In my personal opinion I would say it depends upon a lot of factors, if the person is slightly interested to even listen to the sales person then I would say he/she could be manipulated by the sales person by his/her EQ to the person ending up buying the product. I guess it's rare, people nowadays are intelligent enough not to be swayed away by sales person talks.
Companies that offer value propositions to customers and convince them to buy a better product are engaging in persuasion, while companies hiding the weaknesses of a flawed product are engaging in manipulation. I also feel that Emotional intelligence should be an important quality of today’s marketing. EI and manipulation go hand in hand. In order to manipulate an individual and sell a product, you will need some level of EI in order to do so. If the pitch of organizations doesn't hit an emotional high note, their chances of making a sale diminish considerably. EI is more important in an organization that directly deals with people. They try to match their product to customer needs and desires.
I think most folks would sense if they are being manipulated during a sales cycle or reading marketing literature. In the healthcare industry, working with professionals such as physicians we need to keep in mind that we should be presenting a business case for the product that makes a difference to the patient who we serve. By relating our product and services to the outcome of patients would be a better approach to "marketing." I have accompanied sales and marketing on customer calls and they have been trained to focus on what the product impacts the patient with clinical studies or review capabilities. The day of twisting arms and offering trips to Hawaii is over.
This makes the job of marketing harder but more rewarding with respect to what we are all about.
In all honesty, I think marketing relies heavily on manipulation. Marketing convinces buyers that they need a product and then gives them reasons as to why they should buy it. It plays into their emotions and needs and convinces them that they should buy this specific product.
The thing is that this is not necessarily a bad thing. While marketing may make you want a product, no one is making you buy it. That's an entirely personal choice (arguably).
Of course EI can be used to make the buyer believe that the product does more than what it actually does. Its a tricky subject though. While manipulation is not always good or bad, there's a ton of nuance in selling products, convincing people to buy them, selling them bad products, and encouraging a society that is constantly buying and being advertised to.
So yes, I think it is manipulation.
One example in particular came to mind when I thought about manipulation in sales. Apple recently launched their new iPhone 12 phones and are not including the wall charger and earbuds which they say is a more environmentally friendly approach. This could appeal to many users who want to be environmentally friendly but are not well informed. However, really thinking about it this could be a way to increase Apple sales of the magsafe charger and earbuds separately. Additionally, this is not really environmentally friendly since users will still need to buy charges and earbuds, which keeps the demand high.
I think manipulation is a harsh term compared to other similar terms such as "persuasion". Yes, I think in the most general sense, marketing can be considered manipulation. It's the marketing team's job to get as many people as they can to buy their product. However, that is an integral part of the business. Every other company out there, including competitors, are doing the same thing. I think it is only considered manipulation if they are trying to sell an inferior or unsafe product. In this sense, they are lying to the consumer, and this should be considered a huge ethical violation.
that's a tricky question, emotional intelligence could be manipulative if the sales rep isn't honest or looking out for the consumers' benefit. a successful sales rep knows how to provide the right consumer for the product with all the facts that would make the consumer interested in buying the product.
From reading the posts it seems that many relate the term "manipulation" to have a negative connotation or a way to trick the customer into purchasing a bad product. I do not think think that is the case for most of the strategies sales and marketing people. I think "manipulation" could be better related to persuasion or incentivize. From working along side a manufacturing company, I can say that it is very difficult for them to get a few minutes with the doctors. This is why they use luncheons and other tactics to try and persuade the physician to give them some time to present the product. Once they have their attention is when the real sales experience and skill comes in. Therefore, instead of being manipulative to sale a product, they are simply offering incentives to make a pitch for the product. Moreover, to piggyback of what another student said, in this competitive market we are in, there need to be persuasive and offer incentives in order to make the sale.
This is an interesting topic you raise. I believe that there is a factor of manipulation needed to really promote a product and sell it to a person. However, I do not think it is a bad kind of manipulation. The best way to get someone to do something is to make them think it is their idea. In the same way, the best way to sell a product is to get a person to believe that they need it and this requires a level of manipulation. Some may call it influence but I think that the influence just helps aid the manipulation or persuasion.
