{"id":4453,"date":"2017-10-20T11:00:17","date_gmt":"2017-10-20T05:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=4453"},"modified":"2023-01-25T15:53:23","modified_gmt":"2023-01-25T10:23:23","slug":"loss-aversion-why-negative-messaging-works-in-marketing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2017\/10\/20\/loss-aversion-why-negative-messaging-works-in-marketing\/","title":{"rendered":"Loss Aversion: Why Negative Messaging Works In Marketing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“If it’s not Boeing, I’m not going”<\/strong><\/p>\n

– Tagline of Boeing ad.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

All through my career in sales and marketing, I\u2019ve been exhorted to write in positive style. The strong guidance applied to copy in ads, email marketing, datasheets, brochures, case studies and other forms of marketing collateral (hereinafter referred to as \u201ccontent\u201d).<\/p>\n

In my early days in software marketing, I worked for a company that developed a warehouse management software (\u201cWMS\u201d). By curbing theft from warehouses, WMS helped retailers and other industries to eliminate pilferage. Accordingly, the most natural way to position it was by emphasizing the \u201ccut loss\u201d message. However my boss at the time told me to convey the value proposition positively. Since I was a marketing greenhorn at the time, I went ahead and pitched it as \u201cgrow profits with WMS\u201d.<\/p>\n

But I was never comfortable with the contrived positive spin.<\/p>\n

Over the following years, I regularly came across negative content in business communications. For example:<\/p>\n

#1. GARTNER<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Gartner's @PeterSonderg<\/a> says if your org is not optimizing & creating new digital biz models you are falling behind #GartnerSYM<\/a><\/p>\n

— Gartner (@Gartner_inc) October 2, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n