Published article on Fear Marketing

1. Marketing
READ THIS OR DIE
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There’s nothing like scaring sychologists believe fear is hardwired Marketers spend their lives trying to find ways
the bejeesus out of you into all mammals, and is the most to get us to buy their products. When there were
potent emotion. We evolved fear as only a handful of brands in a category, it was easy
to sell you something a basic survival method. The brain’s to persuade shoppers based on a product’s key
you don’t need. Bianca fear circuitry resides in a little-known structure attributes. Now that there are, on average, some
Cawthorne says we should called the amygdale. It’s the deepest, most instinc- 50,000 products in a supermarket, the stakes have
be afraid, very afraid tive part of the brain, and because of this it elicits been raised, and you have to work much harder to
the strongest physical reaction in us. Whenever we convince shoppers.
confront a perceived danger, our bodies respond History has shown us that fear is a powerful
Featuring: Al-Qaida. Clearasil. Halitosis.
with sweating, a higher heart rate and greater levels motivator, and you can use fear with a stick or with
Lemsip. Taxes. Zeus
of adrenaline (so-called “fight or flight”) in which a carrot. The emperors of Rome used the gods
the body prepares either for combat or to run very to control the people, who lived in fear that Zeus
far and very fast away from the danger — all very would send down a lightning bolt down to strike
useful if you were a caveman suddenly eye to eye them if they did anything that might displease him.
with a saber-toothed tiger. Some people might argue that fear is the rock on
This is such a deep-set reaction that our brains which the Christian church has been built on, but
stop thinking, literally putting all our energy into unlike Zeus’ thunderbolts (the stick) they created
fuelling our reaction. (That explains why you feel this magical, perfect place that you could go to
you lose the ability to speak coherently when you if you were good enough (the carrot). Christ, as
find yourself locked into a conflict at work with a Jacques Seguela, the creator of Euro RSCG, once
boss or colleague: it’s just your body’s reaction to famously said, was probably the first, and most
a threatening situation.) Only when the situation successful, ad man, having created a brand and
is resolved in some way and the threat starts to go logo that has survived and thrived the longest.
away does our breathing become more measured Politicians have often used “fear marketing”
and even and we slowly but surely return to a state to draw people to the voting booths. President
of normality. Fear makes your body do something Johnson’s landslide victory in 1964 spoke to the
without thinking. public's increasing fear of nuclear warfare, with his
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2. Marketing
A recent study showed
that patients with high
cholesterol are more
likely to be motivated to
stay on their medication
after seeing an actual
scan of their own clogged-
up arteries.
want to buy their products. Look carefully and you
see fear marketing messages. Anti-wrinkle creams
warn us in subtle way about the consequences of
not using their products; the reassuring scientific
language has convinced the female population that
they need to stay looking young otherwise they’ll
be passed over by the young, pretty thing next to
them.You’re only “worth it” if you look like you’ve
never aged since 25. If you worship St L’Oréal you
will avoid the purgatory of ugliness.
Clearasil plays to teenagers’ fear of ostracism by
their peers for their spots. Lynx plays to men’s fear
notorious advertising campaign showing a nuclear their product, as opposed to the good things that that they aren’t actually that attractive. (Let’s be
explosion set against a young girl picking petals off might happen if you do. It plays on what we most serious, a nice smell isn’t going to help you, boys.)
a daisy: “These are the stakes! We must either love fear at a deep the deepest emotional level (death, Fear marketing in the parenting industry starts
each other, or we must die. The stakes are too high loneliness, rejection, pain, loss), and then it offers a during pregnancy with a whole array of products
for you to stay at home.” Rudy Guiliani promised way to avoid what you most dread. and supplements that play against your fear that
to stamp out fear; George W Bush won a second Fear marketing has been proven to work. US you won’t be a good mother.
term by inciting fear of any Middle East country in-vehicle security company OnStar doubled its And fear marketing strategies are being used
he could name, and he did so well that we got all members in two years (compared to a paltry 4% by a number of food brands that point out that
very, very scared. increase by its competitors) after it ran a slick and they aren’t genetically modified, they don’t use
Remember all the hype around Y2K and the hard-hitting advertising campaign with an actual pesticides and have no artificial ingredients — all
millennium bug? How many people were driven to recording of a small girl saying: “We’ve just had an of which clearly suggest that everything else that
buying a new toaster or DVD player thinking that accident and my mom isn’t moving. Please help!” you see on the shelf beside does.
they would spontaneously combust at midnight? The aim was to get parents thinking: what would So, what of those other brands that don’t use
The IT industry raked in the billions of dollars' happen if we had a car crash? And what if our fear marketing? Why is it that most brands only use
worth of contracts to re-programme computers daughter didn’t have OnStar? happy, smiling people? Thinking about three of the
just in case entire corporate systems failed. In this fear-enriched climate — of terrorism, happiest brands around, could they benefit from a
Fear marketing capitalises on our desire to keep of global economist melt-down and temperature little extra help from the fear marketing strategies?
things as they are to persuade us to buy a certain warming, of avian flu — we are seeing an increase Drinks manufacturer Innocent has revised
product or service. Fear marketing speaks to our in fear marketing. If you look around you will find its profit projections for this year. Could they sell
inner paranoid, painting vivid pictures of the bad a number of brands capitalising on and playing to more smoothies if they showed someone as a tired,
things that are going to happen is you fail to buy consumers’ heightened sense of anxiety. HSBC run-down, disease-ridden, couch potato? Could
and Barclays have sought to communicate how Disney increase visitor numbers by showing you
safe your money is in their hands (ie not anyone the years of resentment your children will bear to-
Clearasil plays to a else’s), given their credentials of size and age. wards you because you were, in fact, never a good
New insurance products are being developed so parent? And what about Weight Watchers? Instead
teenager’s fear of being that you can protect your summer holiday against of a newly slim 30-year-old trying on her favourite
ostracised by his peers redundancy. An event company is advertising its dress to go out to a party, you see her fat and alone
for his spots. Toothpaste conference with a picture of a guy begging on the on the sofa, eating crisps?
brands play to our fear of street with a small but telling sign saying: “I used to Now that you have been warned, be scared, be
halitosis (in fact, 15% of be a marketing director, but I was TOO busy to go very scared. Unless you are a marketer and still in
to the Advertising Week conference day”. your job. A few things might have happened when
people have halitophobia, a You can see elements of fear marketing in you were reading this article. Check your email.
fear of bad breath). other categories you wouldn’t normally expect. Bad news travel fast.
W—Bianca Cawthorne I—Ben Allder
The beauty industry invests billions in making us
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