Of ethics in marketing

“Complan peene waale bacchen badhe baki bacchon se teen guna jyada!”

Thus goes the punchline of the latest campaign by Complan. And suddenly it hits me… all these years of cursing our genes. All these years of looking up at the tall Europeans. Darn, if only our ancestors had discovered Complan earlier, we would have ended up being a taller race. Darn, if I had switched from bournvita back then, I could have been a 6 footer by now… stupid me getting conned by the catchy jingle.

I am sure you get the drift of my sarcasm. It’s clearly stupid to believe that one energy drink can impact your height or make you grow faster. But then again, why are they claiming such. And why is there an independent study to back this claim. Then again, this is just one example of so many such campaigns.

In MBA, I belonged to the famous majority of confused about career choice. I clearly liked operations and supply chain, but with the limited courses and career opportunities on offer, I had realized my passion a bit too late, or so I thought. Consequently, as a back up, I took a few marketing courses. Marketing was definitely interesting (much more than finance definitely) and I did manage to get a hang of it. Ofcourse, I did not share the same level of passion that I saw in some of my batch mates, nor was did I dwell on it enough to gain “greater insights”. I did manage to get a job in one of the FMCG cos in sales but to the best of my memory, the interview was mainly personals and the guy was quite impressed by my passion for F1 and event organizing rather than any marketing insights I might have had. Moral of the story, I would certainly have been a very ordinary brand manager, if ever I survived to make it there. Moreover, my marketing knowledge is half baked and can be looked at as an outsider’s perspective (too many rides, criticism wary are us!).

However, it not the fact that I would be doing something that interest me less or something that I would be just about average at (small assumption here that I am good at what I do right now) that makes me shudder at the thought. It is the thought that I could have been that brand manager responsible to developing the campaign above, and such others. I mean, what if I was the brand manager required to deliver the above positioning? One skill that I might have been able to put to use is a good knowledge of stats which might help tamper the sample data and hence results of the “independent research”.

Supply chain (especially outbound logistics) is so much simpler. You do not have to fight with your conscience at basic levels. Your job is to get things done most efficiently and at the least cost. No real conflicts there. Ofcourse sometimes there are ethically tough decisions to be made, but then, those are seldom in the realm of fooling someone (whom you are supposed to worship) with inadequate and wrong information. It is a problem that I see mainly in sales and marketing.

Ofcourse, unlike lawyers and politicians, not everything that a marketing guy does is evil. Clearly, brand positioning and hence communication is just one of the many things a marketer does. Moreover, not every brand communication is filled with lies. To my knowledge, Brand communication has 3 objectives and hence types

1. Communicating the functional attributes of your product (or category in its nascent stage)
2. Creating an aspirational value for the brand (a la pepsi, adidas etc)
3. Providing customer insights on why your brand is better than competition

It is point 3 (and in a tighter interpretation, point 1) that I see most disturbing and gray. My limited experience in the paint industry leads me to believe that any product is a slave to its technical design. No two products are directly comparable. Moreover, especially in case of competitive products from big brands, it is very difficult to hit a winner. So while your product may be better off in some attributes, in others, it may not meet up to competition parameters.

Now the question for a sales or marketing guy is, would you put all facts on the table and let the customer make his decision, or would you go hammer and tongs on the attributes that are superior. Would you get “independent studies” carried out to back up your claims? Or would you just make a convenient interpretation of some tangential fact and make a claim that is unverified? (an old example in this regard http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?204602)

More interestingly, What if you yourself believe that your product is inferior (and also badly priced) compared to a competition product?

Marketing as a field throws some really tough ethical questions, especially for the guy who genuinely believes that the customer is the king. (A good king, not a stupid one who should only be told what you deem is relevant)

Ofcourse, these problems are not restricted to marketing. They are also linked to product design. Infact the product design team has the tough job of working in the tightest of constraints. Possibly, it is they who come up with some of the most creative tests and results to establish the superiority of the product they have designed. However, they are not the ones talking to the customer. Moreover, since that was never in my list of options, nor are any of my potential readers in that field, I will leave them out of this discussion for now.

So here is the question to all my brand manager friends, would you go ahead any glorify your product based on incorrect/incomplete/conveniently doctored information? Would you let yourself be a party to the Complan campaign as it is? Or am I missing something here?