I do agree to a certain extent that marketing has a manipulative aspect to it, but it depends on the product. Manipulation implies there is deceit behind the veil of the advertisement. If a company is hiding unfavorable side effects or going off of a platform preaching certain advantages which in reality do not exist, then it is manipulation. On the other hand, if the product is high quality and exactly as the company markets it, then I would think of it as more a cultivated than manipulated relationship with the customer. The definition of cultivate is to "try to win the friendship or favor of someone." This should be the goal of every company, but if they are really just selling lies and empty promises, then these new customer relationships will turn sour. The idea of emotional intelligence (EI) does seem manipulative at first, but it takes more than hard facts to change someone's opinion and brand loyalty. Especially in the medical device industry, there cannot be any discrepancies with what the salesperson says the product does, and what it is actually capable of. Their relationships with the doctors needs to be have an emotional aspect to it which involves trust and a shared passion for improving lives. In that way they will have a mutually beneficial connection.
Marketing uses emotional intelligence because it helps builds a connection with customer. They use either persuasion or manipulation because they both get customer buy their business product. However, I feel that persuasion and manipulation use different techniques to convince consumer to buy. Manipulation to me, gains the customer's trust by tricking the customer, they may use lies while persuasion uses knowledge and facts to convince to buy product. Marketing will first use persuasion and if facts of why their product is essential to them doesn't work, marketing will then use manipulation to try to trick and seal the deal.
Manipulation and persuasion are two different things. Manipulation leads the consumer to take a decision that they may or may not agree by using techniques to trick the customers and not saying the truth behind the product. While, persuasion allows the consumer to still decide and to take the product and the person feels that he/she took the right decision. Companies will always try to manipulate the customers to sell their product and manipulation implies that the company has control over the consumer if it have emotional intelligence.
I think it really depends on who is the audience. If you are talking to technical or engineers, It is hard to manipulate them on the technical part of the product. you have to be honest when you present the idea, I have seen a lot of overpromising from sales members that cause to lose a project. of course, the customer relationship is an important factor for sales members, but also we are in a very competitive market. If you have a good product and market in the right way you can combine and possibly win a project. So I think there is more manipulation when it comes to C level and desition makers and it depends on the personality, Some people are open for better product or price and some are just will just keep buying the same thing because of a relationship with a company or a sales member that they like.
I agree with the point made earlier that manipulation and persuasion have some relation to each other, though manipulation tends to have a worse reputation that persuasion. Perhaps the differentiating factor though is the degree to which the recipient is aware that they are changing their mind. With persuasion (more presentation of facts and leaving more thought for the recipient to form their own opinion), the one on the receiving end has a good deal of conscious control of the formation of their opinion about something. In this one can often pinpoint why they feel a certain way or take a certain stance about a product. But in manipulation as it is commonly understood, the recipient does not always realize that they are subconsciously making an opinion about something in the first place, much less even being able to pinpoint the specific reasons they feel a certain way. Some tactics that manipulation often leverages are emotional triggers, subliminal messaging, as well as other, less direct methods of conveying a message (music, colors, etc.) Fortunately or unfortunately, the more common form of the two that manifests is manipulation (though it is more tame than the reputation around the term insinuates), which can be seen in almost every advertisement available today. From the music choice, to the people representing the product, though the ad explicitly says one message, a whole barrage of implicit forces are being employed in order to reinforce that explicit message, or even convey a new message altogether.
In my opinion, manipulation is one type of marketing stimuli factors under persuasive technique. Emotive persuasion could be divided into non-manipulative and manipulative techniques. Many of manipulative marketing are difficult to prove because of their controversial nature and content. The non-manipulative persuasion is simply presenting the product or services to consumers in best possible way. This doesn't include the presenter to lie, or leave any important details from consumer. This type of marketing try to gain trust of consumer and convince them by providing factual information in logical manner. The manipulative behavior comes in play when non-manipulative technique doesn't help companies to convince consumer for their product or services. As far as regarding selling product or services, consumers like us would appreciate more towards non-manipulative type in order to accept their marketing.
I think when we use the term manipulation as it pertains to marketing, we already attaching a negative connotation on that term. Perhaps if we use the term "persuasion", in relation to marketing, we wouldn't be so quick to refer back on that negativity. Although some might argue that "persuasion" is a less obvious form of manipulation, I believe the intent of marketing isn't necessarily to "manipulate" customers. I think "manipulation" is only observed when the customers who already predisposed to believe in the greatness of the product itself. For instance, there are some weight loss pills that claim that if you take them ( even with no change in your diet and activity level) you will lose 10lb in 10 days. Although I would never believe in a scam like that, there are some desperate people who have battled weight gain for years to whom this claim might sound practical, especially when those claims are being presented by a famous figure they admire. Although they may have doubt about the efficiency of this claim, they would most likely buy the products because their 'idol' said it was good. This whole issue of manipulation in marketing, reminds me of the line from the french poem "The Crow" And The Fox By Jean De La Fontaine, "Learn that every flatterer, Lives at the expense of the one who listens to him.". In a nutshell, I think marketing is manipulative depending on the individual ( whether she or he is easily gullible).
