Best Practices for Marketing to the Control Freak that Lives Inside All of Us
by Graeme Newell
Highlights:
-Marketing that appeals to the control freak deep inside of us uses one of two primary emotional motivators: fear or success.
-The process of using fear has two critical steps: frighten, but then quickly reassure.
-Fear should be a catalyst that drives the feeling of reassurance. Peace of mind, not angst, should be the goal of the marketing.
Download PDF Version
Are you just a wee bit of a control freak? Do you always clean off your desk before you go home? Does organizing your pantry leave you beaming with pride? Is every moment of your day meticulously scheduled?
Let’s put you to the test. Watch this phone commercial. What’s your reaction? Does it leave you with a little thrill or does it sound like a pretty dull existence?
If you didn’t like this commercial, then you failed the test and are not a control freak. Your idea of the perfect day probably looks quite different, more like this Degree deodorant commercial, full of fantastic adventure and delightful chaos.
Now if the idea of a perfectly planned day causes your pulse to quicken, Madison Avenue knows exactly how to feed your hunger for predictability. Ads like this one for GIO Insurance are precisely tuned to motivate you to buy.
Everything about this phone commercial was custom designed to appeal to lovers of order and predictability. The music is soothing, with a nondescript repetitive meter. Her voice is slow and measured. Her hair is wrapped as tightly as a guitar string. The background is a delightfully amorphous field with clouds gently rolling by. This commercial is not about phones. Rather, it is a commercial that celebrates the joy of predictability and attaches a phone to that magical feeling. If you love order, this is the phone that will give it to you.
Marketing that successfully hits the control sweet spot can be broken up into two primary camps: fear and success. Commercials like this Duracell ad use fear and a half-empty-glass approach to show that life can be downright frightening.
This disturbing smoke alarm ad warns that only continual attention will avert disaster.
These ads tend to follow a formula. They begin by frightening. This disturbing car safety ad is not easily forgotten.
This fun Allstate ad uses humor to lighten the mood; but make no mistake, its primary motivator is fear.
Fear does a great job of shooting a healthy dose of adrenaline through the veins and firmly commanding attention, but fear alone is nothing more than emotional grandstanding. The marketing must next move on to the critical second step: vigilance. Perseverant attention will avert the crisis, keeping life safe and secure.
This ad for stroke prevention frightens, but then quickly reassures that all will be fine if and only if you stay alert and watch for the signs.
This ad for Allstate Insurance plays on parents’ fears about teen driving, but the end message dials back the fear and reassures with a clear message that good parents plan for the unexpected.
It is in this message of vigilance that the seller hits their stride. People who value control and order cherish this feeling of steadiness and safety, but most of them are just too busy and tired to be this attentive. Staying on guard all the time is exhausting. Luckily, these companies will be vigilant for them. For just a few dollars customers can get that warm feeling of security without all the worry. The message in this ad is that if you buy the Philips home defibrillator, there is less worry about having a heart attack. Philips will protect you.
The Philips scenario probably feels quite comforting and familiar. That is because its essence is maternal/paternal love. The customer can rest contently now because mom and dad are there to protect them. This Chase ad tells customers not to worry about internet theft because the bank is watching out for them.
This AMF ad tells customers not to fret about their financial future; the planners have it all handled.
This parental imagery is at the heart of the marketing message used by these companies. Pacific Life ads sell insurance with imagery of a large mother whale protecting her calf.
Prudential speaks of itself as “the rock.” This Prudential ad uses imagery of mother elephants patiently nurturing their babies. You might expect that investment companies would brag about their ability to make money, but they know their customer’s deepest feelings and realize that safety is a much more tangible dream than riches.
This ad for Huggies Wipes uses metaphor to showcase a nervous mother’s fear of germs and mess, but all is made safe and clean with a single wipe. That peace of mind can be bought for just a few dollars at the grocery store.
This Aflac ad follows the same formula: fear, vigilance, and surrendering to the protection of an authority figure.
This AOL ad begins with the assertion that your computer is doomed, but then shows how the ever-vigilant company will protect the customer from digital bandits.
Many marketers make the mistake of getting the mix wrong by using too much fear and not enough reassurance. Stoke the fires of fear too high and the ad becomes so disconcerting that it is emotionally repulsive. This frightening ad for workplace safety does an amazing job of getting attention, but the message does little to reassure.
Another ad in this same campaign does the same thing. It compels with fear, but then abandons the customer with little hope.
This TV station ad has one goal, to terrorize people into watching. Just because someone remembers the marketing doesn’t mean that the message resonates.
Terrifying marketing like this ad that discourages smoking often leaves customers feeling cruelly manipulated. You can frighten people into paying attention, but they might just end up hating you for it. Smokers know the habit is bad for them.
This more positive smoking ad avoids the cheap theatrics of danger and leaves the customer with a far more resonant feeling of empowerment.
Remember that fear should be a catalyst that drives the emotionally pleasing feeling of reassurance. Angst should not be the goal of your marketing. The goal is peace of mind. This ad for Lifelock computer security services briefly touches on fear, but spends most of its time celebrating the awesome power of internet connectivity.
The makers of this campaign understood that the purpose of fear is to provide a comparison that ultimately accentuates the more powerful feeling of peace of mind.
