What is ethical marketing?
And unethical practices to look out for
There is a lot of buzz on marketing practices that we should challenge. As a copywriter for values driven brands, I want to talk about these marketing practices that I pledge not to use.
Okay, first of all. Ethical is a subjective term so what is unethical or ethical for me, might not be for you. I do think that they are some practices that a majority of people would find manipulative. That is what I will be talking about.
What is ethical marketing?
This is marketing that honors the humanity of the reader. It's marketing that doesn’t manipulate people into buying things they don’t need to turn a profit. Or being shady about prices. Or using language that is condescending.
Does ethical marketing need a definition? I don’t think so because it should be the standard. Like we expect people not to be racist or to be conscious of the earth, then we should expect brands to do this too.
Unethical marketing practices to look out for include:
Deadline Funnels
Deadline Funnel is a marketing tool that is now an umbrella term for using countdown timers. You often see it on emails and sales pages. We all like to be in the know, but if someone needs to know the last day you can give the information and visuals by choice. Actually, from a UX perspective this can be a plus. Why not have people opt in to the timer or add a reminder by calendar.
False Scarcity
Scarcity is often used in copywriting. It plays on the FOMO. It’s psychologically proven that scarcity makes people make a decision. While scarcity isn’t bad, the problem is when it’s not authentic. Like saying your cart closes on an evergreen product. I’ve caught many well known service providers doing this. This further encourages me to unfollow them immediately.
Value Stacking
I still don’t have any formed opinion on value and who should assign it. On one hand, should the customers should decide the value of what they are buying? Or you can say, the creator who spent a lot of time building the product or service should decide the value. With both you run into problems. The customer could say that it’s not valuable, but this applies to them. On the other side, the creator could overcharge or undercharge themselves. Value stacking seems to appear for courses. Creators will add on the bonuses that they say are valued at $1399 USD and lowered to $999 USD. This is unethical if they don’t even offer that service that is being added on. In any case, it’s obvious that you are trying to push your product with these bonuses.
Price Anchoring
We see price anchoring when we see that something that was once priced for $29.99 USD is now $14.99 USD.
This looks more attractive due to sticker shock. People may buy this now because it’s cheaper, even though they don’t need it. As marketers it’s not a legal responsibility if people buy something they can’t afford, but to me it feels wrong.
Poor Tax
When course creators have a large amount of people who enroll, some may default on their payments. Then they spend time chasing down the person, which is time that doesn't get accounted for. Thus, the interest on courses was born.
Yet, I know I have felt betrayed when I see that a course's full price is more than the payment plan. To me it reeks of classism.
Brittany McBean talks about this more in depth and the solution she comes up with is looking at the why? As we are marketer’s in our business we should always look at the why. As someone who used to work in the social services field, this is something that we do when working with others. Solutions could be you need to split up the payment plans even more if the price is too high for this audience. Or you could adjust your target audience who can afford it or the price for this target audience.
Pain Agitation
Yes, we do need to evoke emotion and sometimes that’s pain. My problem with pain agitation is causing pain that isn’t there. Like making the audience feel like without this product you won’t make it. Don’t let a company or service provider say that you can’t do something. Do we need an iPhone vs a Blackberry? No, it’s a preference. We can survive with either. You are resourceful and resilient and have made it this far despite adversity. Let’s be honest, we will all survive without (insert whatever item you can think of) because we have before. These are luxuries. Wants, not needs.
Charm Pricing
We are all used to charm pricing. Something that's at $9.99 USD i.e. $10. Or a course that costs $1497 USD , i.e. $1500 USD. I always thought this was to factor in shipping costs for an item, so I never questioned it. According to the Ethical Move, Charm pricing is making the number look cheaper to sell. If something does cost $1497 USD include it, but if you are using that price because it’s cheaper, then re-evaluate.
Tripwiring
Tripwiring is selling a limited time offer to hook your audience. You then hope to sell high price products to your audience later. Sometimes even the same product at a higher price when not during that time frame. Marketer’s use this because once you buy a product or service, you are more likely to buy from them again. This could be ethical to offer subscribers a discount. It becomes a slippery slope when you toy with customers. This is because you assume they will buy anything from you anyway. That's not showing respect to your loyal customers.
Woke Washing
You may have heard of green washing. Well, woke washing applies to causes of the mainstream. Yes, we want the businesses we support to take a stand when it matters. Saying that you support Black Lives Matters while exploiting black workers is hypocritical. As we have seen in 2020, this causes misinformation of the cause. It also makes the company look virtuous when it’s indifferent and wanting to hop on a trend. This causes competitors to say that they believe in this cause too
CTA buttons that are passive aggressive
I have noticed that when going on certain websites, and attempting to click out, a pop up will appear. It will ask for your email address. Some have an opt out feature that is passive aggressive and shaming. It will say, “No, I don’t like saving money” or “Click yes to be a doer”. Gag. I have seen a change in this with a certain women’s magazine to be more neutral which I appreciate.
Only including high performing testimonials
I often wonder how testimonials get chosen for social proof. For products, you will often see testimonials that are pleasant and not so pleasant. With course creators/service providers, they can choose what they want to display. I’m not saying to include bad reviews. Instead, choose testimonials that are average instead of the life changing one.
No opt-out feature
We should give our audience the benefit of the doubt and let them know we are trying to sell to them. Consent matters to your audience and this leads to warmer leads. When you don’t have an opt out feature, it’s aggressive and forced. Like people have no choice but to listen to you. I have actually seen this in webinars and email lists, which make me proud to be supporting creators who do this.
Sneaky Sales Calls
I’ve been “invited” to well-known coaching calls where I thought we would talk about the program. Then they ask you if you want to continue and proceed with the course. When you try to tell them you want to think about it, they try to talk you into it. Ughm, are you a used car salesman named Phil? They expect you to pull out their credit card right then and there. Which adds pressure. They will say, “We only accept 20 applications and we choose you out of 100s, blah, blah, blah” Or worse, “You can’t afford not to." This is arrogant. If it’s not a heck yes, then let people have their agency to discuss with partners, spouses, etc. Don’t push the call.
What can we do?
Have you noticed that we have a stronghold on brands? Growing up, we didn't use recyclable packaging or organic products. Today, because of demand (i.e. from the audience) brands started to do this. So yes, we do have power. If you see something you don’t like, then you can find alternatives (email me if you want a list). You can petition that company to stop using these tactics or go to the State House. I know it may seem trivial or like slacktivism, but it helps. If your intent is true and you try with all you can, even if you fail, then that should be what matters.
