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Yes.

But you can also be happier without spending a dime. You just have to decide that you want to be happier.

I recently ran across an article which discussed research being done on the pursuit of happiness. One of the points made in the article by Caroline Adams Miller is that we can be happier just by thinking about the things that bring us joy each day. And to be honest, that’s how Barefoot came about originally. I decided I would be happier writing advertising. And more than a decade later, it’s how we arrived at our new positioning, “Marketing the Pursuit of Happiness.”

To be clear, we received some feedback on that positioning statement. And not all of it positive. Some folks question whether of not consumerism is even moral. That’s not a debate we (Barefoot Partners) had when we decided to pursue this positioning. We were on an island for an offsite (Georgian Bay, Ontario) to discuss how to differentiate Barefoot and increase our collective work happiness. We each ended up talking about evolving the agency to be one that worked in the areas that were dearest to each of our hearts. For one of us, it was travel. For another, technology. And so on. Quickly one thing became clear. The thing the categories or products we wanted to work on all had in common is that they were all associated with things we did for enjoyment. Things that made us happy.

As we discussed it more, we realized that our relationships with these categories/products were not that dissimilar, even though the categories were very different. We each actively sought out information in these categories, we each enjoyed sharing what we knew about the products with others, and we often found ourselves finding Reasons to Rationalize(tm) these purchases. We knew that they were oftentimes not logical purchases, but emotional. Each of us often spending far more money on something than we otherwise would of (rocketing), and sometimes justifying the purchase with the thought, “Well, if it makes me happy, it’s worth it.” When we returned from the Georgian Bay, we began to research this area and discovered Michael Silverstein’s book Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods… And How Companies Create Them which gave us terminology for some of the behaviors we had identified and discussed.

So back to the question: Can money really buy you happiness? Yes — but not on its own. The good news is that research is proving that you can change your level of happiness, you just have to decide to do so. And doing more of the things you love (with or without products and services) is the best place to start. Like going Barefoot.