Modern society is more focused on Fear induced marketing propaganda and fear-inducing powerfully in the human mind. This marketing behaviour can be seen in the marketing of goods and services, as well as it is considered as an art of advertising.
Fear is known as naturally occurred strong emotional stimuli [1]. It influences by biochemical reactions as well as personal emotions [1]. Long-term fear in the mind tends to cause various mental disorders over time.
How ethical is it to arouse/stimulate customer fear in the field of marketing and advertising?
Still, this argument is a matter of debate. For sake of the financial gain, many product manufacturers, as well as service providers, seek to intimidate their target customers.
Commonly, the insurance industry is a prime example of fear-based marketing. At a time when Covid-19 is in rapidly spreading momentum, it is clear that consumers are using intimidation tactics to market products or services. The government and the health sector also address the fears of the targeted society through daily public awareness campaigns highlighting the complications and health risks caused by Covid-19. Cultivating the fear in the human mind, constantly reminding it, helps to move the targeted society in a certain desired direction.
Fear-based marketing (FBM) of goods and services does not provide a mandatory action to ‘do this or die’ type motivation to the target community, but the fear of missing out on the desired benefit (FOMO ) helps to sell goods or services through the creation of fear of missing out [2].
But in an epidemic like this, isn’t the appropriate method to motivate society to health perspectives, as “follow this for survive or Do not follow to result in death”?
- What is fear?
There are different interpretations of fear. As mentioned above, fear is a set of thoughts that arise in the human mind and is an instinctive program that is injected into the nervous system [3]. Fear is an unpleasant state of mind that arises spontaneously in the mind based on an imminent danger or misfortune that is expected [4]. The feeling of fear that comes instinctively from infancy is an emotion that helps us to escape from dangers [3].
Excessive fear later translates into a phobia. Symptoms of phobia include: [5]
- Excessive fear that persists on radical factors.
- Intense fear, anxiety and panic-attack when faced with the factors that frighten him.
- Irrational facts or irrational fear.
- Inability to manage own intense fears.
Topics such as fear, panic and anxiety should be considered at great length.
The human brain has specialized circuits and mechanisms for fear retrieval and reaction. The way humans react to frightening events is twofold [5].
- Fight, flight, or freeze
- Tend and befriend.
The process of inclination and friendship is carried out with the desire to change one’s safety or the danger that has arisen. But choosing the right strategy for the occasion is often a difficult task. In the face of criminals, the helpless can often be seen pushing into the “process of inclination and friendship” (e.g. the victim of abuse, the helpless employee in the situations of strict controls).
A person with long-term social phobias can sometimes be seen fleeing society or even transforming into an anti-social phobia.
- Fear based marketing
Attracting a customer to their product or service is a key feature of “fear-based marketing” by creating a fear of losing the desired advantage [6]. It is the seller’s intention to motivate the customer to purchase the product or service by assessing the “possible adverse effects of not having it”.
“Look, sir, how many people currently get sick and die these days? Sir … Wouldn’t it be bad if you purchase an insurance policy?”
How much was the demand for masks and hand washes during the early days of Covid-19 pandemic? Didn’t we buy them for black markets at a time when there was no supply relative to high demand? It is our experience that observed after the corona virus “normalized” after Sri Lanka’s first wave of Covid-19 pandemic, the prices of those products fell below the normal price.
Fear-based marketing is used as a leading strategy not only by marketers and the media but also on social media. The “fear of missing out” (FOMO), which is communicated through certain posts used consciously or unconsciously by users on social media, has had a detrimental effect on society.
That is, one user, posting on social media about “owning the superior things or brands” can cause other users to become “anxious”, depressed, and also depressed by “not being able to reach the perfection of the other” [6].
Can we, the ‘anesthetized victims’ of capitalist interpretation and globalization, get rid of it?
Fear-based marketing is a temporary thing [7]. Desire-based marketing is another dimension of the evolving field of marketing [7]. One popular drink has its own tagline, ‘to open happiness’, while another drink has the motto ‘No *, No FOOD’. Through addresses the customer’s preferences. ‘Fear’ is a temporary motivation and ‘desire’ is a relatively high-end phenomenon.
- Fear-based marketing history
The history of fear-based commercial marketing goes back a long way. Listerine, the world’s leading mouthwash, was released in 1920 with a compelling advertisement that gained its revenue from $ 115,000 to $ 8 million within seven years [6]. Its theme was “The Difficulty of a Beautiful Woman Getting Married Due to The Stink That Comes From Her Mouth” [6]. It is not surprising that the consumer of that era, when personal hygiene products were not so popular, was attracted to that product. But the same phenomenon is still used by modern marketers. But its effects are not as great today as they were then. Because personal hygiene products today are “just another product”. Marketing strategies need to evolve in line with the change in society.
- Is fear-based marketing used only for commercial purposes?
No!
That is what is commonly used in politics. Many political ideologues use this to fill the heads of their party members. Politicians around the world are ‘marketing’ their ideologies based on fear in order to deceive their party members. They are adept at instilling in their minds the ‘hypothetical damage’ that their opponent can do. An example of this is the spread of ‘outright untruths’ through social media to easily change ‘public opinion.’ The spread of untruth is faster than the truth. When the level of imagination of the people goes down, untruth reigns over truth. ‘Falsehood’ refers to the ‘fear’ of the people.
- A concept used only in politics?
No!
It is also through these methods that the ‘cardboard heroes’ rule in a society where rumors create ‘missing images’.
“You’re not going to bump into him. He’s like a snake! He’s going to take revenge on you!”
“As it is, this country will end up in Somalia too! Oh, our little ones …”
Aren’t the above dialogues topics we hear or read on a daily basis in society, on social media and on political plaHow many people sell these stories for their own narrow ends?
Our ancients said that “No matter what the speaker says, the listener must listen with mindfulness.” Also, do we have the ability to “think intelligently” when asked consciously?
Dr. Dineth Samarawickrama
Sources:
[1]. https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-fear
[2]. https://www.leadboxer.com/blog/fear-based-marketing
[3]. https://www.kidshealth.org/teens/fear-and-phobia
[4]. https://www.oed.com
[5]. https://www.therecoveryvillage.com/mental-health/phobias/related/fear-vs-phobia/
[6]. https://writingbydesignllc.com/2020/10/spooky-marketing-tactics-do-they-work-and-are-they-ethical/
[7]. https://www.shoutoutstudio.com/marketing-based-on-desire-instead-of-fear/
