When reading Mark Earls’ latest book Herd a couple of months ago I couldn’t stop thinking of the work of the anthropological philosopher Rene Girard.
Indeed, the main point Mark Earls is making in his book is that we (marketing, change management, politics…) are misunderstanding mass behaviour because we focus too much on individuals and think they are making their decisions on their own. However, human beings are herd animals, “we do what we do because of other people”.
So when I read that, it remained me of Rene Girard’s research and his theory of mimetic desire. By analysing both classic novels (Mensonges romantiques et verite Romanesque) and religion (Violence and the sacred) he reveals the ‘true’ mechanic of human desire as well as answers for the origins of violence.
“We
borrow our desires from others. Far from being autonomous, our desire
for a certain object is always provoked by the desire of another person
— the model — for this same object. This means that the relationship
between the subject and the object is not direct: there is always a
triangular relationship of subject, model, and object.”
Have a look at the ‘triangle of desire’ diagram below (sorry for the poor quality)
But the most interesting part of his theory is the fact that mimetic desire is actually the starting point of violence.
“Suddenly,
the model is transformed into obstacle and combines two contradictory
terms: he is at the same time the one who is adored (since he shows to
the subject what is desirable) and the one who is hated (since, as
rival, he prohibits the possession of it).”
This theory has been applied to marketing by Marie-Claude Sicard in her book Les resorts caches du desir. She explains through the mimetic desire theory why brands are facing problems nowadays, as well as why the tools we use in marketing such as benchmarks are paradoxical and not efficient and how people are unconsciously using mimetic desire when consuming.
For instance people don’t buy a product because of the quality, the price… they buy it because they saw someone else they thought was cool… and the closest the model, the strongest the desire. The desire isn’t a line, it’s a triangle.
However, mimetic desire isn’t just a ‘consumer’ thing, brands are also copying each other, just have a look at the Ralph Lauren and Tommy Hilfiger below…
This
is only the first part of the theory, the second part being the
conflict. The crisis brands are facing at the moment is mainly due to
the fact they spend too much time trying to copy each other rather than
actually producing real innovations, they therefore enter the circle of
conflict and lose the trust people had in them…
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