98 WAYOUT
marketingmag.com.auMARKETING 2019Associate professor
ConStavrosis the
program director of
postgraduate marketing
studies at RMIT University
and one of Australia’s
leading commentators on
marketing matters.
Tweet him @constavros.Way
Out
pathway through cultural, social
and technological mazes that few
understood. Generations had gone
from not having a phone in their
home to portable video messaging.
Millennials and beyond have a different
life experience. Digital immersion has
been ever present, loyalty is negotiable,
instant everything is expected.
The impact on truth is palpable
and brands must embrace it as the
new way forward on its own terms.
If ‘fake’ is the modern missive of
dismissal – thrown around to simply
infer disagreement rather than a lack
of the genuine – the embracing of
truth seems a desirable concept to
be tied to.
Truth in marketing is not
necessarily about refl ecting reality,
but rather in creating a sense of
agreement. Two individuals can see
the same information and come to
different conclusions about how it
resonates with them. That’s their
reality and there’s little you can do
about that. The information offered
should, however, be predominantly
rational, providing any consumer
with a solid basis to make a long-
lasting connection. Ideally, all
consumers will agree with whatyou say, even if it leads to different
outcomes among them.
Recent work I have done getting
consumers to notice and adhere to
warning messages in service industries
reminded me of the need to speak
with specifi c truth rather than general
possibilities. It’s easy to fall into the
trap of trying to be everything to
everyone. Consumers can spot the
difference between genuine conviction
and self-serving slogans in brand
messaging, their marketing intelligence
rapidly expanded as our ‘secrets’ have
been laid bare.
Agreement is critical for any
marketing action to take hold and
truth is a strong bond to agreement if
brands are willing to speak it. There
does lie a barrier. Despite there never
having been a bigger range of media
to express messaging upon, most of
what we see and hear is more generic
than ever. The plethora of platforms
has ironically created a clamouring for
group consensus, with disagreement
relegated to a binary position. Taking a
middle view was once the safest spot.
It is now the most dangerous since you
risk the wrath of both the for and the
against. My sense is that consumers
are increasingly growing disheartened
with having to choose sides and that
society is far worse off because of the
‘with us or against us’ mentality that
has permeated culture.
Truth in marketing, is relative
to the competition. Marketing has
been and always will be a game of
choice. With comparison options
and consumer reviews so readily
available, brands must embrace their
competitive positioning with a truth-
based reality. Marketing messages
should be about what you offer that
others don’t and what you do better
than rivals. Consumers, confounded
by choice, are looking for simple,
rational and comparable reasoning.
Now, is the time to offer the truth and
to stand by it, even if it makes some
uncomfortable.I
n marketing, the concept of
truth has typically been
relegated to the category of
irrelevance. Perception has
ruled as brands seek to shape how
consumers ‘feel’ about their offerings,
building emotional connections as a
priority to rational claims.
I’m calling time, however, on
this psychologically-driven and now
relatively generic series of platitudes.
In a world where the word ‘fake’ has
taken on new prominence, it is hard to
believe customers are still accepting
of marketing messages where the
disconnection between distant
promise and immediate reality can be
so tangible. Relying on consumers to
connect emotionally when the world
is fast becoming one big hyper-reality
show is dangerous.
The growth of emotional marketing
was well-suited to the last few
decades where rapid change created
a dissonance in consumers who
sought a connection to brands. Trust
and truth, separate concepts melded
together, manifested as a safe passage
forward when high levels of brand
awareness and emotive brand attitude
were blended. Consumers trusted
brands that offered a comforting