FOMO is out, FOSQ is in: What is the ‘Fear of the Status Quo’?

No doubt you are familiar with FOMO: Fear of Missing Out. Along with discounting, it is probably one of the most used marketing techniques. Overused, you could say. Which is why I want to talk about another approach you should consider: Fear of the Status Quo (FOSQ).

Fear of Missing Out

Before we get to Fear of the Status Quo, let’s recap FOMO and why it works.

FOMO techniques can include:

• Limiting the supply of something, for example, free shipping for the first 100 customers only or a limit of five items per customer.
• Limiting time by using a deadline to drive urgency to act.
• Limiting access to certain types of customers, such as creating exclusive VIP offers that not everyone can enjoy, and
• Limiting opportunity. These are “use it or lose it” offers that disappear if you don’t act right there and then. The offer is so rare that the customer will never see it again. 

FOMO works because of our deep-seated aversion to loss. It psychologically pains us to lose something we could or should have.

But FOMO is a victim of its own success. Customers become jaded with “special deals” that are so special they appear every month! And if it’s not you using FOMO in your promo, it’s your competitors. 

Well, if you’ve hit the FOMO wall in your business, it’s time to reach deeper into your toolbag.

Fear of the Status Quo

A more sophisticated and subtle form of convincing your customer to act is creating a Fear of the Status Quo (FOSQ).

When you look at the ‘service due’ light on your car dash, that’s what I’m talking about. It’s a strategy employed by car manufacturers to get us to take our cars in for a service at regular intervals. Left to our own devices, we may not act until something goes badly wrong, which can mean more expensive and extensive repairs. Of course, it’s better for the car manufacturer, too, and that’s really why it’s there. They make more money over the life of a car if they get their customers to come into the service centre.

FOSQ works by pointing to the downside of leaving things as they are.

• In the building industry, for example, FOSQ means talking to customers about the pain of having to pay rent and be at the mercy of landlords.
• In software, it’s the frustration of slow processing times or clumsy interfaces.
• In finance, the wasted fees or poor service.

One of my favourite examples is from pillow manufacturer Tontine. They were grappling with a product obsolescence issue. In this case, their pillows were seen as a one-time buy. People would buy a pillow and keep it for life. To encourage repeat purchases, they started stamping their pillows with a “use by” date, suggesting that “This is a Tontine fresh pillow. With normal use we suggest changing it by (month and year)”.  Now every time people removed the pillow cover for washing, they were reminded that the pillow itself needs to be replaced.

FOSQ works because getting customers to proceed isn’t simply moving them towards something, it’s moving them away from something else. 

Talking about how great your product is only does part of the job. You also have to make them feel uncomfortable about sticking with what they have.

Bri Williams is a behavioural science expert.

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