Marketing is missing a trick by not going for the fear factor.
That was the gist of the argument put forward in 1970 in an article published in the Journal of Marketing1 by Michael L. Ray, later author of Advertising and Communications Management (1982), and William L. Wilkie, later author of Consumer Behavior (1994).
The authors claim that, rather than draw on extensive research, ‘…marketing seems content to ask the simple question, “Is fear effective or not?,” and to reach the premature conclusion that fear is not effective as an appeal.’
What innocent times!
The subsequent research must have proved convincing since today we live in a world where we are bombarded on a daily basis with marketing messages about how bad we’ll feel if we don’t take advantage of this last ever sale before midnight, how worried we should be about a previously unheard of disease, or how fast we should act if we don’t want the world to collapse around our ears.
It is truly scary out there.
When Ray and Wilkie were writing, there was no internet, no email, no social media, no mobile phones through which to market their messages with only a low-cost barrier to entry. No 24-hour rolling news either, to provide a backdrop of negativity.
The options in the 1970s were very much budget dependent: direct marketing, ads in newspapers, on billboards, TV, radio, cinema screen. They would not have been able to conceive of what was to come.
The case for and against fear in marketing
In this series of articles, we’re going to explore the concept of fear in marketing, whether we should be using it in the 2020s and beyond, and if so, how?
But we’re not going to attempt to cover everything in one go. Each article will look at a different area to see how fear is being used for marketing messages, whether it’s working, and whether the extent to which it’s working justifies its use. We’ll be tackling:
- Public Health & Wellbeing
- Politics
- Environment
- Charity sector
- B2C Products and Services
- B2B Products and Services
For example, is a high level of fear justified when it comes to a public health emergency, like COVID? Perhaps low-level fear – like FOMO – to spark a specific action is fine? Or should we always seek to emphasise the positive? This is what we will investigate.
What does the research tell us?
As we dig into each area, we will naturally refer to research, just as Ray and Wilkie did. However, there is a caveat.
The research in 1970 (and still today in some cases) would have been conducted in artificial conditions, asking participants to review a proposed marketing campaign to elicit feedback on its potential effectiveness, or asking for recollections of a specific advert that had been in the public domain. This is not how we experience marketing messages in our daily lives.
Nowadays, it’s much easier to gather a huge amount of data on reactions to marketing campaigns out in the wild in real time – for example, the number and nature of comments to measure engagement, or the balance of positive to negative emoticons. What is harder and likely impossible to assess is the impact on our mental health (and you could argue the knock-on effect on our physical health if the messages precipitate sleepless nights, raised cortisol and so on), especially when combined.
It brings to mind tests for chemicals. A single chemical in isolation and in a specific dose may cause no ill effects, but the test doesn’t allow for its being combined with all the other chemicals from the other products that you use day in, day out, and the cumulative effect of the dose over time.
Likewise, there is no test that tells you your target audience’s anxiety levels in response to a cocktail of fear-inducing marketing and non-marketing (news, fake news) messages.
With this in mind, we suggest we all hold the referenced research lightly.
A confession and a promise
We have a confession. As marketers, we have neglected our own comms of late. Our focus has been on our clients – understandable. But we realised how often we discuss these issues on calls, the interesting debates we have, the content we share with each other, and decided it was time to get our questions and thoughts out there, to engage with a broader audience. We promise to do this. You can hold us accountable!
Your opinions matter
All that remains is to invite you to join this conversation. We’re not going to say tell us right now what you think or miss out on the chance to be featured in our final report…! But we would be really interested to hear your thoughts on this subject.
To make it easy for you, we’ve created a very short survey to get your thoughts on fear in marketing. You can take longer over it if you like because there are free text boxes, but if you’re busy, it’s just a few clicks.
We’re excited to hear your opinions.
Photo credit: Ivan Samkov
Photo credit: Mizuno K
