By Susan Bell, CEO
Susan Bell Research
Sydney, NSW, Australia
suebell@sbresearch.com.au
Meet Linda. She will soon be celebrating her 50th birthday. She has chosen a unique way to mark this time, which reflects both her desire to celebrate and her sense that 50 is the entry point to old age.
“This year, I’m turning 50, so I’m going to celebrate with 50 days of gifts to me in the lead-up. Today’s gift: My morning meeting finished early, so I decided to take advantage and have a longer breakfast outside with some personal time.”
During the “lead up” to her birthday, Linda is preparing herself mentally for what she feels is a threshold between her younger and her older selves. During the 50 days before her birthday, she will work on some craft pieces, buy herself flowers, eat her favorite foods, and meditate. All of this investment in herself will help her pass through this threshold so that when she turns 50, she will feel that she has done her best and is prepared for the decade ahead. She can leave her 40s behind.
Liminal Experiences Are Threshold Experiences
Linda’s experience is a liminal experience. The word “liminal” comes from the Latin word limen, which means threshold, hallway, or doorway. Liminal experiences are thresholds and hallways that are either real—in that they physically exist—or symbolic.
Liminal experiences are transitions from one place, state, or emotion to another. When experiencing liminal transitions, people or things seem to be in limbo (which is another word with a Latin origin—in this case, limbus meaning “edge” or “border”). The uncertainty this limbo status creates often makes people feel tense and confused. Liminal experiences typically occur at halfway points between where people have been and where they are going or between their past and future selves. For marketers, liminality becomes a new way of thinking about customer journeys because it highlights the need to support people as they prepare and get mentally ready to consume products and services.
How Qualitative Researchers Can Draw on Liminal Experiences
As qualitative researchers, we can learn to listen for and recognize the concept of liminality as it shows up in the lives of our participants and how this state affects them and their decision-making. Consumers may tell us they are “weighing the options” or are “not sure what to do.” If we simply think of this kind of indecision as a pain point or an obstacle in a customer journey, we may frame the problem as a communications problem—recommending, for example, that consumers need more specific information in marketing materials or on packaging.
On the other hand, if we hear this said by people going through some form of change, then we can hypothesize that they are in a liminal phase in their lives, when they are experiencing some form of identity transformation. As the following examples show, marketers and businesses can support people in these liminal times in various ways.
Why Do People Leave Shoes and Bags in their Hallways?
Hallways are liminal spaces. They exist for people to move through, which is why hallways are furnished with few, if any, places to sit. For example, the hallway that leads to the front door exists to allow people to transition easily from indoors and out and vice versa. However, the hallway has another function—it is a preparatory step.
- When people leave their homes to go outside, they need to dress for outside weather and take what they need with them. That is why some leave shoes or outdoor clothes in hallways, to put on as they go out. Some leave school bags or bicycles in hallways to take with them when they leave.
- When they return home, they need to divest themselves of all this outdoor paraphernalia. Some of it stays in the hallway for next time.
A key point here: this physical hallway exists as both a means of transit and the place for some of the things that the residents will need so that they are dressed and prepared for where they are going next. It is a halfway point between their past and their future. Without a hallway, the transition between indoors and outdoors would be abrupt and sudden, which helps us recognize that hallways—real and symbolic—help make transitions smooth and gradual. Linda did just this, creating her own transitional “hallway” with 50 days of gifts; she helped herself prepare mentally and emotionally.
Unfortunately, many transitions are not quite as smooth as the one I have described here. Decluttering experts tell us that many hallways become “dumping grounds” for things that are no longer needed. Depending on the country and the household, there may be coats left there from last winter or perhaps unread junk mail. These items are in a kind of limbo. They are neither in the home nor have they been thrown out. Cluttering a hallway with limbo goods like these makes the hallway messy and hard to navigate, so it is no longer an easy transition. In the same way, symbolic hallways can also suffer from this problem. In recent years, the internet has focused on a very different kind of liminality, known as the Liminality Aesthetic. In this sense of the word, liminal spaces are empty spaces, often creepily so as they may seem abandoned, but they are not (an example is a hotel hallway).
