Friday, February 29, 2008

The truth about performance predictors being ethical

The truth is not all performance predictors are ethical, because not all marketers are ethical.

Like any form of marketing, performance predictors can be manipulated and falsely claimed for the self-serving benefit of the organisation. Whilst I believe performance predictors are one of, if not the most, ethical forms of marketing currently employed, it is sure to be exploited by the dishonest minority.

For performance predictors to be ethical the 'envisioned future' created and subsequently presented to the prospective customer must be representative of common reality; as opposed to an abstract reality based on a perfect one-in-a-million outcome.

For example, a product demonstration proving the effectiveness of a carpet cleaning foam (typically shown on day time infomercials) are ethical where the carpet is standard household carpet and the red wine is, well, red wine. However, if the marketer 'enhanced' the demonstration with synthetic carpet and coloured water, obviously the ethics involved are questionable.

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