Page 32 - Battleground The Media Volume 1 and 2

Advert s ng and Persuas on | 11

He or she is selling a particular brand of alcohol. And some companies pay col-
lege students to “buzz” the latest CD from a musical group to their friends at
parties.
Other unconventional sales promotions take place in retail stores and at the
point of purchase. In some boutique clothing stores, employees are now paid
to be “peer trend setters.” These people casually offer comments about what
products and styles are hip and fashionable to shoppers who are looking for
clothes and sampling products. “Seeding” a new product can be done by leav-
ing empty bottles or cans on tables at locales where targeted consumers will
see them and assume they are popular with other members of their consump-
tion group.
Humans have long engaged in market relationships, trading and bargaining
for goods and services, but drawing out the differences between earlier forms
of market interactions and present business strategies reveals that bargaining
entails the application of individual skills, a type of personal theater of pretext,
pretend, persuasion, and resistance. But with stealth marketing the interaction
assumes a false premise. By concealing its purpose, the “mark” does not have
the chance to display skill or offer resistance. The playing field is not level. At its
worst, some forms violate trust and may create a cultural atmosphere that spoils
the public sense of mutual respect and honesty. For these reasons, some market-
ers have made strong statements against these practices.

Marketing disCriMination
As advertisers’ data regarding consumer purchasing behavior has increased in recent
years, so too has marketing discrimination, whereby certain real or potential customers
are given better treatment, while other real or potential customers are ignored. Hence,
for instance, since statistics suggest that the elderly do not consume as highly as do
younger shoppers, and that they are more likely to have developed brand loyalties that
will not easily be swayed, many advertisers ignore this market completely, meaning that
advertising-driven media forms such as television and magazines are often overwhelm-
ingly youth-focused.
Moreover, as database marketing has become a hot trend, advertisers and retailers are
now able to personalize their advertising, no longer just relying on broad demographic
trends. Thus, many retailers and other businesses are mailing coupons and special notices
only to “good” customers, or to those deemed likely to be good customers. When mixed with
television viewing data recorded by cable boxes, DVRs, and TiVo, and with developments in
digital television delivery being made, this trend could easily result in differentiated pro-
gramming or personalization for different audience members. Some citizens welcome the
prospect of personalized marketing, but personalized marketing means not simply that each
person will receive different ads, programming, and services, but that some may receive
no or poor programming or service, hence further threatening the democratic potential of
broadcasting and other supposedly “mass” media.