Misleading Marketing Tactics

Too Good To Be True

Some of these ads might sound convincing but they are just too good to be true, this is going to be about some great examples of the misleading marketing companies. These ads are more than just a way to make people purchase your product they are the key element in the company’s relationship with consumers, its a way of connecting with your target market and building trust with them. Some of these advertising themes, lines or technics are less than truthful when it comes to the product benefits.

Dating sites 

“Ads for dating websites will make you think you can easily find your soul mate with a click of a mouse, right”. 

Not necessarily, although ads for these sites suggest a rapid love connection, it tends to be more hit or miss with an emphasis on the ladder.  Most big sites make big promises about the scientific behind their match making method but few actually review that method to the public. Some websites even create ghost profile to interrupt newbie members, so daters be aware.  

Fast Food Misleading Marketing

"Our food taste as good as it looks", with fast food ads looks can be deceiving, while any food photography employs a food stylist and some companies are less honest when it comes to what they show versus what they serve. For example, many real life fast food Hamburgers are not nearly as appealing as they look in commercials. In the pictures below you can see there is a size difference but burgers aren’t the only cooperate culprit, for Subway $5 footlongs fell short of their 12 inch promise and got the company into hot water, they got sued for fraud act in New Jersey (America) “…deceptive practice for Subway to advertise its large sandwich as a ‘Footlong”.

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Our Car Perfoms Well on the Road!

Seeing ads with sky high production value for cars that claim to have tons of horsepower and are great on gas can make people want to race out buy to the newest model. However as appealing as all that sounds its not always truthful, just ask the owners of  Hyundai’s and KIA’S from 2011-2013,  over 900 thousand cars between the two companies where advertised with exaggerated gas mileage, with some off by as much as 6 miles this was an expensive fit as Hyundai and KIA where forced to reimburse customers for their extra gas with pre-paid debit cards and the payments where based on fuel price and miles driven also the cards included a 15% bonus to make up for inconvenience.

Conclusion

This is bad for marketer because consumers are starting to realise that they are being manipulated in to buying thing even though it doesn’t offer the things it says and this always leads to lawsuits and the marketers end up losing more, which is both customers and money. For example the lawsuit against Hyundai, KIA they ended up settling for$360M mpg according to the EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy and Attorney General Eric Holder.

Operant Conditioning and The Way Companies Reward Their Customers

Operant Conditioning explains how consequences lead to changes in voluntary behaviour. B.F Skinner says it’s a form of learning that focuses on using either positive or negative punishment or reinforcement to change an individual’s behaviour. B.F Skinner discovered that behaviour that is reinforced tends to be repeated and that behaviour that is not reinforced tend to die out.

The picture above shows how B.F Skinner used rats on his experiment with positive and negative reinforcement. According to Skinner the rats quickly learned that by pressing the lever they get a reward or turn of the shock.

Positive Reinforcement- strengthens a behaviour by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding. This makes it more likely that you will do it again like when the rat was getting food from pressing the Lever/ stopping the electric shocks once they pressed the lever or like when you get desert after you finish eating your veggies. An example of Positive Reinforcement: click here  

Negative Reinforcement- this strengthens behaviour because it stops or removes and unpleasant experiences.  This is the removal of a stimulus like getting no homework because you did well in class.

Punishment- this the opposite of Positive reinforcement because it makes it less likely that you will repeat it again.

Operant conditioning is everywhere in our daily lives, there aren’t many thing that we do in our lives that haven’t been influenced at some point in Operant conditioning. We even see Operant conditioning in some extraordinary situations like teaching pigeons to do some tricks by systematically rewarding them for desirable behaviour.

Operant Conditioning has been brought to the marketing place and businesses started rewarding their customers based on buying or using their brand ^{(Solomon, 2012)}. It tends to create a relationship where consumers associate the brand with rewards and they keep returning to their products.

Reinforcement:

ü  Fixed-Interval Reinforcement-  this makes individuals want to buy your product because  it maybe only scheduled or for a limited amount of time e.g. you have always wanted to go on a holiday but you could never afford it but let’s say Secret Escape Holiday Offers   these are just for a limited amount of time so you are forced to get them or wait till next year. (Sales / Special Offers)

ü  Variable Interval Reinforcement-  this is when the reinforce should provide motivation for the behaviour to be repeated like having Secret shoppers keep standards high or having work reviews every months to get feedback based on your performance that month.

