Commentary

Why We Lie to our Customers?
by Martha Hanlon

Today’s corporate problems are not small, by any means.
At a time when honesty and authenticity are the most treasured corporate assets, companies seem to be dumbfounded. When customers want more sincere conversations, companies are talking less and hiding more. At a time when marketing could and should be guiding the conversational integrity of the company, it is failing to respond.

Actually, it’s worse than that. Most are lying.

We are not talking about the intentional dishonesty of WorldCom and Enron, rather the more accidental, misleading kind that too many companies engage in.

How did this accidental lying start? The tumultuous market has put most companies in some type of transition — relaunching, adjusting to market needs, consolidating. They show the world multiple, inconsistent or incorrect identities. The "heart" of who they are and what they stand has become simulated.

Then they wonder why no one understands them, believes them and buys from them.

Marketing is fundamentally broken. The "book" needs to be redone, reborn. No more spin, no more bs, no more camouflage.

With a commitment to authentic marketing, a company sets out to discover its identity, not invent one. They own up to what they truly are—what their customers perceive and need them to be as they move through the nature transitions that affect any growing company. Authentic marketing enables them to put together an honest market conversation that every employee can deliver because it’s real not learned.

Kmart, which has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, is struggling to compete with less expensive Wal-mart Stores and trendier Target in the discount retail market. Through focus group results, it is clear that Kmart customers believe the stores are understocked and dirty.

What is Kmart’s answer to get customers to come to their stores? They launched a campaign "…to build an emotional bond with the consumer by re-establishing the role Kmart plays in its shopper’s lives," said Steven Feuling, Kmart senior vice president of marketing. Kmart. The Stuff of Life. Hello, Kmart? Are you listening?

Your customers want Stuff On The Shelves. They aren’t looking for an emotional bond with you. If Kmart wants an emotional bond with its customers, it’s going to have to earn it through honesty.

Kmart has invented who it wants to be, and it doesn’t match who their customers want them to be. They are posing, and it won’t take long for their customers to figure it out.

In the meantime, something else ugly happens. Companies end up spending their marketing time in a dangerous gap—the place between who they really are and the multiple, inconsistent things they say they do. The marketing budget is used to manage the gap rather than create a separation between the company and its competition.

Kmart, for example, is about to waste over $40m on advertising alone to push us into believing Kmart. The Stuff of Life. That’s how much they are spending to get us to believe their invention. What do you think the return will be for that $40M?

Now what if they took the money and stocked their shelves as their customers would like? And what if they spent that same amount of money to tell us the truth. Kmart. Our Shelves Are Filled. What do you think the return would be for showing they listened to their customers?

Authentic marketing listens to what the market says about you. And once you hear them, you are free to become who you are. Try it, all you accidental liers.