Search for “oil spill” on Google and you’ll get this:

Click here to enlarge

On Bing you’ll get:

British Petroleum · www.BP.com/GulfOfMexicoResponse
Get Info about the Gulf of Mexico Response Today

Yahoo:

BP – Info about the Gulf of Mexico Spill Learn More about How BP is Helping. www.bp.com/gulfofmexicoresponse

Normally, I’d say this is Responsible Marketing: Use paid search to share the positive and combat the negative. Bully for BP.

But where’s the competence? Where’s the character? I see neither and BP has lost my trust.

They’ve stumbled so badly, so often and on so many fronts this feels like a desperate ploy to manipulate public opinion. Actions speak louder than words and I’m no longer listening.

In fact, I’ve boycotted BP.

So what do you think? Does this feel like smart marketing or slimy spin?

Comment below to weigh in.

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Seems we’ve been up to our eyeballs in positioning and message strategy work at Outsource Marketing lately. Of course, positioning should be the cornerstone of all your marketing communications—without meaningful differentiation, you’ve got nothin’, after all.

But your positioning has to be more than simply unique and matter to your prospects. It has to be true, too.

With that in mind, watch this:

View on YouTube

If you are selling “the world’s toughest phone” that’s “virtually unbreakable,” perhaps it should be.

While Sonim XP1 CEO Bob Plaschke handled this with an amazing amount of grace, the fact is it would appear to some that this is nothing more than another hollow marketing claim.

Persuasion, good.
Puffery, bad.

Not just because you might get caught. It’s because it doesn’t respect the people that ultimately pay the bills—your customers.

Is Sonim guilty of the age-old marketer’s practice of marketing puffery? Considering their “unbreakable” phone broke, does it really matter?

What do you think?

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The LA Times got itself in some hot water last week, not once, but twice, for passing off advertising as news.

On Thursday, it ran a mock news article promoting NBC’s Southland on the front page:

View PDF version from the Wall Street Journal

On Sunday, the L.A. Times ran a four-page ad for the movie “The Soloist,” laid out like a news section.

Passing off advertising as content has been done before. We discussed a far more clever execution last year when AMC bought several pages and the cover of Ad Age to promote its Mad Men series last summer.

Is it smart?

The fact is passing off advertising as content is seldom this brazen, but it is common. There’s good reason to do it: nobody watches TV, listens to the radio or reads a newspaper for the ads. They are there for the content.

This is one way to slip advertising past the consumer before they change the channel, turn the page or boop it forward on the TiVO.

Or deceptive?

Geneva Overholser, director of the school of journalism at the USC, called the ad “deeply offensive,” and went on to say—

Readers don’t want to be fooled, they don’t like the notion that someone is attempting to deceive them. This breaks perhaps the most important bond that newspapers have with their readers, which, to me, is a bond of trust.

So what do you think?

Comment below to weigh in.

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Thanks to Martin Pierce for the tip.

View this video on YouTube

Few professional athletes have ever been bigger than George Herman “Babe” Ruth.

His achievements on the baseball field were epic, garnering him the nicknames “The Sultan of Swat,” “The Colossus of Clout,” “The Titan of Terror,” “The King of Crash,” and of course, “The Great Bambino.”

Arguably, the greatest player in the game today is Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod has a few nicknames, too:

• After leaving Seattle for a “contender,” he signed the largest contract in baseball history to play with the Texas Rangers—a team that has never contended—he became “Pay-Rod”
• He’s known as the “The Cooler,” since teams go cold when he joins them and hot when he leaves
• Several nicknames I won’t repeat due to his philandering, most notably with Madonna
• In light of the recent steroid revelations, he’ll forever be known as “A-Roid,” “A-Fraud” and “Alex Roidriguez”

Still, prior to the steroids news, baseball fans held out Rodriguez as the one person that might be able to remove the asterisk from Barry Bond’s home run record.

What does all this have to do with Responsible Marketing?

Baseball has a trust problem, and last April I asked the question, Can Responsible Marketing save baseball?

In it, I was hopeful that some of the things the MLB was doing might be able to help baseball regain its footing.

But as the highest paid player in the game, A-Rod’s irresponsible and fraudulent actions have a reverse halo effect (also known as the ‘devil effect’) on the MLB brand.

