Your Marketing Stopped Working Because You're Scaring People Into Buying Shaet They Regret

(And Why Emotional Intelligence Isn't Just for Therapy Anymore)

Wake up: Your marketing is manipulation dressed up in a business suit, and people are tired of it.

I sat down with Kevin Perlmutter—chief strategist at Limbic Brand Evolution and the guy who literally wrote the book on Brand Desire—and he dropped some truth bombs that are going to make your CMO uncomfortable. Good.

The Problem: We've Been Doing This All Wrong

Here's the deal. For the last two decades, we've been fear-mongering our way to revenue. FOMO this. Scarcity that. "Act now or the sky falls and your competitors eat your lunch while laughing at your quarterly reports."

And it worked! For a while.

But then 2024 happened. The economy went sideways. Your customers got stressed, overwhelmed, and frankly, sick of being manipulated. And suddenly, all those "proven tactics" you learned from that growth hacking course stopped converting.

Weird how that happens when people realize they've been emotionally manipulated into buyer's remorse, right?

What Kevin Revealed: People Don't Want Your Fear—They Want Your Hope

Kevin's been doing behavioral science research (the real kind, not the "I read three articles" kind), and here's what he found: People are motivated by positive future states WAY more than they're motivated by fear.

I know. Mind. Blown.

But wait—doesn't every marketing 101 course teach us that humans are wired for negativity bias? That we respond to threats?

Yes. But here's the kicker: When you're already stressed, anxious, and drowning in uncertainty, more fear doesn't motivate you. It shuts you down.

Think about your own inbox right now. How many subject lines are screaming at you about what you're going to lose? How many feel like someone trying to guilt you into action?

Now ask yourself: When was the last time you felt GOOD about buying something that scared you into it?

The Shift That Actually Matters: From "What We Want to Tell You" to "How You Want to Feel"

This is where most brands—especially in health tech and medtech—completely faceplant.

You've got this amazing technology. Revolutionary platform. Game-changing solution. And you're so excited about YOUR features that you forget the most important thing:

Your customers don't care about your motivations. They care about theirs.

Kevin broke it down beautifully. Most brand leaders have zero idea what their customers actually care about or what drives them to be loyal. Without that information, you're just shouting into the void hoping someone needs exactly what you're selling at exactly this moment.

Spoiler alert: That's not a strategy. That's a prayer.

The "Always On" Example That'll Change How You Think About Differentiation

Let's talk about IT firms for a second. (Stay with me, I promise this gets good.)

Kevin worked with a managed service IT company in New Jersey. They have 25 competitors doing the exact same thing. How do you differentiate when everyone can fix email and install hardware?

Here's the genius part: You don't differentiate on WHAT you do. You differentiate on the shared emotional motivation between you and your customers.

For this IT firm, it was "always on."

• For the brand: We're always monitoring your systems AND we're always energetic, vibrant people who give a damn about serving you.

• For the customer: My business will never go down because of IT issues. I can always focus on what matters.

That overlap? That's where the magic happens. That's where relationships get built that your competitors can't touch.

Why Your Law Firm, Med Device Company, or SaaS Platform Is Actually the Same

"But Karl," you're thinking, "we're different. We're in a unique vertical. Our buyers are sophisticated."

Cool. So is every law firm. Every one of them has lawyers who understand the law (shocker). When someone's looking for legal representation and they don't know the nuances, which firm do they choose?

The one that makes them feel like someone's got their back.

Same with your health tech solution. Same with your med device. Same with your B2B SaaS platform that does [generic thing that 47 other platforms also do].

The differentiation isn't in your features. It's in the relationship quality. The attention to detail. The style of communication. The fact that people feel like you have their back and will always be there when they need you.

The Authenticity Trap Nobody Talks About

Here's where brands really screw up: They chase "white space" positioning. They find something no competitor is talking about and plant their flag there.

Great! Except when that position is aspirational bullshaet you can't actually deliver.

Kevin nailed this: "The aspirational idea doesn't get you very far if you can't deliver it and you disappoint people when they show up."

Want to know the secret to authentic positioning? Talk to your current customers. Find out why they keep coming back. What value do THEY say you're delivering?

Then—and here's the revolutionary part—tell other people about those things you're already good at.

I know. Shocking. Communicate what you actually deliver well instead of making up some aspirational nonsense in a conference room and praying your ops team can figure out how to make it real.

What This Means for Your Q1 Strategy (Since You're Probably Planning It Right Now)

If you're a leader at a scaling health tech, medtech, or SaaS company trying to grow in this absolute dumpster fire of a market, here's your new playbook:

1. Stop fear-mongering. Seriously. That scarcity timer on your website? It's making people associate your brand with stress, not solutions.

2. Understand how your customers want to feel. Not what they want to buy. Not what features they need. What emotional state are they trying to reach?

3. Find the shared emotional motivation. What do both you AND your customers care about achieving? That overlap is your positioning gold.

4. Be authentically you. Talk to your best customers. Find out what you're actually great at. Then build your messaging around that—not around what you wish you were great at.

5. Paint the positive future. Show people the transformation. The better state. The "always on" version of their business. Make them credit YOU with getting them there.

The Bottom Line for Relationship-Driven Revenue Growth

Building high-retention client relationships in competitive markets isn't about having the best features. It's not about being the cheapest or the most innovative or having the slickest deck.

It's about understanding that every business relationship is human to human (yes, even in B2B health tech where you're selling to procurement teams and clinical directors).

When you shift from emotional manipulation to emotional connection, something miraculous happens: People don't just buy from you. They stay. They advocate. They become the kind of customers who make your LTV:CAC ratio look like art.

And in a market where customer acquisition costs are through the roof and everyone's fighting for the same limited pool of buyers, retention isn't just strategy—it's survival.

Watch the Full Episode (I Promise It's Worth Your Time)

Kevin dropped way more gold than I could fit in this post. We talked about behavioral science in business relationships, the neuroscience behind brand loyalty, and why most brand strategy is rooted in what companies want to say instead of addressing how people want to feel.

If you're tired of watching your marketing ROI tank while your competitors figure out this human connection thing, [watch the full episode here].

Trust me—it beats another webinar about AI-powered this or that.

P.S. If you read this whole thing and thought "wow, this guy really dragged my entire marketing strategy," good. That discomfort you're feeling? That's growth knocking. And if you're a founder or exec at a scaling health tech or medtech company who's ready to stop playing the fear game and start building unshakeable business relationships, you know where to find me. Let's talk about transforming your company culture through authentic client connections—not another "pivot to video" strategy that'll be obsolete by Q3.

Also, Kevin's book is called Brand Desire. Buy it. Read it. Then actually implement something from it instead of letting it collect dust on your shelf next to The Lean Startup that you definitely totally read all the way through.

Karl Pontau hosts The Human Connection Podcast, where we talk about the stuff that actually matters in business: the humans running it. Because whether you're B2B or B2C, it's really H2H, human to human. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode where we probably say something that'll make your HR department uncomfortable.