I had an interesting experience this morning. I blogged yesterday about Google and the spreading of its apps offerings worldwide and someone who read the post was offended by my take. Since it was a blog post from Google I was covering I thought it would be pretty upright of them to discuss that they are working to iron out issues they recently had (read: outages) so as to even out the picture of all is good with the Google world.
The ‘exchange’, as it were, made me think about marketing in general and social media specifically. I realized that the sheer ‘one-sidedness’ is kind of funny in light of how much more well informed the general buying public today. I realized that marketing is so ridiculously one sided in most cases that it is more about product utopia than it is about product reality.
Honestly, it would be refreshing to see a company actually talk about its strengths (be they real, perceived or contrived) along side of its shortcomings. Maybe the masses would find that weird or something they would rather not see but I personally would have great respect for a company that cuts its critics off at the knees and simply tells the whole truth.
Will this ever happen? I doubt it because it is a risky notion. If a company, however, is well known, or even infamous, for a certain behavior wouldn’t it be cool for them to show some humility by admitting the screw-up and addressing it head on. I believe there have been some examples of this in the past but they are so few and far between that I can’t remember clearly enough to state them.
So as a marketer are you a storyteller / fairy tale spinner? Do you really feel good about what you hold back? If you can’t actually say something in your marketing to put the customer or prospective customer at ease about your shortcomings are you working on your product internally to make changes that are obvious to the rest of the world? Does this sound silly to you?
Fortunately, it doesn’t matter how we as marketers feel about it anymore because there are fewer places to hide. Social media has made it harder to tell tall tales about perfect products and flawless delivery. In fact, if you are producing marketing materials that are even suggesting perfection then you are already ID’d as a BS artist.
I’m not saying that you run around telling everyone about your flaws but don’t be silly enough to think that people of any discernment are going to buy your polly-annish product pitch either. The world has changed and marketers need to as well.
So tell your story, tell it succinctly, tell it with humility and tell it like it really is and you will get more attention, which might actually result in more sales. How about that?!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the post! Good stuff!
I chuckled when I connected the subject of your post…with the image of Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox. Did you know that both images are originally made-up characters invented by a PR guy who worked for Red River Lumber (circa 1900) as a “brand” to sell more of the white pine lumber they were logging?
Tall Tale indeed!
@Chris – Are you serious?! I didn’t have a clue about that one. Well, just goes to show doesn’t it? I hope marketing moves away from the ‘Hollywood’ to the reality of life.
I know I would personally respond to any brand that is willing to be human rather than act as if nothing that they do stinks (including you know what).
Thanks for coming by and leaving a note!
Frank…Completely serious!
In fact, it gets even better. The first drawn image of Paul Bunyan looked kinda dumpy, and vaguely French-Canadian. The brawny Paul Bunyan image came about after the 1958 Walt Disney cartoon.
Sorry…I know too much about this, don’t I?
Yes, Chris, you do. :O) But that kind of stuff is fun. As far as “truth” telling and how easy it is to find it, I still don’t agree with that. Especially when it comes to reviews of various MMO products. The other day, I read through 5 pages of Google results and never found a negative review. The product wasn’t that expensive so I bought it. I guess the honest review will be up to me. Or maybe, the product is as good as they say it is.
As I’m writing, I didn’t think to search twitter. I did recently set up an account there, I’ll see what the Twitterheads have to say.
cd
:O)
FYI:
Same stuff on Twitter. Every tweet is just someone trying to sell the product. Maybe it really is that good?!?
cd :O)
@Both Chris’ – I have decided to trust everything every marketer says because they are all good people with good intentions. There, that was easy!
You must be one of those $15K a minutes guys. You’ll need to be with all of the info products being pushed by all of those trustworthy MMOers.
Hmm, maybe you can be my first buyer. :O)
Make it a great day.
cd :O)
For companies to admit that they are wrong is to show a lot of class and humility, especially on their blog or social media sites. It is a great internet marketing tactic that can pay off in spades!
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