I’m sure we’ve all seen various adverts or messages that use fear to try and change our behaviour, be it smoking and drinking, or flying abroad for our holidays.  Heck, I’m sure we’ve all seen those annoying debt consolidation adverts (often featuring Carol Vorderman), that raised the spectre of home reposessions back in the days of easy credit (or so it seemed).  Casting aside the ethically dubious loan adverts though, does the use of fear in an advert really change our behaviour?

I came across a few studies recently that does seem to support the use of fear within a message but provides a couple of crucial caveats that I feel aren’t often used by marketers in current fear related ads.

1. Use fear but provide a solution

We’ve seen with the run on Northern Rock earlier in the year that scaring people can often lead to actions that the opposite of what would be deemed desirable.  One thing that was noticeable around the time was that people were doubting the ability of Northern Rock to stay afloat (fear) but weren’t providing much advice for people with savings in the bank.  As Franklyn Roosevelt once said “the only thing to fear is fear itself” and this is playing itself in our current situation, with lenders scared of lending.

I read a study by Howard Leventhal recently that looked into the use of fear in public health pamphlets.  Two sets of pamphlet were created, with a variety of scary images and actions the students needed to take to immunise themselves.  The study found that the use of scary images only worked if they were followed by steps the students could take to immunise themselves.

2. Put the message where the action is

As a student I often used to see posters around campus encouraging us not to drink too much.  The posters themselves were usually well constructed, but the problem was that they were usually placed in halls of residence or lecture theatres.  So by the time everyone got to the pub or students union they were out of sight and out of mind.

Cognitive research has found that if you can create a memory aid between the advert and the location of the action itself then it has a much better chance of success.  So for instance, using the drink example, if the logo from the advert could be placed in the students union, say on the coasters, could see some improved results.

Getting the results

So maybe to get better results at changing behaviour marketers need to provide both solutions in their message and memory triggers closer to the location of the activity itself.