Using Fear In PR Campaigns Can Be Effective - Or It Can Backfire
To use a PR campaign to change peoples behavior requires a magic mixture of motivational messages. Right? Well, its not magic, exactly.
Research shows that whats needed to change behavior is a message that makes people see the downside of their current behavior, balanced by an equal or greater measure of hope that they can change.
If you use hardcore fear-based messages, you may succeed in scaring people; but you also have to give them an equal or greater degree of hope that they can avoid the threat by taking the actions that you prescribe in your campaign. Fear can either motivate or inhibit productive action, depending on the type of message given to audience members of a campaign.
For example: You might show what an obese persons heart looks like with graphic images of layers of fat tissue and congested arteries. But then you must give a solution that is within reach. If your solution is to eat salads and jog three miles a day and watch the fat melt away, youve lost. In fact, you may do more harm than good. A person, rather than accepting the message, will begin to rationalize: Im not as fat as so-and-so; some people are just big-boned, etc. In this case the threat is clear enough, but the counterbalancing message of hope is ineffective because it doesnt seem attainable. The "magic" formula for a social marketing PR Campaign:
- People must perceive a severe threat with alarming consequences. A minor threat is easily dismissed.
- People must believe they are personally susceptible to the threat. If they believe the threat to be remote or that they are somehow immune or inoculated from the threat, they will dismiss the message.
- People must have realistic hope that they, personally, can avoid the threat by making changes indicated in the PR campaign, with an attainable action step. The changes must seem realistic and attainable, backed up by examples of other people like them who have succeeded.
TIP: If you use a fear-based message, make sure people see the threat as severe, and one that they personally are susceptible to. Then counterbalance the fear with a hopeful, motivational, attainable action step. The outcome will be an audience that embraces the message and channels their fear into the action you want them to take.
Steve Cebalt of Bottom Line Public Relations is Founder of the Social Marketing Leadership Roundtable in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He specializes in marketing, advertising and public relations issues of interest to nonprofit communications professionals. http://www.bottomlinepr.com
http://www.nonprofitPRforum.blogspot.com
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