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March 29, 2005
Is ethical marketing mythical?
During the ethics track of the Word of Mouth Summit, WOMMA CEO Andy Sernovitz described the "four horsemen" of deceptive word-of-mouth practices:
1. The abusers: Companies that practice or encourage outright deception
2. The accommodators: Agencies that hire abusers on a "don't ask, don't tell" policy
3. The bystanders: Big WOM players who decline to back ethics efforts
4. The enablers: Companies that pay for results and don't ask how they occurred
It seems the future of WOMMA includes functioning as a Common Cause-like advocate for exposing companies and agencies that engage in unethical word-of-mouth marketing. Keeping marketers and companies honest these days is more than a full-time job. It's a calling.
How WOMMA would create ethics alerts is still up for debate.
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I don't think ethical marketing is a myth, but it's hard. Cluetrain thesis #28 speaks to this, "Most marketing programs are based on the fear that the market might see what's really going on inside the company." So successful marketing must expose, not conceal what the company is doing.
The WOMMA could create ethics alerts by starting a blog and blogging about what companies are doing.
Thanks for the updates. They're helpful for those that aren't there.
Tom -- I think a WOMMA blog specifically about word of mouth marketing ethics is a great idea.
Thanks. Not sure how to make something like that happen, but let me know as I'd love to help.