So, now I’m left asking the question again, do you believe Responsible Marketing can save baseball?

What’s your take?

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In The Night After Christmas, Jonathan Salem Baskin waxes poetic about the excuses marketers will make when retailers realize their marketing efforts (especially their holiday sales) weren’t what they hoped for this year:

The marketing had failed, the sales not triumphant,
The guy sneaking away was the company’s consultant.
More rapid than eagles his course was quite plain,
A getaway with successful branding he would claim.

“Now Viral! now, Social! now, Awareness and Retention!
On, Creative! On, Catchy! on, seeking only mention!
The brand was made memorable, I won’t take the fall!
Didn’t they know it wasn’t supposed to sell at all?”

After getting past the fact that Baskin’s poem is better than the ditty I wrote for the Outsource Marketing Holiday ‘08 card, I realized what he’s saying is what most business people assume about marketers:

We can’t be trusted.

It’s not just the fact that it’s our responsibility to persuade. From all corners of our society, we’re let down by people in sports, pop culture, government, business and religion.

We can’t trust our leaders—our heroes, even. Why would anyone trust someone in marketing?

Since 2006, the Edelman Trust Barometer has found a “person like yourself” is the most trusted person in the U.S. Not analysts, experts, educators or the government. People trust people that share their common interests.

I’ll be curious to see if this holds true in the 2008 Trust Barometer results released next month. I bet it will.

Since a “person like yourself” is who people trust most, it’s good to see social media is finally gaining acceptance and adoption by marketers.

Done right, social media can be a powerful tool to help build trust. Done poorly, it can have the immediate opposite effect.

Obviously, there are other things marketers can do, and we’ll tackle those next week.

It’s time to raise our game, folks. Marketers face a crisis of consumer confidence, and we have a lot to prove.

So, what do you believe marketers can do to help gain the trust of consumers?

Comment below to weigh in.

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I’ve been intrigued by the legs Awards for sale: Not a rewarding experience has had since I posted it on July 22nd, just under a month ago.

The Ballard Agency received an award from the U.S. Local Business Association that was clearly a deceptive marketing tactic similar to the phony domain name and Yellow Pages bills that are sent in hopes your A/P department will pay them in error.

To date, there have been 22 comments from people that received an email notification of the award, thought something was fishy, then pulled up the blog post after doing a Google search.

Tim Brosnan from the Centre Stage summed up what it was like to receive the award well:

A quick visit to the USLBA Web site dispelled any excitement I might have felt about our professional theater in Greenville, SC winning a national award.

Who else in Greenville had won awards?
No answer.

What’s the history of the USLBA?
No answer.

Who runs it?
No answer.

Is there a phone number to call?
No.

Now what do we do?
Buy a plaque.

What’s the plaque cost?
Enter all your contact information to find out.

Now I have a new term to toss around at cocktail parties: “vanity scam.”

“Vanity scam” is my favorite phrase of the week.

A few takeaways:

Please share any vanity scams or other questionable marketing practices you come across. Whenever possible, I’ll post them, and we’ll do some good—together.

Where have you seen questionable marketing practices such as false advertising, bait and switch, vanity scams and such?

Comment below to share your story.

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Yesterday, I spoke about how competence and character are necessary to build trust, and it made me think of a business relationship I have with someone that’s in one of the lowest-trust categories out there—auto mechanics.

Honest mechanics are hard to come by, and I have one.

Years ago, I was referred to my mechanic, Alan, by a friend that said he was trustworthy. My first visit left me a little concerned. I’d been accustomed to dealership service departments and floors you could eat off of. His shop was cluttered and dirty, and parts were everywhere. I tried him anyway because of the strong recommendation and was happy with the quality of his work and professionalism.

Time after time, we’ve taken our vehicles to him thinking there was something seriously wrong, and have left paying a bill in the $100 to $200 range breathing a sigh of relief it wasn’t something serious.

Because Allen is honest, he has a fair amount of long-term, loyal customers and does no marketing. His sign consists of several sheets of paper taped together.

No matter.

My family trusts him so much, when we take a vehicle to him, we seldom ask for an estimate. We know he’ll be fair.

