When astrology becomes marketing strategy
Written by Fany, Nikita Purnama | Read in Indonesian
In 2018, Colourpop collaborated with beauty influencer Kathleen Lights to produce a zodiac-themed eyeshadow palette. Dior in 2019 launched a zodiac jewelry collection along with accessories collection consisting of scarves, shoes and more. Around mid-2021, Spotify launched a cosmic playlist curating a personalised playlist based on each user’s audio birth chart.
Besides zodiac-themed products, another popular trend that has come out is the rise of zodiac applications like Co-Star and The Pattern. Based on Sensor Tower, an app tracking firm, astrology apps in the US market saw their revenues surging by 64.7% to nearly $40 million in 2019.
According to Google Trends, searches for “birth chart” and “astrology” both hit five-year peaks in 2020. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a lot of zodiac content is introduced to newcomers in TikTok, the fastest growing app of the year. Canadian astrologer Charm Torres believes that astrology has a way of getting people to be more connected to life and something bigger.
Studies show that astrology can greatly influence and even validate a person’s self-concept, as well as increase their certainty about their personal attributes. In short, astrology encourages self-reflection to enable individuals to understand themselves and their environment better.
“In my opinion, many people often agree with astrology because whether it’s a coincidence or not, the forecast is similar to their conditions and characters. That’s what I like about astrology. I feel like everything makes sense,” said Rafifa Nur Shabira, 21, a college student at Universitas Multimedia Nusantara (UMN).
Simply put, astrology is a pseudoscience that studies the movements and positions of celestial objects which are claimed to influence human affairs and terrestrial events. With that set of beliefs, astrology often also walks side-by-side with the school of divination.
Princess Diana is one of the public figures who believes in the power of celestial objects. She even consulted with an astrologer, Debbie Frank. They knew each other through one of Frank’s clients in 1989. Back then, more public figures such as politician Ronald Reagan and actor Sylvester Stallone also consulted with astrologers to help with both public and private decision making.
Even if people approach this astrological topic with varying degrees of skepticism, developed civilisations have relied on it for millennia. The earliest recorded astrology with an organised system was found in the Babylonian civilisation from the 2nd millennium BC. The Old Babylonian civilisation compiled its astrological works and references in “Enuma Anu Enlil”, an extensive series of 70 tablets that originated from the 16th century BC.
Back then, the Babylonian society considered celestial events to be some sort of omens. Around 1046 BC, Chinese civilisation also came up with its own astrology system.
The school then spread to Hellenistic Egypt where the Babylonian astrology mixed with Egyptian Decanic astrology to make horoscopic astrology. The word “horoscope” came from the Greek words ōra, which means “time” and scopos, which means “observer”. Horoscope was and is essentially a divination method that correlates events and to the point in time it represents.
Indonesia also has several astrological systems from many of its ethnic groups. One of the most popular systems is the Javanese primbon, an ancient manuscript that contains guidelines for the relations between human affairs and the universe.
Among the information the manuscript offers is pranata wangsa, a teaching to “read” the universe. This part teaches not only to count the days to fare the sea and farm the land, but also to count for the best match for everything, even matrimonial needs. Pakuwon teaches about finding the best timing, be it for weddings or even trades based on one’s birthday and time.
As a seafaring community back in the olden days, both astronomy and astrology were vital to the livelihood of the ancient Bugis-Makassar community. This is shown from one of their ancient scripts, lontara Pananrang, which contains information about their own specific calendar system used in the society prior to the 18th century. There is also lontara Pangisenggeng that recorded details about celestial and terrestrial events and their significance for the livelihood of the people.
Society might not be as reliant as it was back then on astrology for its livelihood, but even during the present time, horoscopes are still a popular topic in everyday life. In some select cases, people reflect their belief in astrology to the point that they screen people with certain signs for professional works.
For example, there are companies that stated that their job vacancy was open for all zodiac signs, even if they prioritised some specific ones. Or, an HR of a company without such a policy applies her own personal judgement regarding people with specific zodiac signs to screen job applicants. As pseudoscience, the power of astrology is still quite favoured in our modern society, and its presence is undeniable.
Some companies used astrological personality profiles to chart all employees so that the management could be in tune with all their cycles. For example, Clever, an influencer marketing agency combined MBTI test with traditional astrology to form Office Astrology. According to CEO Cat Lincoln, the Office Astrology gives them a shorthand to clarify things that helps them avoid all kinds of misunderstandings.
The exponential growth of astrology provides opportunity for brands to capitalise. This is known as astrological marketing. One of the most common ways for brands to tap into the trend is by creating astrology-themed products or services, just like the international brands mentioned at the beginning of this article.
Image: The Lunar Gloss from Syca
Indonesian local brands also tap into the trend. Beauty brand Syca in September launched a lip gloss collection called The Lunar Gloss inspired by astrology. According to co-founder Pamela Wirjadinata, Syca decided to make astrology-themed products because it is the talk of the town and also it is fun to find out someone’s character based on zodiac signs or deeper by astrology.
Astrology-themed jewelleries have also been popular for many years since women want to wear jewellery that feels unique. Astrology also offers women the recognition that they crave for: the feeling to be understood. One of the brands that tapped into astrology-themed jewelleries is Adelle. The brand initially released 12 animal pendants based on Chinese zodiac. Following the success of the collection, the brand released astrology-themed pendant.
According to jewellery brand Brooke Gregson, astrology has universal appeal because it creates a personal connection between the jewel and the wearer. Zodiac signs are very personal and represent the time someone’s born, so they have the potential to know more about someone’s personality.
Despite the increasing popularity of astrology, sales of astrology-related beauty products don’t always spike. “To be honest, if you say there was a drastic spike during our astrology campaign, it's actually not really. In my opinion, whether the product doesn’t fit in the market or because of the second wave of the pandemic, the astrology campaign seems to only be liked by people who are really interested in astrology,” said Pamela.
It also applies to apps and services. Rafifa said that even though she's interested in astrology, she doesn’t buy astrology-themed products. She only uses astrology services, such as The Pattern app that provides users with personalised astrological readings based on their natal chart. Even so, Rafifa doesn’t completely believe in the app.
