In an age of social media and globalisation, why do some companies still try to ‘con’ their customers?

In an amazing blog, Joyce Gioia describes how it took the innocence of an 18 year old German entrepreneur to reveal that many subscribers to a mobile plan were being offered unsuitable plans. Twitter was swamped with negative responses. Gioia also detailed how Hilton Hotels seemingly deliberately misled customers over their points system. It is what she calls ‘negative optimisation’. Short term gain providing a long-term branding disaster.

So what can be done to gain the trust of customers and, just as important, potential customers, in an age where scepticism rules?

One clever approach, which deliberately taps into the youthful aspects of social media, is to create a ‘fake ad’. One of the best (and absolutely hysterical) examples in this category is “The Roominator“, which has apparently generated a mass of new traffic to the site of Blue Jeans Network, which supplies on-line video conferencing tools.

The point is to create an image that may be funny but shows the product or service from a totally refreshing perspective. If you have some British roots, you may argue that it is like bringing Monty Python into the advertising world. Above all, you realise that for all the satire, you are being represented with a genuinely honest approach, which encourages people to effect a sale.

Back in school, our teachers taught us not to lie, and they scared the heck out of us if we did. Maybe they should have concentrated on teaching us the benefits of telling the truth.