Fake news in marketing? As a New Year's gift, I'm bringing you some recent news that should give food for thought to all those who believe that, with digital and social media, marketing today can be summed up in a bit of "tampering - Growth Hacking - and a great deal of responsiveness, to keep up with the reactions of Social Networkers.
The results were recently released of the ACSEL / La Poste Barometer on French confidence in digital technology Barely ¼ of those surveyed believe in the reliability of information published on social media, compared to ¾ for traditional media!
Furthermore, although 86% of the French buy online, confidence in this type of commerce is far from total... and rightly so, if we are to believe it BuzzFeed which tells the story of the con man who "sold "product sheets" for 50 euros to people who thought they were buying shoes". guaranteed disappointment on receipt!
If we can no longer trust social media to keep us informed, or e-tailers to sell us the products we want, fortunately there are still other socionauts, those who are like us, our peers - those whom marketing refers to as the "trusted third party.
Those whose positive or negative reviews we consult before booking a hotel room or a table at a restaurant: missed again!
A British journalist had some fun creating a fake restaurant and asking his friends to post glowing reviews on Tripadvisor... The result: six months later, the restaurant is top of the London restaurants list without having welcomed a single guest!
Le Shed at Dulwich was nothing more than a... garden shed - the same one that illustrates our article and in front of which the false master-tail, Oobah Butler, is parading.
Of course, brands have to take into account the opinions left by their customers on social media, especially if they turn out to be negative: customer service has a duty to correct the situation - and very quickly - in the event of obvious dissatisfaction. But it's a step too far to believe that these opinions reflect what all Internet users think.
Have you ever heard a Community Manager boast: "I'm seeing fewer and fewer bad reviews on Twitter or Facebook. ! " Does this mean that people are becoming increasingly satisfied... or that, on the contrary, they've realised that online after-sales service is so bad that there's no point in complaining.
I'd like to take this opportunity to wish all our colleagues in marketing research a very happy 2018: our expertise will continue to be needed for a long time to come to understand what consumers want from brands and the nature of the relationship that unites them.