Emotional intelligence also known as the emotional quotient is the ability to understand someone’s feelings and someone else’s thoughts it is probably responsible for more than half of the success in professional marketing. According to the world economic forum emotional intelligence is one of the most important skills to have by 2025. It’s not just involved in the manipulation of individuals for the purpose of sales revenue but at the same time and helps customers to solve real problems that they have it also helps to decrease staff turnover in your business as well as generating more revenue. Intrinsically EI is considered a soft skill which may be natural to some and taught to others. It involves self-awareness, self regulation, social skills, empathy and motivation. Sales representatives are taught how to get into the mind of customers to build better relationships in order to inspire the purchaser towards and actionable investment. It involves asking open ended questions and gaining a solid understanding of how the customer feels. It can be aggressive and often seen as manipulative but for that matter so is human behavior because in every sales transaction someone is sold, either the customer or the sales representative.
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?
Triggering a person's emotion is indeed a key concept in marketing. The number one way to make your product sell to individuals is to have them care about it. Every business also has their own way of manipulating people into buying their product. For example, a single woman looking to buy a car for herself can be manipulated into buying a van from a car salesman talking her into getting married with four children within the next two years. The car he may be trying to sell her will only be on sale the day she is car shopping. Therefore his goal is to make that ease her into making a purchase through her emotions. Another example could be in the clothing industry where they advertise for every shirt you buy, one shirt goes to a child in need. People who have a closet full of shirts may purchase a shirt on behalf of the child when in reality, they could simply donate the unworn shirts in their closet to children at their local shelter. Of course I am not speaking for everybody but these are attempts that businesses will pursue in order to make profit while the consumers are not thinking with common sense.
Marketers who use emotional intelligence to develop highly successful campaigns share these three elements They are honest about their motives for marketing, they deeply empathize with their audience. They bridge the gap between what they want and what their audience wants. Most businesses still focus on the rational benefits of their product such as price and functional features. But people make purchase decisions on more than rationale. There is always an emotional element.
People make decisions with a mix of intellect and emotion. Researchers used electroencephalogram (EEG) headsets to observe emotional cues in the brain as participants watched TV ads. The findings pointed to a double-digit increase in sales for those ads that had a positive emotional effect.
From my prior experience as a sales person, I think 'manipulating' is not quite the correct term to be used in marketing. Brand advertising and management does focus on the positive sides of a product and I think 'persuading' is the right term to use. It is necessary for a a company to advertise their products with all the benefits it carries providing good deals so it can gain customer's attention. If the marketing department is not giving out these message, then nobody will know about the product. Therefore, it is very important for marketing department to talk about their brand products and gain profit by advertising and selling. In fact, 'pull' technique or pull marketing strategy involves getting higher volume of customers and demands of a specific product via brand advertisement.
There is a clear difference between manipulation and persuasion. Persuasion leaves the choice to the viewer while manipulation is taking control of the choice that is being made. The motive for each case is also different, one is about delivering a certain point of view while the other one is about taking away the will of choice. Emotional manipulation is seen mostly in advertisements about families or women. Medical commercials about asthma medication usually have old grandparents who are too sick to talk with their grandkids. grandparents become sick because of cigars and lose their voice, the medication they end up taking makes them fatigue. This commercial persuades people to stop smoking or they won’t have quality time with their grandkids. It’s extremely easy to fall into a manipulative plan in the advertisement world because the drive is money and revenue. Car commercials about how safe cars are most of the time always have a couple sitting in the car. This resembles happiness, and the car is meant to be safe, which means your relationship is also safe. This creates the perception that the car will keep everyone safe: physically and emotionally.
Thanks!
When trying to convince a customer that one product is better than another on the market, I definitely think that there is some persuasion but not specifically manipulation. I don't think that within marketing that manipulation is truly the right way to describe how sales reps are able to convince people to buy a product. In my opinion, persuasion and emotional intelligence play hand in hand, even though you don't have complete control over the customer. I think that in marketing if you have a high emotional intelligence, it is easier to persuade customers into buying a specific product but at the same time I would say it's more convincing the customer to change their opinion than manipulating them into buying something that isn't a necessity. In a sense, I could see how someone might think that marketing personnel are manipulating customers and potential sellers into buying or selling the product in the market. I believe that if marketing and sales reps were lying to potential customers and sellers about their product to get a better response then I would say that is closer to manipulation than persuasion.
I definitely think that by using emotional intelligence and persuasion, sales reps and other marketing departments are able to find ways to appeal to customers and sellers. I don't believe that it could be considered manipulation since they don't have any control over what the customer is thinking about the product or if the customer will buy the product.
