People want to be fooled

I remember him well. Late thirties, charming, well dressed smart casual, sharply coiffed. Rolf was his name if I’m not mistaken.

He was the epitome of a worldly, trend-setting man. Arrogant to the core. He had to laugh out loud when several (adult) students had no idea who or what Oger was (the luxury bespoke suit store on the PC Hoofdstraat). If you didn’t know what Oger was, that said more than enough about you, he thought. He’d smile a little smugly and stop looking at you. He taught us about marketing. That the origin of that concept was a long time ago in Market-Getting. Going to the market to advertise your products. Then he looked mysteriously…

He was about to share his greatest insight, saying, “People want to be fooled, that’s the secret to marketing.”

I remember hearing him say that and a lot of quarters dropped.

So that’s what marketers thought. That people want to be fooled.

I objected, explaining that I saw it differently. He waved it away and didn’t look at me again.

I clearly didn’t understand how ‘it’ worked. I was an untermensch in his eyes.

And since then it strikes me that many marketers do indeed seem to think that people want to be fooled.

In the food industry, you pay more and more while the content is less and less. Remember how full a bag of paprika chips used to be?

Healthy ingredients in products were replaced with cheap substitutes. While the prices are only getting higher.

The pharmaceutical industry make people fearful in order to sell unnecessary vaccines.

Insurers use the same fear to hawk unnecessary insurance.

Social media giants know exactly how to keep their customers addicted to their platform.

Constant advertisements present us with a picture of the perfect person living the perfect life and the products that go with that can be bought from them…

Not to mention the ever-shortening life cycle of products and the enormous environmental impact of all that waste…

I don’t really understand traditional marketers….

They sell and sell and don’t realize what their footprint is.

All those things that become trash way too fast

All those unhealthy products making people sick

All these illusions that make people pay too much

All that plastic packaging

All those polluting production methods

Why on earth would you want to be a part of it? It’s really just a scam, isn’t it?

“YOU CAN FOOL SOME PEOPLE SOMETIMES, BUT YOU CAN’T FOOL ALL THE PEOPLE ALL THE TIME” sang Bob Marley

‘The right livelihood’ is an important step in that. Scamming people is not exactly the right livelihood now it seems to me….

Of course, there is also a role for consumers who allow themselves to be swindled. And who seems to want everything for a bargain. But realize that those same marketers have conditioned those people into that behavior. And doing it every day.

Marketing has become a science. The science of manipulating and influencing people to do what you want. When I traveled in India 10 years ago, deodorant was not used by locals in certain parts. Unilever hung large posters along the road with a barbaric looking Indian who clearly had sweat patches under his arms. Next to them were a couple of Western-dressed Indians, holding their noses and pointing to a can of deodorant…

This is also how we were once conditioned to use the actually totally unnecessary deodorant. Which is even harmful to your health… (I use it myself, it’s just an example ;)) I don’t know anyone who wants to be conditioned to eat unhealthy things. Yet we are conditioned with learned addictions like chips, cigarettes, snacks, coffee, pizza, chips, alcohol, candy, soda, and cosmetics that are not good for us…. We’re wearing clothes made under questionable conditions…

We drive cars that pollute…

We throw away bags of plastic every week…

Well… people want to be fooled, right?

Have you ever heard of neuromarketing?

People are put under a brain scanner and it is examined what effect watching a commercial has on the shopping centres in the brain.

Modern marketers know exactly how to program their customers to buy their product.

People want to be fooled…

And if you don’t want to, don’t watch commercials.

Never.

You’ll be framed either way.

And you don’t want that.

Nobody wants that.

Right?

people don’t want to be fooled. People want value for money. Good products at a fair price.

The consumer society is hopefully coming to an end as more and more people become aware.

More and more honest and conscious brands are emerging that sell good and sustainable products at good prices.

As far as I’m concerned, that should become the starting point in marketing again.

There is nothing wrong with marketing in itself.

I use it too, otherwise few people would come to my trainings, events and retreats.

But do it honestly and sincerely.

Marketing can be done from love and wisdom.

People don’t want to be fooled.

People want solid and durable.

Marketers reading this,

I call upon you:

Get up!

Bring marketing back to what it once was. Just take your products to market and tout them.

Without manipulation tricks.

Refuse to serve the devil any longer. Don’t let yourself be enslaved by targets aimed at making as much profit as possible for your shareholders.

Refuse to sell any more unhealthy or unnecessary shit!

Refuse to condition people to buy what they don’t need at all!

Refuse to sell products that are not sustainable, or have plastic packaging!

The power is yours!

“NOW YOU HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT, GET UP FOR YOUR RIGHT.

For the world of

future generations.

Xr