That delivers us to our second point -- the relationship between marketing and the all-American pursuit of Happiness. Rod Dreher, in his new book, Crunchy Cons, defines a new breed of economic conservatism that rejects what he calls "consumer-crazed capitalism" that "makes a fetish of individual choice." Disdainful of everything from shopping malls to television to McMansions, Dreher basically says it's time for "the moral and spiritual energies of the people" to save America from its obsession with mass consumerism.
Dreher is talking about religious faith, and we won't debate him there. But we will direct him to one remarkable example of how marketing is being applied to enable the pursuit of Happiness at a most basic level.
Two hundred American cities have discovered that the best way to treat the nation's 200,000 chronically homeless people is to treat them like consumers. The approach is premised on the idea that the chronically homeless (defined as those on the street for a year or more) are a consumer segment like any other, with a profile and preferences like any other.
As reported by Cait Murphy in Fortune magazine, The Interagency Council on Homelessness, a federal agency, used basic marketing research to arrive at a likely solution to homelessness. The agency simply went out and interviewed homeless people and asked them what they wanted. Their answer was that they wanted a room of their own. So they could pursue Happiness, presumably.
That research-driven insight led to a program, called Housing First, that puts homeless people into apartments, which as it turns out is far less expensive than keeping them on the streets. The success rate, with success defined as "not returning to the streets for five years" is pegged at 88% in New York, where some 400 homeless have been given rooms. In Phoenix, the success rate is set at 92% and San Francisco says its homeless rate has dropped 40%.
So, maybe marketing isn't so evil after all. Maybe marketing is more compatible with Happiness than some people think.
As that great marketer, Benjamin Franklin, once said, America "only gives you the right to pursue Happiness. You have to catch it yourself."
No reason why marketers like us can't catch Happiness like anyone else. And pass it on, too.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated Juliet Schor's affiliation.
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