It must have been the first time that I heard about the "Clubhouse" application was through a post from a friend on Facebook, saying that he had subscribed to the application and asking his friends to add it. At first I ignored the matter because it was not important to you, and then appeared to you a post from Another friend tells you that he signed up for the Clubhouse.
She leaves Facebook to go to Twitter, to find the same tweets: people join the Clubhouse, others are requesting to join, and others talk about their interesting conversations on the app.
The word "Clubhouse" is surrounding you everywhere, everyone seems to be going to this application that you do not know anything about at all. It begins to control your thinking, especially after you see your close friends register in this application, and offer to register them in some way. From pride, while you do not understand anything in the first place, but it seems that there is something, or some opportunity that you miss out on yourself by not joining this new thing that you do not know how important it is to you yet.
You rush to register in this application, and you are surprised that the application requires an "invitation" to register in it, and your insanity increases and you feel that the matter is so important that it needs invitations, so you go out like an enchanted person looking for an invitation with one of your mutual friends in order to join a space about which you do not know everything except It is an arena for voice chat.
But all this does not matter, the important thing is to register now first and then search for knowledge after that, so you cannot allow yourself to miss the opportunity that everyone is seeking.
Did all or some of this happen to you?
Well, welcome to the world of "FOMO".
(1)
FOMO stands for "Fear of missing out", meaning the fear of missing out or the fear of missing out.
Although it is an old and well-known psychological phenomenon, the term has spread widely beginning in 2004 by investor in the stock sector Patrick McGuinness, who wrote an article published in a magazine affiliated with the Harvard Business School in which he talks about this phenomenon, and defined it as "feeling anxious about the possibility of missing an opportunity." What everyone seems to be competing with, and the fear of remorse for missing it without even studying its importance and sufficiently delving into its details.
FOMO happens around you all the time.
You are sitting in your home, and you receive a message from one of your friends that they will meet today to have fun, so you feel hidden anxiety that you are missing a good opportunity for entertainment, you walk in a mall and find everyone rushing to buy a specific product that has big discounts, so you rush with them to buy the same product that you do not need To him, is nothing but to avoid the feeling that you have missed something important that others are pursuing.
In the world of finance and investment, the FOMO phenomenon is a frequent guest.
The most famous example is what happens after some rush to buy certain shares in the market, which motivates others to rush to buy the same shares without adequate study, and likewise the opposite may happen as well, as everyone rushes to sell a certain stock, pushing hordes behind them to rush and sell the stock as well.
As a result, the idea of feeling afraid to miss an opportunity is much more present in the business world than in other worlds.
(2, 3)
Anita Sanz, a psychologist who specializes in psychology, shed light on this phenomenon from a psychological point of view, through a question directed to her on the "Cora" site to share questions and answers.
Sans says that the fear of missing out on opportunity is an ancient phenomenon as long as the formation of human societies, where the main guarantor of the survival of individuals and primitive societies depends on constantly examining the surrounding variables, to identify the imminent dangers and track the sources of food and water, and ignoring such information represents a real difference between life and death.
In other words, missing out on the opportunity to obtain new information was considered a threat to survival.
With the passage of time, and human settlement in agricultural societies, the transmission and circulation of information began to expand.
Sanz believes that the phenomenon of "fear of missing out on the opportunity" has gradually evolved throughout history to be mixed with human concepts such as group identity, where it was difficult for an individual to feel reassured if he left the ranks of his tribe during the journey, and it was difficult for the individual to deviate from the customs and traditions of his tribe under Any justification, considering that his stay with the group is the guarantor of his safety and his survival away from dangers.
With the advent of technical civilization, the change in the means of information transmission and the emergence of media such as television, newspapers, the Internet and social media, the circulation of information has become wrapped in a purely marketing framework whose purpose is to notify the recipient that he "will miss something" that those around him seek if the link does not open, or if he misses buying a product Or a specific service, or if the season of the big sales was not used.
Companies and marketers have played efficiently on the FOMO instinct that has been ingrained in the human psyche for ages, and have made it a point to make people aware that they will be in danger, lose, miss out on real gains, or fall behind their peers if they do not do a certain thing.
This feeling is undoubtedly one of the biggest motivators that make the individual respond to the propaganda surrounding him, pushing under the influence of FOMO, without spending much time in thinking and analyzing.
(4)
The numbers clearly reveal that FOMO feel is a major driver behind many people's decisions, especially when it comes to purchasing.
According to statistics, about 65% of people fear that the opportunity will be missed in many situations. This percentage rises to 70% among the millennial generation, meaning that 7 out of 10 people born in the eighties and early nineties have a feeling of FOMO.
