Full circle

Something I read recently that got me thinking. The words needled my brain and mocked at me while I prepared myself for years of confession. Of course, any form of penitance would only be possible provided I give up the sinful act. This would perhaps be near impossible given the sinful act is bread on my table and butter on the bread.

Let me put it this way, perhaps then, you'll understand my plight.

For years our businesses have pushed brands into the homes of people around the world, promising them the moon and the stars. As marketing progressed and as marketers finally understood the importance of listening to the consumer, listening is what companies started doing. We listened to what the consumer had to say. We picked out from his voice what he wanted or what he aspired to be. What happened next was the evil twist in the story when we tied the consumer's truth to our brand, all in order to sell a product in the market that the consumer actually wanted.

You may wonder, 'what's so evil about that? Aren't we providing the consumer what he wants?' I'll take this opportunity of indulging in the very irritating, answering a question with a question, 'are we?' Does the introduction of blue granules in the tootpaste tube actually result in whiter teeth or were those blue granules introduced to make people believe that they would get whiter teeth?

From preempting consumer wants and producing truthful goods, we moved to knowing consumer wants and marrying that reality to our existing goods. Whether it made absolute sense or not, should I dare to say, a bit of a force-fit most of the time. 

And over the years, the million dollar task evolved to communicating a new and improved product with something, anything, that would  justify our new and improved promise. Sadly and unmistakably, we as marketers and advertising arms have fallen victim to the very addictive, neurotic and rather impressive ways of lying.

Well guess what? Seems that the world's dynamics are shifting and the average folk are beginning to differentiate between real benefit and concocted benefit. Thanks or no thanks; to each one his own, to the rise of social portals and digital media that are connecting people across the world. Very aptly stated in the article I read, 'The ultimate purpose of conversation is to produce a shared understanding of truth.' Today's consumer is informed, aware and careful.

As a result, brands are getting wedged with what's known as the truth gap. And advertising fuels this gap, lengthening it to no end. 'But you said so in the ad!' has clearly become a popular statement.

What is the measure of dissatisfaction we are leaving our consumers with? How much cheaper should the product have been? How much faster should the service have been? How much better were consumers expecting the product or service to be? The closer people get to unraveling the truth gap of each product or service they consume, the bigger the distance they start developing with that brand.

Finally, the sinful act of lying; like in every known case of lies over the centuries, has started catching up with the ones responsible. Marketers are going to now have to pay towards damage control in the aim of making it up to the consumers. Not much fun given this cost would be coming out of the profits earned from lying to people in the first place.

Until later. In the meantime, I've got to figure out the level of guilt sitting within me.