Being dishonest must be bad for business in the long run!
This posting could apply to most industries (I suspect) but the following has been brought to my attention this week.
This is not intended as a 'pop' at certain organisations (I will not name them). However, this behaviour is being talked about (good news: "all publicity is good publicity..."?) but not very positively.
POOR PRACTICE
One is a well-known company that was caught red-handed, at two events, removing competitors' business cards on the open business card table and replacing them with their own. The then distributed leaflets 'under-cutting' the event organisers. I worry about their ethics (and their ability to deliver real value to clients) when they are so obsessed with 'getting/stealing the business'.
Does this make business sense? Do people trust people that behave in this way?
The other is a curious happening.
OVER-EFFUSIVE MARKETING COPY
Four different 'renowned' people have sent me so-called personal emails about their unique one-off relationship with a guru (four different ones!) who is doing a free, special, unique, exclusive, matchless, rare, once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated, special, most important event that I cannot afford to miss.
Again the cries of desperation resound. Surely the punters soon realise that it, the 'event of the year', is not quite so unique. All the usual spiel: "time-sensitive offer, nearly fully booked blah, blah".
Does this make business sense? Do people trust people who behave in this way?
The first tactic is unforgivable. The second gives the tag 'all marketers are liars' a ring of truth and may reflect badly on a whole industry.
Maybe these 'tactics' work when appealing to certain audiences?
My feeling is that the whole persistent 'interruption marketing' piece with endless empty breathless promises has been spotted for what it is. Or maybe I am wrong.
12 comments:
Many sellers assume that their customers are fools. This insulting behaviour will lose them business. But maybe it wins them more business than they lose. I wonder if they have tested 1 page vs 10 page copy to see which works best?
Madge
There are two posts in one here
1) POOR PRACTICE
Cheating always gets found out. It gives them bad karma!
OVER-EFFUSIVE MARKETING COPY
The Drayton Bird School of endless copy is over unless you are selling a cheaper product, or if you are playing a numbers game. But even then, people can see the tactic and distrust it.
Which leads us on to a more interesting question: who buys from websites that do the endless breathless hyper-ventilating 'special offer, once-in-a-lifetime etc etc' piece?
Not me.
The assummption(?) is that someone has tested this recently. Have they?
Mark
KISS
Bev
When selling: Keep It Simple - Keep it short.
bev
I am not aware of any recent research on the benefits of long copy. Can anyone help?
Robert
I do wonder why so many people use the long copy and blue pen and the PS when it is such a turn-off. Would love to see proof that it works.
Madge
The long copy doesn't make sense for professional services because we are trying to create trust not just make a sale.
Morag
I was trying to stay away from this post but I have been thinking about the new wave of 'kiss-me-quick!', 'buy now', 'we are world famous', '$10,000 of free extras', 'discover the secrets' and so on marketing spiels that are being used to tout business development universal antedotes to a relatively unsuspecting and often needy audience.
Here I go. One of the great things about Business Link is that it is an honest broker and does not get funding from the customer so we can play with a straight cricket bat. All the online stuff (sorry, I mean most) is snake oil at best.
I joined BL because I believe that businesses need an independent objective support service. It may not be perfect but we don't use every cunning trick in the book to get you buy to buy from us.
Can you trust a provider who spends most of the time convincing you of just how good they really are?
If these business gurus (marketing whores?) were sponsored by Carlsberg is this how they would behave?
Jim, BL
Too much over-promising and under-delivering goes on.
The research on the success of effusive copy seems to have evaporated... Can someone help the cause...?
Robert
I am not aware of any recent research on the benefits of long copy. Can anyone help?
Robert
There are two posts in one here
1) POOR PRACTICE
Cheating always gets found out. It gives them bad karma!
OVER-EFFUSIVE MARKETING COPY
The Drayton Bird School of endless copy is over unless you are selling a cheaper product, or if you are playing a numbers game. But even then, people can see the tactic and distrust it.
Which leads us on to a more interesting question: who buys from websites that do the endless breathless hyper-ventilating 'special offer, once-in-a-lifetime etc etc' piece?
Not me.
The assummption(?) is that someone has tested this recently. Have they?
Mark
Post a Comment