Recently, our au pair’s Camry started making noises—expensive sounding noises. I dropped it off at Alan’s. Shortly later, he called me and informed me it was a timing belt, let me know what needed to be done, how much it would cost and how long it would take. The car was neglected and when all was said and done, it cost about $1,200.

I didn’t negotiate.

I didn’t ask questions.

And even though I hated spending the money, I handed him my debit card with a smile on my face.

The picture above was taken at Allen’s shop. I’m sure his customers laugh when they see it—you’ve never met a nicer guy. But he’s built up so much trust with his customers, he can say (or not say) just about anything and we’ll keep coming back.

As marketers, we spend a lot of our time getting to know the customer, massaging the message and the visuals and coming up with bold and brave ways to break through.

But given the above, shouldn’t we really be focusing on ways to communicate competence and character, as well?

Comment below to weigh in.

If you are in the Seattle area and are interested in chatting with Allen, here’s his contact info:

Nielsen Enterprises
13237 NE 20th Street
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 643-4610

Some people think trust is gained through integrity only. Not so, says Steven M.R. Covey in The Speed of Trust. Trust is equal parts character and competence.

Here’s how character and competence are directly related to Responsible Marketing:

It takes more than just doing marketing right. For long-term success, you really have to do the right thing, too. And while if You can do the right thing, but if you execute your marketing poorly, it won’t matter.

But if you can execute your marketing well and communicate character, you really have something.

What are you doing to build trust with your customers and prospects?

Comment below to share.

There are seven keys to Responsible Marketing.

Most would agree the first four keys are necessary just to do marketing right:

The three keys necessary if marketers want to gain the respect and trust of customers and do the right thing are:

Some have told me they believe Responsible Marketing is marketing infused with equal parts logic and heart.

And without heart, does creativity, strategy and everything else loses its relevance?

Do you believe marketing needs a heart to be effective?

Comment below to weigh in.

Image: Frank Chimero Illustration & Design, via AdPulp.

The Ballard Agency has won plenty of awards in their 45 year history, but this isn’t one they were interested in:

Chris Ballard, President of the the Bellevue-based insurance brokerage was surprised his company was selected. He’d never even heard of the U.S. Local Business Association.

Here’s the email he received, with hyperlinks removed:

I am pleased to announce that Ballard Agency has been selected for the 2008 Best of Bellevue Award in the Insurance category by the U.S. Local Business Association (USLBA).

In recognition of your achievement, a 2008 Best of Bellevue Award plaque has been designed for display at your place of business. You may arrange to have your award sent directly to Ballard Agency by following the simple steps on the 2008 Best of Bellevue Award order form.

The USLBA “Best of Local Business” Award Program recognizes outstanding local businesses throughout the country. Each year, the USLBA identifies companies that we believe have achieved exceptional marketing success in their local community and business category. These are local companies that enhance the positive image of small business through service to their customers and community.

Also, a copy of the press release publicizing the selection of Ballard Agency is posted on the USLBA website. USLBA hereby grants Ballard Agency a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to use, reproduce, distribute, and display this press release in any media formats and through any media channels.

In order to provide you with the best possible service, you have been assigned an award code that can be used on our website for quick access to your award information and press release. If you have any questions or comments, please include this code with your correspondence.

Sincerely,

Ashley Carter
Selection Committee Chair
U.S. Local Business Association

After doing a little sleuthing, the folks at the Ballard Agency realized it was a marketing scheme to sell overpriced plaques.

Chris didn’t appreciate having his time wasted, but took the time to share it with me, and now you.

Here’s a marketing tactic I hate: Winning fake awards or being “nominated for a “who’s Who” list, and all you have to do is pay for $100 award!

Clearly, this is a deceptive marketing tactic in the same category as the phony domain name and Yellow Pages bills that are sent in hopes your A/P department will pay them in error.

“The only way they’d ever get our business is on accident,” says Ballard.

And that, my Responsible Marketing friends, is no way to grow a business.

So, have you or ever been targeted for one of these “faux-wards?”

Comment below to share your experience.

UPDATE: Let’s fight vanity scams together is a follow-up to this post.

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Full disclosure: Outsource Marketing is a Ballard Agency client.