FEAR
Merchants have started to utilize fear to promote as early as the 1920s. As people were afraid of halitosis and its negative impact on relationships, Listerine made a massive success in selling its mouth wash by using people's fear.
Nowadays, we can still see a lot of campaigns using people's fear:
People are afraid of aging and being less beautiful, so here come skin-care products that are anti-aging, anti-wrinkle, and can tighten your skin.
Athletics are afraid of getting injured when doing sports, so merchants bring out athletic shoes that focus on their comfort and protection.
LOSS AVERSION
People always weigh loss more than the same amount of gain. That is, people are born to hate loss. Merchants, especially those on e-commerce, widely utilize this instinct to design their selling tactics.
For example, I want to buy this Bluetooth Speakers from Amazon. But I need to spend $4 more to qualify for Free Shipping. In this case, I will regard the shipping fee as a loss because I will not get a concrete product by paying for that. So, I would rather spend more to qualify for Free Shipping. But when I decide to spend more, the money spent is not that easy to control. It may end up costing me more than the shipping fee.
By grabbing people's hate on loss, Amazon actually helps sellers to sell more of their products.
ENDOWMENT EFFECT
People tend to assign more value to an object when they own it than how they will value the same item if it belongs to others.
IKEA is the company that thoroughly utilizes this effect because it enables customers to assemble their own furniture, which builds a stronger connection between customers and the products.
As you can see, the upper part of the picture is the bed I bought from Ikea. It took me a whole afternoon to finish it. But I got a feeling of achievement after turning components into a bed. The process of creating it strengthens my sense of ownership because I put a lot of effort into it. Therefore, as you can see from the lower part of the picture, I later bought the desk, the chair, and the lamp from IKEA.
IKEA absolutely grabs me by building a strong connection between me and their products.
FOMO (FEAR OF MISSING OUT)
FOMO also utilizes people's fear but from a different perspective. It usually creates limited-time or limited-place offers to arouse people's fear of missing out. As people regard miss of such an opportunity as a loss, and people innately hate loss, FOMO is always influential in persuading consumers to buy products.
For example, in this Black Friday campaign of Converse, the discount is mentioned at first. Then below that, the advertisement shows the limited time offers.
In fact, more than Converse, the idea of Black Friday itself is the use of FOMO. Merchants provide discounts in a very short period, which creates an urgent feeling. Consumers are afraid of missing out on such an opportunity. So, they always buy many things even though they don't really need them.