Using FEAR to SELL

Fear is an important emotion to sell products expecially those related to life, health, safety, reputation. An element of fear in any business proposition can also be a useful way to create urgency for people to buy. But first, some of the products that use fear to sell are insurance, anti virus software etc. Besides, the "real fear" there is also the fear of being 'left out". This platform is used for example by mobile phone and computer companies which may tell you to update your existing product or be considered "old", "unaware" , "not in the league" etc.
Then there is a fear of "not belonging" in a particular community. So you buy becauses of the "Joneses". Buying a car is an excellent example of why people buy one. They want to seek acceptance within their society, friends, peers etc. While fear is a subjective term, deep within, most of us buy because of fear in some form or the other. The Marketer makes good use of this emotion to sell.

Do trends move from the WEST to the EAST?

It is seen that new products and concepts are innovated and launched in the West and after a succesful proven business model are the introduced in the East. We have seen this happening in almost all products from technology oriented ones like mobiles, computers and cars to consumer products like soap, foods and beverages to service based businesses like retail, hotels and franchising. Clearly, after products are successful they are simply introduced with little or no changes. The questions that occur to me are, whether this phenomenon of "WEST to EAST" is true and whether products can be successfully with little or no adaptation of the original version?
A corollary to the former question is of Eastern concepts like Ayurvedic products and a Sushi bar which are highly accepable and popular in the West and the latter stems from the success of products like Washing Machines which in a country where labour is easily and cheaply available has still been successful.