According to Bloggers VII

We continue the ACCORDING TO BLOGGERS conversation with Marketing Professor Philip Kotler’s written response to this question:

Some people say that marketing techniques create false images about products and companies. How would you answer that?

KOTLER: Marketers will exaggerate the positive and eliminate the negative aspects of their offering, much like a lawyer who takes one side of an argument and blows up its positives. At the same time, companies would be wise to avoid creating false images of their products.

First, if consumers try the product and are disappointed with its performance, they will tell many others of their disappointment. In this case, the company gained a sale but lost a market. Second, competitors will threaten to sue a company that is trying to gain an advantage by falsifying its product’s performance. So while there are plenty of techniques for exaggerating, smart firms will describe their true competitive benefits rather than over-promising and underperforming.

BLOGGERS: What say us? What’s our response when some people say marketing techniques create false images about products and companies?

johnmoore: I agree with Prof Kotler. These smart firms Kotler speaks of engage in meaningful marketing which connects with people by telling them the true, but compelling, story of why a business is remarkable. Meaningful marketing is about designing marketing activities to deliver on the vision of the business all the while being clever, savvy, and authentic. It’s about treating people as being interesting and interested. And, it’s about building brand preference more than brand awareness resulting in loyalty beyond reason from customers.

Unfortunately, many marketing practitioners still believe in making up stories about why a product is special. They engage in outrageously gimmicky attention-grabbing antics that over-promise and woefully under-deliver. These marketers treat consumers as being boring, indifferent, and brainlessly gullible. (And we wonder why consumers have become cynical and distrustful of marketing … hmm.)

Comments

[Big Picture Guy]

I agree with Mr. Moore. A successful marketing campaign must go beyond brand awareness and create preference. A good product will make that preference sustainable.

Three rules of thumb:

Rule #1: Marketing works best in the service of good products. Even the most brilliant marketing cannot sustain the growth of and return on bad products for any appreciable length of time.

Rule #2: Marketing works best when it focuses on benefits rather than features. Features speak to the product. Benefits speak to the consumer. Marketing of poorly performing products tends to be focused on features, the sum of which creates apparent value. Marketing of high performance products should always focus on the benefits they bring to the user, each of which brings real value.

Rule #3: Companies are an amalgam of people and products. The strength of any company and the power of its brand are directly related to the degree to which its people and products (or services) deliver on the brand promise. Marketing can create awareness of the promise. But even the cleverest marketing cannot overcome the company’s inability to deliver on it.

Marketing works because there is, initially, a willing suspension of disbelief by consumers when they are made aware of new products. However, once they have experienced poor performance by a company or by any of its products, that willingness is sharply reduced.

Bottom line: images that are fake and promises that are false make for successes that are illusory.

[Steven Streight aka Leopold the Told]

I've written direct marketing material for General Motors, Troy-Bilt, Doubleday Book Club, Scholastic, American Banker, and many others...

...and have never exaggerated, downplayed negatives, or lied.

At Garden Way/Troy-Bilt we were expected to emphasize the negative aspects of products, to increase credibility.

"Won't handle snow as easily or quickly as a regular single purpose snow blower, but as an attachment to your Troy-Bilt tiller, it does a decent job on light to medium depth snow in small to medium areas."

That type of thing.

If you paint a realistic picture, even understate the product, but firmly and honestly portray the benefit the product provides, customers will generate positive WOM about you.

[johnmoore (from brandautopsy)]

Big Picture Guy ... as usual, great adds. Thanks for adding your perspective to the ACCORDING TO BLOGGERS series of posts.

By the way, we've blogrolled ya.