Bad Marketing Manipulates, Good Marketing Inspires

"Bad marketing manipulates,

Good marketing inspires"

Essay on Simon Sinek Ted Talk Video

Why do some brands polarize and other do not? Why do so many companies sell the same products, offer the same service, and yet there is always one company that stands out? When is marketing considered good and when is it considered bad?

According to Simon Sinek (2009), most companies communicate and do their marketing in the same way: They highlight the features, the quality, or the performance of their products. They explain how much better or different they are compared to their competitors. In other words, they just tell the consumers what they offer or what they do. They simply sell things. But those are not the companies that polarize. Those companies often do not even know WHY their customers buy their products or use their services (Sinek 2009). They do not know it because they just sell products or services - they do not stand for anything. The difference between selling something and standing for something is that companies that just sell something need to convince the consumers to buy for example their products or services. Convincing someone, however, always requires manipulation (Powers, 2013).

Consumers can be manipulated e.g. through cheaper prices, promotions, social pressure (Sinek, 2011, p 16-17). Staples for example focussed in its “That’s a low price” commercial only on the price of the products (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJYyIBA-rcs). The features (here: price) are in the center. The commercial does not address the consumer. It does not build a relationship with him. It only makes a statement about the product features. It does not stand for anything.

There is no question that manipulation works. But it usually only works until people find something new. In order to retain the customers, companies need to spend a lot of money on advertising or on holding on to low prices. And despite everything it does not lead to customer loyalty. Customer may buy once because the price is low but they probably will not come back again when the price rises or they grow tired of the products/services (Sinek, 2011 , p 28; Powers, 2013). As a result, manipulation works for single transactions but it does not lead to loyalty and therefore is not very helpful in the long run (Sinek, 2011, p 31). Manipulation can therefore be considered as bad or unwise marketing in the long run.

Outstanding leaders and companies do not manipulate - they offer something else. All companies know what they do and some of them know how they do it. But in fact only a few know WHY they do what they do. They know what