If you're thinking from a philosophical point of view then any form of marketing dealing with medical applications would be emotional manipulation. But only if they are dealing directly with the customer using the service or product they provide. For example a commercial for hair loss pills tend to point out the inadequacy of not having hair and the lack of ability to grow hair being a problem. In order for an effective marketing ploy to hit the core there must be some kind of emotional connection with the consumer to get them to believe they need the product. Not only need the product they need to adapt it to their life style so whatever negative emotion they're feeling they will never have that again.
Marketing is absolutely all about manipulation. Product development works tirelessly to create something that is new, useful, innovative, etc, but if there is no marketing plan to get the target audience to know about and want to buy this product, then there will be no success for the company. However, this doesn't entail the negative connotation of manipulation. Manipulations and persuasion are very close the the same definition in terms of marketing. For example, the psychology of colors being used to manipulate specific feeling about products and companies has been used for decades and people don't seem to have too much of a problem with it. Using emotional intelligence only makes it easier for companies to successfully market their product to a target audience.
I don't consider sales as manipulation. Salesmen try to be friendly to customers so that customers don't dislike them. Why? Because if you were a customer, you wouldn't want to buy anything from someone that you don't like! Furthermore, you want to buy the product that you know the most good things about. That's why salesmen take their customers out somewhere to eat or a place for them to sit face to face together. It gives them the opportunity to make their potential customer like them, and also to give that potential customer a lot of positive information about the product they're selling. So sales isn't a manipulation anymore than going to a job interview is. You can't lie but you do try to show the best parts of yourself, a person would believe that the best part of themselves is who they really are, so they aren't technically lying.
Emotional intelligence is to be aware of the person's emotions and handle the situation accordingly.
I support the article but it should also be considered that both sides are trying the best for themselves, the sales rep trying to get a sale and the customer trying to get the best deal out of it, so I feel there is no manipulation there as each one is looking out for the best for themselves.
But while approaching a Doctor initially, there is a set of strategies that every marketing person adopts depending on the situation and one could say there could be some manipulation there.
After reading through the article "Emotional Intelligence in Marketing Exchanges", I found myself mostly agreeing with what the article was presenting. A high emotional intelligence can expand the business income inside an organization and can likewise reach out to individual advantages as well. It was fascinating that the exploration could produce a structural equation model to understand what factors of EI are related to sales revenues. From this model, the study found that understanding and managing emotions were positively related to sales revenue. Thinking about this, I started to wonder how much of marketing is about manipulation. How easily can emotional intelligence turn into a manipulative plan to get consumers to buy products?
I think a large part of marketing is about manipulation. When you have a large number of companies competing against each other in the same market, all selling nearly identical products, the sales reps need to be able to manipulate the consumers into buying their products. In the medical device industry, specifically, if you had the design engineers out in the field trying to sell the products they designed, that probably wouldn't end very well because they would most likely get caught up in describing the nitty gritty details about the product, the performance requirements and design inputs, etc. By going this into detail, they would probably bore the customers and not even consider what the customer actually wants to hear. However, a sales rep, who would have great EI, would focus less on the product and moreso on the needs of the customer. Although the engineer and the sales rep would be trying to sell the same product, the engineer would probably approach each pitch the same way, but the sales rep would be able to study the traits of each customer individually and tailor their sales pitch specifically to that customer.
According to Kidwell's article, emotional intelligence is vital to a sales person's success in generating revenue and retaining customers. Having the ability to acquire and comprehend the desires and emotions of anyone, will help the sales representative effectively pitch the product to any client in need. In order to garner interest of any client, the pitch must be tailored. This can be done based on what resonates with the clients, understanding their core values, focusing on how the product can fulfill their needs, and customizing the sales approach. This can be viewed as manipulation, but the main difference is that manipulation involves deception that doesn't necessarily benefit both the sales person and client. If the sales person purposely withholds information that will add doubt or dissuade the client, downplay serious risks, or severely embellish the product's capabilities, he/she would have crossed the line from persuasion to manipulation. In these cases, even if the sale is made, there will be no possibility of a future sale or relationship with the same client. This can damage the company's reputation and leave it vulnerable to lawsuits in the future.
I believe that Emotional Intelligence can easily turn into manipulation. As said in the lectures from before, Industry is a field where money plays a big factor in driving the company. The main role of the marketing department is to build a relationship between the customer and the company itself. The marketing department has to do everything in its willpower to bring in customers through the use of branding, public activities, advertising, and interaction with certain clientele. Emotional Intelligence is being adept and knowledgeable about how to bring out the certain emotions in customers to sort of persuade them to buy the company's product. Certain customers may have gone through an emotional circumstance where the marketing department can use EI to bring up the emotions that happened in that traumatic event to convince the customer to buy the product.
It happens all the time. Large companies will use any tricks up there sleeves to make a person by a product. I would say that these days its almost true that you do not really need an outstanding product to convince people to buy the product. You just need to make them believe your product is the best and that the consumers should buy it without really knowing the specification. This method can be seen in numerous social media related advertisements for cosmetics and health-related products. Also, large companies such as Apple does a great job with there "air pods". Therefore, by having a high EI scoring marketer it will be one of the top factors which result in the success of a start-up brand.
