Loss Aversion Principle

You’re familiar with loss aversion marketing tactics whether you realize it or not. They’re everywhere.

'Only 3 left in stock! Order now!'

'Available while supplies last.'

'Flash Sale! Today Only!'

'Don’t miss out on this awesome deal!'

We are invited, pressured and cajoled to purchase using the fear of loss every single day. These hard-sell pressure tactics create what marketers call 'urgency.'

And, while these urgency tactics may sometimes be obnoxious, they work. Urgency plays directly to our desire to avoid loss. Your marketing efforts should take these fear of loss tactics into account when planning their overall strategy.

People work hard to get what they have. And once we’ve got something, we hate to let it go. This is true whether the thing we have is actually ours or if we just think of it as ours.

At the end of the day, despite our best intentions, all people really do subconsciously think that they are the center of the universe. And, why not? We spend our entire lives seeing the world through the lens of our own experience. We are the centers of our own little universes.

What that means is that when we see things happen to other people, we subconsciously imagine that happening to ourselves as well. So, if we see someone holding an item we think looks cool, we imagine ourselves in that role, too. Couple this feeling of ownership with the fear of loss and it creates a powerful hook into our brains.