The Dark Side of Marketing

In this episode of the Market It! Podcast, we explore the dark side of marketing. While branding and marketing can be a powerful tool when used ethically and effectively, there is also a negative side to the industry. Many people working in branding and marketing often feel like they are contributing to superficial, misleading advertising and selling unnecessary or overpriced products.

Join us as we dive into the dark side of marketing and explore the ethical considerations and responsibilities that come with using branding and marketing as a tool.

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At AHBC Group, we are passionate about helping entrepreneurs launch and grow a brand that is authentic to them, their purpose, and their audience. We enjoy working with entrepreneurs who have a strong purpose, a clear vision and who are animated by ethical, eco-conscious, and inclusive values, who like to challenge the status quo, and are not afraid to build a truly unique brand. If that sounds like you and you would like to discuss your project with us, apply here!

https://ahbc-group.com/

Transcript

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Branding is kind of a superpower. If you think about it, if you do it really well, and you tap into like all the tools that you have strategically execution wise, if you like tap into consumer psychology, consumer behaviors, all that type of stuff, it can be super powerful. You're listening to Market It!, Market It! by AHBC Group. Hello, and welcome to Market It!, the podcast that inspires and guides authentic entrepreneurs to build the soulful brand of their dreams and lead a purpose driven business. I'm Anne-Héloïse Chavin, the host of this podcast and the founder and brand builder in chief at a AHBC Group, a branding agency based in Miami, Florida. Well, Happy New Year, everyone, I'm so happy to be back on the podcasting thing. Because I haven't recorded a podcast in I think over two months. And that's really something that I want to focus on this year. Because I find that it brings me a lot of clarity in my work. And I think there's so many topics that I know that I want to cover about marketing and branding. And yeah, just really enjoy it. And just to give you a little bit of an update, we've also been growing the team, so I'm getting a lot more help now. So it's been a whole thing like putting all the processes in place. And it's an organization. But now that we've gotten through everything, like setting up everything, training people and all I feel like I can have a lot more time to focus on things like that. So I'm super pumped about that for 2023. That was just a little light and agency update. And by the way, let me know in like the Instagram comments maybe about this podcast, in case you would want to kind of know who we are behind the scenes of the agency live, how it works for us, like a specific process or days look like or stuff like that. We do it every day. So we don't realize when maybe I think that can interest some of you. So feel free to let us know about that. So the topic that I want to cover today is the dark side of marketing. I don't know if that's a clickbaity title. But yeah, basically, I was thinking of this thing that you know how people sometimes will say like, Oh, it's just marketing, and I hate hearing that sentence. And as a marketer and a Brand Builder. I used to feel kind of like not ashamed, but kind of like, oh, yeah, you know, I work in Marketing and feeling bad about working in that field. Like it's somehow like superficial. Basically, I feel like some people have the assumption that we spend our days telling lies and making stuff up and just designing cute stuff for Instagram and selling useless stuff to people who don't need it, and who can't afford them. And I guess that is a thing if you're looking at things very negatively, and that it does exist. But I just want to kind of say that that is not marketing. Actually, that is not good marketing. In any case. Yeah, that's just for me what is like the dark side of marketing, I want to kind of like tell you more about the good side and how I view marketing and branding. So we can all align on what we mean by we do marketing and we do branding. Basically, I think this thing comes from the fact that branding is kind of a superpower. If you think about it, if you do it really well. And you tap into like all the tools that you have strategically execution wise, if you like tap into consumer psychology, consumer behaviors, all that type of stuff, it can be super powerful, you kind of have the power to manipulate people and like their purchasing decisions in some instances or like some of their behaviors, as we all know, with great power comes great responsibility. So then it's up to each individual and company how they want to use that power. Are you using it or good? Or are you using it in the shittiest way? And that's just a decision that you make and I guess some people or companies don't necessarily ask that question or just honestly like don't really care about it that much. And I feel like when you care about profits some other stuff more than you care about people obviously the answer will be different to what you will choose as a strategy but that's not good marketing. And that's not just marketing, either. It's just really bad marketing because if we bring it back to the root of everything, and if you listen to the other podcasts, you know that I literally, I think I repeat that in every episode, but I'll say it again. So with marketing, the four P's are your products. So that's your product/offer, service, price, distribution and promotion. So distribution is place. But also, when you do it well, like you want to basically