ü  Fixed-Ratio Reinforcement- is a schedule of reinforcement where a response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses. E.g. various companies in the tourism Industry have many ways of rewarding their loyal customers. British airways have a rewards system which ranges from the Blue exclusive club, Bronze, Silver and Gold membership. Each time a customer flies with them they get a chance to add points each of their exclusive clubs have different benefits for the consumer. Consumers get attracted to such schemes it’s a good way to draw customers in. (Loyalty cards, bonus points etc.)

ü  Variable-Ratio Reinforcement- is a schedule of reinforcement wherein a reinforcer is provided following a pre-determined average number of responses Example  . (Probability of Reward – Gambling, betting, risk). In conclusion this is a good marketing scheme for companies lastly it is a good way to enforce customer loyalty. 

Celebrity Marketing

Mostly Famous people have always made excellent salesmen. Presenting a familiar face is one of the fastest and easiest ways for companies to create brand associations in the minds of consumers. When a widely loved actor or a heroic sports figure endorses a product, that product gains immediate credibility. This is like when you use celebrities like Rihanna who was named the most marketable celebrity in the world, according to (Global Information Provider) it's most likely for the young  audience will purchase a product featuring their idol and this will help the sales for the brand to increase and gain new and younger consumers and its up to them to keep them.

Celebrity marketing is a tactic featuring a famous person to offer an endorsement of a product. This famous person might be an actor, musician, athlete, ex-politician or a cartoon character. They do not need to be international superstars; they only need to be familiar to the target audience. For instance, a famous skateboarder might be unknown to the population at large, but beloved in the circle of young men that energy drinks are being marketed to. Basically its about knowing your target market and what will attract them to your product.

A celebrity’s involvement can range from an explicit to an implicit endorsement of a product. Some celebrity marketing campaigns try to suggest that the star uses the product personally and enjoys it. Others simply involve the celebrity in the image of the brand, relying on the celebrity’s reputation rather than their outright endorsement to market a product. A great example will be the Pepsi advertisement in 2013; they Used Beyonce to reach a wider range of audience and this was a great markerting strategy for the brand because this helped increased their revenue and its known world wide because of Beyonce's big fan base.

Celebrity marketing has been used across all mediums. Print, television, radio, film and various forms of new media have all been effective outlets for celebrity endorsed products. The key is to match the right celebrity with the right product and place them both in the right ad campaign. If the combination is done well, it can lead to huge profits and an immediate change in the public perception of a company. If it is done poorly, it can ruin a brand overnight.

Successful and unsuccessful celebrity campaigns

Successful

1. Michael Jordan for Hanes – The famous basketball star has endorsed Hanes brand clothing for over a decade. The admiration of the athlete lends an air of respectability and quality to the brand.
2. Britney Spears for Pepsi – The pop star was the celebrity face of a famous ad campaign in the late 90s. The singer's worldwide fame and popularity helped to connect Pepsi with a new group of young soda drinkers.

Unsuccessful

1. OJ Simpson for Hertz – The football star endorsed Hertz Rent-A-Car throughout the 1980s. When he was accused of murder in the early 90s, the advertiser quickly severed their relationship with him.
2. Tiger Woods for Nike – Woods had been an iconic spokesman for the brand for years. Following the public meltdown of his marriage, Woods appeared in a now famous spot featuring a voice over from his deceased father. The ad was extremely unpopular and is widely considered one of the least effective ads of all time.

Hospitality and Sensory Marketing

Hospitality is an industry made up of different organisations including hotels, restaurants, food service management, fast food, coffee shops and pubs, bars and nightclubs. It contains a selection of job roles from waitressing to event coordination, and management positions too. It’s an industry that offers an exceptional working environment, and as it is public facing it offers a friendly and self-motivated working life.

