Today, brands have started to create an ecosystem instead of producing unrelated products. We have started to see this system in many companies, especially technology companies. Of course, there is a very important reason behind companies turning to this system: consumer habits.
When we dig deeper, we see that all companies act according to consumer habits. Today, we will talk about the “Diderot Effect”, which is considered to be one of the most dangerous consumer habits. The Diderot Effect, which we can define as buying other products compatible with this product in a spiral after purchasing a product, has started to be used for the same brands today.
What is Diderot Effect?
Imagine if someone bought an iPhone under the Apple brand. It is a very nice phone and meets all your needs. In addition, there is any brand of computer with Windows operating system. The person who falls under the influence of Diderot begins to feel uncomfortable with this situation. He wants to buy himself a computer that works under the roof of Apple in order to work fully compatible with the Apple phone in his hand. In fact, he buys a nice Macbook Pro, even though he has a computer that works for him.
The consumer, who is not satisfied with this, begins to dislike the sufficient level of headphones and buys AirPods. This habit continues, trying to dominate the entire Apple ecosystem. Since companies like Apple are aware of this consumer habit, they try to make customers dependent on them by adding new products to their ecosystems. This example we have given is one of the clearest definitions of the Diderot Effect.
The Diderot Effect doesn’t need to be tied to brands either. Let’s say a woman buys a dress. It’s a beautiful red dress, but she doesn’t have any matching shoes to wear with it. That’s why she buys shoes. Then she wants to buy matching jewelry for her outfit. She takes them too. This spiral continues to grow and after a single product, dozens of different products are purchased.
What are the psychological reasons behind the Diderot Effect?
When we look at the psychological reasons behind the Diderot Effect, the issue becomes clearer. People actually identify themselves with the products they buy. So the things we own reflect our identity at some point. For this reason, each new product purchased affects the user’s compatibility with other products. This compatibility generally tends to decrease. In order to increase this compatibility, people tend to buy products under the same brand roof.
Actually, the Diderot Effect appears in many places. A line from the character of Tyler Durden from Fight Club, which is shown among the best movies in the world, can summarize the Diderot Effect:
“What you have will have you in time.”
Where does the name “Diderot Effect” come from?
The Diderot Effect, which we can actually accept as a consumption addiction, first dates back to Denis Diderot, one of the important philosophers of the period, in the 18th century. Its name comes from the name of the French philosopher. Denis Diderot sums up this consumption habit perfectly in an article titled “Regret for My Old Dressing Gown” from 1769.
Being the co-founder and author of Encyclopédie, one of the most comprehensive encyclopedias of the period, Diderot was struggling with poverty and debt at that time, although he was well-known. In 1765, the Russian Empress Catherine the Great, who was very interested in French literature, learned about Diderot’s situation and gave him great help. First of all, Catherine the Great, who bought Diderot’s library by paying a serious amount of money, later gave this library back to Diderot. After that, the Russian Empress, who paid Diderot’s 25-year salary in one go, not only helped Diderot pay off his debts, but also left a large amount of money in his hand.
Diderot is no longer in debt and has money in his pocket. After financial relief, the philosopher buys an expensive red dressing gown that he could not afford before. Wearing this dressing gown, Diderot notices something when he sits down at his desk. The desk and the dressing gown are incompatible. Since he has a large amount of money in his safe, he buys a table that will suit him in a dressing gown. Realizing that the carpet in his house is not compatible with the room, Diderot begins to change his belongings in this way.
Diderot said the following about this period:
“Everything is out of harmony now. No more coordination, no unity, no beauty.”
As the philosopher changes the furniture in his house one by one, he feels that the things are more and more incompatible. He had changed all the furniture in his house to get rid of this incompatibility, but as a result, he was again in debt. Denis Diderot shares his article titled “Remorse for My Old Dressing Gown” after this crazy period and becomes the name of the effect that will evolve into today’s consumption frenzy. In the article he shared, Diderot expresses his consumption frenzy with the following sentence:
“While I was the master of my old dressing gown, I became a slave to the new one.”
The Diderot Effect overlaps with a kind of lifestyle imposition today. The Diderot Effect, which was introduced to the literature by anthropologist and consumer behavior expert Grant McCracken in 1998, has spread widely today. According to McCracken, when purchasing the product for people entering the Diderot Effect; The effect of the person he wants to be or the life he wants to live is more effective than the functionality of the product.
In other words, we buy a product just because its brand is prestigious, because this brand may reflect the person we want to be. Even though it is a cheaper and higher quality product, our preferences will continue to be on this brand.
Today we told you about the Diderot Effect. In these periods when the consumption frenzy is at its peak, we see this effect much more and sometimes we can feel it within ourselves. So what do you guys think about this? You can share your thoughts with us in the comments section.
Source: 1, 2, 3, 4
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