When many people in the public think about the marketing industry, they think it’s all about advertising trying to convince you need something you don’t need. Like used car salespeople, they lie and try to make a crappy product seem like a good deal because they are only out to make money at all costs, and don’t care about your rights as consumer. Transparency, what transparency?
What people don’t usually think about is all the laws and standards that have been developed over time to protect consumers from false advertising and increase transparency in the industry. The ASC or Ad Standards Canada recently caught my eye when they came out with their “Truth in Advertising Matters” campaign which asserts “Dressing it up doesn’t make it true”. They released TV commercials like the "I was going to the library" one, which is actually kind of funny.
The ASC works with 150 advertisers, agencies, media organizations and suppliers to develop Code of Standards and are committed to truth, fairness and accuracy in advertising – but you still have to wonder about if they need to advertise that fact. And does anyone really believe the iPad is “Magical” as stated in this TV commercial? Current, yes. Literary, sure. But magical?? Somehow, I think not.
But mediums like TV (and radio before it), and magazine (and newspaper) advertising has been around a long time. People are skeptical, and know marketers often exaggerate the benefits of their products (like this fake ad for Powerthirst shows). But for those gullible enough to believe everything they hear, there are now standards, and laws, and advertisers can’t just come up with a product that makes false claims (Apple example excluded) without consequences. Marketers need to be transparent, and state that they advertising a product, and not claim to be an unbiased source.
So what does being transparent really mean? According to a blog Shel Holz wrote, transparency is:
“[T]he degree to which a company shares its leaders, employees, values, culture, strategy, business processes and the results of those processes with its publics. It’s the opposite of opacity, in which companies operate behind closed doors and shuttered windows."
So what about all the new mediums companies chose to use to engage and interact with its fans or consumers? Fewer laws that govern the way the internet, mobile phones and social media applications are regulated, but does that mean transparency doesn’t matter?
According to Tish Grier, who wrote about Transparency in Social Media: Ethical Considerations in Marketing for her blog The Constant Observer, there are two levels of transparency which are important for companies to follow, that also supports the fact that social media needs to be authentic. The first level of transparency is vendor to client, where it should be disclosed if some parts of social media are outsourced or written by the consultant. In other words, be clear in the kind of services you offer. The second level of transparency is from client to customer, and she says it should be fully disclosed if the content is being created not by someone who is directly affiliated with the company, but by a representative or contractor for the client. The FTC Endorsement Guides mean that if someone takes payment to write on a blog they must disclose that they were paid but also if someone is hired to blog for a company, it should be disclosed that the content produced is coming from someone outside of the company.
Grier states “Are you willing to risk the customer relationships you could be cultivating through social media, and perhaps risk your company's reputation, by sacrificing transparency with both your clients and their customers?”
I would hope not. Transparency and authenticity is important to all companies and brands trying to build relationships with its fans or customers. Just like hiding the truth from friends can create problems in your social relationships, lying to your customers or fans can also damage your business relationships.
The most obvious example I can think of is all the trouble Facebook has got into with its privacy laws. When the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released a report in 2009 stating Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law, the CBC reported “its main concern was that users could not always give "meaningful consent" to the use of their personal information due to a lack of transparency on the site” and although they provide some information about privacy issues, “it is often confusing or incomplete".
Some people were outraged, some didn’t care. A national “Quit Facebook Day” (which has its own website quitfacebookday.com) was organized, but it mainly fell flat. However, it did bring attention to the transparency problems of the popular social media site, and all the negative publicity might have been enough for Facebook to actually take action.
On February 26, 2009 Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) posted a blog on Facebook called Governing the Facebook Service in an Open and Transparent Way, updating users on the progress of the new Terms of Use. He wrote, “We decided we needed to do things differently and so we're going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way.” And they introduced two new additions to Facebook: the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This helped quiet some of the disputes people had with Facebook, but I’m sure there is more for them to do, not to mention all the other social media platforms out there.
Of course there are limits to transparency, and I’m sure Facebook would argue that it doesn’t want all its trade secrets known, or it would loose its competitive advantage. Others companies market products around their mystique or “cool” factor, and if we all knew how iPads were created in bleak factories in China, they might loose some if their “magical” appeal. Sure, in theory it’s up to the courts to decide how transparent companies need to be, but with technology changing so quickly, it is tough for laws to keep up.
For example, there is little transparency in the mobile industry, and in many cases, smartphone app developers send collected data to third parties for profit, without their owners knowledge. TPM recently wrote an article called Mobile Apps Come With Huge Privacy Loopholes, Little Transparency which pointed out that Apps running on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms often collect personal information to be resold to marketing companies and initiatives such as Google's AdMob. This was in response to a report released by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled Your Apps Are Watching You that showed how iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users and sending a mobile phone's unique device ID, location and other personal details to other companies without users' awareness or consent. This article pointed out that although ad sales on phones account for less than 5% of the $23 billion in annual Internet advertising, but “spending on mobile ads is growing faster than the market overall”. Something for marketers and consumers alike to think about.
So of course it is important for social media sites to be transparent and authentic while connecting with fans or consumers, but what I think the real thing people need to remember is that consumers are part of the process, and, so they need to demand transparency from marketing and other organizations. Similar to the saying “ignore your rights and they will go away” people need to pay attention and care (!) about what companies are doing, or they will only become more closed door, and “opaque”.
