An online trend has been begging for professional attention since the digitization of the marketing industry – the fear-based marketing strategy.
In regard to its effectiveness, some marketers have thrown their support behind the idea while few marketers have disqualified the rarely-used strategy. Join the trending discussion on Quora.
Potency aside, what about the legal aspect?
Is it legal to coerce consumers online by terrifying them with the consequences associated with a problem or disease?
What are marketing associations like the American Marketing Association; Data & Marketing Associations; and other government agencies saying about fear-based marketing?
This article is an extension of my previous marketing guide— is Fear Mongering Still a Viable Marketing Strategy? Read that piece for better understanding of fear-based marketing and its potency.
What are the possible impacts of fear-based ads on the targeted audience?
We all know that marketing that triggers emotions works. But is it worth it for your brand’s reputation or the good of society? Let’s look at some of the impacts:
The Social Impact:
A large group of marketers believe fear-based ads arouse anxiety among internet users. Whether raising anxiety is harmful or not is unclear, since people have ranging levels of anxiety tolerance.
Going by the medical definition of fear, which is regarded as ‘an unpleasant feeling triggered by the perception of danger, real or imagined’— the use of fear-based marketing strategies should be labeled as unethical.
However, that’s not the present case, as there’s no popular global/national law restricting its usage. Even though a microscopic few believe the fear tactic is wrong, lots of marketers still support the technique.
The Physical Impact:
Some schools of thought believe a fear-based ad can only be unethical if the advertiser commits a fraud by putting out a product that doesn’t solve the problem discussed.
For instance, the Volkswagen company marketed diesel cars as eco-friendly even though they add to the depletion of the Ozone layer.
According to the FTC, “Volkswagen deceived consumers by selling or leasing more than 550,000 diesel cars based on false claims that the cars were low-emission, environmentally friendly.”
The Risk of Sending the Wrong Message
Fear-based marketing is a style of marketing that focuses more on the symptoms of a problem than the problem itself.
Just like every other marketing technique, the fear-based marketing strategy aims at creating urgency and offering the advertised product as the most effective solution.
Unlike other marketing strategies, the fear-based marketing method magnifies the risks of not buying the displayed product or the consequences of not tackling the problem.
Marketers and scholars who oppose this method focus on the ethicality rather than the potency.
According to the Australasian Marketing Journal 11(1) in the context of fear-based anti-smoking campaigns:
“The use of fear appeals may be ethical in Western societies where familiarity with advertising would ‘protect’ smokers from the tacit aggression of the message but may not be in developing countries where the advertising message may be accepted less critically and therefore, cause greater amount of anxiety to smokers.”
The journal views misconception of message and exaggeration of a product’s potency as major issues in less-developed countries.
The nature of fear-based ads permits disinformation. By exaggerating the consequences, citizens of less developed countries might over-hype the problem without making further investigations on the claims of the advertiser.
The Safety of Mentally-challenged Individuals
As mentioned earlier, various people have different anxiety level tolerances. The effects of fear-based marketing on healthy individuals are temporal and minimal.
But the main victims of the technique are mentally-challenged persons with anxiety disorder, post-traumatic anxiety disorder (PTSD), generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety, and agoraphobia.
Final Thoughts
The inability of global marketers associations to define the bounds of fear-based marketing is a hard swallow for many.
No one has ever been criticized for appealing to happiness; the only reason people frown at fear-based marketing is that it looks ugly and unhealthy.
While the victims (targeted consumers) may not be able to identify or vilify fear-based marketing, marketers who understand the nature and potential harm should set the limits for fear-based marketing and define its ethicality.
References
The Ethicality of Using Fear for Social Advertising
[Damien Arthur & Pascal Quester, 2003]
Is Fear Mongering Still a Viable Marketing Strategy
[Miracle oyedeji, 2020]
Image source: Photo by Alexandra Gorn on Unsplash; edited in Canva
Miracle Oyedeji
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Your post is very helpful. I agree fear-based ads arouse anxiety among internet users. You are right that marketers should set the limits for fear-based marketing
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Great insights. It was a good read. It pointed out all the issues we face in marketing.
Great article, thanks for sharing. I work in financial services and a large part of what I work on is Life Targeting, Life Insurance, and Asset Protection. Unfortunately, fear is the #1 emotion that drives action in our industry. We ask a LOT of “What If” questions, most of the questions are used to provoke an emotion, provoke fear.
Beyond life insurance, “Fear of Missing Out” is a huge emotional trigger for both marketing and sales.
