Marketing Puffery Attitudes among Businesses - Dissertation Example

Marketing Puffery Attitudes among Businesses Introduction Advertisement is a major part of business. Although there are so many ethical and legal issues with regard to advertisement, these issues are rarely ever looked into. One problem that definitely needs to be looked at is the issue of puffery in advertising. The term marketing puffery has a rich history, especially in the context of UK business ethics. It has its history back in 1892 where a firm called Carbolic Smoke Ball Company had advertised a smoke ball that was intended to help a person get rid of flu is only they used the smoke ball. To create an indication as to how effective the smoke ball was the firms promised to give 100 pounds to anyone who would buy the smoke ball and find it not useful with regard to treating the flu. It is to be noted that 100 pounds were a lot of money back in 1892. It is also necessary to note that at the time the Carbolic Smoke Ball Company was making this promise, there was a flu epidemic in UK that killed over one million people. One of the customers brought a case against Carbolic Smoke Ball Company after she had used the smoke ball and found it to be less useful. She won the case and Carbolic Smoke Ball Company appealed the case where the court of appeal declined the appeal unanimously. The issue of misleading and false advertisements has persisted to this day. However, today’s environment has changed. Literature review indicates that the problem is as much a business issue as it is a legal issue. The current study will seek to answer the following questions; How often do businesses decide to use puffery in advertising? What are the motivations that inspire the decision to use marketing puffery? What are the attitudes of consumers towards puffed advertisements? Justification of the research False marketing is an important issue with regard to various aspects. To begin with, there is the issue of the fact that it is illegal and in some cases it can land a business in the corridors of justice. Secondly, it can have a negative image on the business and this can affect the business in the market. Thirdly, false advertising can have negative effects on the consumers where the consumers are mislead to buy goods based on adversely false information brought to them by firms through marketing puffery. Literature review Advertisement is a major part of marketing. In today’s world where there are various media through which the consumer can be reached. Firms advertise fervently and the consumer is bombarded with tens of different types of advertisements every day. Advertising on its own right is not necessarily a bad thing; however, there is the issue of misleading advertising and this is an issue that must be investigated. As businesses compete to have the biggest market share within their sectors, the temptation to use advertising puffery is high. This kind of dishonest marketing can be a very big issue with regard to the issue of consumer welfare and that is why this issue is important not just for the business executives but also for the government. At the same time, the other problems that came when the issue of adverting puffery comes up is the fact that this is not a black and white issue. What this means is that it is not possible to take a bunch of advertisements and classify each one of them as either advertising puffery of not. All of them would lie on a scale of continuum where one would be the least and then going to the highest. This means that for most advertisements, it would be hard to determine whether they have adverting puffery or not. Various scholars have looked at this issue from various angles such as ethical, legal and even economic. Bergh and Bruce (1983) for instance look at the issue of advertising and how it has been affected by government regulation. They look into the question of whether the increased government regulation on advertising has led to decreased puff advertising. Koslow (2005) looks at the way in which honest advertising can affect the way the consumers regard the organization. The main question answered in this research article is about whether the use of honest and persuasive advertising can affect a firm in a negative way. This article provides useful insights as to how and why firms may be persuaded to use certain kinds of advertisements, including puffery or puff advertising. Kim and Choi (2014) also looked at the adverting strategies used by firms and how they affect the image of the firm as well as the issue of how the public views such firms. They looked at the firm’s advertisement strategies during a crisis and how the firm can use better strategies to communicate with the public. Their study has tackled some of the issues that have also been tracked by Bashir and Rule (2014) in their study. These issues have to do with regard to how and why business involves themselves in dishonest means of advertising and deceiving the customers. The modern business is customer driven which means that the business has to fashion all its activities after the needs and the requirements of the customer. This new business paradigm, called the experience economy, mean that the business has to put the customers’ needs way ahead of the business. In such an business environment, it is important to understand that businesses need to be more wary of how they relate with their customers. With the modern media platforms that make the average person to have a communication platform that connects him to the rest of the globe, firms have to be wary of the fact that if they are trapped in a legal case regarding their bad advertising practices like Carbolic Smoke Ball Co, they are likely to damage their public image and so undo any advantages that they had gained from their earlier marketing activities. However, as Bergh and Bruce (1983) says, it is not so much an issue of whether or not businesses puff their advertisements, but how far they go down that line. It is a matter of the issue of the intention of the firm when it is creating an advertisement to appear in many media such as the print, electronic and social media. In this regard, one question that must be asked and answered is on how far a firm should go in spicing their advertisements. The other question that needs be tackled is with regard to what the role of the government is where this kind of advertising is concerned. Bashir and Rule (2014) in their paper covered the issue of misleading advertisements and how they affect the consumers. They look