Social media only succeeds because of us, so collectively, I hope we can agree that transparency matters!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: The new Apple commercial now refers to the iPad as "Amazing" and not "Magical". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8wKtFA4Io
What people don’t usually think about is all the laws and standards that have been developed over time to protect consumers from false advertising and increase transparency in the industry. The ASC or Ad Standards Canada recently caught my eye when they came out with their “Truth in Advertising Matters” campaign which asserts “Dressing it up doesn’t make it true”. They released TV commercials like the "I was going to the library" one, which is actually kind of funny.
The ASC works with 150 advertisers, agencies, media organizations and suppliers to develop Code of Standards and are committed to truth, fairness and accuracy in advertising – but you still have to wonder about if they need to advertise that fact. And does anyone really believe the iPad is “Magical” as stated in this TV commercial? Current, yes. Literary, sure. But magical?? Somehow, I think not.
But mediums like TV (and radio before it), and magazine (and newspaper) advertising has been around a long time. People are skeptical, and know marketers often exaggerate the benefits of their products (like this fake ad for Powerthirst shows). But for those gullible enough to believe everything they hear, there are now standards, and laws, and advertisers can’t just come up with a product that makes false claims (Apple example excluded) without consequences. Marketers need to be transparent, and state that they advertising a product, and not claim to be an unbiased source.
So what does being transparent really mean? According to a blog Shel Holz wrote, transparency is:
“[T]he degree to which a company shares its leaders, employees, values, culture, strategy, business processes and the results of those processes with its publics. It’s the opposite of opacity, in which companies operate behind closed doors and shuttered windows."
So what about all the new mediums companies chose to use to engage and interact with its fans or consumers? Fewer laws that govern the way the internet, mobile phones and social media applications are regulated, but does that mean transparency doesn’t matter?
According to Tish Grier, who wrote about Transparency in Social Media: Ethical Considerations in Marketing for her blog The Constant Observer, there are two levels of transparency which are important for companies to follow, that also supports the fact that social media needs to be authentic. The first level of transparency is vendor to client, where it should be disclosed if some parts of social media are outsourced or written by the consultant. In other words, be clear in the kind of services you offer. The second level of transparency is from client to customer, and she says it should be fully disclosed if the content is being created not by someone who is directly affiliated with the company, but by a representative or contractor for the client. The FTC Endorsement Guides mean that if someone takes payment to write on a blog they must disclose that they were paid but also if someone is hired to blog for a company, it should be disclosed that the content produced is coming from someone outside of the company.
Grier states “Are you willing to risk the customer relationships you could be cultivating through social media, and perhaps risk your company's reputation, by sacrificing transparency with both your clients and their customers?”
I would hope not. Transparency and authenticity is important to all companies and brands trying to build relationships with its fans or customers. Just like hiding the truth from friends can create problems in your social relationships, lying to your customers or fans can also damage your business relationships.
The most obvious example I can think of is all the trouble Facebook has got into with its privacy laws. When the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada released a report in 2009 stating Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law, the CBC reported “its main concern was that users could not always give "meaningful consent" to the use of their personal information due to a lack of transparency on the site” and although they provide some information about privacy issues, “it is often confusing or incomplete".
Some people were outraged, some didn’t care. A national “Quit Facebook Day” (which has its own website quitfacebookday.com) was organized, but it mainly fell flat. However, it did bring attention to the transparency problems of the popular social media site, and all the negative publicity might have been enough for Facebook to actually take action.
On February 26, 2009 Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) posted a blog on Facebook called Governing the Facebook Service in an Open and Transparent Way, updating users on the progress of the new Terms of Use. He wrote, “We decided we needed to do things differently and so we're going to develop new policies that will govern our system from the ground up in an open and transparent way.” And they introduced two new additions to Facebook: the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This helped quiet some of the disputes people had with Facebook, but I’m sure there is more for them to do, not to mention all the other social media platforms out there.
Of course there are limits to transparency, and I’m sure Facebook would argue that it doesn’t want all its trade secrets known, or it would loose its competitive advantage. Others companies market products around their mystique or “cool” factor, and if we all knew how iPads were created in bleak factories in China, they might loose some if their “magical” appeal. Sure, in theory it’s up to the courts to decide how transparent companies need to be, but with technology changing so quickly, it is tough for laws to keep up.
For example, there is little transparency in the mobile industry, and in many cases, smartphone app developers send collected data to third parties for profit, without their owners knowledge. TPM recently wrote an article called Mobile Apps Come With Huge Privacy Loopholes, Little Transparency which pointed out that Apps running on the iPhone, Android and BlackBerry platforms often collect personal information to be resold to marketing companies and initiatives such as Google's AdMob. This was in response to a report released by The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled Your Apps Are Watching You that showed how iPhone and Android apps are breaching the privacy of smartphone users and sending a mobile phone's unique device ID, location and other personal details to other companies without users' awareness or consent. This article pointed out that although ad sales on phones account for less than 5% of the $23 billion in annual Internet advertising, but “spending on mobile ads is growing faster than the market overall”. Something for marketers and consumers alike to think about.
So of course it is important for social media sites to be transparent and authentic while connecting with fans or consumers, but what I think the real thing people need to remember is that consumers are part of the process, and, so they need to demand transparency from marketing and other organizations. Similar to the saying “ignore your rights and they will go away” people need to pay attention and care (!) about what companies are doing, or they will only become more closed door, and “opaque”.
Social media only succeeds because of us, so collectively, I hope we can agree that transparency matters!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update: The new Apple commercial now refers to the iPad as "Amazing" and not "Magical". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JP8wKtFA4Io
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