"Ethical" Marketing???!!
I rented the documentary, The Corporation, tonight. I orignally saw the movie when it came was in theatres, but I didn't get the chance to sit with a paper and pen and write down the really important stuff. So, after spending the last couple of weeks with my nose deep into marketing books and websites and my attention focused on finding more effective ways to make things 'sticky' and cause 'epidemics', I wanted to keep myself in check by remembering what it is that I should always remember when spiraling wildly into the sexy world of marketing.I ended up with ten pages of notes and sitting down with my 12 year-old son, explaining the depths of consumer responsibility in terms he could understand. The issue is that there are some products we are both so deeply invested in that we turn a blind eye to any of their possible crimes against humanity (and the environment and animals).
Tad (my son) was disgusted by many of the stories told in The Corporation, but most of these stories were about brands he didn't have any real ties to, except for Coca-Cola. He named off a list of corporations he thought were trustworthy, like Sony (for Playstation), Nintendo (for Gameboy), NeoPets, Pizza Hut, Ikea (where he's getting his loft bed from next month) and some other smaller ones. I think over the next couple of weeks, I'll sit down with him to deconstruct the ideals around these brands and uncover their own corporate crimes. I don't want to frighten him, but I do want him to grow up making informed decisions about the 'brands' he buys into. I want him to be able to decipher the corporate message from the reality. I think of it as de-programming and my responsibility as a parent. It's especially important, since I've chosen a career path that entails the creation of these messages.
I struggle with the question of social responsibility vs. career goals every day. I enjoy what I do. I also think what many in my profession do is despicable. I disdain advertising agencies. I can say that because I worked for one. I don't think I could ever again. Rogue, my own company, was never about deceiving people, although as I've freely admitted, I let down my principles many times to pay the bills.
In the end, though, is there such thing as 'ethical' marketing? I've heard of ethical investing, but even then, I've never questioned the standards on which these ethics are set. What benchmarks are these ethical corporations set against? The rest? I would think the bar is pretty low, so it wouldn't take much. Authenticity is part of the solution when it comes to marketing ethically, but even then, you can be touting an authentic message regarding a product that nobody needs or is produced on the backs of others.
I like to think about solutions. The first time I watched The Corporation, I kept thinking, "The answer is to hold ALL shareholders & stakeholders responsible!" This way, they would take some of the pressure off of the CEO and employees relying on their employment income to make a living and the consumer, with little to no power, and be accountable for plundering. But if people aren't taking responsibility today, why would they then?
Tonight, though, I thought about what we reward in our society. We reward high profile, sexy, bigger-than-life projects. We reward celebrity. We reward polish. We very rarely reward ethics. We never reward the corner store business people who manage to increase their business through a really great community-based word of mouth campaign.
I've won awards for my marketing efforts: on a big client with a big budget (well, as compared to the corner store). But now, every year I gaze through Marketing Magazine and the CMA website at the awards nominations and I don't see room for efforts of the corner store word of mouth campaign. Even if it resulted in their business doubling. I actually applied for one of those awards a year ago for my 'guerilla' CreamSoda Funk self-promotion campaign. I thought it was edgy and creative and unique. I paid my $450 entry fee and didn't even get nominated. Last year, $450 was alot of money to me. I didn't even receive a rejection letter. I would have been better off paying the $250 awards show ticket price and watching the same agencies win for the same, "Ain't we clever" creative.
And, of course, all of the awards shows have the same basic categories: television, radio, outdoor, print, blah blah blah. They did add a miscellaneous category (which I entered mine in) and a web component in the past couple of years, but the other categories have several tiers (under $20k, over $20k, retail, automotive, etc.).
So, someone like myself, who is setting goals and concerned about growing her career, is tempted by the big, sexy projects. Even if I couldn't sleep at night, I'd have another notch on my resume. And that's what it comes down to. The resume.
What's one of the first things someone asks you when you meet, "So, what do you do?"
People tend to respect your opinions more if you work at a big, recognizable company or with big, recognizable brands. Because of my interest in research and theory and writing, I would love to contribute articles to marketing magazines and online resources. So, I keep submitting and then I get the email: "Your article was great, but we'd like to see you discuss the work you've done with a recognizable brand. We look forward to your submission." Huh?
Oh, and there was that time that Marketing Magazine called me to ask me some questions on guerilla marketing for an article they were writing. The guy seemed really juiced with my suggestions, theories and answers...until he asked me to give him my list of credentials, "But haven't you worked on anything that I'd recognize?"
I don't think that good work has to end in world domination with a brand. In fact, I prefer it doesn't. I watched The Corporation tonight with fascination, remembering a line from The Lorax, by Dr. Seuss:
I'm watching these corporations talk about growth and remembering all of the recounting of the success and growth in all of the books I've been reading...and then Michael Moore asks, "How much money is enough?" and that half-burnt out lightbulb that was almost gone goes on again.I, the Once-ler, felt sad as I watched them all go.
BUT...business is business!And business must grow regardless of crummies in tummies, you know.
I meant no harm.
I most truly did not.
But I had to grow bigger. So bigger I got.
I biggered my factory.
I biggered my roads.
I biggered my wagons. I biggered the loads of the Thneeds I shipped out.
I was shipping them forth to the South! To the East! To the West! To the North!
I went right on biggering... selling more Thneeds.
And I biggered my money, which everyone needs.
So, maybe 'ethical' marketing involves helping your clients grow to their potential, but also helping them keep it all in perspective. You're making $25 million per year on that widget...how much would you have to sell to make you happy? Do you really think everyone needs this widget? I know that is career suicide for a marketing professional, but I also look at the cost of biggering and biggering. Eventually, the market is going to break and that widget might not be relevant. It'll be beat out (think cassettes). Then there will be layoffs. And the cost will be human.
Could marketers become totally ethical? Could we say, "Hey, I'd love to write a clever ad for you, but your product isn't remarkable. I don't like to lie. I'll pass." And could we also say, "Wow, $25 million is a great profit. Your goal is to make $250 million profit in the next few years? Well, I could take you there, but I'd like to sit down and discuss with you the reasoning behind this objective before I make that decision." Or could we say, "You know, your product is really sexy and I can see this account would be worth oodles of money for me to pay my bills and my employees, but I just can't work for a corporation that exploits people in third world countries/plunders the environment/insert corporate evil here."
Yeah, right. If I think I'm being laughed at now, just wait!
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