When the Best Marketing Is Keeping Your Mouth Shut

I've run into a couple of interesting stories of marketing. In one, an organization sponsored a class at Hunter College, with the class content being a covert marketing campaign. The other came from a friend who owns an HP computer and who recently received something about extending the warranty - but said invitation explicitly excluded hardware. Leaving what? Telling her to reload software in case of trouble?

There are times that companies make the most horrendously stupid mucks of marketing communications. They lie, they twist things, they try being clever, and the upshot of all that effort is egg on their faces. If marketing isn't about the customer, then it's essentially a con game, in which the company tries to extract revenue without providing any benefit. And if a company's marketing communications is designed along such practices of trickery, it is probably costing the company more in good will and long term financial value than company management will ever realize. If the managers did get it, they'd replace the marketing staff immediately.