Product Symbolism
The ability to socially signal is predicated on a strong, distinct product that is rich, which is symbolism. A product's signal is only as good as its source. This is why strong companies, especially those who engage in signaling, go to great lengths to protect their asset.
Patagonia, for example, is the premier example of pro-environmental products, considered by many as the best example of moral marketing. Emanating from the core principles of the organization, the company has demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability, which is seen at the level of both brand strategy and its products.
This pro-environmental commitment was fortified in 2022 when Yvon Chouinard relinquished ownership of the company to a non-profit trust that donates all profits (roughly $100 million a year) to combat climate change.
Along the way, they've even taken drastic stances to protect this valuable symbolism. In Silicon Valley and elsewhere, the Patagonia vest became a popular look. Businesses regularly contracted Patagonia to make special versions of the vest featuring an embroidered company logo.
This was great business for Patagonia, but at the same time, it posed a serious risk to the product symbolism and social signaling they had worked so hard to cultivate. If the vests were adorned by the employees of companies who act against Patagonia's values, this would have a negative spillover effect on their image. In 2019, Patagonia decided to refuse the business of any business it deemed "ecologically damaging."
As discussed in Branding That Means Business, this was a telling move by Patagonia. Patagonia protected its most valuable asset, Its symbolism, by being ultra-selective about its co-branding, even at the expense of its short-term revenues.
Applying Product Symbolism More Broadly
Sustainability is one of many values a product can tap into; the possibilities are plentiful. It simply needs to be a value consumers hold dear and want to communicate with others implicitly.
Bombas socks and Tom's Shoes both went for the value of "humanitarian" and baked it directly into their business model: A "buy one, gift one to the needy" for all their products. In doing so, they carved out products that signal this pro-sociality.
It's worth noting that, while powerful, social signaling requires considerable investment. The company is playing the role of cultural educator, building the shared meaning the product will symbolize. This means advertising and communicating these features beyond the buyer themselves and to their broader community.
It means imbuing their branding psychology with these traits, which are valuable to the consumers and values that the consumers want to communicate to others. It takes consumer psychology to another level: Identifying not just the individual consumers but those of their broader community. Identifying these, along with a communications strategy to convey them authentically, requires market research, which is both deep and broad.
While difficult, the benefits of product symbolism can be immense. The product and its identifiers can serve as a proxy for these implicit messages, providing subtext to a consumer's use of the product: "I'm successful," "I'm a humanitarian," "I care about the environment," and so on.
In this way, the product can go beyond simple recognition; it can come to symbolize deep, personal attributes, endearing consumers to the product in new and significant ways.
This post also appears on the branding psychology blog NeuroScienceOf | © Matt Johnson.
References
Cantor, M. (April, 2019), Patagonia distances itself from tech bros with new branded vest policy, The Guardian
Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., & Van den Bergh, B. (2010). Going green to be seen: status, reputation, and conspicuous conservation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 98(3), 392.
Johnson, M., & Misiaszek, T. (2022). Branding that Means Business: Economist Edge: books that give you the edge (Vol. 1). Profile Books.
Michel, G. M., Feori, M., Damhorst, M. L., Lee, Y. A., & Niehm, L. S. (2019). Stories we wear: Promoting sustainability practices with the case of Patagonia. Family and Consumer Sciences Research Journal, 48(2), 165-180.
Rogers, C. (2018). Patagonia on why brands ‘can’t reverse into purpose’through marketing. Marketing week, 18.
