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Comment by solatic | Hacker News Reader

FOMO is a great strategy when you are trying to sell to customers who will buy your product exactly once and then move on. Examples: collector's editions of video games, sales ahead of gift-giving holidays, tourist traps in "I am here for the one and only time I will ever be here in my life" destinations, enterprise sales to Fortune 500 companies where the buyer will get promoted by the next sales cycle. You emotionally manipulate the buyer to make the sale, the buyer regrets buying it within a day or two, and it doesn't matter because they will never talk to you again anyway.

FOMO is a horrible strategy when you expect to develop a long-term relationship with your customers. Self-respecting people won't stand for it. They will either switch to a competitor out of spite, or blow aside your transparent sales tactic and keep pressuring you downward on price during negotiations.

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As much as I'm sure many HN types would love for this to be true, it's not actually true, and it's important not to get carried away thinking "I prefer X" means "The world prefers X."

The vast majority of people are perfectly okay with FOMO as a sales tactic. This includes self-respecting, loyal, repeat customers of quality brands. Conversely, very few people are spiteful enough to go through the trouble of switching to a competitor purely out of disdain for FOMO being used as a sales tactic.

A couple examples:

- The New York Times has 10 million paying subscribers for online content. A tremendous number. Many of their sales pages feature countdown timers and phrases like "Time is running out" and "Offer won't last."

- Pretty much any clothing brand. For example, rare Nike shoe drops. People are willing to spend hundreds of dollars, wake up at ridiculous hours, and stand in line for hours, for FOMO-driven clothing sales. And far from driving people away from the brand, doing this increases people's loyalty to the brand, because FOMO works on social proof.

I’m not sure. There is certainly a group of people that is okay with it, but I’m not sure how big it is in percentages. Sometimes I suspect these strategies might make numbers go up in the short term but you end up in a spiral of less caring customers gives less meaningful connection gives less caring customers until your brand name is nonexistent. Like some big company who is finding some kind of average bland customers, but leave the door wide open for incumbents who provide better quality for a similar price.

There could be both.

I very much identify with the self respecting type your parent describes and try my best to 'punish' sellers who try silly FOMO tactics, by demoting them into oblivion in my books. However, I am still prone to some FOMO with proven, trusted brands.

Anecdote: Several years ago I happened to try out a certain brand of shoes and loved the quality and style and have ever since only bought that brand and have even introduced friends and family members to it. However, I still wait for their deals to show up before picking up a pair and am vulnerable to their "time running out" campaigns. I click "Buy", assured that at least I won't be stuck with a substandard product.

I like to think that if I ever build a product, I would focus on quality and attract the kind of customer I myself am and would never stoop to the lowly FOMO tactics, even for assured short term gains.

I need shoes. What’s the brand?

Isn't any seasonal sale FOMO-based, in that sense?

Yes.

Given that many seasonal sales are advertised with the exact phrase "Don't miss out", yes they are.

Salers playing on FOMO doesn't mean it works though.

You have the same situation with time limited sales on Amazon for instance. It should be rising your FOMO to the roof, but as a consumer you know there will be another sale in 2 month, or really it could be any day, and if you were to miss this sale on an item you wanted, you'd just wait for the next sale.

On the other side, Nike shoes actually disappear from the line up. There's models that were functionally different that I regret not stock-piling when they were still in production. And they were not marketed as exclusives or limited, they just got discontinued. It's not FOMO, it's actual time scarcity.

> It should be rising your FOMO to the roof, but as a consumer you know there will be another sale in 2 month, or really it could be any day, and if you were to miss this sale on an item you wanted, you'd just wait for the next sale.

Price trackers (apps and browser plugins) crowd source scrape prices and can show you the price history on a chart so you see the sales and how frequent they are and when they happen. Sometime soon I expect there may be a push to have laws that require price history transparency since if the price triples the old positive reviews may no longer apply and should not be showcased as if they do.

Yes. Price history is of course a nice to have.

Otherwise for anything that doesn't need reputability and/or are seen as near consumables, I think people just grab whatever's on sale and go on with their life. When there is no real differentiator from the start, it's hard to have FOMO about a specific item only available for a limited period.

> - The New York Times has 10 million paying subscribers for online content. A tremendous number. Many of their sales pages feature countdown timers and phrases like "Time is running out" and "Offer won't last."

I'm a NYT subscriber in spite of their sleazy sales and retention tactics, not because of them. The product is reputable and unique enough that they get away with sales tactics that would otherwise be a turn off.

> FOMO is a horrible strategy when you expect to develop a long-term relationship with your customers. Self-respecting people won't stand for it.

I’ve signed up for museum memberships because of a specific event that required it, or because I got a call reminding me of losing some benefit or announcing some made-up deadline for a matching contribution. I have long-term relationship with them. But I really don’t care enough to act without a nudge.

> will either switch to a competitor out of spite

This doesn’t sound like a personality that will remain with power or wealth for a long time. Controlled spite can be effective, reputationally. Random spite never is.

Counter point: game sales on steam. I'm their costumer for almost 20 years now, and fall for it all the time. But given how much entertainment I get from money spent, I remain a happy customer.

The trick is to make it look like an amazing opportunity, not something to fear about. The FOMO will be here, but hidden below enthusiasm, and the person will feel like they are actually lucky to have the opportunity.

> FOMO is a horrible strategy when you expect to develop a long-term relationship with your customers

Based on my experience with Kickstarters (especially board game Kickstarters), as long as you actually deliver the product that you said you're going to, there's no negative consequences to using FOMO.

I disagree. For instance, let’s say I’m an auto manufacturer and I need some parts made. If I don’t get those parts, I have to stall my assembly line and lose a lot of money. If I find someone who can supply the parts in a short time frame, then I will definitely fear missing out by declining the sellers offer. If I capitulate and the seller delivers reliably, then I am going to gladly return for their services because they can ensure my business stays running.

That’s a good example but I think you’re describing another market condition called a captive market, not FOMO. In FOMO, buyers have no real risk in not buying, it’s artifice and theatrics that drive a sale. Your example is a market in which mission critical assets are sold by few and those few control all aspects of the sale. In your scenario, you’re less a mark for a salesman and more of a hostage.

It’s not a captive market. It’s a market where the buyer has a need and if they don’t have that need met, then the buyer will suffer. That’s FOMO, and that’s when sales happen. If the buyer can sit on their laurels without any negative repercussions, then they’re not going to pull the trigger until their situation changes.

Being one of the last restaurants to close for the night isn't a FOMO sales strategy.

Being the one best suited to meet your customers needs is a sales strategy. That might include staying open late if you can convince people they’re going to regret not tasting your food after a night out of drinking.

You'll get bid, but not from the best suppliers. The goods will read "and if this works out, there will be more business for you in the future" as a red flag. If they're good, they'll be busy. They don't need to grovel for one-off work. Those who will bid on FOMO work are likely not as busy. Or are used to FOMO work (and not for good reasons).

Yes FOMO in your example can motivate. The problem is, not the types you want an LTR with.

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