at the ethics of advertising and look into the issue of the how far a firm can go with regard to the puffed advertising without violating laws as well as the ethics issues. In their view, businesses are learning the advantage of offering the customer right information as opposed to giving incorrect information. Unlike in the past, the modern customer wants information to be given to him in order for them to make their decision with regard to the product. However, it must be noted that although it can be argued that all advertisements are geared towards increasing sales in the end, some advertisements are more geared towards just creating awareness of the brand. Yet, even when the advertisement is not geared towards directly improving sales, businesses still puff up their advertisement. This second aspect of advertising may have an added twist on the issue of marketing puffery. This is as a result this is an indication that advertising puffery is more of an art work as opposed to be an attempt to trick the customer to buy the goods. However, there s an issue as with regard to where the line should be drawn, that is, when can advertising puffery be regarded as an attempt to trick consumers and when should be allowed? On the other hand, Chylinski and Chu (2010) investigated the issue of consumer cynicism and looked at how this impacts on business and their advertising campaigns. The main question that was answered in this paper was about whether puffed advertizing has any impact on the consumer’s buyer decision making, whether in a negative or a positive manner. In their research, they investigate the issue of how people perceive advertisement and the corporate world at large. Their findings were that despite the fact that many firms used puffed advertising, this does not necessarily affect the consumer buying decision. As a result, it answers the question of how puffed advertising affects the consumers and whether this type of advertising must be seen as unethical practice. However, they say that it appears that there is a common understanding between business and consumers with regard to advertising. The consumers implicitly understand that the product will not be as good as the advertisement sand they still buy the products not because they expect the product to be as good as indicated in the advertisement, but because they feel expect the product to meet the minimum requirement for such a product. Donohue et al (2007) however considered the issue of direct to customers advertising and how it affects consumer attitudes towards products. They specifically look at the issue of drug manufacturers marketing directly to consumers and the ethical issues that are involved. In their view, regulatory authorities have not been doing enough to avoid misleading or puffed advertisements of drugs, despite it being very clear that these firms take advantage of the consumers. This article is necessary because it is related to the oldest case of marketing puffery which was a legal case in the United Kingdom in which a drug for healing flu was advertised in an unfair way. With regard to such a case, what needs to be answered is whether there is a need for government through its regulatory bodies to protect consumers from such puffed advertisements. It can be argued that there is a mutual understanding between such firms that spice up their advertisement in order to make the product more appealing than it is in reality. Do customers buy these goods because of the exaggerated advertisement or do they understand that the advertisements are exaggerated? What ethical applications must be observed in order to make sure that the firms is not going overboard with regard to puffing up their advertisements? These questions seems to be answered by Lowenstein (1998) who argued that in a modern world where advertisements are all over, consumers are more aware about the issue of advertising and are able to separate the puff from the reality. Graff, Kunkel, and Mermin (2011) on the other hand believe that there is a need to have advertisement regulated in order to ensure that consumers are protected. They look at the issues of food advertising to children and argue that these are in most cases misleading. They cite the low cognitive abilities of are still underdeveloped. Preston (1998) also looks at the issue from a different angle and looks at how law has historically looked at the matter. He gives a case study of the C&H Sugar which brought a legal suit to the courts after it had been banned from using lies in its adverting while other sugar companies like itself had not been banned. The court solved the case not by banning the other sugar companies from using lies, but by granting C&H Sugar permission to use lies in its advertisements. This shows a more serious issue and in Preston’s (1998) study, he identifies that the law does not give a clear prescription as to what truth is. Lowenstein (1998) argues that that the law fails to have a correct way to deal with such advertisements. Businesses have had the freedom to use misleading information when advertising because the fashion in which such matter are dealt with in the courts of law is more academic than functional. It is very clear that there has not been enough efforts to curb unfair and misleading advertisements that are displayed to millions of people every day. On ht other hand, Schul, Mayo and Burnstein (2008) look at how such advertisements affects the business and how it can affect the trust of the customers. This article looks at the issue of whether such marketing strategies give the business advantage or if the consumers distrust such firms that use such advertisements. Methodology Research design This research will use both quantitative and qualitative deign in order to collect data for analysis. This will help in making sure that there is enough data with regard to the issue. Data collection methods The study will use at least two methods to collect data. These will be as follows; Surveys Surveys will be carried out to collect both quantitative and qualitative data about the issue. Two sets of participants will be surveyed. The first set of participants will be businesses executives who are involved in marketing. Business executives especially those who are directly involved in the process of marketing and especially advertisements will be surveyed with an intention to answer the research questions as identified above. The surveys will be done using questionnaires. Two questionnaires will be designed, one directed towards the business executives