The Ugly Side of Marketing

Some people think that marketing is dirty, that it is just about sales, or just advertising manipulating you into believing that your life is not good enough as it is and you need this extra product that will change it forever. Well, not all marketing is the same, of course. As long as it is authentic and relevant (thanks to my marketing professor who basically beat this into us!) and I would add honest, then I accept it. But, as with almost everything in life, marketing also has an ugly side to it. And this is exactly the side that I am trying to stay away from.

Today I will tell you about an instance where marketing is not honest. At least in my opinion. I am pretty sure most of you receive Facebook invites from friends to join some company page offering free products. I receive lots of those and ignore all. But today I noticed an ad on my Facebook page that claimed to offer a free pair of boots (I won’t mention names) if you were a certain age and female. It intrigued me because I do not have my age posted on Facebook and my profile mentions nothing about shoes (although I do love them!). Plus I am a very skeptical person and never believe that anything is free. So the marketer in me decided to embark on an investigation to find out what hid behind this message.

I found out that the company did offer the free pair of boots! BUT… and as you know, there is always a but! But, a quick look at the fine print and the participation requirements said that you had to agree to receive sales calls and must participate in a number of sponsor offers. These offers would require you to sign up for memberships or trials or open or extend a credit card.

Some would probably say that these practices are perfectly fine as long as these companies list the requirements and people agree to it. And I would say the same thing. At first! Because if you think about it, almost no one reads the fine print, unfortunately. Who clicks on that link that says “Terms and Conditions” or “Participation Requirements”? And people get tricked into signing up for memberships that are free for the first month and then the fine print (again!) says that it automatically charges X amount to their credit cards.

All I am saying is that as marketers, we have the responsibility to be honest. Revenues are important, but honest revenues are even more important and sustainable. Not to mention that as a consumer, if I am promised something by a brand I enjoy and then discover that I was tricked into a sales scheme, I lose trust in that brand. And as we all know, it takes more money to get new consumers than to keep existing ones.