What Are Those Old Clothes Doing in the Car Trunk?
Did you know that many people keep old clothes in the trunks (or “boots” as we call them in Australia) of their cars? After a spring clean or a cleanout, some clothes are packed up to be recycled and placed in the car to take to the charity shop or recycling bin. They may stay there for weeks or months, even though they have been driven past their intended destination many times.
These old clothes are also in limbo. They are no longer where they used to be but have not reached the intended destination. They are between the past and the future.
Many people delay taking their clothes to their intended destination because this takes considerable willpower and effort. Our old clothes symbolize to us that our identity has changed. What may look like old clothing used to be “my favorite sweater when I was thinner.”
This example teaches us that what seems like a simple thing—giving clothes away—can cause great tension because it signifies shedding an old identity.
How Luxury Resorts Prepare You for Your Holiday
Perhaps you have been lucky enough to visit a luxury resort. If you have, you may recall that leading up to an easy-to-see reception desk was a lobby, hallway, or a small bridge to pass through. If so, you experienced a resort that has deliberately used liminal space to create an emotional transformation.
The use of lobbies and other similar architectural designs is based on the idea that when travelers arrive at a resort, they typically feel tense, tired, and disoriented. In business hotels especially, where everyone is in a hurry, it is commonplace to walk straight to reception still feeling tense. The designers of resorts and hotels want to create a very different feeling so that when the guest gets to their room, they are already at least partly in holiday mode.
In these resorts, the space between arrival and reception is an intermediary space. The better these spaces relax incoming travelers, the quicker they will transform into happy guests. One way to ease that tension is to make it easy to see where to go next.
Betwixt and Between in a Shopping Center Parking Lot
One phrase often used to explain liminality is that it is about what lies “betwixt and between.”
“When we are betwixt and between, having left one room but not yet entered the next room, any hiatus between stages of life, faith, jobs, loves, or relationships.”—R. Rohr
Indoor parking lots at shopping malls are betwixt and between places. The shopper has arrived but is not yet at the shops. They are betwixt and between. To make this worse, to fulfill its function, a shopping mall’s parking lot often feels uncomfortable because there are so many vehicles crammed into a small space. Tight spaces and low lighting combine to make the task of finding a parking space overwhelming, frustrating, and a cause of anxiety.
Overwhelmed, frustrated, and anxious is not how retailers want their shoppers to be. To help stressed drivers become ready to shop, some shopping malls provide passageways, bridges, and tunnels from the parking lot to the mall that can help create a “decompression chamber,” so arriving shoppers feel calm and welcomed. Some use helpful signposting to suggest where to park for certain shops.
These physical “in-between” places like hallways, lobbies, and bridges can teach marketers and researchers what it means to transition across a threshold—real or imagined. If your customers are feeling tense or uncertain, this may be because you are asking too much of them, expecting them to suddenly switch from the person they used to be to some new version of themselves. In the parking lot example, a stressed driver transforms into a relaxed shopper; in a resort, a harried traveler transforms into a vacationer.
Taking the First Step into an Emotional Space
Consumers do not just cross physical spaces. They cross emotional spaces, too. One of the most familiar is that challenging space between childhood and adulthood—adolescence. Adolescence is a classic liminal time, at times erratic and unpredictable, when many teens oscillate between childishness and maturity. Effectively, adolescents are in limbo. Recognizing that routines can help people navigate times of limbo, an Australian website asks teenagers if they are “Feeling a bit lost about putting your first teen skincare routine together?” “Your first teen skincare routine” sounds like it is a first step in the hallway to adulthood. Other marketers could also adopt that “first step” strategy.
Liminality’s Role in Creating New Rituals
As the traditional engagement and wedding rituals have become increasingly complex and expensive, some couples find that their relationship during the engagement phase is somehow betwixt and between. They have made a commitment to each other but are not yet “official.” The result has been a rise in the popularity of jewelry and events that couples can use to commemorate different phases of their life together—such as their engagement party or the anniversary of when they moved in together. This is an example of a new marketing opportunity that has opened up because the traditional rituals have become outdated, complex, or expensive.
