دانلود رایگان مقاله مخفیکاری، اسرار، و دورویی و تزویر در روابط بازاریابی

Abstract

Stealth, or undercover, marketing involves the disguising of marketing communications that marketers undertake to purposefully influence their audiences without the audiences being aware of these activities. Inasmuch as stealth marketing involves secrecy (the withholding of information) and miscommunication (the communication of partial or misleading information), it is at least on some level duplicitous. Duplicity is the double act of secrecy and misrepresentation. In this article we explore duplicity in marketing communications. Specifically, we deconstruct the movie The Jonesesto explore the various waysin which both marketers and consumers employ duplicity in their communications–—to each other and themselves. We conclude by exploring the ethical and functional issues duplicity raises, and suggest that irony is one way in which duplicity can be ethically and productively employed.

8. Conclusion

In this article we discussed modes of duplicity in stealth marketing by deconstructing the film The Joneses. The extant literature focuses on one of six possible modes, namely the duplicity between the marketer and the consumer. We introduced examples of duplicity where the marketer keeps secrets from their own unit and other marketers, as well as the customer keeping secrets from marketers, other customers, and themselves. More importantly, we proposed that using ironic duplicity might minimize ethical concerns related to stealth marketing. Disguising promotional messages as word of mouth is currently the dominant practice; however, more and more examples using irony as a disguise are emerging in advertising (Pehlivan, Berthon, & Pitt, 2011). Although stealth marketing is perhaps as old as marketing itself, a discussion of the phenomenon as a marketing tool is of the recent decade. We believe that this marketing practice, mostly used during buzz marketing campaigns, warrants more attention from the research community, as well as more managerial attention. Not only is it necessary to discussthe ethics–—the majorfocusin the literature– —but it is also crucial to understand the process as a marketing operation and as a consumer experience. This article is a step in this direction.