Using fear to sell financial products is simply desperation. Selling hope is the future

Using fear to sell products is a powerful strategy. Unsurprisingly, many financial firms have come to rely on fear to fatten their bottom lines. But in 2017, there’s only one word to describe fear-based marketing: desperate.

Firms selling pensions, investments, and financial products aimed at the over-50s, such as funeral plans, have traditionally been the worst offenders. The insurance industry also knows a thing or two about using fear to sell. After all, with the exception of a mandated product like car insurance, the raw motivation for buying insurance products is largely fear. None of us plan to drop our iPhones, and yet we buy gadget insurance, just in case. But even the masters of fear-based selling are dialling it down a notch.

What many of the old guard have started to realise is that there’s a pretty seismic shift in the way many new financial firms are engaging with their customers.