Education Instead of Persuasion:

A New Strategy for Improving the Ethics of Marketing

In this paper I will

1)      prove that marketing promotions are harmful to individuals, society and the planet.

2)      explain how marketing promotions are unnecessary, and

3)      present a new model for commerce based on consumer education and fair competition of product, service and ethics.

But first, I need to define some of the main terms and ideas I will be discussing.

What is Marketing?

The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “...the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational goals.”[1] 

Sergio Zyman, former chief Marketing Officer of the Coca-cola company explains that commercial marketing  “...is about systematically and thoughtfully coming up with plans and taking actions that get more people to buy more [products] more often so the company makes more money.”[2]

What is Promotion?

Promotion is the encouragement of the progress, growth, or acceptance of something[3]. Promotions are forms of persuasion that vary in effectiveness and tactics. 

In commercial marketing, promotion of a business’ product or service is a technique for increasing sales. The principle aims of commercial marketing promotions are to benefit the businesses, not consumers. 

The instruments for modern promotions are advertising and public relations.

Advertising is the public promotion of (something).[4] This includes a full variety of commercial persuasive communication about organizations, products, services, or ideas by identified sponsors[5]. Advertising is typically done with planned and designed campaigns using commercials, signs, brochures, direct mailings, e-mail messages, personal contact, and more. 

Public relations are the methods and activities employed to establish and promote a favorable relationship with the public.[6] The goal of PR professionals are to create and manipulate communication in order to persuade people for their client’s benefit[7].  PR consultants use many techniques to modify public perception including the creation of news content through press releases and the planning and creation of positive organization representation through restricted public access to a business.

While both advertising and public relations have similar aims, they are different in that advertising directly pays for communication space while PR does not.

What is Ethics?

The American Marketing Association explains that the basic rule of professional ethics is to not knowingly do harm;”[8]

What is Consumer Value?

In this presentation I will use the term Consumer Value to mean objective and common measures of quality compared to price. This includes such attributes as product life span, reliability, efficiency, taste, friendly and personal service, etc.  In this context consumer value is independent and not concerned with a consumer’s personal taste, style, or fashion.

What is Education?

Contemporary Marketing Promotion is Unethical

Marketing promotions are harmful in many ways. But before I can describe how marketing is harmful I must explain the foundations of my argument.

Argument foundations - Commercial Promotions:

1. Are extremely expensive

Although the cost of marketing promotions may vary in different industries and business, overall the amount of money spent on promotions within an economy is substantial, especially when we consider that it is unnecessary [see next chapter]:

1999 Total U.S. ad spending: US$87.8 Billion[9] (An average of approx $318 spent per every man and woman and child living in the country[10])

1999 UK advertising expenditure US$21 Billion (£15.3 billion)[11] (An average of approx US$45.4 spent per every man and woman and child living in the country [12])

In 1998 the top 100 Fortune firms each spent an average of US$32.5 million on Public Relations.[13]

Because promotions are competitive and a profitable investment, spending on promotions has steadily increased over the past four decades and shows no signs of slowing down in the near future.[14] This massive amount of spending is what makes promotions so powerful. As consumers, we are supporting this activity and we need to be critical of the use of this large portion of capital. 

2. Effectively modify people’s behavior

The point of promotions is to affect consumers and change their perceptions. Corporations would not invest so much money on something that did not work.  The historical success of the promotions industry is a simple proof that promotions work at effectively modifying people’s behavior as planned.  Although people do have self-control and free will to make any choices they want, the techniques for persuasion used by the promotions industry are very effective. These techniques are based on scientific research, well-proven theories, extensive strategy development, and excessive saturation.

Of course, there are many other factors that will affect consumer behavior, such as price, availability, value, etc. It is my argument that when all other factors are equal, promotions make a dramatic difference.  Many consumers will choose a brand name product over a generic product of equal (or sometimes better) price and quality because promotions have made them think the brand name product is superior, even though it is not. 

3. Can persuade people to do things that may not be in their best interest.

Promotions are often based on scientific market research[15] and persuasion theories from psychology. 

