Marketing as habit formation

Marketing has probably changed your behaviour more than you realise.

Take brushing your teeth. In the 1920s, Pepsodent didn’t just sell toothpaste. Its advertising helped turn brushing into a daily habit. Cereal companies spent decades telling people what a proper breakfast looked like.

None of these were simply invented by marketing. But marketing helped turn products and behaviours into habits. That’s the bit we find fascinating.

Most campaigns interrupt a habit: a pre-roll interrupts a video, a billboard interrupts a drive. The other option is to slip inside a habit that already exists. The morning coffee. The commute playlist. The thing friends do every time they meet.

Ask of every idea: what does this make feel normal that didn’t before? If the answer is nothing, it’s content. If it’s something, it might be marketing.