Sincere Communications

Confucius, according to the wise editors at Wikipedia, was a Chinese thinker in the fifth and sixth century B.C. who philosophized on government morality, social relationships, justice, and sincerity. In the time since his death, his pupil-compiled tome Analects has been dissected ad nauseum to provide modern audiences with guidance on topics such as love, government, death, and learning. Here we examine his teachings for counsel conduct in marketing communicatinos. We start with:

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

Being sincere with and true to your customers is a virtue. In this era of open communication between and among brands and customers, it’s disappointing to see companies violating the trust of consumers. Transgressions leave a bad taste, such as the Nvidia scandal in 2006 when the graphics chip manufacturer was accused of seeding gaming and PC hardware discussion boards. They claimed these were just fans who were recruited to answer technical questions of other board users and that these “fans” were not paid. They just received some free hardware. Is that so wrong? As of October 2009, it is, according to the Federal Trade Commission, who issued guidelines for how to comply with the FTC Act in the digital age.

To be fair, there are plenty of inspiring mea culpa’s in the history of marketing communications (or in significant cases, crisis communications).  Johnson & Johnson’s Tylenol recall in 1982 is the most iconic example. The company pulled millions of bottles off store shelves. Though the cyanide-tainted tablets were contaminated after they had left the hands of J&J subsidiary McNeil, the press and public praised the company for acting responsibly. They were not as excited after the most recent recalls that occurred this year. They should have studied their own history better, or have read a little Confucius.