So the first one, and the first one that we work on in a marketing strategy is product. So basically, when we say it's just marketing, there's this idea that it's just actually it's just promotion. And it's promotion, in the sense that what is being said, in the advertisement, or in the commercial, in the ad in whatever the blog, whatever, like promoting the company does not match what the product or the offer or service actually is. And so that's not marketing, because when you do it, well, everything should align, and everything starts with your product. And then you align your price, you make sure that the place where you're selling makes sense with your business. And the promotion is just basically highlighting your added value for your product for your company for your offers, its just highlighting what's good about you, and highlighting what maybe makes you different from your competitors, and just putting it in a good light. attract your ideal customers and clients and not just spread lies like even as a company usually doesn't make a lot of sense to do that. Like I'm thinking like for us as service providers, we want to attract the type of brands that we want to work with, and that we will do our best work for. Because then it's a domino effect where you get more referrals, like you do good work for them, you get referrals, you get more of those clients. So if you lie and say you can do something that you cannot do, or that's not like your strong suit, that's basically useless, because then like you're doing a nice job, at best, you're doing something mediocre, and then you're having a client that is not so happy. And then it's useless. And you wasted all of that energy. Yeah, basically, when they say it's just marketing, it's not like it's just marketing, it's just like, or like a misalignment or something like that. And yeah, that's basically And that also I know that as an agency, as I was saying, we're just the thing that implies that also marketing is just advertising, which it's not, it's like those four P's. And it all starts with the product. So very, very important. And then yeah, I think there's nothing wrong with a company like if you're doing like stuff that aligns that is what you want to do, you know your brand values. And then you of course want to get the people that you made that for basically, it becomes kind of your duty to really highlight your value, because you made that product that service that offering for someone specific with someone specific in mind. And you're hopefully hoping that it will bring them value, make their lives a little bit better in some way or another. And you just want to convey that basically so that they know. And sometimes I would say for instance, like I'm a victim of marketing, because I personally will buy something for the packaging. If it has a cute design, I'm buying it. And that's just that's what you see. And then you check the features and like then if the product doesn't work for you, you don't buy it again. So then it's just useless. And it's a company spend all that money in like branding and this and that, if the product is shitty, that's basically a bad move on their part, because it probably cost them a lot more than just the value of that one product to acquire you as a customer. And then the product is bad. So you won't repurchase again. And maybe even you either leave a bad review or tell the friend like Oh, it wasn't up to the hype or whatever. So that that's not the smartest thing. And that's actually now good marketing. That's basically what I wanted to say about that. very careful and mindful about the types of brands types of projects and people that we want to work with. And we're very grateful that we're at a point in the journey of the company where we're able to really choose who we work with as well. I think it's like a relationship that goes both ways. And if you're ever in the process of hiring a branding agency or marketing agency, it's not just you hiring them, it's also Are you a good fit for them. And there's so many things that come into place like the types of projects they love to work on. What are those their design style like it's so many things and I know that what we really want to focus on and that's been the case things the past year but we're reinforcing that even more in 2023. And I often get asked that question like, What is your niche? What industries are you serving? And I was having trouble answering that question because there's not like one specific industry that we want to serve. And that's one of the things that I think is the coolest about our job is that we get to explore like tons of different industries. And I love that like getting into like learning what this company does, what is this industry and I think that it also brings them very fresh perspective. And I know that some agencies or businesses will be focused on a very specific niche, which can also be good if they want to be super specialized in that. And some brands will prefer that, because they have the knowledge of the market. And there's definitely knowledge that we have more work to do like when getting to know a brand when it's in a new industry. But also, I feel like it gives us a fresh perspective. And sometimes that we get an idea for a client based on another thing we did on a completely different project, or we had done that research for a completely different industry. And it gives us an idea. And I feel like one of our strengths as a branding agency is helping clients like really position themselves like really well in their market, and then having a unique brand personality. For it to be unique. It has to be distinctive, but sometimes it's hard to think out of the box, if you keep repeating the same thing from