It’s frightful out there!

British marketers seem to have an aversion to fear in their messaging, far beyond our American counterparts. Perhaps we believe that appealing to fear and anxiety when promoting is somehow distasteful or crass.

This aversion is quite clearly misguided, and yet you can see how we might find ourselves in a pickle here. Excuse me for being a little idealistic briefly, but I really do want to live in a world where I get to promote desire over fear; love over hate; confidence over anxiety. That belief enables me to sit far more comfortably with my marketing career to date. But to walk away from fear is like throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Fear is an essential emotion; it makes us human; it keeps us safe. In a bid to form human connections, if we can’t talk to peoples’ fears and anxieties, we’re ignoring a whole part of our evolved psychological makeup.

So, how do we talk about fear? When do we talk about fear? And how will we know if we’ve gone too far?

We all have fears and worries, some we understand and some we don’t. Nevertheless, they’re real, human and if your brand can address them effectively and authentically, then it’s right, or perhaps imperative that it does so. From a marketing perspetive, I find it helpful to break fear down into two moments in time; the moment just before the customer is introduced to your solution, and then just after. The former is where the bulk of marketing anxiety comes in and it can be split into two categories; the known and the consciously unknown. Known, or perhaps acknowledged, fears present less of an ethical concern. The customer has a fear, and your brand offers a solution - great. More often than not though, we’re dealing with the unknown; with individuals blissfully unaware of the trials that await them in life. Ignorance is bliss, or so they say, so when we marketeers sow seeds of fear and anxiety, the prospective customer is, one assumes, now worse off than before - thanks a lot! But fear not! This loss is only fleeting. Down the line, provided the fear is shown to be justified, and your solution saves them from a world of pain, you’re now the hero!

The issue comes, I think, when we start ‘drinking our own kool aid’. Steve Peters’ 'The Chimp Paradox' (which seperates the mind into three distinct parts - the human, the chimp and the computer) rather beautifully illustrates the dynamics of this justification. If our marketing is to appeal to the emotional chimp, and have them hopping around in fury, we must also be confident that, when the rational human mind steps in to assess the situation, they’ll find themselves at least in some part aligning with the chimp. In other words, the chimp’s fear is justified. If they’re not aligned, and it can’t be justified, as Marketers we’ve stepped into fear-mongering. If the fear is valid, but a simple change in behaviour, or a far more affordable, readily available solution than yours exists, that’s also fear-mongering - don’t accept their ignorance as an excuse. Even if you were able to appeal to the chimp, when the dust settles the rational human will find you wanting, informing the chimp accordingly who, with all their emotive zest, will now despise you for it. Any trust formed in the 'computer' will evaporate entirely. If you’re marketing such solutions, then I suppose it’s just a numbers game if you really want to play it. How many new chimps can you dupe each day? Because no one's going to come back or recommend you, you’re not bringing anything new of value to the world, and consequently your strategy clearly lacks longevity.

Getting off my high horse and moving on, it’s the post-introduction phase that I find most intriguing. Once the customer is introduced to your solution, a whole new dialogue ensues and new fears enter the narrative. This for me then, is where awareness and foresight are essential. It’s here then that you have the chance to resolve them before they even hit your audience’s conscious minds. The moment the idea of a potential purchase hits, any one or multiples of the following ‘what if’ fears ensue. (Kepler 2004, but abridged and abused)

“What if it doesn’t do what I want it to?” (Functional)

“What if I get hurt?” (physical)

“What if I get hurt/upset?” (psychological)

“I might feel embarrassed to have chosen x” (Social)

“What if it turns out not to be worth the money” (Financial)

“What if it proves to be a waste of my time” (Time)

I accept the subtle nuances, and the fact that some of these questions fold into a more complex narrative. Nevertheless, all of the above amount to loss-based fear for the customer; loss of money, time, face, well-being and so on. As countless studies have shown, it’s this fear of loss, rather than any desire to gain, that is the most powerful drive in our behaviours.

So, do you know which fears rack the minds of your target audience? Once again, we’re back to that relentless pursuit of understanding your customer, but whatever you do, don’t ask them directly. Asking direct questions, attempting to cover each possible ‘what if’ brings you back to sowing fears that weren't necessarily there in the first place. They’re also highly unlikely to consciously know which fear is dominating their chimp mentality anyway - the human has already taken over. Instead, use open ended questions and see what kinds of fears come to the fore naturally, ideally in as close a context as possible to the point of purchase.

When you understand which fears dominate the minds of your target audience, think of the multitude of ways in which you can allay them. Thinking of these ahead of product development, rather than simply at messaging, will allow you to use a host of tools, including the product itself, to reassure them. The fundamental shape of a solution; it’s name; materials; all these associations will have links to potential fears, and as such, offer boundless opportunities to create reassurance.

In the music technology space familiar to me, the functional ‘what if’ (specifically, ‘what if I can’t make it do what I need it to’) is undeniably the most abundant fear, and yet multiple music technology products put their prospective customers in absolute sweats just by the way they look. Musicians are often technophobic, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want, or aren’t capable of, making music. They just have a fear of complexity, and frankly, that fear is well and truly justified. You only have to look at the physical design of products from Google and Apple, all of which in themselves are immensely complex under the hood, to realise how powerful physical design can be in allaying fears (excepting of course big scary synths intended for lovers of the complex, for whom there is a sense of conquering pride and one upmanship in taming the complexities of their new beast).

Musicians are often technophobic, but that doesn’t mean they don’t want, or aren’t capable of, making music.

Finally, there’s a further fear I haven’t listed, and it’s rising up the ranks fast, in more and more categories, for more and more communities; fear for the world we live in. It might be a surprise for some, though I wish it weren’t - some people really do have an environmental conscience! Not just a social fit concern, in terms of how their actions are perceived by others, but a genuine concern for other inhabitants on our planet, and for future generations (don’t worry about the planet itself - it has a knack of healing itself, and has done so for billions of years!)

This addition rather beautifully demonstrates how fear is constantly changing as society develops. Equally, fears shift and move as individuals develop too. The context, including time, place, environment and understanding, all influence which fears dominate our minds at any given moment, and they’re shifting all the time. Do you understand the fears of your target audience? Are you able to appreciate how they’re changing over time? Can you empathise with them, and in so doing, bring reassurance and breed confidence?

Fear isn’t something to ignore. Far from it. Fear is a prompt for reassurance. When it’s justified, it’s not fear mongering - it’s an opportunity to show genuine care. It turns out then that love, for each other and our planet, can conquer all.

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