Marketing with Masquerade... Or.... How To Mislead Your Customers

One of the trends today is to hire undercover marketing representatives who hang out in bars and restaurants, particularly at the bar, flirting with real bar patrons. Their job is to subtly impart the sponsor's message when it's just the right time to do so. The sad part about all this is that this trend is growing.

I am dead set against this practice, not because it's illegal -- because, technically, it's not -- but because it is deceptive, dishonest, and because practitioners don't reveal they are being paid by sponsors to put forth this subterfuge. It's immoral marketing from my perspective. No one is overtly trying to actually sell you something. They are just trying to get you to think about it and "want" it. Then, later, they want you to buy it and tell all your friends about it. It's not a soft sell, a hard sell, just a "secret sell."

Many regional and state marketing associations are taking note of this nasty practice and are moving to outlaw such, at least in terms of their own membership. These marketing-oriented organizations have looked at the much bigger picture, compared to the greedy, short term approach of the "anything-goes-for-getting-the-message-out" marketers. These immoral marketers give all marketers a very bad name.

The key question to ask is: what happens a week, two weeks, or a month down the road when the people discover they have been duped? We must constantly keep in mind that consumer trust and credibility are of utmost importance in establishing an environment in which quality goods and services can be sold. This requires transparent disclosure of identity. Confusing or misleading the customer, or not coming clean with them -- as to the true identity of the individual with whom they are communicating -- is totally and clearly unethical. Put bluntly, this is a problem of "identity fraud."

Clandestine marketing consists of claiming to be something you are not. Try doing that in any legal agreement, and you will be in breach and subject to losing any legal suit brought against you by the other party. Those who employ this tactic, invoke the concept of caveat emptor: it is up to the public to be smart enough to know what is going on. This is nothing but a lazy and convenient cop-out. It is corrupt. The bottom line in this scenario is that this is a degradation of trust.

If everybody might be somebody else, nobody's sure of anybody. Up go the barriers of skepticism and cynicism. The values that support the open and honest interchange of trust – including reliance, confidence, and expectation – start to erode, if not decay completely. This makes for a necrotic business relationship with the public; and can eventually lead to no one having any degree of trust with anything or anyone. It is up to all of us to be responsible, honest, open marketers.

If you see a firm adopting these tactics, report them to your local better business bureau, your chamber of commerce, your local authorities and to the nearest marketing association chapter so these officials can take the appropriate action. If you don't want to be humiliated or embarrassed by being caught in such subterfuge, don't even think about doing it. You will pay big time in the long run.

©Copyright, Roy MacNaughton, 2007