Marketing Challenges: Consumer Confidence or Manipulative Motives
Supply and demand. You see it in business, consumer behavior,
sports, media, and even relationships. I
want something and you can provide it. I
hold something you desire and suddenly I have more power. In relationships, it’s called “hand.” In other words, whoever cares the least about
the relationship has the greatest amount of control. Who wants it more? How do we advertise it? How can we sell it? The
product can seem irrelevant. Unfortunately,
in today’s competitive market, what seem important are control, desire,
negotiation, persuasion, and manipulation.
Malcolm Gladwell (2000) asked, “Why is it
that some ideas and trends and messages ‘tip’ and others don’t?” (p. 9). Seven years later two brothers added to
Gladwell’s research with some insight of their own. In Made
to Stick, Chip and Dan Heath asked, “Why do some ideas succeed while others
fail?” (p. 10). Gladwell (2000) answered
the question by stating; “The answer is that the success of any kind of social
epidemic (or marketing scheme) is heavily dependent on the involvement of
people with a particular and rare set of social skills” (p. 33).
In their article, El Sayed and El Ghazaly
dig into the motivations behind much of the marketing that takes place
today. Do the end justify the
means? Is it ethical to manipulate or
even mislead consumers to sell a product?
What if it’s a product that you believe very strongly will help
them?
The best product in the world is
worthless unless someone buys it. The
new 2013 Mercedes Benz SLS AMG sells for nearly $190,000. The 2013 Kia Optima costs under $25,000. If the Mercedes dealer sells one SLS for
$190K and the Kia dealer sells ten Optimas for $25,000, the Kia dealer wins
out. It all comes down to the sale. The challenge doesn’t lie in the math; but
rather, the strategy employed to sell. El Sayed and El Ghazaly address such
strategies and discuss seller manipulation, materialism, and the maddening
desire to make a sale. After reading the
article and looking through my previous marketing readings, I’ll address
content by answering four questions:
First, do ethical guidelines make a difference to marketers? More and more companies are tethering the
bottom line to honest and ethical corporate social responsibility (CSR). El Sayed and El Ghazaly said, “the main
reasons companies exist is to deliver products to the end user” and “developing
a strategy to satisfy the consumer is what marketing is all about.” I agree that statement is true; however, the
difference in today’s market is that consumers care more about issue other than
cost. Factors such as environment,
labor, materials, and relational trust are all included in consumer purchases. It is extremely dangerous for companies to
ignore ethical guidelines in today’s market economy. Breaking laws and manipulating customers can
gain quite a following on YouTube.
Secondly, how can companies balance the need to win with being ethical? It’s simple yet challenging. Today’s marketer can raise profits above
competitors with creativity and credibility.
For instance, in 1984 Wendy’s creatively
designed the “Where’s the Beef” campaign.
During the first full year after the ads ran, Wendy’s revenues rose 31
percent. The commercials challenged
viewers to compare Wendy’s burgers with other fast-food restaurants. In Made
to Stick, the Heath brothers called this “testable credibility” since
essentially your offering your consumers to “try before they buy” (Heath, 2007,
p. 156-157).
The third question asked, “is it ethical to track your buying habits
or web visits to target you for marketing purposes? The American Marketing Association operates
with a statement of ethics. In it, they
discuss the importance of honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect,
transparency, and citizenship. The
statement instructs marketers to represent products in a clear way, to reject
manipulations and sales tactics that harm customer trust, and seek to protect
the private information of customers, employees, and partners (AMA, 2013).
It seems, every time I make a purchase, I’m
asked one (if not both) of the following questions: “What is your phone number?”
and “What is your email?” By gathering
this information, stores can capture my address, Internet activity, and my
purchasing habits. Personally, I do not
regard this as unethical but rather consider it creative marketing. I am not required to give the information to
make a purchase; I give it freely. While
the junk mail and junk emails get old, again, I do not mind providing this
information to marketers to gain the information necessary to promote their
product(s).
Lastly, as a leader, how will I manage the ethical aspects of my marketing
efforts? The best way to meet
unethical behaviors within the marketing landscape is with moral
leadership. In Leadership on the Line, Heifetz and Linsky (2002) said, “We believe
that leadership, while perilous, is an enterprise worthy of the costs. Leadership is worth the risk because the
goals extend beyond material gain or personal advancement” (p. 3). As stated earlier, connecting with consumers
is significantly more than merely making a sale. The value of long-term customers and
operating with strong CSR values strengthens reputation and consumer loyalty
that far exceed the bottom line.
Dale Neef (2004) identified, “a
Millennium poll on Corporate Social Responsibility of 22,000 consumers across
23 nations on six continents found that 90 percent of consumers worldwide
agreed that large companies should do more than focus on profitability” (p.
62). Moreover, Neef (2004) stated, “Putting
aside the critical issue of reputation damage, there is growing evidence that
basic improvements in the health, safety, and environmental policies of
developing world suppliers can mean significant return on investment” (p.
129). All of this shows there is great
profit involved with honesty, integrity, trust, and CSR activities.
I liken it to the tale of the tortoise
and the hare. Short-term strategies,
manipulations, and marketing prestidigitation may give a company an
early lead; however, today’s consumers are smarter, more informed, and have
turn the tables on traditional marketers with Internet advertising access. The tortoise sticks by their values,
principles, and builds relations with consumers to garner trust and future
commitments. Moral leadership doesn’t
compromise values for a quick sale; it doesn’t manipulate consumers, and it
refuses, as El Sayed and El Ghazaly said, “to make consumers need a product
that they might not have thought about without being exposed to promotion just
to make a profit.”
Leadership
+ loyalty = legacy.
Steve
References:
American
Marketing Association. (2013). Statement of Ethics. Retrieved from
http://www.marketingpower.com/aboutama/pages/statement%20of%20ethics.aspx
El
Sayed, H., & El Ghazaly, I. (n.d.). Is Marketing Evil? Marketing viewed as
a tool. Retrieved
from
http://www.ethicsbasedmarketing.net/2.html
Heath,
C., & Heath, D. (2007). Made to stick.
New York, NY: Random House.
Gladwell,
M. (2000). The tipping point. New
York, NY: Back Bay Books.
Neef,
D. (2004). The supply chain imperative.
New York, NY: Amacom.
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