Source: www.marketing-etudiant.fr
A couple chats you up on the street and asks you to capture their love instant with a nice Laïkonic camera…
You comply. While the guy is thanking you, he puts in one or two words on its wonderful camera’s characteristics:
performance, simplicity…He tells you how satisfied he is with this brand.
Nothing unusual, but it’s possible that the scene was more “striking” than it looks to be.
What if those two young people are actually not a couple but actors paid to approach you on the street, because you are just part of the targeted public the brands wants to touch…
Then you would have just been “UNDERCOVER MARKETED”!!
WHAT’S UNDERCOVER MARKETING ?
Undercover Marketing can be define as: Techniques employed to approach consumers and prospect without them being conscious of the commercial actions led by the advertiser.
Of course, advertisers and agencies don’t boast of using this process…and they do well! A forewarned target is wary of the hunter!
Though, now that consumers exchange directly information on Internet, now that blogs have so many success, advertisers have lost part of the control they had on our minds through traditional media…
They had to recover it, even if it’s totally devoid of ethics!
Are we going too far? Extreme consumerism, Paranoia…
Be aware that it exist… Everything is possible in Marketing.
NB : Undercover Marketing: new marketing technique, close to buzz and viral marketing. Undercover marketing is not common yet, which is a pity if we consider the huge ROI if well used. Internet should help to the development of undercover Marketing thanks to the increasing communication exchanges between consumers…