Selling Hope.

Today's Marketing Cookie discusses the choice between selling based on fear or hope.

A common tactic used by marketers is to invoke fear. One of the first lessons marketers learn through experience is that people purchase products and services for two primary reasons: to gain pleasure or to avoid pain. The challenge for marketers is to determine which of the two will be more effective for their product or service.

For businesses like Zappos, which sells shoes to women, or Chuck E. Cheese, which offers parties for kids, it's relatively straightforward to sell based on pleasure, happiness, and smiles. However, it may be surprising to learn that fear, as a general emotion, can be more powerful and motivating than the pleasure approach. For instance, while a family may desire a vacation to Disney World, such a trip won't be a high priority compared to purchases made to avoid pain.

Home security companies, for example, sell more products by depicting scenarios such as a home being robbed or a woman alone in the house being attacked. This approach, known as selling based on fear, is highly effective.

Life insurance companies might show a widow and children mourning by a gravesite with a caption that reads, "Don't leave your family empty-handed." This use of fear to sell insurance proves to be effective.

We've all seen anti-smoking commercials featuring individuals who have lost their teeth, hair, and voice due to long-term smoking. These ads are jarring for the viewer and effectively use fear to deter smoking, making them quite memorable.

Examples include the mangled car placed on a high school's front lawn to remind kids of the dangers of drunk driving, or commercials showing a paralyzed teenager who texted while driving. These are all successful marketing campaigns that leverage fear and are extremely impactful.

Currently, we are in an emotionally charged and politically divisive presidential election season. Both sides are resorting to name-calling, accusations, and the use of fear to dissuade voters from supporting the opposition. It's an unpleasant situation, and many people are likely experiencing "fear fatigue," but this is typical of presidential election years—except for in 2008. Something unique occurred during that election.

When Hillary Clinton was competing against Barack Obama in the primaries, she attempted to invoke fear by asking, "Who would you want to take the call at two o'clock in the morning?" By suggesting that Obama would be ill-equipped to handle an emergency, Mrs. Clinton aimed to leverage fear, a common tactic in American presidential elections. Meanwhile, Mr. Obama consistently promoted "Hope." He eventually won the nomination and continued to appeal to voters' hope all the way to the White House.

It might be the only presidential campaign in my lifetime where a candidate succeeded not by selling fear, as has been the norm for the last two hundred years, but by selling hope. Although fear is arguably more powerful, marketing professionals may find that hope is more meaningful.