Advertisers Draw Fire for Using Undercover Marketing Tactics
As advertising has become advertising ad nauseam, and we are forever being pitched to, marketed to, and appealed to by
someone trying to sell us something more advertisers are looking at new ways to deliver their message to you. This has
resulted in a mix of marketing tactics that are drawing fire. Some are new versions of old techniques and some are very
new. Consider that many advertisers are already paying your friends or in some cases even hiring actors to strategically
engage you in their product- with or without your knowledge.
(PRWEB) December 4, 2005 -- As advertising has become advertising ad nauseam, and we are forever being pitched to,
marketed to, and appealed to by someone trying to sell us something more advertisers are looking at new ways to deliver
their message to you. This has resulted in a mix of marketing tactics that are drawing fire. Some are new versions of
old techniques and some are very new. Consider that many advertisers are already paying your friends or in some cases
even hiring actors to strategically engage you in their product- with or without your knowledge.
If the current trends hold true it’s almost certain that you’ll be the target of “undercover” or “referral marketing” as
more companies use undercover marketing and more of your friends will start trying to make a few extra bucks referring
people to the products that offer them commissions for making those referrals.
Undercover Marketing
Whether you like it or not, undercover marketing is here to stay. Whether you know it or not, it may already be a part
of your life.
Consider this. The last time a friendly tourist asked you to take their picture with an impressive new camera or an
attractive woman at the bar said you could buy her a drink; they both may have been “working”. These are examples of
what is being called Undercover Marketing. In these examples the company paid people to pose as tourists or bar patrons
respectively. The “tourists” job was to show as many people as possible all the features of a new camera that Sony
coming out with. The models were paid to look good of course, but you won’t see them holding anything but a Sky Vodka.
Not when their “working” anyway.
One of the larger companies in this industry is Big Phat Promotions. They’ve drawn both protest and attention for their
unique marketing practices that they now employ in 30 cities across the United States and Canada. The company defends
their tactics as "spontaneous" and "virile" approaches to product promotion. Critics however, argue that paying actors
to target consumers in these settings is unethical.
Even over seas the New South Wales government has enacted legislation preventing tobacco companies from using similar
undercover marketing practices.
Adam Salacuse, CEO and President of Alt Terrain, LLC, a Boston-based agency specializing in alternative promotion
services, stresses undercover campaigns should only be used in conjunction with larger, more traditional advertising
campaigns. "It is always best to be honest with people and if used properly, alternative marketing can be a unique and
relevant experience that the consumer will always remember."
Gary McCarron, Asst. Communications Professor at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, says the public is already immune
to most mainstream advertising and new research indicates that advertising that doesn't seem like advertising, is the
new way to reach our jaded minds.
McCarron warns that if advertising becomes so sneaky that it is unrecognizable from the everyday experiences of
defenseless consumers, it will damage corporate credibility and the resulting state of distrust could have an extremely
negative effect on social interaction.
Referral or Network Marketing
Do the words MLM, Network Marketing or multi-level-marketing ring a bell? These words all describe companies that pay
you commissions for referring people to their products.
MLM or Network Marketing is back. The MLM Direct Selling Associate now reports that nearly 75% of all Americans have now
used or been presented with a product from a Network Marketing company. The most well known, International, Network
Marketing Companies are Amway (now Quixtar), Mary Kay and Life Force International.
The allure of Network Marketing or MLM to consumers is the massive amounts of money that some in the industry claim to
make. These companies pay you a commission on all the products you sell. They also pay you commissions on the products
that anyone you refer to the company, sells. If the people you refer refer others, you earn commissions on the purchases
of those people too.
Sound like a pyramid? There’s a difference. Really. Network Marketing has exploded in the last 20 years since Amway
fought their landmark case making and distinguishing the MLM or multi-level commission structure as legal and separate
from a illegal pyramid structures.
MLM or Network Marketing companies offer you and your friends of course, commissions for referring people to their
products. These companies now sell every kind of product you can imagine.
Marketing expert Chris Tinney is the founder of Best MLM Business (www.BestMLMBusiness.com) and MLM Forums
(www.MLMForums.com) and eBusiness Bonanza (http://ebusinessbonanza.com) says many in his industry used undercover
marketing in the past but have found parts of it turned the public off, “Too many people have memories of going
somewhere with a friend only to be surprised to find themselves front and center at an opportunity meeting for some kind
of home based business.”
He says Network Marketing still teaches people to go into social settings to pitch their products, however, they’ve
learned it works much better if you’re up front about whom you are and what you’re doing. Tinney claims that if a
marketer has to lie they’ve already made a mistake in choosing the social setting. He says this is the most important
step. Once in that setting he says to be upfront about the product you represent.
Tinney claims that by being in places where people are predisposed to want your products and being “upfront” about it,
that they'll approach the marketer and initiate the interaction. He claims this is much different than what the public
perceives as undercover marketing.
As competition to reach consumers increase undercover and referral based marketing is sure to become more and more a
part of our lives. The challenge will be for marketers to use these tactics in such a way that the don’t alienate the
very consumers they’re hoping to win over.
To learn more about MLM and Network Marketing visit http://www.MLMGorilla.com/movie
Chris Tinney hosts a private forum at http://chris.powerfulintentions.com/forum/webmarketing and has a newsletter of
Spiritual Marketing at http://mlmgrilla.com
ENDS