Is "Marketing" Really "Lying"?

where did you read this??

If "lying" refers to lying around in your pajamas while bringing in the bucks then yea, I guess there is 'some' truth to it.

~Bill

LOL

It has always been my observation that people always tend to believe that every one else is just like them.

The persons who believe that everyone is dishonest are usually a dishonest people themselves.

And, the persons who believe that most folks are honest are usually honest people.

If my observations are accurate, the person who posted the above quote is most likely a dishonest person who feels that everyone else is dishonest too.

You aren't lying you are promoting a product by highlighting it's attributes and maybe playing down it's downsides. How you choose to promote or "market" a product is more relevant than whether the action of "marketing" itself is ethical or not.

I think alot of 'buyers' assume that it 'must' have been a scam if they bought something and did't get an email reply within 60 seconds of submitting a ticket.

I think marketing is about creating exposure for all of the benefits a product or service has.. and what that product or service can offer the potential buyer.

Some people lie... some people ellaborate... and some people just get some great points across as to why you should 'make that purchase'.

Pffft.

Marketing is drawing attention to an offer in the clearest and most attractive way possible.

If you have to lie about the product you are marketing, then you need to find a new product to market.

I'm not going to say it's about lying, but I think a fair bit of BSing or sugar coating is helpful to any IM product.

The only marketers who feel the need to be consistently dishonest are the ones who have little value without deceit.

Take a look at seth godin. Each book should tell you something on explaining in a subject thats the same but spinned in a different way.

If the product you are promoting is good, there's no need to lie.

It will sell itself...

BUT you still need someone who can efficiently communicate the many ways your product can add value to your prospects life.

No marketing is not lying, marketing is communicating the value of the product/service to the right group of people.

But there are some shady people who communicate what their product is NOT (like on first Dates)

I heard a big marketing guru, (not internet marketer, but somebody very well known).. that "you cant lie, but you can mislead like crazy".. seriously, this were his words.

This doesnt mean that all marketing people are doing this, this just means this is his own view, other marketers are very honest and ethical about their marketing. Like some of them in this thread.

Dude who said that was lying.

Marketing is a lot of BS - that doesn't mean the product that is being sold is. Some people just don't understand how to market their stuff without stretching every point to the breaking limit when writing a sales page. I've seen a LOT of products that were pretty good and I found valuable ........but would not have bought them if the sales page was what I was relying on for the information about it. YIKES. People - get a pro opinion on those sales pages -- and for God's sake READ the freaking product you are promoting before you hang the neon sign on it for cripes sakes.

Also - there are some niches that attract more con artists than others. You have to figure that when people are deciding their niches based on stuff like google statistics instead of because they are interested and know a subject well, you're going to get a lot of BS and con artists - we take em out of here every day.

When someone gets duped by pretty packaging and buys a few trash products that are of no help to them, they are going to start thinking it's ALL BS. It was, as far as their money went.

If the OP quote was a statement made by a buyer - I'd say that is a wake up call for those who are selling. If it was a statement made by a seller........yikes.....don't buy from that person!

Ok, I feel I have to respond to this

Amazingly I stumbled upon this little gossip thread.

I admit, I made a reckless statement there.

Marketing as a concept is of course not lying or fraud, however, in reality there's a lot of BS in marketing according to my opinion.

I don't need anyone to agree/disagree on this it's just my personal opinion expressed in a more nuanced way.

Your analysis of character on me is completely wrong BTW, I'm a very honest man and it's an important part of my character.

One thing I would not do however, is to take a statement out of context/thread and ask other people to comment on it or start a little gossip thread about someones statement, I would tell it right to their face!

No, I don't lie for a living. Not even a little. That is just a line I don't cross.

If I don't feel 100% about something I don't promote it.

By the way, it's fine to judge things. We do it all the time. The moral relativism of modern society (meaning "whatever you do is OK, who am I to judge?") is both a sign of and a cause for the rapid decay in mankind that we are currently witnessing.

People buy on emotions. Marketing evokes those emotions. There's certainly some degree of manipulation involved, but the ultimate decision is always the buyer's one. And if there is also good return policy, than at the end, marketing only served as a link between customers and a product they actually wanted - whether they knew they wanted or needed it at the moment of purchase or not.
Arguably, good marketing can push you to buy a product. But it will not stop you from returning it, should the product not live up to your expectation, or should you experience a buyer's regret later on (assuming the whole thing is not a scam and a fair return policy is in place).

I'm sure some marketers lie...hehe. Depends on what your marketing practices are. I try to be honest with clients. If I say the sale is limited time and will end in 24 hours I mean it.

When you use wide paint brushes to describe others... You will always get yourself in trouble...

Although there may be a lot of dishonest marketers out there, most marketers do not lie or deceive their customers...

The fact is that people who lie, cheat and steal will get by with it once or twice, but businesses are built on relationships and trust, and most business relationships will last years or a lifetime.

it's hard to deny that we do lie sometimes, but it's part of the adventure. what matter is we are not doing it beyond.

I guess this depends.. If you lie when you are marketing then yes it's lying there is no way around that. However, if you use fancy words or cleverness to make your service or product stand out more than it might normally, that's just good marketing not lying. This is how it's supposed to be and there isn't anything unethical about it.

I think that is very true for people who are moderately successful, down to no success at all. But the huge successes are from people who make a great product, tell you how great it is, and then when you buy it, it really is as great as you thought it was.

The question "is marketing lying?" is just way too broad of a question because "marketing" encompasses so many things. With a near-endless assortment of permutations with so many different kinds of marketing techniques, funnels, salesmanship, etc. that it's really not a fair question.