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Hi Miracle,
Thanks for the insight. I’ve not really thought of the effect of fear-based marketing as I’ve used it before (and still currently do), now I believe there should be a limit as humans are the most valuable part of any business transactions.
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This article is on-point. For sure, it will enlighten those who don’t have any idea of what fear marketing can do to a business. I had a great time reading. Thank you for sharing this.
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I don’t agree with it as usually they are trying to take advantage of people lacking knowledge in this area.
I’ve had many a marketing company ring me telling me my website isn’t ranking etc and how they can get me on page 1 of google.
Tim Moss would love you to read ..Industry 4.0
Hi Tim,
Yes, there are scoundrels online as well as off and always have been. I find the fake “your domain is expiring” emails with ridiculously high renewal rates particularly loathesome because I just know many small business owners are falling for that scam.
I get contacted constantly by “SEO experts” who want me to recommend them. No way. I consider SEO far too risky and most “experts” have NO IDEA what they’re doing. Try pinning them down on exactly what they are going to do.
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This is very true. Every business has its Ethics and rules and regulations. They should be followed y everyone who is the business.
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I don’t know if I’ve just missed these types of ads or been oblivious but I’m surprised this is actual a successful way to advertise.
I definitely don’t expect the marketers will set limits on their own. Usually it takes some kind of incentive to change a strategy that is working and, other than moral incentives, there doesn’t seem to be one.
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Yeah, im agree with that, Good read and also brought back a few memories too. Fear is being considered ethical as long as they are solving the problems of the consumers, totaly agree with Kamran Ullah Khattak
The one main goal of fear is to create a sense of urgency that portrays the product being marketed as the only true solution to the started problem, but I believe it is gradually losing it’s efficacy as most people rarely respond to such messages knowing fully well that there are other solutions out there.
Another aspect of fear is the urgency of BUY NOW. This is when a vendor tries to put false sense of scarcity into it’s marketing and this will always have an adverse effect in the marketing of such product.
But when the scarcity is real, then it works.
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The potency of the fear-based marketing strategy remains unrivalled. The only issue is its ethicality and restrictions. I do not believe the ethicality of a thing should be determined by its potency. For instance, biological weaponry is very effective during war, but its usage is regarded as a war crime under customary international laws.
Up to the points. Fear won’t take us to the destination. Its our own fear that stop us to go beyond the limits. Such strategy won’t take us higher.
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I too go with fear is being ethical as long as they are problem solver. But the consumer mentality should not be stressed out. There is perhaps the thin line between marketing and creating panic.
You can’t control fear over time, a big risk I think
Fear based marketing tactics seem really underhanded to me, Even if the product works and solves the problem you’re scaring people with, you’re still adding more anxiety to a stress=packed life on the person consuming your content,
I know I’ll never use this and I’d be ashamed of myself to consciously use it, to sit behind my work desk and think “ok, how can I scare people now?”
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Your concerns are valid Nikola. The issue isn’t the potency of the method, but its retrogressive impact on the targeted consumers. I find it hard to believe that some people sit behind their desks to strategize how to scare consumers into submission.
Thanks for good points, in my opinion Fear-based marketing strategies are controversial. Just like most other marketing tactics, they can either work extremely well or blow up in your face. But studies have proven the tactic to be effective time and time again. You can implement them in your ads to increase your CTR, subtly use them in a loss-aversion pitch, and more.
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While the assumptions that you used to present your arguments are’t up-to my expectation, you still did a good job presenting all the details in a flow. Fear is being considered ethical as long as they are solving the problems of the consumers. Harsh Truth but must be told !!
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Well, that’s another perspective. However, the negative effect of fear-based marketing on people with anxiety disorder is a thing every marketer should consider before capitalising on people’s fear. Sometimes, the harsh truth is unnecessarily exaggerated.
There was a guy I used to hang about with a good few years ago and his dissertation was “The Fear Of Advertising” His paper was about TV and magazine advertising as the internet was still in its infancy back then. I didn’t read it but got him to explain it to me but some of the points you made are very similar. Good read and also brought back a few memories too.
I still think fear-mongering is something that still continues to this day. Reality TV certainly doesn’t help.
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I’m glad this story brings you good-old memories. You can join the quora discussion via the link in the article, since reality TV isn’t helping. I think one thing we should avoid while educating people on the cons of fear-based marketing is exaggerating its effects. If we exaggerate the consequences of fear-based marketing, we won’t be different from those using the method.
Moreover, the onus lies on marketers to set the limits of Fear-based marketing not the already-scared consumers.