Which is stronger – fear of loss or desire for gain?

From the desk of Roy Furr, Wednesday, 6:29 am

I popped over onto Michael Fortin’s CopywritersBoard this morning and saw a hot thread going in the forums there. The question from Steve aka. Ravedesigns was:

Hey guys,

So I’ve been wondering for a while which is the best approach to take when writing sales copy – talking mostly about what prospects gain from using your product or service – or about what they lose by not using it?

Personally I’ve never been a big fan of advertising that says in effect “all these bad things will happen to you if you don’t take advantage of what we have to offer” so I’m not crazy about writing stuff that’s mostly negative – but I’ve got to wonder if one approach works better than the other?

Have you come across any tests to indicate which is best, or do you know of any marketers/copywriters that say one works better than the other? Do you have any personal experiences using one or the other approach?

I’m curious to know your thoughts – thanks!

Steve

Here’s the answer I came up with — what do you think?

This reminds me of an interesting study I heard about that analyzed how people valued items — both when they didn’t “own” them yet, and after they did “own” them. (I use quotes because it’s hard to simulate ownership in a lab… regardless, keep reading.)

Participants were split into two groups. Each person in the first group was not given a coffee mug — they were just told to sit in a room. Each person in the second group was given a brand new coffee mug as a “thank you” for participating and also told to sit in a room.

Here’s what happened.

The First Group: For those who were NOT given a coffee mug, they were told to approach one of the researchers with the same style of new coffee mug, and try to buy it from the researcher. In order to buy it, they’d have to set a fair price. The group who did not yet own the coffee mug set an average value of $3 on the coffee mug as they tried to barter for it.

The Second Group: Those given a new coffee mug were approached by a researcher who wanted to buy their new coffee mug off of them. Asked to set a value for the mug, this group’s average value for the coffee mug was $20 — nearly 7 times what the first group valued the mug at.

Our lesson?

Something that is “owned” is valued much higher than something which can be gained. Which ties back into fear of loss and desire for gain because fear of loss applies to something which is already owned, desire for gain doesn’t. So from this research (and others cited above) fear of loss is the winner — no matter how we as copywriters feel about it.

Of course, testing is always in order. Because maybe you just write enough better copy around desire for gain vs. fear of loss that for you, desire for gain means more effective copy.

Bonus: How to apply this in your copy…

You want to put your customer in a psychological position of ownership right away. Then, they won’t want to lose the ownership role. Here are some ways to do that:

One idea is tell the story of what your prospect’s life will be like once they’ve accepted your offer. Make them imagine themselves in a situation where they’re already the happy owner of your product — then tear away that vision and tell them the only way they can get it back is to buy right now.

Another option is to pull John Carlton’s recommendation of “I have an account open for you here, and I’ve put $50 in it. The money’s yours as long as you use it on a purchase of…”

Third, get the product in their hands using Gary Halbert’s incredible offer of “Send me a check post-dated 30 days, and I’ll send you the product right away. Take those 30 days to decide whether the product is right for you. If you don’t send it back, I’ll assume you’re happy and I’ll cash the check once the 30 days are up. If I do get it back I’ll write VOID real big right across your check and mail it back to you. Either way, you have nothing to lose by ordering now.”

Those are just some ideas, you’re a creative bunch so I’m sure you can come up with your own as well.

I wrote it fast so it’s rough around the edges… but the idea is rock-solid. Try it in your business, and let me know what you think.

To your success,

Roy Furr

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