Underground Marketing
 

Did anyone see 60 minutes a few nights ago? They had a segment about marketing firms trying to create buzz and word of mouth using planted shills in public places. They are also posting in various message boards and chat rooms to advertise. I knew the latter for quite awhile, but it didn't occur to me that they are doing it in public places too. Do you think you've been exposed to these practices? Do you think GC has been hit with underground marketing?

Most important, do you think this practice is ethical?

Why would it not be ethical?

Because the undercover marketers were lying.

Would it be ethical for another fraternity to sneak one of their bothers into your rush meeting? Then the plant mingles with the PNMs and tells them they should rush his fraternity?

There are definitely some stealth marketers on GC but they seem to have gone away since they were "outed."

I don't think it's ethical - and it can easily backfire as far as creating "buzz." People don't like to be fooled. Even if I had really wanted to see Country Bears or whatever it was, I sure as hell wouldn't go after seeing the stealth marketers on here posting about it.

What were they lying about? Their identity? No one asked their identity.

Can we say it's annoying? Yep.

Against the TOS on this board? Definitely.

Unethical? That's just a grey area to me.

Re: Underground Marketing
 

How is this different than hiring an actor to endorse your product? You know the actor probably isn't using the product...the only difference is one is a known actor and the other is not (yet).

Marketing is all about getting the product to you and your money. Ethics always seem a little hinky in this field.

Did you know that about 45% (if I remember correctly) on news and in magazines are PR plants? Seriously...many things on the news are not really news- they just had a good PR firm write a great news release that got them coverage. Even when you read a magazine and they swear how fabulous some new lip gloss or briefcase is...even if its not a catalogue, most likely its the result of a news release being sent to the magazine.



ETA: My point being that you've been exposed this entire time and didn't even know it. I don't think this is any different, although ALL of it is annoying.

The sign you wrote a good news release is that the news uses it word for word.

The next time you read a magazine, pay attention to the space used to talk about products. Pay attention to the fact that it is VERY rare that a product is called a poor product. In fact, I've never actually seen this happen in some types of magazines.

Unethical?