Due to the fact that new years of consumers are becoming less attracted to the traditional, in your face advertising, advertising establishments have created a more 'under the radar' approach of advertising. That is done by making consumers believe they are responding to a promotion, somewhat than an ad. This promotional advertising is a more subtle methodology of communication, as much of the public will not desire to be from the obvious advertisements of products. This way, consumers don't feel just like they are being sold something, alternatively they feel just like they are discovering something.
This approach is named stealth or covert marketing, which utilizes marketing activities easily into consumer's lives without consciousness (Sprott, 2008). These campaigns stay away from traditional advertising, where consumers are continuously aware they are being sold something. This new form of advertising is discreet when connecting messages to consumers, working best by "flying below the consumer's radar" (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004). Since this new form of advertising is so invisible and is able to take on multiple types of media and open public communication, consumers stand to lose privacy, trust, liberty of preference, and control because of the fact that they are unaware that they are being persuaded, removing their vitality of consent.
Stealth marketing presents new products and services by creating a "buzz" around it. By quietly letting some individuals know of something or service it offers it a sense of exclusivity and "cool" (Notarantonio & Quigley, 2009. This depends closely on consumers dispersing the subject matter to others in a unique way, making certain the merchandise is talked about without showing to be an advert or company-sponsored. The success of this is if the consumers believe they "stumbled" upon it or found it by themselves, making them feel in the know and special (Notarantonio & Quigley, 2009). This form of advertising is effective due to the fact a consumer's purchase is greatly affected by the viewpoints of peers once we tend to rely on the advice of others when making decisions. This "buzz" may take on the proper execution of the internet as it's the most effective and cost effective way to activate and persuade a consumer without being straight in their face as compared to traditional advertising (Castronovo & Lei, 2012). Social media, viral marketing and guerilla promotions are types of this, due to the fact that each of them capitalize on the actual fact that the internet can engage multiple masses of folks all at one time, having the ability to influence the beliefs, behaviors and beliefs of consumers (Castronovo & Lei, 2012).
Brand pushers, who are hired actors deal with people in real-life and promote products to them without actually declaring that they are promoting a product or service. They do this by personally slipping out brands or products in dialog at pubs, music stores and tourist attractions. These actors come off to be genuine and approachable to make it seem believable. By planting products under the consumers nostril it creates a string of affect from a few trendsetters to hundreds (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004). An example of this that created controversy was Stony Ericsson's Stealth Campaign in 2002. This is when 60 celebrities were chosen to pose at ten visitor cities in the United States. These actors would ask unsuspecting people to take pictures of them with the recently launched T68i camera telephone near a vacationer attraction like the Empire Point out Building. Once a person decided the scripted acting professional would demonstrate how to use the telephone and would discuss the huge benefits and features of it. They would do all of this while never allowing the other person know that they were staff of Sony Ericsson.
Through this example it could be firstly shown that this form of stealth advert has the ability to deceive consumers (Martin & Smith, 2008). These unknowingly consumers were unaware that these were being sold something because the marketing and commercial sponsor had not been unveiled to them. Secondly, it reflects a form of intrusion, as it demonstrates a violation of the consumer's personal privacy (Martin & Smith, 2008). Other holidaymakers and passerby's were interrupted in their day and sightseeing, to aid another "tourist", providing the stars with the chance to demonstrate the merchandise of the camera. Finally, it exploits consumers; as it reflects how stealth marketing works takes good thing about a humans determination help (Martin & Smith, 2008). This circumstance of Sony Ericsson implies that they used the kindness of others into marketing a product.
Privacy and monitoring is necessary when sellers use stealth marketing by using a data-collection system. That is done via a retailer, where each customer is given a code number with the credit or debit greeting card (Greengard, 2012). This code carries their personal purchase background which is then stored to be examined and monitored when purchasing other items (Greengard, 2012). Specific promotions are then given to consumers who fit the profile of the products being endorsed. The only way to avoid being tracked by this technique is if the customer pays off with cash and doesn't give out their contact number. Not only can their shopping be tracked but their web browsing, credit score and discussions on public networking sites can be tracked too without any knowledge that their private information is being viewed. Much of this data-collection system is based on an opt-out program, which is very hard to understand and complete, because of the fact that it takes such a long time to decipher every one of the privacy insurance policies, which might not exactly actually be utilized. These collection marketers rely upon this so a consumers try to control what they are monitoring is discontinued because of how difficult it is to do when personal data of you is already in the machine. Only 27% of consumers assume that by opting-out it only puts a stop to tailored ads, where the rest believe that by choosing out it means that it could stop all types of online monitoring (Greengard, 2008). Many sites consumers search on contain traffic monitoring tools and cookies which record any movements made online. This can be compared to camcorders and microphones being put in a person's home without consent or understanding of it developing. This inability to control what personal activities others can easily see, by using traffic monitoring software, is a violation of not only privateness but trust of the consumer as well.
Even though this new form of advertising and marketing is impressive and gets products and services to stick out in a very much crowded market place, the line of art and advertisement appears to be becoming blurred in the current society. This is seen with product placement in songs, Television, film and video games. This introduces issues of ethics, where stealth marketing is seen to try and manipulate the consumer's mind, where it could be in comparison to subliminal advertising, as it aims for the consumer's unconscious level of consciousness (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004). With traditional marketing, consumers where able to choose the information they wished to engage with, while ignoring advertising they were not interested in, providing the consumers control on the thoughts and decisions, not the marketers. Supporters on stealth marketing say that this form of advertising campaign is more credible that traditional advertising because of the fact that few consumers believe athletes and stars who endorse products and services actually utilize them (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004). Aswell advocates of stealth marketing say that since consumers today are mass media and technology savvy, that will "tune out advertisements disguised as entertainment" (Kaikati & Kaikati, 2004).
However, in traditional marketing, there is an exchange between consumer and the advertisements. The buyer has understanding of the product, knows the persuasive tools used in the advertising campaign, and has understanding of the marketing sponsor of the merchandise or service (Martin & Smith, 2008). But, stealth marketing undermines the marketing sponsor and understanding of persuasion, rendering it hidden from the buyer. This has the potential to deprive the buyer of any defense mechanisms, which help to produce a conscious and informed decision when confronted with advertisements or marketing and sales communications (Martin & Smith, 2008). Unfortunately, this form of marketing works well, as it fails to disclose full information of something or service. It requires away consumers tendencies to be dubious or the belief that an advertisement comes with an ulterior purpose (Sprott, 2008). Through this, the consumer's freedom of choice and decision is recinded with it.
Due to the actual fact that stealth marketing is becoming so effective in the current consumer world, it has the ability to threaten the options of a wide demographic of consumers through a wide range of communication. As many individuals are now knowing its ability to control and abuse their body's defence mechanism of persuasion, stealth marketing could create distrust and uncertainty within the public, which might become irreversible. This triggers serious results for not only 'under the radar' advertising, however the already in peril traditional varieties of advertising, requesting the question: what's the future of advertisement if there is no market for it?
