Pair a virtue with a vice

The easiest way to use this bias is to link a “good” action with a self-indulgent one.

The Starbucks Rewards program is a prime example. Customers make a series of “good” choices by being loyal. This virtuous behavior earns them Stars.

Then they get to redeem those stars for a “free” reward. This is where the license kicks in.

It feels completely justified to get that extra-large, high-calorie Frappuccino—a vice they might not have paid cash for on their own—because they “earned” it.

Our take: Any brand can create a system that rewards “virtuous” actions with points, which then “license” customers to splurge on a reward.

Frame the purchase as inherently “good”

The logic here is straightforward.

We often deem a purchase as something “bad.” That’s the pain of paying. But if you frame a purchase as virtuous, then customers may perceive it as a reward for doing something good.

Two decades ago, Tom’s Shoes launched the “Buy One, Give One” model that transformed a shoe purchase into charity work. It took off immediately.

The customer feels virtuous. The glow licenses them to spend more. They’ve already done good, so a second, pricier, more self-indulgent purchase feels fine.

Of course, such an enormous gifting business was tough to sustain. So the company has since pivoted into something more amorphous.

Still, it worked from a marketing perspective as we talk about it now.

What to do: Attach a social good or charitable component to your product. This way, you frame purchase itself as a “good deed,” giving customers a moral license to buy.

Just make sure you practice what you preach. You don’t want users to feel scammed, or—much worse—to conduct unethical practices that can get you in trouble. And it’s also just not nice.

Use language that grants the license

This is a more direct approach. You explicitly tell the customer they’ve “earned” the reward, reinforcing the moral credit they’ve just built.

Use language that frames their action as earning them permission:

“You’ve earned it.” “You deserve this.” “After all that hard work…”

L’Oreal has one of the most famous moral-licensing taglines in history:

It explicitly gives customers permission to indulge in a premium, non-essential purchase by framing it as earned self-worth. In this case, just existing is a virtue. So treat yourself.

A lot of companies from different industries go this marketing route:

• Credit card companies will tell you how responsible you handled your finances this month so you can splash some cash as a reward.
• Productivity apps will celebrate your “most productive week ever,” then upsell you on premium features.

And you can surely think of more yourself.