Sneaky Stealthy Marketing

Howdy Gorillas,
Have you ever sat on a bus minding your business when someone sits next to you, whips out a gadget you haven’t seen before and starts fiddling with it. Suddenly the person starts talking to you about it. Weird right? If only because no one talks to anyone anymore but more importantly, why would you care about their new toy?
Once you’ve determined that this person isn’t crazy, you start listening to what they are saying. They seem quite excited about it and you don’t want to appear rude. After all, you’re a friendly, civilized person.
However, mentally, you’re still wondering what the deal is and you consider your options:
A. This is a very lonely person who starts up conversations with strangers on public transit. The pity factor kicks in and you listen.
B. This new gadget must be so kick*** cool that they just can’t contain their excitement and if that’s the case, it might be a good idea to learn more.
By the time you get off the bus, you know more about the gadget than if you’d read a brochure. You know the make, the model, where you can get it and that it’s a pretty darn cool gadget. Hey, maybe you even made a friend. The truth is less pleasant. Chances are – you were just marketed to by a paid representative of the manufacturer. This my friends, is called Stealth Marketing. Other labels include Undercover Marketing and the ever so nicely put, roach baiting.
Stealth Marketing is marketing to consumers without their awareness of being marketed to. This is quite a controversial practice and has elicited a huge ethical debate. However, there is no debate on its initial effectiveness.
The Joneses, a comedy released in 2009, provides a hilarious depiction of Stealth Marketing at its finest. Watch the preview here. The Joneses
Stealth Marketing combines several components that make it so powerful.
1. Defense: Your defense wall, which you have developed due to too many marketing messages, is down because you don’t know you’re being marketed to.
2. Word of Mouth: Research shows that the oldest, most powerful source of persuasion is word-of-mouth or advocacy. When someone (without ulterior motives) advocates a product or service, you are more likely to listen and believe them.
3. Product Presentation: Part of this practice is the opportunity to discuss the product and present the benefits to an open-minded consumer.
4. Budget-friendly: It goes without saying that 20 stealth marketers is more cost-effective than 30 seconds on traditional media.
A word of Caution! If you consider this marketing practice, be prepared for the potential backlash from consumers that may occur when the cat’s out of the bag. This can be seen with the infamous Fake Tourists Campaign launched by Sony Ericsson in 2002.
The campaign entailed 60 actors in major cities pretending to be tourists and taking pictures. The catch is that they always asked someone else to take a picture for them with their cool new phone that doubled as a digital camera (in 2002 that was pretty nifty). Naturally, people were curious and asked questions which the ‘tourists’ were happy to answer. Unfortunately, when consumers learned that they didn’t discover a new product from a coincidental tourist and were actually an unwitting subject to a sales pitch, they got mad. Very very mad. Read more here.

In 2006, Proctor and Gamble launched a Stealth Marketing campaign to promote their products, which are mainly, household products. They elicited the help of 600 thousand moms all over the country to talk to their friends about Proctor and Gamble products. You can read more about this here
The questionable ethics of this marketing practice led the FTC to set up guidelines in an attempt to protect consumers. In addition, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) strictly monitors this practice.
So the question is – what do I think?
It’s double sided. As a marketer, it’s a great way to get to the bottom line. As a consumer – well, I’m on the fence. On one hand, I feel exploited by marketers trying to sell me their wares without my knowing. On the other hand, the moment I (and we all) purchased a fast food because Paris Hilton said it was hot, was the day we said it was OK to market to us any which way they please.
Until next time – keep it real, even if those darstardly marketers can’t.
KBG~
www.keyboardgorilla.com