An exploratory research : Fear and the need of security interplay as a business mechanism

Sammanfattning: Background: Humanity builds and writes its history. Overtime the need of feeling secure has been present originated from an emotion, a condition and reaction: the fear of threats or danger. The impact of human fear over the humanity behaviour leads for searching ways of reducing such fear. Consequently, security companies have a potential opportunity for fulfilling this human need reducing the phenomenon of fear. Some organisations and companies discovered that human fear can be used as tool for influencing the individual behaviour and for consumption purposes. Aim: Developing a research and discussing some of the issues that concerns today‟s societies and business organisations as well as the managerial consequences arising by exploring the global fear and necessity of security trends as a critical issue for the decades to come. Therefore, the purpose of this study explores the extent to which companies can use human fear that an individual perceives as a potential strategy within the security industry to increase and expand their market. Definitions: When companies use fear in advertising influence human behaviour known in marketing as fear appeal. In this research, mass media does not use fear as a conscious way to manipulate or persuade human behaviour. However, the usage of fear messages in mass media has an impact on human fear perception. Then, there is evidence of a positive relationship between marketing fear appeal and mass media spreading information of threats, violence and crime. Both create fear on humans‟ perception but marketing in a direct conscious way and mass media in an indirect unconscious way, what we have identified and called „unacquainted-indirect fear appeal‟. Results: The findings in this exploratory thesis show a functional relationship between the phenomenon of fear and the phenomenon of the need of security which are persistent variables overtime. Therefore, it is possible for security companies to take advantage of this trend and to develop a potential strategy to increase and expand their market while taking into account that fear appeal needs a very specific treatment and testing along this process due to the several results that can be achieved from such a strategy. The results can vary depending on the circumstances of the individual and the environment not always controllable by the companies within business in a constant changing world.