for the same types of brands. And it's like always the thing to like you kind of have your recipe and that's it and like, you know, copy base for every client, but that's your strong suit would be elsewhere. But for us, I think like we spend a lot of time on that, like really trying to position them really well. And working on a brand personality that is very unique and distinctive. And then the brand identity would be that same way as a result. And yeah, I think so that's super, super interesting. And moving back on to the question, which is like what industry to work on. So we don't have one specific. And really, we want to work with purpose driven businesses. And that can literally be I think, any industry like most industries, but like I love working with entrepreneurs and teams that they know, and they're clear. And sometimes we help them define that. But they're clear on what their purpose is, and just that they want to do good in the world. And that doesn't have to be something huge. Like we have this client, and they're a food truck builder, and medium sized, like good sized company that builds food trucks and their purpose is helping startups founders or like restaurants expand or people get their first business off the ground. Or like chefs that didn't have the maybe the money to invest in a physical restaurant a brick and mortar restaurant, they can still open their business and like make a living doing what they love and serving great food to other And so does what you say to the world basically align with what you're offering with your offer. And if not, maybe there's a people, that's a great purpose to have like, it doesn't have to disconnect. And oftentimes, we see it as a disconnect. Also, with people doing great, like they're doing great work, and constantly over exceeding expectations. And what they're be like, Oh, we want to only work with charities who save the putting out to the world doesn't reflect that. And we're the first ones to do that. Like sometimes we'll post like about world. And this and that, as long as they're clear, and that super cool projects we've done like months later, because we didn't have time. And we just know we didn't have time, but like we didn't prioritize that. And so those are the people we they want to basically do something good. And that's the want to help when there's a misalignment sometimes it's the other way around when you invest more in your customers and your purpose. I think we're all up for that. So yeah, that's the products, which is like great marketing, but you don't invest that much in like promoting yourself. And sometimes you can feel like not very humble, but like you're also like you're thing, basically, short and sweet one for today. And yeah, doing a disservice to yourself as a business. And I'm telling you that to you but really telling you to myself basically just want to encourage, I think all marketers, business owners and also to the world because like if they don't know how great you you are and how you can serve them, you can help them if your product or your offer is that great and I'm sure to be really mindful coming into the new year about their for a lot of you it is you should just tell them like just really make sure that it aligns and I think every year to in the marketing and the core of it being their offer. cycle of a company especially when you don't have a huge marketing team each year or two like your services, your vision kind of evolves. And then you kind of need to revamp that and make sure like, everything's still aligned just like with you as a person, I think it's the same, like you change, you evolve and do your actions at that point aligned with what you want to be the people you want to attract. It's exactly the same. So when there's that misalignment in that sense, and on that way, that's where also we come in, and we make sure that you are really highlighted, and really, that we bring light to all the good stuff that you're doing and offering. And so yeah, do you feel like you're basically meeting or exceeding your customers and clients expectations and the expectations that you create, and then it's great, like, if you're meeting them, that's perfect. If you're exceeding them, good. If you're exceeding them by a lot, maybe you need to review some of your planning and marketing, because maybe something isn't clear. And you could potentially, like get a lot more business or like grow your business in other ways. And if you're not meeting them, then you also need to review something and either like, you don't want to be like, Yeah, we just do this mediocre product for you. And it's not the most cheap, but it's not the most expensive but no one will that sounds very boring. So you just need to review your product or your service, then and or maybe that's not like you just don't have a passion for it. And you shouldn't do that. Well, that's on the depressing for the end. But yeah, so yeah, basically just go into 2023 kind of asking yourself those questions and probably you already have but I'm curious to know what you think about what you're currently doing. And also next time you say it's just marketing you'll think of me and hopefully you won't say it's just marketing, but say it's bad marketing. It's instead or like, this is the dark side of marketing. That's it for today. Thank you for listening to Market It! I am your host Anne and I hope that this episode brought you value. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean a lot if you could take a few minutes to rate and review the podcast. It's super encouraging for us and follow along at AHBC Group so we can stay in touch and so you can let us know if there is a specific topic that you'd like us to cover in future episodes. Talk soon!