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Undercover Marketing Uncovered
If you find that troubling, the companies trying to sell you stuff aren’t too thrilled either. They’ re finding it harder and harder in this 1)assault of advertising to get your attention, and are coming up with inventive--even 2)devious ways of grabbing you, which brings us to something called “undercover marketing” --marketing by 3)masquerade, 4)stealth marketing.
Marketing Example
Narrator: Let me give you a definition, a quick definition of stealth marketing. Stealth marketing is marketing to people when they don’t even realize they are being marketed to, it’s kinda, that real.
Somewhere in downtown New York, a secret plan is being hatched. A handpicked team of attractive, approachable, guns-for-hire have been 5)tapped to go undercover. They’ve been assembled by a company called Essential Reality, which has launched a new product called the P5 Glove -- a cutting-edge device that video gamers can use to fly planes and fire weapons on their computers, with a 6)twitch of a finger.
Narrator: And we’re going to coffee bars and crowded places. Your job is to go out there and have fun with it. It’s like you’re in the game. It’s like you’re in the game --that’s a good sound bite.
Inside the nearby Starbucks, Theo and Kumane, could be any of a million twenty somethings hanging out obsessed with their new toy, not pitching anything, just waiting for someone to approach them. And so were we with an undercover camera.
Customer 1: It works well?
Theo: It works really well. Try it on for a couple...in like a minute you’ll see you’ll see this thing just...Just move floorly.
Customer 1: All right. I’ll try it.
7)Bingo, mister Curious plays right into Theo’s hands.
Customer 1: Oh that’s so cool. Ha ha.
Theo: Yeah... If you want it you know, I can I can e-mail you the information about it.
The fish just keep taking the bait.
Customer 2: This is so cool.
Kumane: You know, I have some information that I can e-mail you.
Customer 2: Do it!
Kumane: OK, give me...
Customer 2: About this?
Kumane: Yeah!
Customer 2: Oh yeah, this is great.
Above all they never let on they’re on the job. No one is overtly trying to sell you anything, only trying to get you to want it, then of course buy it and tell your friends about it. Not soft sell or hard sell, secret sell.
SELLERS’ SAYING
The undercover operation was the brainchild of Sony Ericsson’s Director of Marketing, John Maron.
Interviewer: Why did you choose to keep them undercover?
John: That was an easy way to create a very non-8)evasive, interesting conversation with somebody, without the pressure of it feeling like, this is a pitch.
Interviewer: It’s obviously, was to overcome a natural resistance to being pitched to.
John: Yeah, in a sense it was, but more so in a sense it was, for the people to just, fit into the area in which they were.
Times Square in New York is the ancient home of American marketing of every kind, for whatever takes your fancy. Where they once picked pockets, they now mess with your mind. Malcolm Gladwell who wrote about such things in his book The Tipping Point thinks undercover marketing is a bit of a 9)con game.
Malcolm: Well there’s an element, obviously of deception involved that I don’t think is the case in conventional advertising. I mean, conventional advertising is about trying to charm us or trying to persuade us, but it’s not usually about trying to trick us. And it’s the trickery part I think that makes this different.
Interviewer: But there was deception in all advertising, the cars you see on television are 10)slicker, faster, shot in a particular way that make them look even better than they may look in the showroom. I mean deception is part of the game in advertising.
Malcolm: Well but there is a set of rules that govern a lot of advertising, and we’re aware of the rules, we are aware that, the woman in the advertising for, Ivory Soap, is prettier than most women in our lives. A line is crossed I think, when you go outside of those normal boundaries, and start to deceive people in ways that they are, where they are totally 11)unwitting to what’s going on.
Interviewer: Critics of this kind of advertising would say there’s something slightly 12)subversive about it, about, it’s 13)conning people, it’s a question of ethics.
John: Certainly there are critics of the programme you know, and I can’t speak to what other people’s opinions of the programmme are. The majority of the people that we polled found it interesting, fun and innovative. They didn’t find it at all, to use your words, deceptive or subversive, I mean it was simply that they enjoyed a new way to see a cool new product.
Cool new products are the lifeblood of undercover marketing, and these are the kinds of cool people the marketers want to get to. Want to get them to not just buy, but get them talking about a product, word of mouth, buzz, the least expensive, most effect form of advertising.
CUSTOMERS' REACTION
After the stealth campaign at Starbucks, we tracked down some of the people lured into using the computer glove.
Customer: Oh it doesn’t bother me, it doesn’t bother me. I mean I’m marketed to like 24 hours a day.
But some felt it was untruth in advertising. Jon Flaherty didn’t like being taken.
Jon: It just seemed to be like a nice friendly encounter, and kinda restores your faith in, in your fellow New Yorkers and then to find out it was all fake, it’s just kind of, I don’t know I don’t like.
Undercover marketing hasn’t eclipsed the old-fashioned kind but it’s growing and if you think you haven’t run into an undercover marketer yet, well that’s the point.
