The company I work for does some private label business. We put the products we sell to customers in another company’s labels and they sell them as their own. A few years ago one of the managers in marketing was talking about this with me and he said that if I was asked at a trade show if the product in X’s label was the same as what we sold to always answer no, it wasn’t.
I told him I wasn’t sure if I could do that believably. I’d feel like I was lying. Putting in a color additive didn’t really make it different.
He replied that it was the absolute truth. It was a different product. It wasn’t the same color. Our product had another additive. It was in a different label. It was in a different type of container. It was not the same product, even if the chemical composition was almost identical.
I accepted his answer, but it still troubled me.
In the last year I’ve learned a lot more about branding and customer perception and how a product isn’t just the physical characteristics of what you’re selling. It’s also the story around the product. What is promised. What is warranted. What support is offered.
I could say that “they’re definitely different” with a straight face now.
The engineer in me rolls her eyes, but recognizes that it is a matter of a shift in perspective. Both answers are right. And which perspective you take depends on the situation. Sometimes one or the other is definitely called for.
How do you tell the story?
On the back of his book All Marketers are Liars
After reading the book I sat down and thought about which of our products have stories that I know of and which seem to be simply offered for sale. We have items that fall all along that continuum, including a couple that fit both categories, depending on which market segment you’re talking about. The process reminded me of the above anecdote.
How would you explain the difference between a lie and a story to your child? I can appreciate your point, but I agree with the side of you that is rolling your eyes. Are marketing gurus and political strategist muddying the waters of basic definitions of truth and integrity?
Hi Scott. After I posted this blog entry I started reading Ethics for the Real World by Ronald Howard and Clifton Korver (from the PMBA list) and realized that this issue was still troubling me. I’m still missing something in my analysis. I think it may go back to the responsibility to the company and the customer. Disclosing trade secrets that have been entrusted to me isn’t ethical either and by telling the straight truth as I think of it as an engineer, I would be doing so. The book author’s made a couple suggestions about how to get out of double binds like this one that I need to go back over and think about. I might need a follow-up entry.
In regards to your final question, part of me wants to say yes and part of me doesn’t. I still remember sitting at the dinner table during a previous election – I think I was eleven about to turn twelve – while my father, who works in public relations, tried to explain the concept of spin to me. It really boggled my mind at the time and sometimes still does.
Excellent post, Beth. One way to think about this is to think about who your customer is. When you supply to another company so that they can re-brand your product (whether that is wine, software etc), you are responsible to that company for an experience relating to your own brand.
When they sell/pass-on that product to their customers (eg consumers), then the responsibility is no longer yours (you are still responsible to your initial business customer, of course).
Any benefit that comes from the experience of that product accrues to the new owner … as does any negativity. Think of the iPhone/iPod. Who gets the kudos and heat? Certainly not the myriad number of Chinese suppliers who supply its constituent parts
Yes, Gavin, I think that’s a great restatement of what I was originally trying to describe about how a marketer viewed a product. It’s both the branded elements AND the chemical composition. As a chemist I was only concerned with the composition and by denying the similarity felt like I would be lying. But the marketing manager was taking into account all those more intangible items and the responsibility that another company had for them. Thanks for adding your point of view.