Gone are the days when minor camera updates, sleeker-looking user interfaces, and purple-finishes were enough to warrant a $1000 phone upgrade. Now, your new iPhone will come with a Lockdown mode (in case you need protection against cyberattacks), a satellite Emergency SOS (for when you find yourself in the woods with no signal), and even a Walking Steadiness feature – so you’ll always know when you’re at an elevated risk of falling.
Apple’s product positioning detour is an example of the company playing the marketing long-game and tapping into even deeper human needs. Apple’s new model is targeted towards a global population of people who are in desperate need of something emotionally deeper, more cognitively capturing than fun little phone features.
Today’s user needs to be psychologically soothed.
We are collectively in a state of anxiety. Take a look around. In 2021, we’ve had 20 climate disasters recorded in the US alone. In 2020, 22. There are fires, hurricanes, floods, and wars all over the world. If there was ever a time for a company to monetize on needing a satellite-powered, network-independent SOS signal on cell phones, it’s now.
By playing up the safety features on its new devices, Apple is tapping into our deepest psychological fear-responses. Here’s how it works, according to science.
Irrationally Rational
Economists like to coldly frame humans as rational decision-makers. That’s partly true. After all, we do prefer the good to the bad, the happy to the unhappy, and the goal-congruent to the goal-incongruent – most of the time.
But humans are actually efficiently rational. This means that rational action is only good as long as it’s not too much of a drain on our mental resources. Once it is, we are predictably irrational.
What does this have to do with iPhones?
It turns out that we mentally overrepresent extreme events (like climate disasters) even if their statistical probability is low. This isn’t a very rational thing to do, but it’s less draining on our cognitive resources in the long run. And for a company that wants to sell us safety-forward gear, it’s ideal.
Born to Choose
The need to exert control over our immediate environments is necessary for our biological survival and psychological well-being.
This was most apparent during the initial phases of Covid-19. The chaotic unpredictability resulted in a wellbeing crisis, and nobody wants to feel like that again – if they can help it.
Enter Apple. By giving us strategies to exit terrible situations – like calling for help, protecting our identity, or monitoring our vitals – we can feel safer in the knowledge that, come rain or shine, we still have at least a little more control over what we can do. And that’s worth every penny in a $1000 device upgrade.
Shiny New Toy
However you slice it, we still like new stuff.
Our psychological need for novelty is linked to how much ownership and agency we feel over our lives. New things focus our attention, pique our curiosity, linger longer in our memories, and provide conversational topics that we can connect with others on. And all of the above feel good.
By putting out new features, Apple is also pairing our novelty-seeking intuitions with something we all experience – FOMO (fear of missing out). The typical case of FOMO isn’t really about fear per se. It’s more about missed opportunity or the feeling of jealousy. But with Apple’s new product framing, we’re talking actual fear and anxiety.
FOMO: child’s play fear. Real fear, the fear of danger – FAD – is something we’ll do anything to avoid, including breaking the bank to get the newest tech gadget that promises to protect us and our loved ones. And Apple knows it.
