It is June, the month that officially kicks off summer. Where I live, that means hot, humid weather that gives birth to thunderstorms. Thunderstorms beget heavy rain showers, which pool into mud puddles, which are the perfect breeding grounds for mosquitos.

Mosquitos are not large insects. They are rather slightly built. It doesn’t take much to crush them. They are rather slow in flight. They do not sting you in a rage if you stir up their nest. They are not protected by a hard shell exterior like other insects. But they are to be feared. This year in particular, there is reason to be concerned about the tiny mosquito. It has recently made the cover of Time magazine because certain types of mosquitos are capable of carrying the Zika virus. There is no known cure for Zika, which attacks the nervous system in the brain and is known to cause deadly birth defects. The fear of Zika-carrying mosquitos has people canceling their travel plans for the summer, including those heading to Brazil for the Rio Summer Olympics. Brazil had expected just under 1 million people to come to the Rio Olympics. The mosquito has threatened all of that because Brazil has had over 1,000 cases of microcephaly, a Zika-related birth defect which causes babies to be born with unusually small heads. Government health officials have no idea how to stop the spread of Zika. The best they have been able to do is to advise people to wear long sleeves and pants, put on insect repellent, and stay inside this summer - all because of the tiny mosquito.

How can something as small as a mosquito have such a great impact on so many people? There are two answers. One is the impact of instant communications on all of us. We hear about the spread of diseases through trending news as soon as it is posted. The second is the emotion of fear. I am told by people who have studied people’s emotions that great fear actually causes your brain to lock down all other thinking until you deal with the source of the fear. My good friend, Dr. Scott Livingston, tells a story of a person encountering a tiger in the wild. As the big cat snarls at him, he doesn’t take time to examine its stripes and marvel at its beauty. Fear causes your thinking mind to shut down in those moments and run for your life! Our brains are put together like this for good reason. When we encounter danger, we are built to fight it off or to flee from it. That is what is happening with mosquitos and the Zika virus in Brazil right now.

Now follow my twisted logic here. Marketing is very much like this summer’s news about the mosquito. It only works when it is communicated well. When you have done your job, your marketing will make people aware of what you are selling. They will recognize your brand and associate it specifically with your products or services. Marketing also works best when it is making an emotional connection with people. This is where we make a transition from awareness to selling the product. We advertise special pricing with a quickly approaching deadline to get a deal. What are we doing? We are playing on the fears of people. Buy it before the deadline and feel good about your price. Wait too long and you will lose out on the deal. More people part with money with this simple marketing device. It may not be fight or flight fear, but it still plays along the same psychology: I want to be happy and I won’t be happy if I pay too much for this item, so I must buy it before the deadline comes and the price goes back up. Here is another fear tactic used to gain more from the sale: extend the warranty on your purchase because you would not want to be caught with a breakdown at the point you needed this item the most, would you?

Fear is a powerful emotion. It will make people buy more than they intended. It will cause them to buy before they had intended. And it will keep them out of Rio this summer.

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Photo by J.J. Harrison