The Struggle is Real: Motivating Goal Pursuit by Normalizing Difficulty

Consumers often use products, such as language learning apps or fitness trackers, to aid them in their goal pursuits. In long-term goal pursuit, setbacks and struggles are inevitable and may lead consumers to disengage from the goal and discontinue using goal-relevant products. How can marketers help struggling consumers re-engage with their goals? Across a pilot study and five preregistered experiments (N = 7,491), we find that when consumers struggle to achieve a goal, setting a norm that goal pursuit is often difficult improves motivation and leads to a greater likelihood of re-engaging with goal-relevant products. We further show that the effectiveness of this messaging is driven by the perceived attainability of the goal – when companies normalize goal pursuit as a difficult process, consumers believe the goal is more attainable for themselves, increasing their interest in goal re-engagement.