Hello and Happy (Fearful) Friday!

• If you do NOT sign up for this top-of-the-line alarm system that costs double the other, then the intruders will break in and you will DIE!"

• Isn't it too bad about Marty? He did not buy the top-of-the-line, expensive burial plan and now his family has had to bury him in the backyard, wrapped in a sheet, next to the pet hamster."

• You really do need to purchase this extra protection plan for your phone, even though it costs twice as much as the new phone itself. If you do NOT get it, you will immediately drop the phone, losing every contact you have ever had, and every phone company will go out of business, leaving you with two cans and a string for your communication needs."

• If you fail to buy these retirement products, whether you need them or not, you will end up wearing a bag and living under a tree in your kids' backyard. You will die alone, without even the pet hamster for company and we all know how long a paper bag lasts in the rain."

• There is no more toilet paper! Hurry! Quick! Run to Costco, where they are holding a lottery to give away the very last pack they may ever have. After that, drive to the nearest four big box stores and grab whatever they have off of the shelves. Ignore the crying woman standing there, who has six kids and only one roll between them: YOU NEED this toilet paper! The alternative is a leaf from the backyard and you aren't sure but it may be poison ivy. Ouch...or should I say, itch!" 

A Powerful Motivator

Fear. It is a powerful motivator and many products have been sold by scaring the consumer all the way to the cash register. Sometimes fear can be good, as it motivates us to get products or services we actually do require, such as health or life insurance, but at other times it is simply a marketing tactic, used to play off of the terrors we all share and which keep us up at night. 

Fear Selling

Here is an interesting bit of trivia: Fear selling began in earnest in the 1920s, with Listerine. That term we have all heard about, halitosis, the one that has us reaching for the mouthwash, was actually made up by the company in order to frighten people into believing that bad breath was a medical condition that could only be cured by using their product. It worked so well that it put Listerine on the map and "halitosis" in medical dictionaries to this day. Talk about your fake news!

Fear &/OR Shame Drives Consumer Purchasing

Many companies historically used fear or shame to drive the consumer to purchase what they were selling. Special K, for instance, began its advertising campaign by basically telling women, their target market, that they were fat and that only by eating their cereal would they lose the pounds and inches and breathe easily again, or at least struggle to breathe in their skinny jeans. That selling tactic worked for a while and Special K and other companies using similar tactics made a killing while it lasted. 

So what changed?

The times we live in, the knowledge we all possess, in great part due to the arrival of the internet, and the need to feel hope as we move through these uncertain times. No one wants to be told that they will DIE if they don't buy this or that product; no one wants to believe that the earth will fall and life will be over if they do not listen to the salesperson, the same one who is trying to earn a commission or a nice yearly bonus. We also want to be happy with ourselves and feel like we are helping others. For example, back to Special K: once they saw that Dove's sales were skyrocketing after using real women with all their bumps and bruises, rather than air-brushed models for their ad campaigns, they changed their focus and now concentrate on the nutritional value of their cereal rather than potentially unrealistic weight goals. 

Trending to a warmer Message

The trend now is towards warmer messaging, ads that are more upbeat and hopeful. Many companies now tie in their products with a cause in which they believe so that rather than telling you about your own demise, your purchase can help someone else avoid theirs as well and also live a better life. That said, I saw an ad on TV just yesterday where the "grieving" couple tut-tutted over their friend, who was left penniless because her husband had not bought life insurance.

Fear & Finance

I tell you all of this because fear comes into play in our industry, especially with high inflation and a market that is growling like a very angry bear. There are many companies out there that will try to play on the fears you may have personally, regarding your own retirement, future health needs, debt repayment, etc. We are not one of them. At Pacific Financial Advisors, our professionals will be honest (we will not tell you to go tiptoeing through the tulips and singing joyously about investments that may be falling), but we will provide you with both options and hope, leading to optimism, rather than a looming sense of doom. Perhaps it is best to change some of your investments, given the current state of the market (remember those buffered ETFs?), or maybe this is not the time to buy that new home. Conditions may be perfect, however, for you to start creating that estate plan you have been talking about, and while one stock may be trending downward, another may be on its way up. As we say, that glass is always at least half full and even in a downward trending market, there are ways to make money and certainly ways to keep from losing it.  

We can help

If you are concerned or fearful, please don't be. Give us a call (or send us an email) and allow us to strategize with you so you really can go dancing through that field of flowers, or at least breathe easily in whichever pants you choose to wear, 

Enjoy the long weekend and may your Memorial Day be a meaningful one.

Warmly,

Kimberly Wolf and Your Team at Pacific Financial Advisors