Do some marketers lie? Of course they do. Phony screenshots or paying for a phony testimonial on Fiverr is just the tip of the iceberg. Are there marketers who use hyperbole incorrectly because they don't have the copywriting experience or acumen? Of course there are. Are there marketers who use hyperbole and exaggeration to get you to make the purchase no matter what the cost and without regard to ethics? Sure there are.

But on the flip side of that coin there are marketers who tell the truth and know how to use hyperbole correctly to elicit the correct emotional triggers.

So to me, the question doesn't really make any sense. It would make more sense if the word "marketers" were used in the context of "lying" instead of "marketing".

RoD

First, I certainly consider myself a pretty honest guy, so I don't think Bill's (tpw) #4 post actually applies to me. But I do believe that most marketers try to push the line of spin / hype as close to the line of lying / blatant omission of negatives as possible in many cases.

In all honest, I do think that most marketers do overstate or at least imply that their product or service has greater features and benefits than it actually does.

This is not just an online or an IM niche thing. Think about cars. We all know the fuel millage on the window sticker is not actually what we will get. It is just a relative gauge that lets us know the prius will get better millage than my chevy truck. But my chevy truck has never gotten the millage on the window sticker.

Then you go to things like beer commercials. They are all surrounded by good looking people having fun. The implication being sold to potential customers is that their product will help you achieve that. They never mention the negatives or real potential issues with drinking.

Go to the shampoo or toothpaste isle at the store and most of the products are using marketing tactics to say they have 25% more. But many of those same products have had 25% more since they came out. There really is no deal to be had, but they use marketing tactics to make it seem as though there is a deal.

Virtually everyone selling anything online or offline does their best to spin their story. They do what they can to overstate their positive features and benefits and of course good marketers try to avoid publishing the negatives or potential weaknesses of their products.

All marketers use "spin tactics" but I don't agree that all or even most marketers are out right liars. Although I will admit that most of us are actually so used to being "lied" to by various marketers that we don't actually call deception what it really is anymore.

We are all quick to point out that the millage numbers on the window sticker of the car is actually achievable in perfect very controlled conditions. So we don't call it lying. But is it? Anyone with half a brain knows the millage numbers are un-achievable in the real world, so why don't we consider that lying?

Well about lying, I feel that one man's fruit is another man's candy! Other that blatant falsehoods ( make one mil in 2 days tops, if you buy my 97 dollar product ), marketing being lying or not is really just one's own perspective. btw, marketing is NOT a dirty word.

Marketing, in my opinion, is presenting something in the
best possible/favorable "light".

It's not lying, it's what it (the service, product, etc) can do.

Asher

And that's why a lot of "IM'ers" are s**t in the long-run - and make the rest of us look bad in this niche.

No I think marketing is just.. marketing.

There are blatant lies, but you can word it to be marketing instead.

Marketing is ONLY lying if you don't tell THE TRUTH.

Marketing is no more lying then it is telling people your day was good.. every single day they ask you... just so you can get them the hell away from you.

I broke IM down into "SIX STEPS TO SUCCESS"....and the first one is to find EXCEPTIONAL products to market that TRULY give your audience what they are looking for.

ENDORSE what you are promoting. And if you wouldn't offer it to a friend or family member, don't offer it to the general public.

It's as simple as that.

There are many variables.

1-: The prospect fully understood the product and initiated a buy decision but somehow was not able to use the product according to the guidelines or technical manual. As a result product didn't yield any benefit to him. And, for this innocence, he/she can't blame the marketer.

2-: The prospect fully understood the product, bought it and used it according to the manual but didn't got the intended results and at the same time another prospect bought the same product who lives in that same locality and got the result. The buyer can't blame marketer for it because somebody else got the result. If every buyer is failing then it can be assumed as marketers lie. But, the blame can be shifted from marketers to producers and the R&D for not engineering a perfect product based on marketing departments input.

I think, marketers job is to describe the features and advantages of the product in a most ethical manner then it's not at all a lie.

Often and most of the time the buyer doesn't use the product properly and shift the blame toward seller. For example: Self help books are bought by many people but they just fail to change themselves. Problem is not with the book but with the man itself.

No dude, marketing has a real definition (and it's not "the art of manipulation")

Marketing: the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships, in order to capture value from customers in return

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing

If you think that's marketing, you need to re-build your business model.

Now you are just arguing semantics. If the only way you can get people to buy from you is to "cleverly & deviously control" them... you're doing it wrong.

Problem is bro, when you use the word manipulation, it creates a certain thought-pattern in your mind which DOES influence the way you work with you clients... and if your clients hear you use that word in reference to them, heaven help you.

The words we use are so powerful... can't afford to use the wrong ones.

You're not mis-using the word, and that's the problem.

Marketing is all about appealing to a person who needs & wants the product. It has nothing to do with lies & everything to do with communicating the benefits of the product to meet the clients needs. Lies will take you no where. it will destroy your reputation & alienate you.

In every aspect of business, ethics are involved.

There are ethical car salesmen and then there are car salesmen.

There are ethical investment advisors and then there are Bernie Madeoffs.

There are ethical marketers and then there are IM 'Gurus'.

I would go with exaggeration....not lying.
And marketing in generally, not only online, is always comes with a little exaggeration.

Successful marketing is getting your product in front of more eyes than your competition marketer. Is it lying no? you are just doing a better job of promoting a specific product/service.

"Diamond doesn't need to tell people that it is precious, pieces of glass can't be believed even they sound loud that they are Diamond."
Fair people and fair products dn't need to lie about their selves.

Is marketing lying?

I don't know.

The REAL question is:

Are you selling something (a product or service) that is a certifiable solution?

OR...

Are you selling cr@p?

If you're selling a real solution that your target audience can genuinely benefit from, why lie?

Mark Pescetti