Statistics also tell us that the feeling of fear of missing out on opportunities was the main reason why 60% of people buy a specific product or service within 24 hours of seeing it, and 56% of people said that they are afraid of missing an opportunity, event, or important news if not. They constantly enter social networks.
On the spending level, 41% of people confirmed that they said "yes" to a specific product, service, or offer only because they feared that it could be missed and not repeated again, while only 33% of them said that they take into account the feeling of FOMO before making a decision to purchase a product. What.
(5, 6)
Of course, marketing strategists could not have missed a golden opportunity such as the FOMO phenomenon inherent in the behavior of consumers in various markets.
It is not possible to miss an underlying feeling like this that pushes people to buy without spending enough time thinking, and without the need to make an effort in convincing them of the quality of a specific product or service or the extent of their need for it in the first place, only focusing on the correct mechanisms to activate the inherent FOMO in the target customer will Speeds up the completion of the purchase process.
We can say - and we will not be exaggerating in that - that any marketer in any field in any market pursues some of these marketing tactics in order to stimulate the feeling of fear of losing opportunity among consumers, and to motivate them more to make a purchase decision.
First: Show that the product / service is very popular:
When you offer a specific service or product for sale, and put next to it evidence that customers are willing to buy it, this motivates more of them to buy in turn.
For this reason, one of the most popular tactics to accelerate selling through online stores is to place the best-selling products in visible places on the main pages of the stores, and next to them are the number of times purchased or the number of downloads, as this strategy is considered a strong social proof that pushes more customers to attention. Purchase the product under the influence of fear of missing out on a good opportunity.
Second: buy before stock runs out:
One of the most important marketing elements that activate the feeling of fear of missing the opportunity among buyers is the indication that the product or service offered to them is few or rare, and that there is no always available stock, which will stimulate an increase in customer demand.
Therefore, almost all digital stores put a clear indication in the product description of the number of remaining pieces available for purchase - and the number is usually limited of course -, which motivates the consumer to speed up the decision to obtain them before they run out of stock.
Third: Time is not on your side:
This strategy is similar to what we mentioned in the previous element, but it depends heavily on time, as the customer is told that he must buy quickly because time is not in his favor, and that the offer available to him will expire within hours or days.
Therefore, we see that some electronic stores place a countdown bar next to the products or services desired to activate their sales, to motivate the potential customer to speed up the purchase without being consumed too long in thinking or studying his need for the product or not.
Fourth: Use exclusive offers:
Exclusivity is one of the most popular marketing tactics that relies on the fear of missing out on the opportunity, because it always plays on several strings at the same time, including the customer notifying that he is targeted by his special offer, and nurturing a feeling that by obtaining the offer he has seized an opportunity that others always seek, Not to mention reinforcing the feeling that the offer is temporary and will run out of time or out of stock.
Therefore, coordinating exclusive offers in a highly professional advertising language, and in a striking way for the target customer, is one of the most popular marketing methods that drive buying decisions for large segments of customers.
Fifth: Make a limited offer for free shipping:
A 2016 study indicates that 90% (nine out of ten) of customers who purchase said that free shipping was one of the main factors that drove them to make a fast purchase decision.
The reason for this is that the customer is usually not comfortable with paying the shipping expenses - especially if it is expensive - because in any case, he does not benefit from it directly, and his focus is all on the quality of the product he buys.
Therefore, the free shipping offers very help in increasing customers' motivation to buy, provided that they are linked to conditions that encourage quick purchase, such as a specific period of time included in the offer, or when purchases exceed a specific number.
This marketing strategy is considered one of the most successful ways to play on raising customers' fear of missing out on the opportunity to get free shipping if they refrain from purchasing at the moment, especially if the product they want to buy is too expensive.
(7, 8, 9, 10)
Finally, when everyone around you rushes to buy a certain thing, sign up for a specific application, or use a specific service, it will most likely reinforce your feeling that something is missing you, and it will push you to go with them where they went.
It takes a great deal of resistance to overcome this, so the “Fear of Missing Out” effect (FOMO) is the basic psychological phenomenon on which most current marketing strategies are built in order to induce a potential customer to speed up the purchase without spending too much time atoning if He needed to make that decision at all.
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Sources
How Clubhouse Used FOMO To Become the Hottest New Social Network
Here's what's really going on in your brain when you experience 'FOMO' - the fear of missing out
Fear of missing out
What is the psychology behind FOMO?
Why is it so powerful?
25+ Powerful FOMO Statistics to Skyrocket Sales (2021)
FOMO Statistics You Need to Grow Your Business
16 Clever FOMO Marketing Examples To Boost Your Sales
20 Typical FOMO Examples Every Marketer Need To Know
FOMO Marketing: How to Use Fear of Missing Out to Drive More Sales
Retail study: 9 out of 10 consumers say free shipping No.
1 incentive to shop online more