Marketing plays a crucial role in the success of businesses but it often gets a bad reputation. There’s too many ads, too much noise, and too much chaos over winning the attention of the audience.
Companies and businesses are constantly trying to build a brand and make a buck while marketing. Building a brand is long term and making a quick buck is short term. When you prioritize quick buck over brand, the tactics you employ are going to be fundamentally different than if you focus long term.
When focused on the short term, everyone’s thinking, how can I get a quick sale? And that leads to a crowded space of overwhelming ads, misleading promotions, false promises, intrusive tactics, among so many other things.
Grabbing people’s attention is so hard when so many people are fighting for it. Here’s all the ways people grab attention, pop up ads, spam emails and too many repetitive ads. They do a good job of grabbing people’s attention but a bad job of building trust.
Then there is data collection that companies use for targeted advertising, that consumers feel is unfairly used against them. This also raises concerns about privacy and security of the data.
Businesses are also dealing with a lot of non consumer facing, saving their a** stuff like competition, protection of their patents, legal etc. that make it hard for businesses to be FULLY transparent. But this hurts the consumer perception of business not being transparent.
Businesses also have targets to meet and metrics to monitor. Sales targets, revenue goals all are focused on short term gains over long term brand reputation. They motivate marketers to use tactics that generate quick but shallow engagement.
Certain businesses and brands, who are good marketers, have managed to maintain a really good positive reputation due to their commitment to transparency, and customer first approach. Patagonia is known for its environmental and socially responsible brand. Tesla’s focus on clean energy has been big in building its positive image. Costco has built its reputation on commitment to providing high quality products and treats it’s employees with great wages and benefits. Consumers love the products and services these companies offer.
So marketing gets a bad reputation because marketers focus on quick results and short term gains over long term success. This makes them resort to overwhelming ads, misleading promotions, intrusive tactics, data privacy concerns, and a lack of transparency, eroding trust and alienating consumers.