Rohit Bhargava, author of the Influential Marketing Blog, recently predicted that what he called “Brutal Transparency” or “Aggressive Honesty” will become one of the top social media marketing strategies in 2011. Bhargava argued that being extremely honest, you can create edgier and more effective marketing.
For example, the post gave the example of how customers compare Domino’s Pizza crust to cardboard.
In theory, I loved this notion of aggressive honesty, especially for technology marketers. After all, most customers have, at one time or another, been burned by overenthusiastic technology marketing claims and it’s a perfect way to overcome customers’ lingering doubts.
Broken Promises
I’ll never forget the time, years ago, when I worked for a company that was touting an overarching vision of an end to end solution. Unfortunately, the solution hadn’t actually been built. Professional Services was supposed to build the solution for the first customer that bought it (and who thought they were buying a packaged solution). That purchase would, in turn, fund the company’s development of a solution that they could then later sell again to other customers. Eventually, the company did find a customer. They even proceeded to get the customer to endorse the product in a press release and an event. But before long, it became clear that that the implementation would be much more complex than the customer had imagined. And the customer called the company to task in a series of heated meetings.
And that’s not the only story I’ve heard of broken promises from technology companies to their customers. I do a lot of customer success stories. Many times even a customer who’s very happy overall with the product will start the interview by talking about a problem they had with the vendor or something they decidedly don’t like about the product.
Coming Clean
Since potential customers know that technology installations will inevitably have problems, why not build your credibility by admitting to the potential problems up front, and then turning the issue around by explaining how you successfully addressed the issue. I personally think it would be a breath of fresh air and would give me confidence in the vendor’s ability to solve the problem.
Not Likely
As much as I think that Brutal Transparency or Aggressive Honesty is the way to go, do I think this type of marketing will ever get very far?
No.
It’s a simple matter of human nature. How many politicians do you see admitting to wrongdoing before the proven facts bite them in the you-know-what? What about businesspeople? Same story.
Indeed, judging by the dozens of vendors I’ve worked with, marketing people are mortally afraid of even the slightest whiff of negatively. The fear is that you will plant a negative thought in someone’s head that wouldn’t have been there otherwise, which will in turn lead to doubts that will cause people to choose another vendor.
I don’t think that most marketers will ever adopt Brutal Honesty as a strategy until more people are willing to admit that no one is perfect and no situation is black and white. In today’s polarized political climate, I’m not sure that’s possible. Only when people do gain a more nuanced view of the world, will marketing be able to follow suit and be more honest. When that day comes, marketers will perform a true service by fostering a win-win situation where people, with all their imperfections, have all the information they need to realistically weigh the pros and cons of solutions, with all their imperfections, and t find the product that’s truly the best fit for their requirements.
How honest have you been in your marketing? How’s that worked out for you?
Good advice for some lovely present!! Thank you
Posted by: oakley sunglasses | April 28, 2012 at 09:22 PM