注释:
1) assault [E5sC:lt] n. 袭击
2) devious [5di:viEs] a. 狡猾的，迂回的
3) masquerade [7mAskE5reid] n. 伪装，掩饰
4) stealth [stelW] n. 秘密行动
5) tap [tAp] v. （秘密接上）窃听
6) twitch [twitF] n. 猛的一拉，一推等
7) bingo [5biN^Eu] n. （有时大写）宾戈，一种赌博性游戏，在赢的时候人们会大喊一声bingo!来形容事情的成功
8) evasive [i5veisiv] a. 逃避的
9) con [kCn] a. （非正式语）欺骗的
10) slick [slik] a. 光滑的
11) unwitting [Qn5witiN] a. 不知情的
12) subversive [sEb5vE:siv] a. 破坏（性）的
13) con [kCn] v. （俚语）哄骗
秘密营销大揭秘
如果你觉得无处不在的推销令人心烦，想要向你推销产品的公司同样不会很兴奋。他们发现通过这种广告骚扰来引起你的注意是越来越难，开始提出一些有创意的甚至是隐秘的方法来吸引你的眼球。这让我们想到“秘密营销”，也就是带有欺骗性的、不易察觉的营销。
营销实例:
讲解员：我来告诉你秘密营销的定义。简单地说，所谓秘密营销就是在人们毫不经意的情况下对其进行营销。这在一定程度上，是真实存在的。
在纽约闹市区某处，一个计划正在密谋之中。一帮精心挑选出来的长相漂亮、性格随和的“托儿”， 被安上窃听器进行秘密营销。他们由一个名为Essential Reality的公司召集，该公司推出了一种叫“P5手套”的新产品。戴上这种高科技设备，电脑游戏玩家只需要动一动手指，便可以在电脑上操纵飞机以及发射武器。
讲解员∶我们要到咖啡馆和人多的地方去。你的任务就是到那里开心地把玩它。就像你在玩游戏一样。就像你在玩游戏一样--这倒是一句不错的广告词。
西奥和库曼尼像其他20来岁的普通人一样，在附近的一家星巴克咖啡馆里泡着，沉迷于他们的新玩意。他们并没有推销什么东西，只是等着某个人凑过来。我们带着隐蔽摄像机也是一样在守株待兔。
顾客甲：这好用吗？
西奥：真的很好用。戴上试试吧，几分钟……很快你就会知道，你就会知道这玩意简直……平着移就行了。
顾客甲：好吧，我来试一下。
成功！这个好奇的家伙已经被西奥牵着鼻子走了。
顾客甲：哎呀，简直太酷了！哈哈！
西奥：是啊。如果你想要的话，我可以，我可以把相关资料发邮件给你。
上钩的鱼儿咬着饵不放了。
顾客乙：简直太酷了！
库曼尼：知道吗，我有些资料可以通过电子邮件发给你。
顾客乙：行啊！
库曼尼：那么，告诉我……
顾客乙：这玩意儿的资料？
库曼尼：是的！
顾客乙：哦，好的，这玩意太棒了。
最重要的是他们自始至终都没有显露出他们是在营销。他们并没有显得像要卖给你什么东西，只是试图让你产生需求，然后当然是买回来并把它告诉给你的朋友。这既不是软销售也不是硬销售，而是秘密营销。
商家观点:
这场秘密行动是索尼爱立信市场总监约翰·马伦的主意。
记者∶你为什么要让他们隐瞒真实身份？
约翰∶那样很容易让双方的交谈不再含糊其词,而且非常有趣，没有强迫的感觉，像是明摆着告诉别人，我这是在推销呢。
记者∶很明显，这是为了克服人们不愿接受推销从而自然产生的抵制情绪。
约翰∶是的，从某一方面来说是这样，但另一方面更是如此，即为了让人们融入当时的环境。
纽约时代广场是美国营销的老家，什么玩意儿都有，只要是能让你喜欢上的东西，就有人在推销。过去他们从你口袋里掏钱，现在他们让你失去理智。马尔科姆·格拉德威尔在他的《引爆流行》一书中对此作过描述，他认为秘密营销有点像一场骗局。
马尔科姆∶我认为，这里面显然含有欺骗的成分，而传统营销并非如此。我的意思是，传统的营销是力争要取悦我们、说服我们，而不是总想欺骗我们。我认为，就是其中欺骗的成分使得两种营销方式有所不同。
记者：但是，所有的广告都含有欺骗的成分。你在电视里看到的汽车更加光彩照人、风驰电掣，通过特殊的拍摄处理，它们看上去竟然比在展厅里的还要好一些。我是说，广告里含有欺骗性很正常。
马尔科姆：但是，有一套惯例在许多广告中都管用，而我们对这些惯例也一清二楚，我们知道“象牙香皂”广告里的女人比现实生活中的大多数女人都要漂亮。我认为当你逾越正常的界限，开始欺骗他们，还把他们完全蒙在鼓里的时候，是做得太过分了。
记者：这种广告的批评家会说，这样欺骗别人有点危害性，它事关道德问题。
约翰∶的确会有一些针对这项计划的批评家，你知道，但我不能对其他人就这项计划的意见妄加指责。我们做了问卷调查，大多数人觉得这很有趣，好玩而且有新意。他们根本不觉得，用你的话来说，有欺骗性或危害性。我是说，他们只不过是对这种发现新酷产品的新方式乐在其中罢了。
新酷产品是秘密营销的生命力，而这些人也正是营销员想接触的时髦人物。不只是想让他们买，还想让他们交谈、口耳相传，也就是口碑营销，一种最廉价却最有效的广告形式。
顾客反应:
在星巴克的秘密行动过后，我们找到了几个被引诱使用这种电脑手套的人。
顾客：噢，我无所谓，无所谓的。我是说，一天24小时都有人向我推销。
但有些人认为这是虚假的广告。乔恩·弗拉尔提就不喜欢被欺骗。
乔恩: 这看起来就像一次愉快而友好的偶遇，让你恢复几分对纽约人的信心。后来发现这通通都是假的，这实在有点，我不知道，我不喜欢这样。
秘密营销并没有使传统的方式黯然失色，但是它在不断地发展。如果你以为你还没遇到过秘密营销员的话，那就是这种营销的关键了。
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