Fear Marketing

In the mail yesterday I came across a direct mail piece for www.basements.com with the warning "more hurricanes predicted" - aiming to convince me to waterproof my home.  I can only hope that this piece was created before recent tragedies and not a deliberate attempt to cash in on the misfortune of others.  But it did start me thinking of this whole genre of marketing that is becoming more and more popular, perhaps in response to the American news media's focus on the dangers of our society.  Evening news is about murders, arson, car accidents and shootings.  Primetime specials on 20/20 and the like promise vital scraps of information about products that "could kill us."  Even the political climate and messages from the government in the US ring of fear from elevated terror alerts to "credible threats."  In our society of fear, it is no surprise that fear marketing is becoming so widespread, and even more disturbingly, that it works so well.

Fear marketers paint the picture of what your life might be like if you don't get their product.  They play into already existing fears, or paint new ones that consumers may never have considered.  The end result is the consumer perception that the advertised product or service is a necessity to keep their family safe, make their life less dangerous, or avoid a situation they dread. But should we do it?  Doesn't this type of marketing just add to the plague of society, fostering fear and making us a weaker people as a result?  Probably - but the problem with fear marketing is that it often works.  And for many marketers, it's tough to leave behind a morally questionable strategy when it ends up working.  Especially when you can't get sued for it.

Comments

[Rich Schoor MD FACS]

I enjoy your posts. I am a novice and have a stupidly basic question. What are key words?

[Andrew Bargery]

Interesting post. It seems to me this isn't a new practice - surely this is only what the IT industry did with Y2K and what manufacturers of bomb shelters did during the cold war (there are many more examples I'm sure). Is it not just with the ever increasing speed and availability of information these days that it's just more visible?

Having said that, if you take a more cynical view, then perhaps it is the corporate world cashing in on the high profile of recent disasters. Ethical or not, it probably makes good business.

Perhaps it's both i.e. an old practice that's increasingly seen as unethical as people start to look to businesses to behave responsibly?

[Tara (PassPack)]

The company that attempts to instill fear, is the same one that offers to "help you". That's not a good way to build a trust relationship - but then again, not all markets *require* businesses to behave responsibly the way the online community does.

Businesses with a traditional (offline) client base will most likely hold onto fear marketing for as long as they can. Unfortunately, it works.

[giles rhys jones]

wouldn't the world be a better place if advertising was a force for common good, feeding ideals not praying on anxieties