The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO)

Dr. Dan Herman

A new basic motivation is leading today’s consumer: the ambition to exhaust as many possibilities as he/she can and the fear to miss out on something. I have been researching The Fear of Missing Out (FoMO) as a socio-cultural phenomenon, as a motivation and as a personality factor for the past four years. I have studied it’s implications for marketers and have come to believe that this motivation might be one of the main causes of the brand crisis described above.

As a motivation, the FoMO has five major manifestations discernible in most of us in varying degrees:

We strive to make the best use we can of our limited time while ‘having it all’.

While in past decades we usually accepted that there is a trade-off between pursuing a career and devoting oneself to family life and that one has to make a choice, nowadays many try to achieve both plus Social activities, hobbies, fitness training and more. This leads to a rather hectic schedule and raises the need for more efficient time management.

Advertising agency Publicis researchers spotted a new consumption phenomenon of the 1990’s: unification of contrasts or the era of ‘this and that too’. Consumers want uncompromising combinations of gourmet taste and low calorie content, they want beauty and comfort, low price and high quality. They are willing to accept combinations of science and nature, conventional and holistic medicine.

Analogously, we see a wave of ‘2/3/4…in 1’ products: shampoo and conditioner, tooth paste and mouth wash. Fusion in the kitchen, design, music and lifestyle – has become fashionable.

We have learned to do several things simultaneously. We are ‘Multitaskers’ as James Gleick describes it: "These days it is possible to drive, eat, listen to a book, and talk on the phone, all at once, if you dare. No segment of time – not a day, not a second – can really be a zero-sum game". We often ‘Zap’ between television channels to view at least two programs in parallel.

Many people have more than one career during their working years and certainly work in several organizations. Consequently, there is a preoccupation in both literature and media dealing with ‘second career’ and there is a multitude of routes available for retraining. Even ‘IDF 2000’, the multi-annual planning of the Israeli army up to 2010, heralds the transfer from long-term and safe careers of professional army personnel to short and worthwhile careers that can compete with civilian positions. During the last decade or so, gold watches received by veterans of two, three or four decades of loyal employment in one company have become a term of derision.

Many live in more than one family unit during their lifetime and surely have more than one meaningful intimate relationship.

We witness an ever-growing population of singles experiencing difficulty to commit to one partner ‘forsaking all others’.

We aspire to be as multifarious as possible.

People who have a wide range of interests and occupations, who make changes in their appearance, whose clothing style vary and who exhibit openness to explore new concepts, designs and cuisines, are considered more ‘interesting’. They tend to serve as models for imitation. It is especially ‘Bon Ton’ to encompass elements seen as contradictory in the past. Combinations such as computers, painting, the stock market and yoga.

We legitimize and socially reward, a wide, even contradictory, repertoire of behaviors and the ability to change and adapt (‘flexibility’). For example: Many people take pride in the ability to be tough and bossy at work, sensitive and affectionate with their close family, macho with their friends in the pub and sophisticated while entertaining business associates visiting from abroad. It may be worthwhile remembering that in the not so distant past it was desirable to have ‘a character’, consistent and persistent.

During past decades several theoretical and research approaches were developed to segment and describe consumer groups according to values, attitudes, and lifestyle characteristics (‘psychographic’ descriptions). During the last few years professionals claim that these segmentations are no longer valid since many consumers of our times ‘belong’ to different classifications on different days of the week and even during different hours of the day.

We try to be as up to date as possible.

We attempt to keep abreast with news, new concepts, new fashions, new gadgets, technological novelties, etc.

We often value trying out new restaurants and travel destinations over having ‘our usual place’ or returning year after year to our favorite summer resort (this, of course, is a sharp departure from past preferences). The phenomenon of ‘been there, done that’ has an enormous impact on brand loyalty.