Ethics in digital marketing

Long time no posts and finally I have a topic which is of paramount interest to me. Back in my MBA we had to submit a thesis on the last few months and guess what was the topic of my thesis. Ethics in Marketing. Almost 4 years down the line now as a hands down digital marketeer I have a heated discussion with some of my colleagues on what should be the best practices in digital marketing in terms of ethics.

Where did the discussion start? At creating virtual ids for corporate brands. Yes, a lot of well-known, top-class & well-trusted brands create virtual personas online and blog, FB, Tweet etc online. These virtual personas act as influencers in the industry to which that the brand belongs. Lets say for example there is a brand ABC in the mobile industry. They might create some 10 virtual personas whose id will be created in FB, Twitter and some blogging sites and some marketing firm/team will update all these 10 or so ids with information mostly related to the mobile industry, technology, social media etc etc. In due time may be 3 of the personas will get a prominent number of followers and the persona will be established in the industry as an expert. Subtly the brand will then push their messaging across these followers and try and establish a trust in the industry. I don't know for sure if any of the influencers in my life are such virtual personas or if any company as of yet has successfully implemented this strategy but I know intentions are there.

Product innovation (Levi's)

I might be a marketeer but I am not a strong believer of advertising. There, I said it. But the recent levi's curve id ad has made me think otherwise. It has appealed to me and to may be thousands and millions of other women like never before. I have been watching it on television for last few months and still every time its played during those commercial breaks I just can't prevent myself from listening to the song and watching the video.

The Art of Choosing - A Book Review

I picked up this book called "The Art of Choosing" by Sheena Iyenger hoping to get greater insight into the minds of the consumers I much yearn to address as a marketeer. I wanted to understand if I could influence the choices of buyers. Well, the book has gone far more deeper than just about the choice of a consumer & dealt with the entire psychology of every choice that we make in life. It has brought forward the fact that much as we think that choices are made by us, we also are eventually made by them. What we choose to accept eventually turns around and shapes our lives and that choice is influenced by factors like culture, society, multitude of choices etc.