Real You: When everybody’s selling fear, is anybody buying?

Posted on | April 10, 2009 |

Have you hear enough of the ”buy x and if you lose your job we’ll do y” deals? It’s a popularmessage and now, it seems, “everybody’s” doing it. There are way too many Xs and Ys. The Xs include: cars, houses, furniture, suits, airline tickets, gym memberships. And the Ys? Payment for a year, taking the item back, full refunds and much more.

There are a number of problems with this type of marketing, not the least of which is the copycat feel. If you’re first to market, and first in category, you may break through. After that, it’s forcing your brand into the Avis category. You’re just trying harder but trying harder doesn’t mean the message resonates. It’s just a nice try. When Hyundai started the trend in January - letting you return a car if you lost your job -  it was rather novel, and earned the carmaker a lot of attention. The car maker says sales are up.

Another problem? Does fear advertising work or just create more anxiety? And as a marketer, if you play the fear card, aren’t you just adding to the immobilization and lack of spending that fear causes, rather than focusing on hope and optimism that better times are on the horizon? Are you aligning your brand with negativity?

Do consumers - women - like being told over and over, from national, regional and local brands that they may be laid off or be standing in an unemployment line soon? Do you like that message? Do you like hearing it from marketers daily? Does that message make you want to buy something, or make you want to go back to crawl back into bed?

We all know fear immobilizes. It doesn’t motivate, unless it’s a life-threatening circumstance and the flight/fight adrenaline kicks in. Buying a new car or a new suit isn’t a matter of life or death and neither are all the other Xs above. They are discretionary expenses. Wants, not basic needs. Don’t scare me with your messages, I am already afraid. Inspire me with hope.

Give me a positive reason to purchase your X. Touch my heart and make me smile. Give me a transformative product or service and I’ll buy it, even now, without the Y.    

Kaira Rouda helps entrepreneurs put their passions into action, and avoid scaring their customers in the process. For more, visit her website and of course, buy her book.

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