There are two main types of persuasion, central route and peripheral route. Central route uses reason to argue its point while peripheral uses emotion, superficial judgment and assumption[16].  For example, a central route argument would be “Our burger contains less grams of fat then theirs” and a peripheral route argument would be “The Backstreet Boys think our burger is awesome!” While many promotions will use some central route persuasion messages, the majority of the messages present in a promotion, (including visuals, music, style, and other subtle forms of communication) use peripheral route persuasion.     These techniques are scientifically researched and proven to convince a consumer by accessing their unconscious mind[17] and avoiding rational thought or analysis.  Since the decisions a consumer may make based on peripheral route persuasion do not require reason, they may make decisions that are in conflict with their own best interests.

4. Promote consumerism and materialism

In order for commercial promotions to work they must convince the consumer to sooner or later purchase something, thus every promotion must promote consumerism.

Effective product promotions must give high value to a material good to succeed in persuading a consumer that it is worth purchasing, thus promotions must promote materialism.  Sergio Zyman, former chief Marketing Officer of the Coca-cola company suggests that  “The only thing... that any marketing person should care about is real consumption”[18]

5. Are very inefficient at informing consumers.

There is great potential for consumer education that could be provided by promotions, but marketers do not want consumers to analysis or be critical of their product.  They just want us to buy, not think.  If we compare the amount of useful consumer information presented in a consumer report to the information present in the average advertisement or press release, it is very obvious that marketers are not in the business of consumer education.

In many cases, promotions provide little or no useful information and actually distract consumers from critical thinking and knowledge. Promotions use peripheral route persuasion [see argument #3] to train us to make decisions not based on research and knowledge, but on recommendation and reaction, (eg. The celebrity endorsement, the questionable “professional” recommendation, a model’s looks, a “feel good” idea, etc).  Promotions work best when consumers are not critical and so they promote ignorance.

6. Use their power for commercial interests first.

Commercial Advertising and PR are a service paid for by business to help them make more profit in a competitive market.  The goal of making profit must come first before social benefits or a company may lose sales to another competitor that is solely profit driven.  Commercial promotions are always for the benefit of business. Social benefits are at best a side effect but never the primary goal.

As one former PR man explained “The job had one goal: make you care about the things my clients cared about, even if they were inconsequential to your life.”[19]

Harm Caused by Marketing Promotions

Personal

• Mental health - unrealistic ideals created by glamour ads perpetuate personal disappointment, (“I don’t look like that, I am ugly. I don’t have that, I’m poor”.)
• Physical health - consumerism perpetuates obesity and poor nutrition. The aggressive marketing of “junk” food attracts attention away from the fundamentals of healthy eating.    (Candy instead of fruit. “Super size it” Order in or takeout, no suggestions for healthy quantities).
• Poor money management - consumerism and lack of fiscal education leads to over spending (Buying things will make you happy so keep buying).
• Over worked to support material desires and high consumption.
• Reduction of happiness -materialism and consumerism are encouraged over proven methods for personal happiness.  The human value of spending time in nature or with family and friends is degraded by the fabricated associations to a brand, product or service.  (eg. Miller time, a Kodak moment) Attention is taken away from the human value towards the commercial. (eg Commercial entertainment over personal interaction, (eg. TV shows and movies are promoted more then talking with people.)
• Loss of childhood innocence - ads manipulate and exploit children before they can learn to defend themselves against promotional tactics[20].  Children are influenced by persuasive messages that are not in their best interest. 
• Invasion of privacy - ads are often unwelcome messages that cannot be avoided.

Environment

• Over-consumption increases the depletion of natural resources to unsustainable rates.  It also increases pollution from manufacturing and transportation of goods.
• Advertisements and PR events themselves waste natural resources. For example: print ads, flyers, and direct mail ads all waste paper and product give-aways are usually in non-recyclable containers.
• The creation of immense amounts of garbage. Consumerism is best served with disposable items rather then reusable ones.  Throwaway products are cheaper to produce, more convenient and do not require the expense of reuse processing.  The promotion of consumerism leads to more garbage.

Consumer value

• Marketing promotions allow an inferior product to win in the marketplace. Promotions persuade using tactics that avoid critical comparisons of value.   The better promotion may win in the market, rather then the better product.  Competition of promotion rather then product causes the free market to fail in providing the consumer with the best value.
• Decreased product value. Companies invest capital into their marketing that could be used to improve or discount the product.  In effect, when consumers buy, they are spending money on promotions that they do not need and most likely do not desire to see.

