Marketing In Uncertain Times

by Bonnie Boots

Over the last few years, I've heard the drum beat of fearful messages grow from an occasional bongo beat of bad news into an overwhelming crescendo of pronouncements that the sky is falling.

Fear-based marketing has undoubtedly been around as long as the human race. Fear, after all, is a powerful tool for motivating people to buy your product. And whether your product is toothpaste, religion or a political party, the equation is always the same: put the audience into a fearful state of mind, then show them how your product will save them from the thing they fear.

Colgate, for example, shows you fearful images of dingy teeth, then demonstrates how their toothpaste will save you from this grim possibility. Republicans show you fearful images of life with a Democrat as president (and vice versa) then demonstrate how their party will save you from this grim possibility.

Today we live in a world where we are constantly bombarded by marketing. Even gas pumps and urinals now display LCD screens blaring commercial messages. Some of these messages can be ignored as just the usual shenanigans of advertisers and marketers.

But more and more I'm hearing the "Chicken Little" warning from other voices, voices that purport to be higher-minded and better motivated than the people selling toothpaste.

Some of these voices are scientists and scholars. Some of them are ministers and priests. Same of them are entertainers and reporters. And sadly, some of them are family and friends. Because these voices claim a spot in our lives that carries more credence than mere marketers, we listen to their messages with a greater degree of trust.

For scientists and scholars, for evangelists and entertainers, for family and friends, we peel away the protective layer of skepticism that protects us from advertisers. We listen to these trusted voices with open minds and hearts. And that makes us doubly vulnerable when these trusted voices broadcast fear.

I was saddened this week to receive a newsletter from a woman involved in internet marketing. She doesn't mail often, and when she does her messages are thoughtful and positive. But not this time.

This time, her message was confusing and even paranoid. She cited news broadcasts, books and television shows that had alarmed her with their predictions of future catastrophes, and she counseled her readers to store food and invest in gold so they could survive the coming cataclysm.

I regard this woman as a friend, so while reading her email I had my guard down. But as soon as I caught the drift of her thinking-CLANG!-the gate that protects me from fear-based marketing sprang back into place.

Like someone passing on the vampire's bite, this woman has been infected by fearmongers and now, all unknowingly, she has become one of the walking dead driven to infect others.

Lucky for me, I've lived long enough to hear all the trash talk that's driven this younger woman half-mad with fear. And to people talking that trash, I say "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Here's an example of trash talk from the past:

When I was a child in elementary school, we were taught to "duck and cover," ducking our heads down under our school desks and covering them with our arms to protect us from the atomic bomb we were told the Russians would drop on us one day. People our parents trusted advised them to build bomb shelters and stockpile food and gold for the coming catastrophe.

By the time I graduated from high school, most of the world knew the truth-that Russia had never posed a threat to America and both governments knew it. It had all been trash talk. a sham that served both governments by allowing them to manipulate their populations and do things that would otherwise have been rejected.

Here's a more current example of trash talk. Remember the Y2K scare? Remember being told, over and over again, that all the computers in the world were going to stop working at the same time? Remember being advised to stockpile food and gold because your bank would close and your credit cards wouldn't work?

Here's another example of trash talk. Remember being told that the AIDS virus could be spread by casual contact and that most of the world would be infected within 2 years? Remember being advised to stockpile plastic gloves and surgical masks?

Now there's a new round of trash talk. To me, it's the same old garbage, but to many people, it sounds like the wise counsel of trusted advisers. It seems all the more believable because so many voices are echoing the basic message-"Be afraid. Be very afraid. The sky is falling!"

People who believe this message are in danger of discovering it's true. They may, like the internet marketer I mentioned, abandon the systems that brought them success so far and focus all their energy and attention on the next incarnation of "duck and cover." People who do this will find that "Catastrophe is coming!" is a self-fulfilling prophesy.

If you're finding yourself affected by all the fearful messages, if you find yourself cutting back on your business, reducing your marketing, your ideas and your dreams, consider some statistics provided by the EPA that shows how American consumers are actually spending their money.

Last year, U.S consumers spent an average $112 to honor Dad last Father's Day. They spent an average $99.24 on Valentine's Day.

They spent an average $640 per year on decorative kitchenware and an average of $28,704 on a wedding.

The average American woman buys 4 handbags a year. One of Prada's best-selling bags is the Prada Nappa Gaufre Convertible Hobo, at only $1,750.

In 2007, Americans drank $12 billion dollars worth of specialty coffees. They drank $72 billion dollars worth of carbonated soft drinks and ate $22 billion dollars worth of salty snacks.

Last year, Americans spent $22 billion dollars on toys and another $10.5 billion dollars on video games.

They spent $31 billion dollars on pet food and supplies. Gourmet pet bakeries and designer pet clothing account for the largest increase in new sales.

Please notice that all of these figures pertain to the purchase of luxuries. Candy, toys and video games are not necessities, no matter what the kids tell us. Our pets can get by very well without fresh-baked dog biscuits and designer raincoats. Water can quench our thirst as well as any soft drink. And yet, even in a tight economy, Americans choose to spend bazillions of dollars on discretionary items that they can easily live without.

The figures quoted represent 2007 spending, when the American economy was already struggling. Even adjusting for the bigger economic shifts of 2008, the total figure for dollars being spent on non-necessities is awesome.

Look beyond the United States to figures on average world spending, and the numbers are simply staggering!

What's the lesson here? There is so much money circulating on this planet that even in tough times, billions of people still have trillions of dollars to spend on non-necessities.

Thus, there are plenty of people who can and will pay a reasonable price for your product or class or coaching-- if they feel it will improve their life.

The fearmongers are right. A catastrophe is coming. I know this is true because there is always a catastrophe coming.
So yes, the future will bring calamities and business failures and deaths. It will also bring birthday parties and business successes and the birth of new babies and new ideas and new opportunities for a better life.

The people who overcome catastrophe and lead the way to a better life are never the people who duck and cover. They are not the people who cower. They are the people who hear the fearmonger's message and move forward anyway, brave and secure in the belief that their destiny is not to succumb to their future, but to create it.

The way to market in uncertain times is to be certain that you have a purpose and a path to walk and a power inside you that can overcome anything.


 

 
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