Commentary
Deceptive Marketing
- by Dave Morgan , Featured Contributor, October 14, 2010
Today is going to be one of those columns where I get on my soapbox. I just received a "Continuation Notice" invoice in the mail from a media trade newsletter company. To anyone in my office without specific knowledge of our outstanding newsletter subscriptions (say, someone in accounting), one would think that this was a renewal notice. In fact, the mailing was very cleverly designed to make you think it was a renewal invoice. It was not. Notices like this -- marketing like this -- make me mad. I suspect that they anger you, too.
That notice, together with the "bill" for $1,195 to "continue" the newsletter service for the next year, was unsolicited. The sender's decision to label it as a "Continuation Notice" -- rather than as the solicitation it was -- could only be to prey upon the fact that some recipients would assume it was an ongoing or outstanding obligation of their companies and would pay it. Apparently, this happens quite a bit. I get a lot of these notices, from many of the best publications in our industry.
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We also all get these: direct mail solicitations that look like official government mailings; emails seeking information that aren't at the level of phishing, but certainly aim to obfuscate their actual intent; discount programs with negative option fees that are hidden, hard to notice and even harder to cancel; banner and text ads designed to look like editorial content on the pages where they are presented; and similarly, print ads with advertorial content that is hard to distinguish from a publication's editorial content.
OK. I have no problem with direct mail or commercial email or loyalty/discount programs or banner and text ads or print advertising. In fact, I love them. I have made my living off of them for the better part of the past 20 years. Actually, it is because I hope to continue to make my living in marketing and advertising that I am upset about the deception that I regularly see in our industry.
I realize that much of what I view as deception is quite successful, tried-and-true direct-marketing techniques that have developed over the past decades. Solicitors use them because they work. However, we are now in a world of increasing transparency in all things, including marketing practices. The Internet makes "fact-checking" available in real time and on a personal level. One of the few benefits of being bombarded by those hundreds of fraudulent emails is that the public has gotten even more suspect of that kind of "marketing." The tricks of old will not only be found out, they won't work as well anymore. In the future, the value you can deliver will be much more important than how many folks you tricked into an offer.
Isn't it time we all did a better job requiring all marketers to be straight with prospects they are soliciting? Shouldn't we start calling them out? What do you think?
AMEN!
Yes, let's call them out. Who was it Dave?
I not only received the "renewal notice" of a newsletter I had never subscribed to or ever received, I received a past due notice and threat to be sent to collections. All in an effort to sell their product.
Thanks Dave. It has been a pet peeve of mine for years.
I'm totally down with that. Let's call out the bad guys and demand honesty and transparency (and creativity) from the ones in our employ.
And then let's compensate these people fairly for their time and skill and native wit and loyalty and honesty and industry smarts and other factors we admire, and offer them the security of long relationships and repeat business -- and let's stop scoring them on stupid ROI quants, because, given a quant incentive, gaming the system is inevitable. (cf. "Do no Harm" = "A world full of savvy winksters, thinking about SEO instead of making good, valuable websites.")
I have been an opponent of this style of marketing since it's inception. It prey's on the weak, is an massive waste of time, and borders on misrepresentation and fraud. I have often seen mailing intentionally mimic official government mailings and give the appearance at first read, that if you do not respond, there will be legal consequences. Line them up!
May the gods reward you. This is greed at one of its finest hours. It is another responsibility of management on all levels to inform and teach those who "write the checks" for the company what they cannot do and what to do about it. For personal accounts, besides the continuous reminding, we are at a loss. The internet is not for transparency; it's for hiding behind the Oz screen. Which brings your column to another topic - what price privacy? Should "authorities" be able to track these perpetrators, shut them down with or without warning, should the check writers call them out on it, should there be financial penalties (getting the money would make the lawyers more money) and.......
This kind of deception broils me as well. For similar sleaze-avoidance reasons, I will pay for no subscription with a credit card--I only pay by check. The reason? Those nervy notices, "Thank you for your renewal," when I have given no such instructions and in many cases, do not plan to renew.
With a check, it goes no further. With a credit card, I’m in, potentially, for the agony of trying to discontinue something in a zillion ways before I’m heard. Just the thought makes me angry!
Can you imagine coming home to Chinese takeout you didn’t order or a pizza, with a note that says, “You ordered this last week so we figured you’d want it again. We have your credit card number—don’t worry. Thanks.”
