Can we use fear to sell PLM?

I grew up in the Soviet Union at the time when the planet was going through The Soviet-American Arms Race, As a child, I remember a lot of propaganda related to the nuclear arms race. These days a lot of information about what happened 40-60 years ago is available. One of the most interesting reads I found is about the largest nuclear device tested by USSR. You will find interesting the engineers that tested the device believed it will be ever used in real life. However, it was used a lot in marketing. And marketing was a significant part of the nuclear arms race. It used on both sides. Usage of fear in marketing is not an unusual thing?

Each time I see examples of usage of fear in marketing, it reminds me of those dark days where we been fearing for the future and our lives.

My attention was caught by two examples of fear usage in PLM marketing. I captured it below.

PLM will keep CEO out of jail

Disrupt or be disrupted

Manufacturing mistakes can cost lives. These two examples made me think if fear is the best way to convince the customer and promote the value proposition of PLM software? Should we use fear or keep talking about economics and ROI?

As a business, we must focus on the painkillers. Remember the stories about “pain killers vs vitamins” debates. As a business, you want to sell painkillers and not vitamins. Read more about it here. The question is how much fear you can spread about it in the marketing campaigns.

What is my conclusion? Marketing and product strategy is a tricky thing. To find a way to sell your product, to address a market need, to go through all stages of enterprise software sales – these are elements of PLM sales and marketing lifecycle. How to make it right? This is a great question. We have a new wave of PLM solutions these days – digital transformation, low-code PLM, digital-twins and many others. Marketing will be coming together with new trends and it is an interesting space to watch and learn. Just my thoughts…

Best, Oleg

Disclaimer: I’m co-founder and CEO of OpenBOM developing cloud-based bill of materials and inventory management tool for manufacturing companies, hardware startups, and supply chain. My opinion can be unintentionally biased.