The secret to obsession isn’t rewards.
Every founder wants loyal customers. So they roll out points, perks, and punch cards. Buy nine, get the tenth free. Collect stars. Unlock tiers. Purchase, Reward. Purchase, Reward.
The reality is, points don’t make people loyal. Belonging does.
And nothing manufactures belonging faster than FOMO.
FOMO is branding’s most under-leveraged currency. It’s the spark that turns products into cultural moments, customers into evangelists, and transactions into identity.
FOMO is the real engine of desire. It’s what makes people camp on sidewalks, crash websites, and post screenshots just to prove they were there.
People don’t want another perk. They want to feel like they’re part of something bigger, and when they do, they’ll pay more, wait longer, and shout louder to avoid being left out.
Loyalty vs. FOMO
Loyalty programs reward behaviour. FOMO changes behaviour.
Points get you a free coffee. FOMO makes you line up for one.
Perks make customers feel recognised. FOMO makes them feel seen.
And yet, brand marketers cling to loyalty mechanics because they’re safe and easy to measure. You can calculate points redeemed. You can forecast breakage. You can show the board a neat dashboard of customer “stickiness.”
But stickiness isn’t obsession. And this kind of stickiness caps out fast; it keeps customers around, but it rarely makes them care.
What founders forget is this: no one posts about the points they earned. They post about the thing they almost didn’t get into, the drop that sold out in minutes, the show they had to be seen at.
FOMO is the status signal that points can’t buy.
FOMO is the social signal that says: if you’re not part of this, you’re missing out. And in today’s culture, missing out is worse than overpaying.
People don’t queue around the block for loyalty points. They queue because they don’t want to be the one person who didn’t experience it. That’s the power of FOMO. It’s not about product. It’s about belonging. And if your brand isn’t creating it, you’re already invisible.
The Psychology of Missing Out
Humans are wired to want in. We’re tribal creatures. We look sideways before we look inward. If everyone’s drinking the same drink, wearing the same sneakers, or talking about the same drop, we want in, not because of logic, but because missing out feels like social suicide.
We’d rather overpay than be excluded. We’d rather squeeze into the room than stand outside. We’d rather screenshot our confirmation email than admit we missed the cut.
That’s why FOMO is such a potent brand lever. It plays less on rational reward and more on emotional urgency. It flips the script from “What do I get if I buy?” to “What do I lose if I don’t?”
And in a world where attention is scarce, loss carries more weight than gain.
Founders often underestimate this. They want to believe people are buying for rational reasons: better ingredients, stronger tech, smarter features. But buyers are humans first. Rational second.
When your brand taps into status and belonging, you don’t need to undercut on price. People will line up, pay more, and wait longer, because what they’re really buying is identity.
Why Founders Default to Loyalty
It’s harder to control. Harder to measure. It doesn’t fit neatly in a CRM.
Loyalty programs feel like discipline: predictable, incremental, scalable. But predictable rarely makes people obsessed.
FOMO feels like chaos, but chaos is where culture lives.
And if you’re still chasing customer “loyalty” through perks, you’re probably missing the bigger play. People don’t want to be rewarded for buying. They want to be recognised for belonging.
The founder’s job isn’t to hand out rewards. It’s to create moments people can’t stand to miss.
Continue reading on our Substack, Public Opinion.
