5 ms·

> Marketing is almost by definition not going to act ethically: their whole goal is to create a need where there isn't an organic one That's very single-minded

> Marketing is almost by definition not going to act ethically: their whole goal is to create a need where there isn't an organic one That's very single-minded. Marketing mainly informs about a product, which obviously also works even if you already have the need for it. And it can also help in realizing a specific need which the customer has not pinpointed yet. That's the whole point of acting ethically, to support, not to bait, trap and abuse.

scoutt 5y ago
What would be the utmost, top dream of a Marketing team? I think it is to be able to read my mind. Followed by being able to project an ad into my retina (if writing into my mind is not possible). If the above is not possible, then they will come to analyze my behavior online. It's truly sad... Paraphrasing The Godfather 3 "Finance is a gun, politics is knowing when to pull the trigger" and I would add "marketing is knowing HOW to pull the trigger". > And it can also help in realizing a specific need which the customer has not pinpointed yet Don't you love cold calls, spam and pop-ups? Marketing helped to ruin the latest and finest revolution of our time, that is, the Internet.
magicalhippo 5y ago
Indeed. That's exactly what our marketing department does. Our product helps our customers comply with the law. The law created the need, we're just trying to make our customers lives easier by assisting them with complying. So our marketing team focuses on informing potential customers what it takes to be in compliance as few are well aware of what it takes, and how our product can help with that.
- jacquesm 5y ago
  Wow, that's quite the self justification story. Your customers were required to comply with the law, whether or not your company exist. Whether you help them or not is up for debate, what isn't up for debate is that you sell them something, which they may need but not necessarily so. It's not your product that they need, it is compliance. Making their lives easier is great: as long as your product doesn't mess up, at which point I'm sure your terms of service will say something to the effect of 'well, sorry, but it was your responsibility after all' and 'informing potential customers' typically - in that context - takes the form of pressing the fear buttons for possibly not being compliant and selling them a solution which they may not even need. Seriously: this is a fantastic example of how being on one side of such a story you might lose objectivity, if I wanted to know whether your product is useful or not the last party I would trust is your marketing department. Who would I trust? My lawyer, who I would ask to establish whether or not (1) this particular law applies to me, (2) the risk of non-compliance outweighs the cost of your product, (3) whether the products terms and services really protect me or if it opens me up to a new level of liability, (4) whether there is a better / cheaper product and so on.
  - magicalhippo 5y ago
    > Your customers were required to comply with the law, whether or not your company exist. Indeed. And a lot of companies don't know that they have to, to what degree, or how to do so effectively. > It's not your product that they need, it is compliance. It's true they don't need our product. But it can absolutely help them, by spending less time and resources on compliance and the surrounding processes. But they can't get all those benefits if they don't know we exist. > Seriously: this is a fantastic example of how being on one side of such a story you might lose objectivity I really struggle to see how you can come to that conclusion without having seen our product or our marketing. > [If] I wanted to know whether your product is useful or not the last party I would trust is your marketing department. But if you didn't know about our product, you certainly couldn't evaluate if it was useful or not. Without word-of-mouth, how would you even find our product? To be fair, word-of-mouth worked very well for a long time. But there are still a lot of companies out there who aren't in compliance because they don't know any better, and a lot who still use a lot of time on compliance that could be spent on their core business instead. What's wrong with trying to tell those companies that our product exists?

scoutt 5y ago

What would be the utmost, top dream of a Marketing team? I think it is to be able to read my mind. Followed by being able to project an ad into my retina (if writing into my mind is not possible). If the above is not possible, then they will come to analyze my behavior online. It's truly sad... Paraphrasing The Godfather 3 "Finance is a gun, politics is knowing when to pull the trigger" and I would add "marketing is knowing HOW to pull the trigger". > And it can also help in realizing a specific need which the customer has not pinpointed yet Don't you love cold calls, spam and pop-ups? Marketing helped to ruin the latest and finest revolution of our time, that is, the Internet.

magicalhippo 5y ago

Indeed. That's exactly what our marketing department does. Our product helps our customers comply with the law. The law created the need, we're just trying to make our customers lives easier by assisting them with complying. So our marketing team focuses on informing potential customers what it takes to be in compliance as few are well aware of what it takes, and how our product can help with that.

jacquesm 5y ago
Wow, that's quite the self justification story. Your customers were required to comply with the law, whether or not your company exist. Whether you help them or not is up for debate, what isn't up for debate is that you sell them something, which they may need but not necessarily so. It's not your product that they need, it is compliance. Making their lives easier is great: as long as your product doesn't mess up, at which point I'm sure your terms of service will say something to the effect of 'well, sorry, but it was your responsibility after all' and 'informing potential customers' typically - in that context - takes the form of pressing the fear buttons for possibly not being compliant and selling them a solution which they may not even need. Seriously: this is a fantastic example of how being on one side of such a story you might lose objectivity, if I wanted to know whether your product is useful or not the last party I would trust is your marketing department. Who would I trust? My lawyer, who I would ask to establish whether or not (1) this particular law applies to me, (2) the risk of non-compliance outweighs the cost of your product, (3) whether the products terms and services really protect me or if it opens me up to a new level of liability, (4) whether there is a better / cheaper product and so on.
- magicalhippo 5y ago
  > Your customers were required to comply with the law, whether or not your company exist. Indeed. And a lot of companies don't know that they have to, to what degree, or how to do so effectively. > It's not your product that they need, it is compliance. It's true they don't need our product. But it can absolutely help them, by spending less time and resources on compliance and the surrounding processes. But they can't get all those benefits if they don't know we exist. > Seriously: this is a fantastic example of how being on one side of such a story you might lose objectivity I really struggle to see how you can come to that conclusion without having seen our product or our marketing. > [If] I wanted to know whether your product is useful or not the last party I would trust is your marketing department. But if you didn't know about our product, you certainly couldn't evaluate if it was useful or not. Without word-of-mouth, how would you even find our product? To be fair, word-of-mouth worked very well for a long time. But there are still a lot of companies out there who aren't in compliance because they don't know any better, and a lot who still use a lot of time on compliance that could be spent on their core business instead. What's wrong with trying to tell those companies that our product exists?