The Best Advertising?

I listen to NPR on my daily commute and yesterday I heard a piece by Robert Reich, on an ad agency, working for GM, that reportedly offered him money to comment positively on a GM employee pension buy-back program.

Reich was not amused - and made the point that this was, in effect, bribery. GM commented that neither they nor their advertising suppliers/vendors conduct business in such a manner. The ad agency said this was all a misunderstanding. I don't know the facts in all this, but I'm inclined to believe Reich's view of the situation.

What's this all got to do with a better customer experience? Plenty! If you even think that someone is deliberately lying to you, or circulating lies, you're not going to trust that person, right? And trust is the very first thing you've got to have if you're going to engage customers. Without trust - no engagement. Without engagement - no good experience. Without a good experience - no loyalty.

Any company that tries to influence public opinion by paying for positive messages through supposedly impartial third parties has got to expect a horrendous public opinion backlash. On the other hand, maybe GM doesn't have much to loose. Their loyalty rates for repeat buyers are abysmally low.

There is a glimpse of good news on the horizon though. DuPont has officially endorsed the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) Code of Ethics, making it applicable to all sales and marketing employees and vendors. With a Fortune 100 company coming on board, that's a big boost for transparency in advertising practices.

Comments

[Gary Spangler]

Thanks for the support. I believe that aggressive and volunatary adoption of the WOMMA Code of Ethics for WOM Marketing by marketers, bloggers and WOM services providers will go a long way toward not only protecting the long-term integrity of Word of Mouth as a marketing practice but also the integrity of Consumer Generated Media in general.

Regards,

Gary Spangler