#10 Consumerism; We consumers need to be informed.

In chapter 20 in our textbook, "Principles of Marketing," we learned about sustainable marketing and the ethics in marketing. Especially, consumerism is the idea of protecting the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers. For example, the right to not to buy a product that is offered for sale, the right to expect the product to be safe, the right to expect the product to perform as claimed, and the right to be well informed about important aspects of the product. To protect these rights and power of consumers, marketers must work out of philosophy of socially responsible and ethical behavior, so that they will not make any harms for customers.

When I was reading this chapter, one case in Japan came to my mind. Many Japanese celebrity bloggers got about $500 to $4,000 from the company that manage penny auction sites in return for introducing the auction website in their blog. The big problem here was celebrity bloggers did not tell that they got money for introducing the penny auction, so that many people might misunderstood that those famous bloggers introduced it as a third party and trust that information. In addition to that, many of the bloggers used words and pictures and led viewers to think that those bloggers actually used the auction website and got a product at a good price, however, in the truth they did not use or buy things using the website.

One for the blog that are criticized. Image from http://geinounews.mobi/archives/1163 

The Japanese police arrested the manager of the company that asked celebrities to write about the penny auction website in their blog. Bloggers who gained money from the company and wrote the false or misleading information did not be arrested because the lighter charge and it already run out of the statute of limitations when their bad practice were brought to light.

This case is the one related to "undercover marketing." According to the Wikipedia,

Undercover marketing (also known as "stealth marketing", or, by its detractors, "roach baiting") is where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to. Buzz campaigns can reach consumers isolated from all other media, and unlike conventional media, consumers tend to trust it more often, as it is usually coming from a friend or acquaintance. Overall, the person doing the marketing must look and sound like a peer of their target audience, without any signs of an ulterior motive for endorsing the item.

Example

Sony Ericsson used an undercover campaign in 2002 when they hired 60 actors in ten major cities and had them accost strangers and ask them: "Would you mind taking my picture?" The actor then handed the target a brand new picture phone while talking about how cool the new device was. "And thus an act of civility was converted into a branding event.

In the case of the Penny auction website, consumers were not informed that the celebrities posts on their blog is the advertisement. Also, because bloggers are celebrities and famous people, people were more likely to believe that the website was safe and benefited us with very cheap prices and good products. The penny auction has appeared in 2009 and it was not popular at all, so the company used the celebrities to gain a lot of people's recognition and their trust using the power of celebrities. Thanks to the Internet, we consumers receive a lot of  information very easily, and that means it is much easy to mislead consumers. I think the importance of the marketers to follow the marketing ethics and satisfy customers with satisfaction is increasing.


Sources;
The Japan Times "Celebrity bloggers not required to disclose paid endorsements"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

For more information......
I found another example of stealth marketing (or undercover marketing) in the USA.
Stealth marketing: When you're being pitched and you don't even know it!