Marketing has many excellent definitions. It has been described as the activities a company undertakes to promote its brand and the selling of its products or services. It’s also been described as a multi-layered activity in the B2B and/or B2C sectors that includes advertising, selling, promotions, and delivering products or services. Marketing is also a function that sets processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers. It relates as well to creating and building brands. If marketing has one goal, it is to reach customers at the moment that most influence their buying decisions.

I define the sign of successful marketing as one in which customers look for you rather than you, looking for them. People go searching specifically for a McDonalds restaurant. They look purposely for a Coca Cola drink in a grocery isle. They stand in line for hours to buy a new Apple product. They pay an annual membership for the privilege of shopping at COSTCO and accept a premium price for PAMPERS diapers. These are good examples of successful marketing that has created strong brands with a loyal clientele. It’s no wonder that successful companies invest heavily in marketing to build trust in their brand and to make sure their customers return for more.

More and more, however, I see dangerous marketing strategies and tactics that can achieve exactly the opposite of effective good marketing. Here are my top seven. Let’s see if you agree with me.

1. Nobody is answering the phone and when they do answer it gets worse

You call a company and a recorded message says: “Your call is important to us but waiting time may be up to 25 minutes!” This demonstrates a company that does not actually care about its customers. Talking with customers is an opportunity to satisfy them, make a sale, build the brand, and/or resolve a complaint. When did talking to a customer become something to avoid? (or leave up to a robot !)

2. Happy Birthday and “no reply” emails

What is the value of receiving an impersonal Happy Birthday email generated automatically by a computer? And who invented the “No reply email”? The first email belittles the customer, and the second email indirectly says ”we not only do not want to talk with you, but also, we will not even answer your email if you contact us.”

3. Tricking the customer with the fine print or the packaging

You purchase a box of pasta, and the package indicates 500 grams. A few months later, the same box contains only 480 grams, then the same box contains only 450 grams, and then, 420. The first disguised a price increase of 4 percent, the second one 6 percent and the last one was almost 7 percent. In another example, you purchase a box of nuts and then notice that the bottom of the box has been curved inward to contain fewer nuts. Why trick your customers this way?

4. Self-check-out

More retailers promote the self-check-out cashier to eliminate the labour cost. There’s nothing wrong with that but leave the choice to the customer. If the customer prefers the self-check-out, great; if the customer prefers the “live” cashier experience, great as well. Why frustrate customers by closing most of the regular cashiers so that customers must stand in a long line-up in the self-checkout cashiers? Satisfied customers come back; dissatisfied customers find alternatives. Why send your customers to your competition?

5. Continually advertising sales discounts of 50 and 70 percent

Deep discounting says that in non-sale regular times, you are gouging your customers—clearly, overcharging them immensely with regular prices. Why? There is a time and place for an annual sale or a special occasion discount, but continual promoting deep discounts says you actually admit to gouging the same customers you want to attract and encouraging them to search for alternatives.

6. We don’t want to take your money

Direct payment eliminates the labour cost of processing a cheque payment, but what is the cost of processing payment by cheque, or debit, or credit? Why not leave the customer preferred manner of payment? Two simple rules apply here: (a) If you nickel and dime your customers, they will in turn nickel and dime you too. (b) When you do not give your customers a choice, someone else will and you may end up losing them. Cut costs; but cut cost intelligently.

7. Customers surveys

More companies are using automated customer surveys to gather customers feedback and track customers satisfaction. Getting customers feedback is excellent. But more surveys are now designed in such a way that the questions take you down a specific “funnel” that waters down the feedback and makes it generally positive. Why not find out the truth? Adding a simple short free form to the survey allows customers to comment freely about their experience, their level of satisfaction, and most importantly, make suggestions. I fully understand the preference for automated electronic tabulation but what’s the objective here? Having a survey that says “everything is OK” or receiving back genuine feedback?

You may have experienced all or some of these observations. They are dangerous marketing tactics that are likely to back-fire. The bottom line is: Getting closer to the customers is always good marketing. Tricking customers for short term gain is risky. Giving customers options builds trust. Making sure customers are satisfied promotes loyalty. Lastly, as you have heard me say before, “Delighted customers = Happy profits”.

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