From your mouth (or keyboard) to the eyes of Chase's credit card group, which somehow got me to sign up for a $5/month payment protection plan and won't let me unsubscribe....
Ah Dave... you are such an idealist. You should run for congress.
While I personally agree wholeheartedly with what you speak, the facts are that advertising and content have been on an unfortunate collision course to "blend" into indistinguishable mush for quite some time.
Google AdWords works in (I believe large) part because they trick many unsuspecting people into thinking they aren't advertising at all, but useful content links. Anyone net-savvy would say, "that's ridiculous, anyone can see AdWords are clearly advertising"... have you ever watched your grand-mother use the Internet? Or even your mother?
How about the lovely product placements? These beauties where Jerry Seinfeld drinks a diet coke and George nibbles on Rold Gold pretzels, may be the only revenue stream enabling paid video programming to exist as DVR's continue to flourish. (I don't think I've watched a TV commercial - except those I choose to watch - in 3 years).
We are witnessing, participating in, and in large part encouraging, (yes you too) the destruction of independent content at the hands of capitalism, and in the name of marketing. But has anything really changed other than we're being a lot more honest about it by taking it to an extreme?
And more recently Dave, hash tag tweets that lead to spam pages (or porn), Facebook Like subjects that seek your permission before revealing silly content then spams all your friends you've finally got those thighs under control! Let's face it, no matter what the emerging channel there will always be the shady deceivers looking for suckers. Trying to shut 'em down would be like playing an endless game of Whack-a-Mole. Grandma, grandpa, mom, dad, kids et al will each learn their lesson in turn. But hopefully they'll turn the power of social against the unscrupulous.
Totally agree Dave. Tricky gimmicky strategies also make my blood boll. Even in our small business where I can keep an eye on things, subscriptions and renewals have gotten approved by people on the team saying, "it is a renewal and I thought you wanted it!" One beneficial outcome of the recession has been weeding out such unwanted "renewals" and being on guard for tricky new arrivals.
I'm all for being up front and working with clients by continuously adding value and building on good hard work. (I'm probably on the "idealistic" side as well)
Reading this and your talk about honesty in marketing makes me think about marketing and walking into the grocery store. As I was reading I was thinking about all the package sizes that are "shrinking" while the price stays the same. Gone are the days when you walk into the supermarket and buy a half gallon of ice cream.
How about just keeping the packaging the same size and call it what it is an INCREASE in PRICE.
A few weeks ago, I received a direct mail piece that looked like a government-backed recall notice for my Toyota. In actuality, it was a car dealership trying to solicit my business by saying that it might be time to trade in my Toyota. My response? I will NEVER do business with this dealership, and I will tell every friend and family member (and blog) the same thing. I believe that most people feel the same way about misleading direct mail, and because these efforts will meet with failure, this behavior will stop. That's how the market works.
What about the common practice of "auto renewal" of contracts in our own industry for services, research tools and partnerships? If you don't cancel by 60 days before the contract expires, you've just signed up for another year. Perhaps your publication had one of these auto renewal terms in it giving the rights to send a renewal? If so, is that "deceptive"?
There's deception in most industries...it's what capitalism looks like when lacking proper regulation. Individual companies/industries will not self-regulate because there's too much pressure to maximize revenue. If we don't want "big" government to enact standards, then we just need to get use to it. I think most people, more or less, have. You're right that we now have the tools to fact-check and sort to the good from the bad, it's just too bad we have to do so before almost every business transaction these days.
Great post, Dave. As a marketer, I think of the deceptive chum in our industry in the same way I used to view the really obnoxious road cyclists when I still had the will to climb on the bike. Drivers already hate the fact that they have to share the road with someone they could easily crush or force off the pavement, and no matter how conscientious you are they don't make a distinction between you and all the jerks. Anyone abusing the public trust makes all of our jobs harder -- a spotlight and financial cold shoulder may be the surest paths to progress.
When a company can only make their profit target by using gimicks and lies, it is very very sad for them. Advertising overall has gotten so bad that I ignore even the kind I might otherwise like. Companies should all get rid of the "fine print" before it is legislated away for you.
To the guy who hasn't watched TV commercials in 3 years - I haven't seen any I didn't intentionally watch in 15 years.
Ned, I agree. Some companies go a long way to hid the auto-renew and negative option components of their services.