Stealth marketing - the latest gimmick to lure customers

NEW YORK - Companies are increasingly making use of a crafty promotional trick called stealth marketing, in which the consumers are being pitched for a product without even knowing it.

Companies like Blackberry have reportedly employed women to flirt with potential male customers, and then asking them to feed their numbers in the latest smart phones.

Now, ‘The Joneses’ is bringing stealth marketing, also called undercover or buzz marketing, to the big screen

The dark comedy stars David Duchovny and Demi Moore as the heads of a seemingly perfect family that is actually just a team of stealth marketers paid by brands to look perfect and push products on their friends and neighbours.

“Stealth marketers probably believe they’re providing a service because they are providing information on good products they believe in,” the New York Daily News quoted the movie’s writer and director, Derrick Borte, as telling The Times newspaper in the U.K.

“But I don’t think there is a defined line for where it stops and starts. We have to be suspicious of every message we see from everywhere at this point,” he added.

However, companies practicing this gimmick, the risks of stealth marketing outweigh the benefits, according to Jonathan Margolis, CEO of the Michael Alan Group and co-author of ‘Guerrilla Marketing for Dummies’.

“It might work if the product is good enough, but ultimately the consumer is being duped. It’s risky to stage something that people think is a natural occurrence,” he said.

“There is a potential for backlash. Consumers don’t like being deceived, and brands don’t want to look bad,” he added.

But not everyone views stealth marketing in a negative light.

“Stealth marketing has a greater potential to make a more sincere impact on the public as opposed to a TV or billboard ad. People are inundated with so many blatant advertisements on TV and in magazines that they don’t pay attention anymore. This is a way of creating buzz, and any buzz is good buzz,” said Jason Van Trentlyon, president of Street Guerrilla Marketing. (ANI)