Retirement is a socially complex time of transition with few established rituals. As a result, some new retirees struggle at first, after their initial separation from work. Research conducted by Susan Bell Research has shown that the people who struggle the most in the early days of retirement are those who do not know how to spend their time. In contrast, the happiest retirees have not only found a sense of structure, but they have also, in many cases, found some new rituals that help to create their new identity as a nonworking member of a community. For example, a new retiree bought a new road bike so he can join his friends in an early morning ride. Another emptied out a child’s old bedroom and filled it with the materials she needed to create the hand-made cards that she shared with family and friends. Both these retirees turned an occasional hobby into something that strengthened their social connections. The new rituals created for the transition into retirement create opportunities for many marketers with an “older” target market.
When New Mothers and Older Women Lose Their Identity
One of the most familiar examples of this perceived loss of identity during liminal times is the experience of new mothers. Some women feel that their identity equates to their successes, achievements, and persona at work. When mothers leave the structures and orderliness of work to have a baby, they may suddenly find themselves in domestic chaos. Some women then question who they really are, almost as if they have no status. This can be even more traumatic if their early attempts at bringing up a crying newborn seem to result in failure.
A less recognized time of personal upheaval for many women is when their hair starts to go grey. Culturally, there are several opposing points of view on this. One is that older women should “embrace the grey” so they are free to “be themselves.” For some women, dyed hair may represent the “old me” who was preoccupied with keeping up with fashion and looking the part. For them, grey can be a release from all that social pressure. Others resist this on the basis that their grey hair stereotypes them, so they feel constrained by others’ expectations to look and act older than they feel.
This might look like an argument about accepting aging or fighting it, but it is more than that. It is about both personal and social identity. How old the woman feels is personal identity; how she wants to look to the world is social identity. The two may feel in conflict, which can result in some women appearing to contradict themselves. In other words, women can embrace the grey and also use antiaging skin care products, and wear younger-looking clothes.
These new mothers, and older women with greying hair, are betwixt and between their younger and their older selves. They are not yet sure “who to be.” This is a decision only they can make, but they will face social pressures from people who expect them to behave in ways that are not necessarily right for each person. While researchers have access to several psychological and sociological theories that explain behavior, the concept of liminality gives researchers another school of thought to explain why people behave the way they do.
Marketing to People in the Hallways of Life
Linda, who is giving herself 50 gifts before her 50th birthday, has found a personal way to cross a threshold that is significant to her. Our lives are full of liminal experiences like this. Some, like Linda’s, are our own creations. Other experiences, like the birth of a first child, have an established place in our culture as a formal rite of passage.
The metaphor of the hallway can help researchers and marketers recognize these transitions and their impact on consumer behavior. Just as people rarely walk directly from outside into a living space like a family room, they also don’t turn grey overnight or become confident new mothers as soon as they give birth. People need many hallways, both real and symbolic.
Just as hallways can become “dumping grounds” for things no longer needed, symbolic thresholds can also become encumbered by ideas and beliefs no longer needed. Each person may need to work out whether the challenges they are facing are, in fact, just symbolic old shoes cluttering an emotional hallway. In this way, liminality is a counterpoint to schools of thought such as behavioral science, which assumes that all human behavior can be explained by cognitive biases and heuristics.
Tips for market researchers wanting to leverage liminality insights in their work:
- Look everywhere. This article has shown that liminal experiences occur frequently in our culture. Sometimes, they are physical, sometimes symbolic, sometimes momentary, and sometimes longer-term. The key is identity transformation.
- Use observational research, where possible, so that you can see whether the “hallway” helps or hinders people to transform their identity, even if only momentarily. Respondents
will not be able to report this to you. You have to see it for yourself. - In customer journey research, use methods that will reveal moments of ambiguity or disorientation, not just moments that matter or pain points.
- Learn how to read and interpret the photos that your respondents give you or that you have taken yourself during fieldwork. Ask yourself, why is this here? What is missing? Why does this image make me feel uncomfortable?
- Help your clients by showing them that spaces, signs, and signposts can reveal the way forward for any of their customers who are stuck in limbo.
