Because Fear Sells

Today I am going to write about fear’s role in competitive positioning and influence marketing. This is an important part of any firm’s content marketing strategy or any other marketing efforts.

It doesn’t matter what the product is, a part of most purchase decisions is based on fear. Some obvious ones include safety products like smoke detectors and burglar alarms, where it is the fear of your house burning down or the fear of getting robbed that make you purchase these products; but what about children’s toys, games and, in our case, software products?

Here’s an example: It is a few weeks before Christmas and you’re thinking of what to get your 7 year-old son. A couple of ideas run through your head: a Netbook, books, tennis lessons, and so on. But then you remember what happened last Christmas when you didn’t get him his favorite Nintendo Wii. The scene was heart-breaking. Your son’s tear-filled eyes and your anguish and disappointment in yourself for letting him down all come back to you at once. The fear horrifies you so deeply that you dismiss your thoughts right away, run to the mall, stand in a long line with other terrified parents and buy your son a game of his choice.

No matter what the product, fear influences every purchase decision. If that is the case, marketers just have to know how to use it to their advantage. Find out what the fear motivation is for a product; do this by figuring out what consumers want when they buy it and ask, “What’s the worst that could happen?”

If a young woman buys a designer shirt, she wants to look good and likely impress people. It probably isn’t a big deal if she doesn’t buy the shirt, but what’s the worst that could happen? She could meet the love of her life wearing her old t-shirt, but he could be completely sidetracked by another girl looking good in designer clothes; she could even miss out on a promotion at work because her boss feels like she doesn’t have the look to pull off the leader-look. Since she is scared of both of these happening to her, she ends up buying the shirt. This example is a bit far-fetched, but you get the point.

Consumers seek reassurance – they want the things that they buy to address the fears that they have. They want to be reassured that buying a back-up software means that they won’t have to worry about losing their files anymore.

So, when developing your marketing message, find out what your consumers are scared of, and then show them how your product can take care of that problem and can make your consumers feel secure. This doesn’t mean that you should distort or invent facts to scare your consumers. Tell them the truth. Fear-based marketing is most effective and powerful when it is real. Research your consumers’ fears and then use them to motivate them to act.