Degradation of Commercial News and Entertainment

• Commercial publishers and broadcasters tailor news and entertainment for advertising potential rather than public value.  Editors choose content that will get the most ratings, rather then what is of most value to a diversity of people.  This is why commercial news content often concentrates on simple stories about scandal, disasters, sex, violence and dramatic events with compelling imagery that consistently attract attention, but which actually have little importance to most readers and viewers. Tom Brokaw of NBC News said “its not about news, its about filling up air time”[21].  This is why stories are often formulaic and lack alternative ideas which might turn off some audiences or advertisers but would increase diversity of thinking and perspectives to help a society flourish with insight and understanding.
• The high number of advertisements in media take up space and time that force restrictions on the real content and can even distract attention away from important topics.  Important ideas often cannot be developed in the short time available between frequent TV commercials.  Ads in print or online can sometimes distract attention away form a productions real content. Disguised ads may even unfairly manipulate a reader who grants the commercial ideas with the same trust they would normally reserve for real content.
• PR professionals use their expertise and extensive resources to alter news content for the benefit of their clients, not the public.  The drive for profit in commercial news has reduced spending on research and quality writing. This in turn has created an extensive dependency on PR press releases that are, by design, biased towards their client’s interests.  This leads to very poor journalistic integrity.
• Product and brand placement within real content may often detract from a writers intent and artistic goals.

Social Degradation

• Loss of community health. Marketing emphasizes individual materialism over community interests
• Loss of justice. Promotions cause us to avoid real social concerns by the way they affect the news media and their ability to distract us from important issues. As a former PR man states: “...if the most important news actually made it into the paper, every day the front-page headline would read, "The developing world still isn't using condoms, the industrial world is living beyond the planet's means, and none of us will care how our stocks are doing when we're on our death beds."[22]
• Loss of human values. Promotions will continue to grow as competition becomes fiercer.  The combined effect of all the bigger and more effective campaigns is the promotion of materialism over all else.  Promotions are drowning out the voices that speak of human values, such as empathy and solidarity, which are the basis for a humane society.
• Promotion of stereotypes. Large-scale promotions usually aim for the largest and/or most profitable target groups.  To effectively convince these groups they must present ideas that they are already familiar with.  This often means the supporting of common assumptions even if they are negative and/or inaccurate.  For example, sex stereotyping in advertising is a well-proven phenomenon[23].  Women are portrayed as submissive sex objects with very uncommon proportions. As well, even though the historical racism and lack of minorities in advertising has improved, it is still of great concern to many groups.

Contemporary Marketing Promotion is Unnecessary

(based on the same argument foundations from the ethics section)

The necessities for commerce

In order for a consumer to choose to purchase a product or service, the consumers must:

• have access to the retail of that product or service
• know about the product or service.
• have adequate capital to purchase the product or service

We cannot buy what is not available for sale, we cannot choose to buy what we are ignorant of and we cannot buy what we cannot afford.  This process does not require promotions, only retail, information and capital.   The information necessary for this process may be acquired through many means other then promotions, such as suggestions from peers, a consumer report, general knowledge or previous experience.  For example, sugar, flower, salt, socks, staples, pencils, paper and other basic and common items sell without much if any promotions. We do not need promotions to sustain commerce.

Arguments for promotions and their counter arguments.

Commercial Promotions sponsor media and events that otherwise would not exist or would be much more expensive.

Sponsorship is not a necessity for quality and affordable media and events.

• Publicly supported media does exist and has proven to be successful in creating and distributing commercial free quality programming in Great Britain, Sweden, Germany, Canada, Australia, Japan and even the United States[24]. 
• Pay-per-view is also a well-proven strategy for media free of sponsorship. 
• Both book and film are successful media relatively free of ads.
• Some successful magazines have no advertisements (Consumer Reports, Adbusters)
• Everyday there are successful local shows and events free of sponsorship. These activities often are supported by ticket and merchandise sales, public funding, and decreased expenses.

Increased public funding, decreased spending (athlete salaries for example), and affordable increases to consumer payments could eliminate the need for commercial sponsors all together.

Commercial Promotions create jobs.

Every industry creates jobs. An illicit drug industry creates jobs but that is no reason to support the activity.  Promotions employ a very minimal number of highly paid people whose skills could be better used in many other sectors including education and journalism.

Commercial Promotions encourage competition, which is the basis for an effective free market.

Most promotions do not encourage critical comparisons. [argument #5]  A consumer who is not critical cannot support effective product competition.  Competition between promotions that lack critical information causes the free market to fail in providing the consumer with the best value.  Instead there is a competition of persuasion techniques.  This is why modern advertising is of such high quality, but the products are ‘not made like they used to’.

