Lets talk business !!

This occurred to me when I participated in a survey conducted by two ICFAI students in person as a part of their project, and I happened to fill their form which was studying the Indian retail investor and they gave me a compliment that I think very different from others around me and have a good business mind, why, the question is WHY don't people care about themselves ?? They are in search of love, in search of money, in search of everything in life but don't care to take care of themselves.
As someone said "Pray for what you want, but work for what you need"
Most Indian upper middle class, especially the IT folk tend to neglect what they actually are meant to be, engineers i.e. innovators or developers. Not just develop code but should be able to develop yourself and people around you. But all I see around me are people who crib, who crib that they don't get what they want in life.

Anyway I guess I have deviated a little too much from the topic, so lets talk business. No I'm not trying to promote my business idea, but was wondering when some discussion came up and a colleague of mine and I had a discussion over marketing vs ethics. Should/Can marketing of a product break all ethical lines? Can the marketing head live with what he claims his product can do when he actually knows it can't in most cases??
Do you think one glass of milk with any supplement can give you enough energy for whole day?? Do you think you can be the best just because you use X blade and not Y blade ?? Do you think your jeans can replace your bf and give you the feel of touch ? Do you think your shampoo can wipe away all your dandruff in just one go ?? Do you think ANY bank can give you always profits in mutual funds? Do you think, Do you think, Do you think ??
Well this is a well debated topic and like in any other argument there is no right or wrong to it, its just the way an eristic can put it forward. People like my colleague should understand that its not a matter of ethics but its an art of persuasion, this reminds me of "Rhetoric" written by Aristotle, my all time favourite philosopher :)
There are different methods of persuasion: By reason, my emotion, subliminal messaging with the aid of rhetoric, sales techniques and other techniques include deception, power, seduction, or even brainwashing or to the extreme of torture. Ofcourse doing anything against the will of the customer wouldn't be legal, so forget about direct torture or power. Now techniques like deception, seduction, brain washing are seen very commonly in todays advertising.

Deception doesn't necessarily mean cheating, in advertising world it just means conveying selective information which most of the times is half-truth. In order to deal with the legal aspects of it, all that the advertiser has to do is add a '*' with conditions apply in the bottom. Retail customers never try to find out what these conditions are, nor do they ask what side effects does the product cause unless they are medicines. So mission accomplished.

Seduction involves temptation and enticement to influence the behavior of another. Now do I have to say anything more on this? Thanks to todays movie stars or other popular personalities, we find every third ad involving seduction some sexual in nature and some just entice.

And then there is brain storming, brain storming involves all the above plus frequent advertising, the more you see it the more you remember it when you are making a purchase the next time. You see a washing powder ad 10times during your favourite show, you tend to try it the next time you go to the store. Pure brainwashing.

So the question is, is it wrong to exaggerate in advertising ?? I would say NO, not if you are the advertiser :) but as a customer I'd want to see only what I get. However human mind is very complicated. An advertisement which shows only what you get doesn't attract enough audience or attention however a overhyped ad would draw more attention, and this is what marketing agencies use in their strategy. So who is to be blamed ?? The customer or the advertiser or the producer ???

No one, the advertiser has to just stick within his boundaries, the producer has to give his best and invest more in research and better his product always, and the customer has to take an informed decision rather than just go by advertising. The legal constraints can be made more strict, for example the case of Indian packaged foods which are supposed to print the expiry date, MRP, Calories, and all the ingredients of the package; you can see hundreds of products with some or none of the above on the pack. A condom without an expiry date will do, but not food products or medicines. A biscuit packet without calories might be acceptable but not pure oil based products.
Similar care can be taken in other products also and tighten the rules further, but strict ethics and marketing don't really go hand in hand if you want to run your business successfully and be profitable :).