Marketing Fear

As a marketing novice 35 years ago, I learned about the “seven great motivators” — the seven emotions that are most effective at moving people to action.

Number one on the list is greed. Number two is fear. In today’s marketplace, I am certain that fear has now moved to the number one position. Although greed is what brought the current economic tsunami to our shores, it is fear that keeps waves of destruction washing over the entire global marketplace.

In his radio address after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, President Franklin Roosevelt spoke these memorable words: “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” They are wise words and it would be wise for those of us in business to remember them.

When business owners allow fear to drive their decisions, they create the very outcome they wish to avoid. Your current reality may be declining sales, fewer customers, surplus inventory, tight cash flow and fragile employee morale. As the leader of your business, however, it is your responsibility to take positive action.

Make positive things happen for your business. You are the only person who can get your business out of a depression. Here are some examples you can use.

Create Your Own Positive Media. Stop complaining about how the media perpetuates bad news. Yes, that is what they do. Counteract it. Use your media buys to run the positive messages you want to see.

Example: A realtor ad that brags about the good things happening in the market, with an ad headline that reads: “More than $10 Million in Home Sales this Month”, a subhead “What Bad Economy?” followed by some body copy explaining that things aren’t as bad as they seem, will change thinking and spur consumers into action.

Implement your own department for “counter-terrorism.” Turn your employees into agents of good who fight the evil economic disaster. This is a fun way to change the way they think about being at work. Offer recognition rewards for eradicating the enemy by celebrating sales, even if they are few. Use this to set small goals.

Example: If you put up a daily post that proclaims the number of times you beat the enemy that day (which means the number of customers served) you’ll focus your employees on the positive things that are happening. This costs you nothing and it makes the workplace more fun. Set the goal of increasing sales by just one customer per day.

When it isn’t business as usual, don’t keep trying to do business as usual. You may not be able to get your sales volume as high as you like, but that doesn’t mean consumers aren’t interested. Put strategies in place to get new leads without the pressure for the sale. This is your guarantee that business will be waiting for you as soon as the economy moves forward. One thing you can do is switch from your standard advertising to event marketing.

Example: “Idea Events” for home remodeling can show how to change the look of a room, change the layout or use of the room or make the home more environmentally efficient without a big investment. Homeowners who come will leave with ideas that in turn will create a desire for the change. Eventually that desire will become a need and they’ll become customers.

Give people new ways to think about purchasing. In addition to changing the way you think, change the way your customers think. That means looking for a different benefit to offer that is outside the usual expectation.

Example: Financial advisors/investors all deliver the usual messages of smart investing, diversified portfolios, low-risk asset building and longevity of their experience. This pretty much falls flat on consumers’ ears. They’ve heard it all before. Plus, they know it doesn’t keep their investments secure. What most consumers really want is transparency, honesty and accessibility from their advisors. If you can deliver that and talk to investors in plain English instead of industry double-speak, you have a different way to get their attention.

Send positive messages to customers with greater frequency. When was the last time you sent something to your customer database that wasn’t an offer or pitch to buy something? Try sending information. By keeping positive, motivational and persuasive information in front of them you can offset the negative perceptions coming from news channels.

Example: Most businesses send news releases to media when they should be sending them to customers. Media will ignore them. Customers will enjoy them. Of course for customers you need to change the format from a release to a fun communication. Keep customers feeling good. Let’s face it; everyone needs some good news right now!

Treat customers as guests instead of customers. Think of your customer as a friend. Invite customers instead of selling to them. Instead of setting up meetings, set up get-togethers. Show up with a gift if you’re going to meet with a customer. Think about the things you do and the way you act when you get together with friends. Adapt that behavior to business.

Example: Businesses in the hospitality sector are ideally positioned to do this. A restaurant that has dozens of unfilled tables on a Monday night could change that simply by sending out invitations to people who live nearby to come in Monday nights for a special neighborhood night that includes a special treat developed for those guests. People accept invitations much more readily than they respond to a sales promotion.

The Fear Factor in today’s economy is huge. It is a downward spiral that swirls with increasing intensity, pulling consumers and businesses into a darker and darker place. This is not the time for a business to stop spending money on marketing.

Marketing is the number one thing a business must do in a bad economy. The point is, however, you must spend your marketing dollars doing the right things. As Henry Ford said, “You can’t save money by stopping your marketing any more than you can save time by stopping your clock.”

The only way to turn things around is to keep marketing, communicating, and encouraging consumers. How can you expect consumers to have the confidence to spend if you don’t have the confidence to market to them? The correlation between marketing and consumer spending is what drives the free enterprise system. Unlike the “chicken and egg” scenario, however, there is a clear answer as to what comes first. It’s the marketing.

Contact Carol if you want to develop positive marketing ideas that will work for you.

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