Ethics in promotion essay

I am one of the people who believe that Undercover Marketing is the most modern way to combine various areas of product development and interest into one promotional package. Companies that use Undercover Marketing realize that the media for advertising products are no longer limited to print, television, and billboards. These days, innovation is the name of the sales game and that the exact objective of Undercover Marketing. Undercover marketing works primarily on the basis of a person’s curiosity.

The undercover marketers use this curiosity to help build an anticipatory consumer base as they subliminally sell people on the idea and benefits of the product without letting on that the product is in the process of being introduced in the market. I really do not see anything unethical in the practice because it allows us, as consumers, to satisfy our curiosity by testing a product for free and finding out the positive and negative points before it hits the shelves. Advertisements in the past were used to entice us to buy a product in order to have a chance to try it and develop a personal opinion. This is where the beneficial aspect of undercover marketing lies. The product is not merely advertised, it is also tried and tested by the potential buyer who will give his or her opinion of the product that in turn will help the company tweak the product to consumer demands before the final release. It is the idea of the indirect pitch (or word of mouth) that excites a person about a product.

The positive response comes from our human desire to try all things that are new to us in all terms of life, especially when it comes for free. After trying and appreciating the product, our human tendency is to purchase one as well. The purchase is the end result of this marketing strategy. Even though this practices has its detractors, the companies and consumers seem to benefit from this two-way marketing strategy. Undercover marketing is just the beginning for this new stage for marketing products.

It has the potential to drive consumer spending for items and prepare a wide client base for a product even before it hits the shelves. This is why I will expect innovative strategies based on undercover marketing to pop up in the near future.