Fear and guilt. Two marketing ideas that don’t readily spring to mind. But marketing is all about satisfying your need. And if you need to create that need in the first place, these are powerful emotions to work with.

Look at the insurance you buy. The agent tells you that you are protecting against risk. What if you die? Are your loved ones provided for? Now, he’s reached beyond risk to strum the strings of fear. But I’m young and healthy, you say. So take the policy now when the premium is low. He’s hammered the message in.

A company sent me a mailer that looked very official. They tell me that my home insurance would not pay to fix the repairs of the water line from the house to the utility line in the street. While a doubt is rising in me, they push further. Repairs would cost me ‘thousands of dollars.’ Ah, they have the fear up and I don’t think of the probability of that line requiring repairs!

Car rentals

Car rental companies have a nice technique to seal the deal. You refuse to take the insurance offered while renting a car because your personal vehicle policy and/or the credit card you are using usually covers this risk.

The rental company will then make you sign another document. This is just to confirm that we have offered you the coverage and you denied it, the nice rental agent smilingly tells you. That’s when the fear rises. Perhaps your policy does not cover this you wonder and take the cover.

Guilt is the other emotion that can be played with. Like fear, it may not be obvious but hidden deep in the message the marketer uses to trigger the purchase decision.

You have probably not been ignoring your partner at all but when the marketer says buy this bunch of flowers to show that you really love her, you’re thinking why not, maybe I need to be a bit more demonstrative.

Gymnasiums and yoga centres also made good use of it. We all want to be fit and healthy, and the ice cream dessert probably doesn’t do us much good. But the gym says it will get us back into shape.

So we take that trial offer and find comfort that others are also there who look like misfits so there is nothing to be ashamed about. The yoga centre’s marketing manager knows how our mind works and works the guilt further.

We may not return after the trial and lots of things can happen by the time we consume that next halwa. So she says its cheaper to take a subscription rather than pay per class. Yes, we agree and feel we need to make the commitment. The subscription serves to build a bridge with our guilt and when faced with that next ice cream, we are confident knowing the subscription we have to the gym or yoga centre will help us get in there without a problem and get back in shape.

Sometimes one has to work the reverse. If the purchase decision can invoke guilt (do I really need this luxury watch?), the marketer would work to assuage that guilt and make it okay (of course you do, you deserve it!).

Social marketing

And it is not only the capitalist, profit-oriented businesses who make use of these themes. They are equally popular with those engaged in social marketing. Since you are well-off, you are asked to contribute to those who are less privileged.

Your reward is that you have done your bit to share your success with others (and feel less guilty that you do not deserve all that you have).

Perhaps we need to call upon another emotion to deal with the role of these marketers — charity. After all, they also need to make a living.

The writer is an emeritus professor at Suffolk University, Boston

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