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.
So, now arises the question whether such marketing is justified or ethical. Are virtual ids ethical or trying to influence through virtual ids ethical?
I know replies would be
1. This is online advertising like it is done on television, radio or any other traditional media where brand assumes an identity and through their advertisement try and influence the end user.
My revert on that would be in case of traditional advertising the message comes directly from the brand and hence end user is aware and can decide to what level they can get influenced.
2. If we don't take the path of virtual personas then we have to approach real bloggers or influencers in online space and most of them will blog about a brand when they are paid. Is that ethical?
My revert on that is I understand that bloggers who have relevant number of followers make it their living to write online and why not get paid for your expertise? But if brands are paying to write only positive reviews and not the drawbacks of their product then it is not ethical as well.
3. These are methods to push a brand/product across to the market how else can we advertise in the online media.
My revert on that is there are multiple online channels to do marketing in the right way. Get innovative and don't look for short cuts. Online media is still evolving and a little thinking can give you those right techniques.
As one of my colleagues said yesterday it is time all advertising agencies and marketing agencies come together and decide what is ethical and how far they will go for gaining money from brands. It is the duty of us marketeers to take a stand as corporate brands have been created to make monies and they will go to any extent to get what they want no matter what their values or mission-vision statement say.
Why cant all of us in marketing remember that marketing is meant for the end-user, customer or consumer. No matter which industry we are serving as a marketeer we as individuals are also consumers. Would we want to be cheated and given the wrong information when we are making our buying decision? If the answer is no then atleast the modern media; the digital & social media should remain as clean as possible. This is the one medium which has enabled direct conversation between brands and end-user and lets not complicate it to the extent where it is not trusted and the end-users discard it as yet another marketing ploy.
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.
So, now arises the question whether such marketing is justified or ethical. Are virtual ids ethical or trying to influence through virtual ids ethical?
I know replies would be
1. This is online advertising like it is done on television, radio or any other traditional media where brand assumes an identity and through their advertisement try and influence the end user.
My revert on that would be in case of traditional advertising the message comes directly from the brand and hence end user is aware and can decide to what level they can get influenced.
2. If we don't take the path of virtual personas then we have to approach real bloggers or influencers in online space and most of them will blog about a brand when they are paid. Is that ethical?
My revert on that is I understand that bloggers who have relevant number of followers make it their living to write online and why not get paid for your expertise? But if brands are paying to write only positive reviews and not the drawbacks of their product then it is not ethical as well.
3. These are methods to push a brand/product across to the market how else can we advertise in the online media.
My revert on that is there are multiple online channels to do marketing in the right way. Get innovative and don't look for short cuts. Online media is still evolving and a little thinking can give you those right techniques.
As one of my colleagues said yesterday it is time all advertising agencies and marketing agencies come together and decide what is ethical and how far they will go for gaining money from brands. It is the duty of us marketeers to take a stand as corporate brands have been created to make monies and they will go to any extent to get what they want no matter what their values or mission-vision statement say.
Why cant all of us in marketing remember that marketing is meant for the end-user, customer or consumer. No matter which industry we are serving as a marketeer we as individuals are also consumers. Would we want to be cheated and given the wrong information when we are making our buying decision? If the answer is no then atleast the modern media; the digital & social media should remain as clean as possible. This is the one medium which has enabled direct conversation between brands and end-user and lets not complicate it to the extent where it is not trusted and the end-users discard it as yet another marketing ploy.
No comments:
Post a Comment