and the other directed towards consumers. This will help in collecting data that can be useful in this study. Interviews Although the survey done through questionnaires are useful in helping to get the required data, interviews will also be necessary in making sure that more detailed information is collected for the purses of this study. As with the surveys, the interviews will be designed separately so that each suits the business executives and the consumers. Data sampling methods The data sampling methods that will be used for this will be probabilistic method. The sampling method will try to come up with a sample that is as much a representation of the larder society. Justification of the methods and sampling Data collection method The data collection methodology to be be used for this study will be effective for two reasons. One is the fact that the participants will be easily reached. Due to the nature of the research question to be answered, the participants (both the business marketing executives and the consumers) will be more than willing to participate. The only challenge that may come with regard to using these data collection methods will be the fact that some marketing executives may be reluctant to give the correct information about their advertisement policies and attitudes if they feel that such information is likely to make them look bad. However, to overcome this issue, the business executives will be guaranteed that the information being sought from them is strictly for research purposes and that it is not going to be used adversely against them or against the firms they represent. On the side of the consumers, this problem will not arise. With regard to the sampling methods used for this study, it can be argues that this is the one that suits this research better than any other. The reason for this is that the target population for this study is the whole pupation as opposed to a part of the population. Data analysis procedure The data analysis that will be carried out for this study will seek to identify the general attitude among marketing executives and among consumers with regard to marketing puffery. In this case, after the data has been collected, it will be coded into a data analysis software such as SPSS. SPSS will be utilized to analyze the collected data and identify various trends. Two issues will be analyzed in the data collected. The first one will be any themes in the data. Thematic analysis will be important for this study because there are likely to be several themes that come up with several themes. Possible ethical issues in the study There are a number of possible ethical issues that are likely to come up in the studying these include the following; Data privacy The data collected both from the marketing executives and the consumers will have to be kept private and only consumed for the purposes of the study. This data, especially the personal information must not be used, especially in a way that is adverse towards the participants. The other issue to be considered is the fact that adverting puffery is an illegal and an unethical issue. In this regard, the research process must not be seen to be supportive of this kind of activity which has a big impact on the consumers. This is another issue that must be considered. Limitations of the research As has been discussed above, the main challenge will be to convince the marketing executives to provide honest information about their marketing activities and attitudes. Most of these executives are likely to have the urge to use this opportunity to be honest but to try and use the opportunity as a public relations activity. If these marketing executives do not give honest information, the study will be crippled and will not be of any use. Therefore, it is important to develop strategies to help in making sure that valid information has been given. To avoid this hurdle, the surveys and the interviews will be designed din such a way that if the executives are lying, it will be easy for this incorrect information to be identified. Research plan (timescale) Time Activity March 2nd – March 6th Designing the materials for survey such as the interview questions and the questionnaires Testing the questionnaires in order to identify any problems. This will prevent these problem from coming up during the actual study. March 9th –March 14th Participants sampling. This will involve identifying the participants, communication to them about the study and informing them about what will be required of them. Dates for actual surveys and interviews will be booked with them. March 16th –March 21st Study will be carried out March 23rd – march 27th Coding the data collected using surveys and interviews into SPSS March 30th – April 3rd Data analysis April 6th –April 10th Writing down the discussions and the results of the study Reference list: Bergh, V., & Bruce, G. (1983). The Temptation to Puff: Puffery in Automotive Advertising, 1930 to 1980. Journalism Quarterly, 60, 4 , pp-700-769 . Donohue, J. (2007). A Decade of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising of Prescription Drugs. New England Journla of Medicine, 357 , pp. 673-681. Graff1, S., Kunkel, D., & Mermin, S. (2011). Government Can Regulate Food Advertising To Children Because Cognitive Research Shows That It Is Inherently Misleading. Health Affair, 31, 2 , pp. 392-398 . KOSLOW, S. (2005). Can the Truth Hurt? HowHonest and Persuasive Advertising Can Unintentionally Lead to Increased Consumer Skepticism. Journal of Consumer Affairs, 32, 4 , pp. 245–267. Lowenstein, H. (1998). Commercial Speech And The First Amendment: "Too Much Puff": Persuasion, Paternalism, And Commercial Speech. University of Cincinnati Law Review , pp. 78-84. Preston, L. (1998). Puffery and Other Loophole Claims: How the Law's Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy Condones Fraudulent Falsity in Advertising. The Journal of Law and Commerce, 49 , pp. 89-97. Bashir,N.Y. & Rule,N.O. (2014). Shopping under the Influence: Nonverbal Appearance-Based Communicator Cues Affect Consumer Judgments, Psychology & Marketing, 31, 7 Kim, S. & Choi, S.M. (2014) Is Corporate Advertising Effective in a Crisis? The Effects of Crisis Type and Evaluative Tone of News Coverage, Journal of Promotion Management, , 20, 2, p. 97 Chylinski, M. Chu, A. (2010) Consumer cynicism: antecedents and consequences, European Journal of Marketing, 44, 6. P.796 Schul, Y., Mayo, R., & Burnstein, E. (2008). The value of distrust, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 5, 1293 Read More