Commercial Promotions create brand awareness.

There is no benefit to brand awareness. Brands are a technique used by marketers “to differentiate [the] product in the marketplace to get consumers to identify it as different, better and special”[25] Being aware of a brand does not make consumers critical of product value.  Brand based promotions promote a name, logo, lifestyle and ideas, they contain the least amount of useful consumer information and are the most synonymous with propaganda.  If anything, brands use psychological and social tactics to specifically distract consumers from being critical of quality and the often-inflated price.

Commercial Promotions inform consumers about products or services.

Promotions provide only a minimal amount of superficial information and often distract consumers from critical information concerning value. [argument #5]    In general, the most expensive brand based promotions provide little to no information (eg. Nike, Gap, liquors). The International Advertising Association specifically says that consumers must be “sufficiently informed” with “relevant ‘information’” to “make an intelligent choice”[26]. Following this logic it would make more sense if consumers got their information from critical and independent consumer reports then from persuasive and superficial promotional campaigns. 

Commercial Promotions fuel the economy by encouraging consumption.

This is true.  Consumerism is good for the economy, but at what price?  The gross domestic product (GDP) is a measure of national wealth, not national well-being and opportunity.  A high GDP does not guarantee a high human development rate[27].  Affluent nations can still lack in life expectancy and education.  The economy should not be the primary concern of a humane society.  I would suggest that the goal for a society should be to provide for everyone’s basic needs now and in the future, equal opportunity, the provision of human rights and freedoms and creating an environment that encourages the attainment of community and personal self-actualization. A healthy economy may be a means, but it is not an end.

Commercial Promotions are entertaining.

There is no doubt that advertising and well-written PR material can be entertaining, but promotions are not the value of a product or service, (eg. magazines without ads are still interesting, groceries without fancy labels still taste the same and TV shows without interruptions are still appealing).

As well, promotions are not the only form of entertainment available.    Many inspiring, well-crafted and engaging pieces of art and entertainment go ignored every day, while boring commercials are seen by millions.  This is not to promote the elimination of writers, producers, designers and craftpersons, but merely to suggest that we should celebrate their imagination by letting them create from their own inspiration and for their own pleasure, rather then limiting their creations to a business’s goals.  Let them make art instead of ads.

Commercial Promotions are just the way it always has been and the way it always will be.

Functioning local markets have existed for centuries without paid advertising and public relations.  Paid promotions are not a necessary part of marketing. 

As well, just because a system has worked a certain way in the past, does not mean it must or will continue to work that way in the future.  For example, during the Industrial Revolution, many capitalists saw child labor as a natural and necessary element for profitable manufacturing.  But as a society we decided that this was inhumane and unnecessary, and so it was outlawed.  There is no reason why commercial marketing promotions have to remain a part of our social system.

A New Model for Marketing Based on Consumer Education

In this new model there would be little or no commercial marketing promotions. Instead, consumers would get all their information and knowledge from independent resources such as unbiased consumer reports and catalogues.   These resources would be well organized, easy to use and widely available online and in categorized printed booklets. They would contain all available products and services within a given market and would compare and critique consumer options according to consumer value and company ethics to encourage stiff competition.  I believe that with some refinement such a system would create a much more effective and ethical consumer free market and society.

Provide much more information about the product or service

Under this new model, the goal would not be to persuade the consumer, but to educate them so they can make critical decision based on value. Through different sources consumers can learn how any given product or service excels and or fails in number of important areas.  These areas of importance will be decided by consumers through democratic decision-making based on suggestions by respected authorities in consumer value.

Provide information about company ethics

This system will allow consumers to decide not only by product or service value, but also by ethics.  The ethical practices of the companies that support any given product or service will be widely available in the same resources as their associated product and service information. Consumers can choose to support or avoid certain kinds of commercial practices, such as child labor, excessive worker exploitation, pollution, racism, etc. by avoiding the purchase of goods that exercise such practices.  This will create an environment of competitive ethics.

Standard test, ratings and reviews for easy comparison

• To make comparisons more efficient, products and services will be measured and rated by objective tests.  The results of such tests will be easy to graph and visually compare. The tests will be decided in an open democratic forum with all stakeholders involved.
• More subjective characteristics that cannot be objectively tested will be rated and reviewed by a wide variety of independent critics with well-established reputations for fair and accurate critiques in their respective areas.

