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Jay Hamilton-Roth
Jay Hamilton-Roth
Creative Marketing Strategy Consultant
Mill Valley, California
Articles » Marketing & Sales »
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Marketing Snake Oil

For the longest time, I associated people who market and advertise with evil. I hated seeing advertisements telling me "if only I bought this, I would be cool also."

Written Jun 01, 2008, read 207 times since then.

 

The Dark Side Of Marketing:

For the longest time, I associated people who market and advertise with evil. I hated seeing advertisements telling me "if only I bought this, I would be cool also". I couldn’t imagine what type of person became a marketer or advertiser. Now I am one.

Marketing that attempts to change our belief systems or undermine our values I consider evil . It lives by appealing to our insecurities, showing us a shortcut to happiness. It preaches fear, isolation, failure and shows salvation by living your life differently. A number of years ago advertisers made a fundamental switch in how they talked about their product. In the "old" days, a company would tell you all the wonderful things that their products did and problems they solved. You would chose your product on its own merits. Some consumers that tried those products and didn’t get the promised results wound up in court, claiming a breach of promise. After defending too many lawsuits, the companies wanted a safer way to promote their goods. The result is now companies show a lifestyle, and then show how their product fits into that lifestyle. There isn’t a claim that the product will help you achieve the lifestyle (or any other promise for that matter) - just an association between what product and lifestyle. This works wonderfully, since our brains are wired to fill in the gaps ("Gee, if I had that product, I would look/feel/act/love like that").

The good side of marketing doesn’t attempt to sway. Instead it simply tries to help customers find the solution to their existing problem. In some cases, marketing attempts to educate you that you have a problem. The good side of marketing is actually helping people. You’re doing a genuine service (and making money doing it).

Good marketing is harder than evil marketing, since you really have to understand what problems people have and try to fix them. Good marketing can also focus on people’s fear, isolation, and failure, but it solves it authentically, not with a mirage.

Gaming the SEO System:

I recently heard an interview of a web "guru" who’s showing people how to get their website noticed quickly. Their first steps were straightforward: create a blog, keyword optimize it, and publish it. So far, so good.

The next step involved generating backlinks (links to you site) and social bookmarks (a "thumbs-up" vote for something people find interesting). Instead of waiting for this to happen organically, the guru pays people to comment and bookmark their sites. Since people are interested in the "next hot thing", the bookmarks beget other backlinks, and the traffic builds quickly. It works.

But, is this right? Not so long ago, movie studios got into trouble when reporters figured out that some reviews were written by the studio (or someone that the studio paid). Some interviews (of people coming out of the movie) that raved about the movie were also studio-generated. The studios got bad press, and the practice (supposedly) stopped.

The problem is, it’s not yet easy to figure out who has paid-for-posts/bookmarks, and who has authentic ones.

Be careful: it’s a slippery slope to trade off your ethics for dollars.

Learn more about the author, Jay Hamilton-Roth.

Comment on this article

  • Andrew Delany
    Posted by Andrew Delany, Seattle, WA, Washington | Jun 02, 2008

    Thanks, Jay! At first I was quibbling with you in my mind, but I agree, there is a whole lot of grey out there, and it slides so frequently to twisting people off their ethics. Now, I am beginning to think that maybe brownish looking fluid that gives tooth decay, high sugar, weight gain, and caffeinated spikes may not be "the real thing". Helppp! Best, Andrew

  • Barry Hurd
    Posted by Barry Hurd, Seattle, Washington | Jun 02, 2008

    But is this right?

    That is indeed a very interesting (and short question)

    SEO and backlinks online is very similar to influencer marketing or public relations. Knowing how to influence the lines or present information to the right people at the right time.

    Manipulation of those pieces is pretty easy. Technically it is just a few mouse clicks.

    However "buying" is also a hard thing to define. If I spend six months courting an influencer, did I buy them? Why not just send them the thousand dollars and eliminate the beer and pizza?

    I can see arguments on both sides, but the line in-between is very blurry. As an influencer myself on several social sites I'm barraged by requests to vote things up and down. Most of my accounts don't even carry my name for that reason.

    Yet if a sibling calls me up and says "vote for me" I can and probably will. Then the influencer effect kicks in and ten people vote on my vote, and fifty more follow the path to sibling hell.

    Now ultimately you have to look at the horrid truth... that search engines are in the business of making money. There is no "golden information" in the eyes of the search engine, there is only advertising dollars and maximum sales.

    Sure you have some amazingly bright and seemingly innocent spokespeople working for most of the major engines... but ultimately the stock price controls the search results.

    The end result is a harsh reality: the librarian (Google/Yahoo/MSN/etc) doesn't want you to find the best book all the time. It wants you to spend time in the library. When you are in the library browsing the card catalog, you buy drinks and stuff from vendors (advertisers) while looking for more information.

    Even if you have all the money taken aside, you will always have a huge problem with celebrity endorsements. Online celebrities have the ability to expose millions of people to whatever they want (who needs Paris Hilton!) with a simple blog post.

  • Jay Hamilton-Roth
    Posted by Jay Hamilton-Roth, Mill Valley, California | Jun 03, 2008

    Barry, I agree with many of your points.

    When I endorse something (or refer someone), it's my reputation that's at stake. From a personal standpoint, I want to keep my credibility high, so I don't try to game the system.

    As a business person, if I get a kickback from a referral, then I need to balance my ethics with my bank account. If my referral would happen without the kickback, no conflict. But what's my credibility worth if I can't put food on the table?

    There may be "harsh reality" that capitalism rules our culture. However not every CEO must optimize shareholder value at the expense of "what's right".

    My points are simply:

    • Actively listen to marketing messages.
    • Vote your values with your bank account.
    • Ethics and marketing can peacefully co-exist.
    • Shortcuts to success come at a "cost".
  • Barry Hurd
    Posted by Barry Hurd, Seattle, Washington | Jun 03, 2008

    I think in the not to distant future, there will be a fairly significant shift in "social media" and how people are using reputation and networking.

    I believe the kickback idea you mentioned is the hardest part to deal with online. In the eyes of Google, paid links are mostly ignored, so no one really wants to say "yep, I'm paid for that"

    In the end (for me at least) is the idea that people who question right vs. wrong are more likely to be doing what is right. If someone isn't actively considering ramifications, then they are probably doing wrong (even if unknowingly)

    ~Ethical minds question what good hearts feel

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  • ethics
  • morality

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