Market Navigators

Online Transparency: Pull Back the Curtain

The Wizard of Oz

One of my favourite beneficial impacts of the Internet has been how the curtain can be pulled back to reveal the reality behind the facade.

Marketing has gotten a bad rap over the years — and rightly so at times — with the misrepresentation that occurs when companies do not behave honestly.

It seems crazy, but our parents and grandparents took what they heard on radio and saw on television as complete truth. “Smoking isn’t bad for your health.” How could they know any different? The message was tightly controlled and there was no platform for anyone who felt or thought differently.

It used to be that you only knew what companies wanted you to know. We may take it for granted now, but that changed in a huge way with something we may already take for granted — the ability to publish video and text to a worldwide audience. Now, news of any and all kinds spreads like rapid-fire around the globe.

Keep that in mind as a business owner. It’s not that everything you do is under scrutiny or that you can never screw up. Just set out to be the kind of business you want to do business with. And when you screw up (not if), be transparent and resolve it quickly.

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 By liz gaige, May 5, 2010 · Filed under Advertising, Articles

Stating the Obvious

I seem to be a magnet for dumb advertising these days.

Stating the not-so-obvious

I found this ad, also in a magazine, which plainly states the obvious: “Grape is a fruit. Not a flavour.”

But wait. Maybe it’s not so obvious to state the obvious anymore. A couple of summers ago my sister moved onto a farm just outside of town, taking her two young children with her (…which just seemed like a good idea).

Anyway, my sister was thrilled to have the space and grew a huge garden full of produce. One day that first summer she said to my neice, about four years old at the time, “Look honey, these carrots came from our garden.” My niece looked at her in that way only a four-going-on-14 year old can, and said patiently, “Mom. Carrots don’t come from the garden. They come from the store.” My sister was horrified!

So began a concerted educational program which included having the kids plant seeds and water them, assisting with harvest, and providing tours to all their visiting friends to show them where lunch was coming from.

If my four year old niece didn’t know where carrots come from, maybe we can’t take for granted that consumers will check to see if there actually are any grapes in their grape juice, or oranges in their orange juice.

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 By liz gaige, January 10, 2010 · Filed under Advertising, Articles

Guns Don’t Kill People…But Stupid Ads Might

Marketing is often (and erroneously) equated with advertising, and advertising has a bad rap. That’s understandable based on examples like tobacco companies which, back in the day, told consumers that smoking had no adverse health affects.

Advertising: Gone to the Dogs

Yeah, so busted.

In this day and age, advertising still has a bad rap and based on this recent find torn from a health and wellness magazine, with good reason. This time, it’s the ludicrous-ness that gives advertising it’s apparently well-deserved reputation.

“Unlock your dog’s full potential,” the copy says.

I just have a few questions:

1. Exactly how much potential does a dog actually have? Can we every truly expect them to graduate much beyond tail wagging, bum licking and fetch? And if so, how would kibble be the catalyst in this grandiose evolution?
2. Who hires the people that come up this stuff?! Better yet, who at Purina authorized payment? I’ll bet it was a committee decision; someone on that committee should have known better.
3. Do the people these agencies hire and pay to write this stuff think we’re all idiots?! Give your head a shake.

Seriously, people.

Note to advertisers: THIS is what gives advertising a bad name. I wouldn’t care except that many people are under the mistaken impression that advertising and marketing are the same thing. Which means you’re also giving ME a bad name.

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 By liz gaige, January 5, 2010 · Filed under Advertising, Articles