Risks
If marketers fail to hide the campaign, they run considerable risk of backlash. In cases where consumers discover they have been manipulated into liking the product, they generally become angry at the marketer (and by association that product) over being misled. This has led some to apply more derogatory names to undercover marketing, such as roach baiting, likening the products marketed this way to poison. In some cases, the amount of buzz generated by a failed campaign can exceed that of a successful one, only with the opposite of the desired result.
An example of this sort of backlash can be found in Sony Entertainment's debacle with Zipatoni. Zipatoni attempted to engage in a stealth marketing campaign, which was quickly detected by the internet community. Sony immediately experienced backlash from video game enthusiasts. Their ad campaign was perceived by the community to be shallow enough that it insulted Sony's target audience by implying that they were shallow enough to fall for it.
Read more about this topic: Undercover Marketing
Famous quotes containing the word risks:
“The amount of it is, if a man is alive, there is always danger that he may die, though the danger must be allowed to be less in proportion as he is dead-and-alive to begin with. A man sits as many risks as he runs.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“If the children and youth of a nation are afforded opportunity to develop their capacities to the fullest, if they are given the knowledge to understand the world and the wisdom to change it, then the prospects for the future are bright. In contrast, a society which neglects its children, however well it may function in other respects, risks eventual disorganization and demise.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“There are risks which are not acceptable: the destruction of humanity is one of them.”
—Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921–1990)