Sharon's Marketing Missive

As I said yesterday in my copywriting blog on the Super Bowl commercial sneak peek, I like PEMCO’s marketing for several reasons. One reason not mentioned yesterday, but a topic I bring up a lot, is the authenticity of it. PEMCO is a Northwest company, creating a bond with a Northwest audience by focusing on Northwest characters.

Now the dark side of marketing: the lying. Yes, I’ve read Seth Godin’s “All Marketers Are Liars” and it’s one of my favorite marketing books. But now I find myself actually questioning the validity of what he’s saying based on a recent experience. I’m not talking about PEMCO. They are the real deal. But not every company is…

If you read this blog, you’ve heard mention of the cowboy. Well, he’s not just a cowboy, he raises beef cattle. When I met him, I’d been a vegetarian for 24 years. But I had an immediate interest in his business for several reasons: I empathize with small business owners, I was intrigued by the small business marketing challenges of the beef industry, and I have very strong feelings about supporting local businesses and eating locally grown food. So I’ve been paying attention to things I didn’t use to notice as I learn about his world.

The other night, I had dinner at the Space Needle in Seattle to celebrate my son’s 16^th birthday. I was delighted to see the menu included Northwest grown beef from the Double R Ranch. I couldn’t wait to tell the cowboy that the Space Needle was supporting local cattle producers.

The next time I was at the grocery store, I saw meat packaged with the Double R label. I started to get a little suspicious. Something smelled fishy, pardon the pun. I mean, how could this ranch be showing up all over all of a sudden, but the cowboy hadn’t heard of it?

I went to http://www.doublerranchbeef.com/ and was disgusted. Expecting to find an actual independent cattle producer, I found a front for Agri Beef, a corporation: www.abfoodsusa.com.

They didn’t work very hard at their lie. The Double R web site only one page. It’s essentially a 1930s style poster with an email address under it and a leeeeeeettle tiny AB Foods logo in the lower corner.

OK, why does this bother me so much? It’s lying that’s hurting small business and an ailing industry. Agri Beef is pretending to be a bona fide ranch, knowing consumers will buy it thinking it comes from a bona fide ranch, regardless of the quality of the meat. They are doing an excellent job of telling a story, per Seth’s advice, but a sucky job at following through, given they have a fake Web site. And they’re hurting an industry that has shrunk by half in this state in recent years.

As a copywriter, I firmly believe in telling stories. They make great marketing. That’s why Agri Beef is hiding behind the Double R name. But they moved beyond stories to lying and trickery.

Seth didn’t actually tell us to lie, he just came up with a title that would sell more books. His book is about telling stories. I don’t believe for a second Seth would ever approve trickery and being inauthentic. Agri Beef went too far. They’re not authentic. And now poor saps are ordering $25 steak dinners at the Space Needle Restaurant and buying beef at the grocery store thinking they’re supporting small, local cattle ranchers when all they’re really supporting is just one more corporation.

Marketing can be a slippery slope. But it should never require a business to cross the line from story telling to lies and trickery. One must be authentic. Always.