The value of independent consumer catalogues and reports

• Direct comparisons. A catalogue or report would allow consumers to easily see the differences between the different products, services and supporting companies in any category. We could decided what attributes of any option are most important to us and make decisions that best reflect our own interests and beliefs. 
• Central resource. Rather then having to scan through multiple sources such as  flyers, magazines, newspapers, posters, articles, etc. trying to find out what is available, a reader could simply pick up or login to the appropriate consumer resource and view all the options that are available in the category they are most interested in.
• Less energy to produce and distribute.  Rather then having each business pay for and spend energy producing and distributing their own information material, this model would share resources.  As well, consumer booklets would use much less paper by packing more information per a page.  There also would no longer be a need for excessive out door postering or expensive TV commercials.  Over all, this system is cheaper and more efficient for all stakeholders, including business.

But wouldn’t that be boring?

A system such as suggested here would most likely be less entertaining then current promotional campaigns. Gone would be the sexy ads and crazy promotional stunts. Shopping would become a more utilitarian activity and many consumer decisions would become less about fashion and more about function, (although there would still be room for product style).  Taking some of the “coolness” and “fun” out of shopping may allow people to realize what enjoyment they are getting from the rest of their lives.  A preoccupation with consumerism can cause a person to ignore the opportunities in their life for more personally fulfilling activities.  Happiness should come from our interactions with others, from being creative, from sharing, learning and trying new things, rather then acting out what a business has persuaded us to do.

Redirection of resources

With the end of the commercial promotions industry, there would need to be shift in the use of the people, tools and capital that traditionally went into this area.

Promotional skills transferred to the education sector

With some training, the people who have proven skills in promotion could become some of our greatest teachers.  They know how to capture an audience, communicate a message and get people to remember the ideas.  If the talent that is currently applied to promotions were redirected to education, our society could soon be filled with much more enlightened people. 

Spending redirected to benefit citizens

• Through aggressive commercial taxation, the large amounts of capital that traditionally went towards promotions could be used to improve education, healthcare, social security, the environment and more.
• With the assistance of government regulation and ethical competition [see above] employee wages could also be improved.

• Stiff competition in the marketplace will also force companies to spend more capital on their product and services to make them of higher quality.

Its already happening

At first, these ideas may seem quite far-fetched and unrealistic. For many of us promotions have become such a normal part of everyday life it becomes difficult to imagine our society without them.  But one can find many small examples of these ideas I have described, already in practice even in the contemporary west.

• Many schools are relatively ad free (although advertising in the schools will increase if not regulated).
• Hospitals and Religious buildings are mostly ad free.
• Sweden, Quebec and Greece all have very aggressive restrictions for advertising to children.
• Consumer Reports is a long time successful independent consumer magazine that discuss and critiques products and services both in print and online.
• There are many successful and effective comparative shopping web sites.
• Ethical shopping guides are also available online and in print. 
• Bodyshop has proven the commercial potential for having a good ethical reputation.
• Many Public TV and radio stations do not show advertisements (PBS, TVO, etc.)

I must remind the reader that our society is changing at an unprecedented rate.  Electronic communication has created a world where ideas travel fast.   The world has limited resources, limited environmental flexibility and grand inequality will only be tolerated so far.  The more we learn, the more we learn we need to change.  Business is only an activity to provide for the people, it is not an end in itself.  We lose nothing by shifting our focus towards ourselves, those in need, and our environment.  Why would we want to live for anything else but our own true happiness and the happiness of our future generations and global community? The goal of a society should be providing for people, not profits.

Suggestions for further progress

• Support the removal of advertising and PR from important information media.
• Support publicly funded events and promote increases in smart government funding to worthwhile activities.
• Discuss and promote the addition of taxes on advertising or at least the elimination of a current tax rebates on advertising.
• Support, promote and use independent guides and consumer reports for making educated and ethical shopping decisions.
• Push for stricter regulation of advertising to children.
• Defend your self against the persuasive techniques of advertising by making your self aware of their tactics.
• Learn more about these issues through reading and discussion.

We should always be reassessing the structure of our society and trying to make decisions about what changes need to come about to create real progress.  Among the many changes that must take place, I believe the elimination of marketing promotions is a necessary and fundamental step to create a more humane world.