Seth Godin writes in one of his blogs that it is fear that needs to be addressed because fear is at the root cause of bad behavior and of irrational decisions.
He writes:
Bad behavior and irrational decisions are almost always caused by fear. If you want to change the behavior, address the fear.
I think that whilst this observation applies to our irrational behaviors towards things that we don’t fully understand and therefore cannot fully accept (like other races, other cultures, people of different “types” from the usual), this applies to marketing decisions as well.
Marketing decision-makers are – after all – humans.
And as such, they are not immune to the irrationality that could be brought on by fear.
Take – for example – the first time the possibility of buying ad-spaces on the internet: the responses were polarized. One group jumped in and bought the whole lot – lock, stock, and barrel – because “I want to be the first to maximize this opportunity. No. One. Else.”
Another group decided to stay by the sidelines because “we don’t know this new thing; it’s not like TV. It’s not like advertising.”
Both reasons are possibly valid.
But both come from the vantage point of fear.
The first: fear from being “outrun and outgunned” by competition.
The second: fear from using something “new and unproven”.
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I think, to a certain extent, fear – and irrationality – is good.
But too much of it isn’t.
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