Marketing is critical for the success and survival of any business. Whether online or through conventional means, a business can communicate messages about what it is, its products and services, and how they want to serve its targeted customers.
However, sometimes businesses lie about their identity, products, and services. As a result, they make false promises and unrealistic commitments they fail to live up to. This practice is called deceptive marketing or false advertising.
Deceptive marketing can impact the customer’s experience and loyalty in a negative way. Once customers feel cheated, their chance to shop from your brand again is minimal.
To understand the impact of deceptive marketing on consumers, keep reading below.
1. Loss of Customers
Customers are the crutches of your business. If you treat your existing customers with respect and consideration and make them feel valued and heard, you can retain and attract more.
If you practice deceptive marketing and lie about your products and services, a few things can happen. If you have a way with words, maybe you will get away with fooling a few customers. You might tell them that you made an honest mistake, and they might forgive you.
However, lying to your customers repeatedly affects consumer loyalty negatively and mostly permanently. With so much competition in this world, your consumer would readily switch to another brand.
Frequent loss of customers would lead to a significant drop in sales and growth.
2. Negative Word of Mouth
Various statistics show that nearly 28% of customers claim that positive word of mouth is the biggest factor in making a purchase. In addition, nearly 43% of businesses believe that word of mouth directly affects their sales.
Just as positive word of mouth can grow your business and brand’s name, negative word of mouth can do the exact opposite.
When a customer gets deceived by your marketing and buys a product or service that is not satisfactory, there are high chances the customer will share their salty experience with family and friends.
The customer might also post about your misleading practices on their social media platforms, which would amplify the effects of negative word of mouth.
You will not only lose that one customer but might also lose the chance to attract future customers. This would stain your brand name and damage your reputation.
3. Death of The Business
Customers are critical to your business’s survival and growth. Without them, your business is bound to fail. When you keep cheating your customers, you make them angry and resentful.
Your customers can give your business a negative rating and write angry comments under your online posts. If this gets enough attention, your business might even go viral for the wrong reasons. This could result in your brand getting canceled by today’s cancel culture.
Reviving yourself back from this negative publicity takes considerable amounts of dedication and effort. It can be psychologically draining and costly.
Most commonly, brands that engage in false marketing eventually die out.
Final Thoughts
Deceptive marketing makes your brand, its products, and services look better than they are.
Initially, many customers will be deceived into giving you a try. However, in the long run, the negative publicity and word of mouth will lead to losing customers and eventually your brand’s death. This is why being authentic and promising what you can deliver is the best way forward for brands regardless of what industry and customer base they serve.