Most of the times when people hear the word Hospitality the first thing that comes to their minds is food (mine does) but hospitality is more than that. It’s also about the relationship between a guest and a host and how they both present themselves to each other. In the Hospitality industry they use Sensory Marketing to attract their target market because our senses dictate what appeals to each one of us and this can happen in different ways.

First, Visions- colour influences emotions (Bryant 1999) in Hospitality colours are important and red stimulates appetite; in many Food advertisement they always use res because it’s associated with hunger and most Chefs tend to add more colour in their food to make it more interesting. Same principle, when there is wider variety of food choices, we associate this will a horizontal offering and feel it is acceptable to eat more because we think there isn’t that much available (Khan and Wanswick 2004). Long plate and horizontal positioning of food gives the impression that there is less food than there actually is. Consumers are then more likely to be ‘surprised’ in a positive way. Drinking – research has shown that bars over pour drinks in taller glasses because we perceive vertical size as being ‘more’ (Raghubir and Krishna 1999).

Secondly, Smell- Mitchel et al (2005) found that consumers who were exposed to visuals of flowers and chocolate who also experienced the scent of these items processed them for longer and formed more favourable perceptions. This is one of the most important ones for example some companies are associated with a certain scent for example when you smell coffee in the morning you think Starbucks and breakfast.

Thirdly, Touch- Research has shown that when consumers touch a product, they then have a higher level of attachment to the product. Consumer researchers are studying the role that haptic sense (touch) plays in consumer behaviour. Like sometimes when buying clothes you have to touch them to be satisfied with the quality than just buying online.

Fourth, Hearing- Research has shown sound and music can influence people’s mood, speed, responsiveness, direction, and propensity to consume. This also works in the tourism industry because a word of mouth counts. For example when booking a holiday sometime you go online to see the reviews of the resort before you book the holiday.  

How Organizations Meet their Target needs (Customer Service)

Consumer Behaviour and Experiential Marketing

"Consumer Behaviour is a process whereby individuals or groups purchase different products to fulfil their needs and wants". (Soloman.M (2013). Marketers must understand the various consumer segments they are targeting in order to meet the segments’ needs. Many dimensions are relevant for understanding consumer needs and wants. Usage (whether heavy or light) can help to focus marketers’ energies. In addition there are many demographic variables that can help in understanding groups of consumers.

How many times have you heard that ‘the customer is always right’? In the travel and tourism industry, a business that offers a high level of customer service is more likely to gain a competitive advantage. Many job roles in the sector require you to have customer service skills, which is why it is important for you to gain the knowledge, understanding and practical skills you need to be able to deliver an excellent customer experience. Every travel and tourism organisation has targets; these can be in the form of mission statements, customer charters or an increase in profits or visitor numbers. Many of these organisations will lay out a series of customer service aims that will help them meet these targets, and will enable them to make sure that customer service is being delivered at the highest level. Customer service aims can be measured and reviewed at regular intervals to determine how well an organisation is performing.

Table 1:1

Organization	Size	Type	Example of customer service aim
Visit Britain	Large	Public	·         Meeting customer needs, e.g. providing information ·         Increasing the number of visitors in the UK ·         Encouraging repeat business ·         Increase hotel bookings etc.
National Trust	Large	Voluntary	·         Increase visitors number ·         Meeting customer’s needs, e.g. information on historical  sites ·         Creating new business etc.
Chester Zoo	Medium	Private	·         Maximising profits ·         Increase in booking and shop sales ·         Encouraging  repeat business ·         Meeting customer needs, e.g. variety of animals, food outlets etc.

The size of an organisation may have an effect on the customer service aims of the organisation. For example, a small guesthouse may be more interested in meeting customer needs and creating new business in order to grow and gain popularity for their business. Whereas, a multi-national tour operator may be more interested in increasing profits and meeting increased bookings and sales targets in order to maintain a large workforce and profits for shareholders, as well as being able to offer choice to holidaymakers. This is not to say that they do not want to meet customer needs. They also have to meet customer expectations because most people when they hear about Chester Zoo they expect to go there and see all kinds of animals when they get there; so it is important for Chester Zoo to meet those expectations so they don’t end up with disappointed customers and may lose some if they don’t they will lose some repeat customers.