What do a psychologist, instant cake mix, and IKEA furniture all have in common?
They’re all part of this week’s edition of Marketing history.
If you’ve ever been in a kitchen, you know Betty Crocker. Her cake, brownie, and cookie mixes have been a fixture in the American kitchen for decades. When it comes to baking, Betty Crocker means convenience and deliciousness (and between you and me, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the Bake’n Fill baseball cake since seeing it on an infomercial when I was a kid – YES, I’M THAT OLD.
But, what happens when a product is just TOO easy? How do you keep customers engaged when they barely have to lift a finger? And, if there’s guilt around taking the easy route, how do you ease that feeling?
ALSO, is Betty Crocker even a real person????
Woah, sorry, I spiraled there for a sec. I’m back.
For these answers and more, we’re going to be stepping back in time and into the kitchen….
First, lemme spoil 1 of the worst-kept Marketing secrets: Betty Crocker wasn’t a real person. Credit where credit is due—the genius who got Betty into American kitchens was actually this guy: Dr. Ernest Dichter.
AKA, the father of motivational research.
Ernest wasn’t a Marketer by trade, he was a psychologist. His work revolved in understanding what made people tick—and what made them BUY.
Born to a Jewish family in Vienna at the turn of the century. Inspired by the works of Sigmund Freud (you know, the guy that got his start studying the sex lives of eels), he got his doctorate in psychology and started studying buying behaviors.
Then, in 1939, Ernest and his family were forced to flee persecution in Nazi-occupied Vienna and Dr. Dichter arrived in New York with $100 to his name.
Ernest pitched himself to ad agencies as a psychologist with “some interesting new ideas which can help you be more successful, effective, sell more and communicate better.” Hey, I’d bite LOL.
His secret? Actually talking to customers.
I know, groundbreaking.
But at the time, it was revolutionary: When most advertisers were coming up with ideas and sending them off into the void, Ernest would interview customers and find out what made them buy or not buy.
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Before he even tried to sell a product, he wanted to understand the customer. See what made them tick so he knew what angle would stick.
For example, he convinced Chrysler to start advertising to women. Why? Because he found that, at the time, while men were the final purchasers, their wives had a massive say in the final buying decision.
(I promise, this will all tie back to cake mix soon LOL.)
The result? Plymouth became the 2nd-most popular make of automobile in the U.S. in 1940.
Ernest became an overnight Marketing celebrity, dropping more quotable sound bytes than almost anyone.
Along came Betty
When Ernest joined General Mills in the late ‘50s, the Betty Crocker brand was struggling. Instant cake mixes had fallen out of vogue since the ‘40s. Why? People didn’t need to ration like they did during wartime.
They didn’t think twice about using fresh butter or eggs in a cake. That’s a hint, Marketing Besties.
So, Ernest did what he does best: He started talking to buyers. In this case, housewives.
He learned that for these women, cooking wasn’t just a chore, but an expression of love and care for their families. When someone bakes a cake, they’re saying “I care about you and I spent time making this treat to show it.” I’m not crying, you’re crying. 😭
When people used an instant cake mix, they felt guilty. It felt cheap, like taking the easy way out. They felt like their families deserved more.
That gave Ernest an idea to address this guilt and win the sale: Add an egg to the recipe.
By making people put juuuust a little bit more effort into making their cakes, but not so much that it was inaccessible, Betty Crocker won over busy homemakers. Now, they could FEEL like they were still baking from scratch for their families, without the hours of effort. The rest is Marketing history.
TLDR; To make instant cake mixes seem more high quality, General Mills had to make them LESS convenient.
Over the years, this paradoxical idea became known as the Betty Crocker Effect. People actually value a product more when they have to work a little to acquire it or assemble it.
Today, some of the biggest brands use it to their advantage.
Call it “premium friction”
The more INTENTIONAL friction we encounter while using or acquiring the product, the more of a premium we place on it.
Intentional is the keyword here. For example, take the Apple Genius Bar. You can’t just walk in and get your computer fixed; you need to set an appointment first. That little extra step makes the whole experience feel exclusive like you’re getting special treatment, rather than schlepping yourself to the Geek Squad desk at Best Buy (no offense to Best Buy).
Premium friction is the reason why Goyard makes it hard to buy their bags, and why it takes 6 YouTube videos to understand that fancy espresso machine you just bought.
My favorite modern example is IKEA. Premium friction is at the cornerstone of their brand.
Everyone has scratched their head reading an IKEA instruction book. At this point, it’s a rite of passage in your early twenties. No offense to IKEA but it’s not exactly selling luxury furniture. But, when you put it together yourself, you actually value it MORE than if you bought it whole. Because you helped make it. Ugh, so cute. 😊
I’ve been a hell of a lot more proud of myself for putting together a SKRUVBY (try and guess what that is, I’ll plug the best answer in my next email!) than just buying a whole piece of furniture. That sense of accomplishment will stick with me every time I use my SKRUVBY.
So, the next time someone asks you what a psychologist, instant cake mix, and IKEA furniture all have in common, you can tell them “premium friction.”
You’re welcome.
