What’s Your Hogwash Factor?

For reasons having to do with habit and custom more than anything else, marketers today are still mired in the notion that marketing and bragging are inseparably linked.

They think that good marketing means exaggerated claim-making--that no strategic marketer would ever take a position in the marketplace that didn't involve being the best or the smartest or the most innovative; that tactical marketers must be sure that every scrap of collateral they make must stake a claim for biggest or strongest or fastest.

Honestly, do you think anyone really believes that?

I mean, maybe it works for shoelaces or bar soap. But do you think that works for your products and your company? Do you believe that stuff when you read it from other companies?

Maybe that worked at one time--way back in the Space Age. But the marketplace is smarter today and the web makes it so easy for people to find out whether you're telling the truth, without asking you. It's a cakewalk to find out exactly how much Hogwash a company is spreading.

Here's a simple example. The other day I came across this gem from a company's executive management section at their web site:

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Michael Fischler is founder and principal coach and consultant of Markitek (markitek.com), which for over a decade has provided marketing consulting and coaching services to companies around the world, from startups and SMEs to giants like Kodak and Pirelli. You can contact him by clicking here.