Bangladesh is an ever-growing hub of business. We see businesses of every kind—from e-commerce businesses such as online shopping platforms and ride sharing companies (like Uber), to simple brick and mortar businesses, such as food joints—lining our streets and occupying our virtual spaces. Among all this clutter of a myriad businesses, marketing your brand to potential customers and prospects is necessary, especially if you want to stand out. And the more your business stands out, the more word of mouth, and thus free marketing, you get within the market.

Unfortunately, in this rush to get attention, there are a growing number of brands that use deceitful or unsavoury means on online platforms, such as Facebook, and conventional televised/print media platform. These include misleading campaigns that have been reported to have swindled customers out of their money, to vulgar or sexist campaigns that are simply distasteful to say the least.

When the term "marketing activities" is used, the responsibilities associated with that term does not stop at advertising. It spans around all the sections of the supply chain, up until the product (whether it is a good or a service) is in the ownership of the final consumer.

To start off with a recent and very blatant example, there was an advertisement of a pizza restaurant that went viral all over Facebook not too long ago. The advertisement grotesquely announced their 21-inch pizza with a suggestive image of a woman kneeling down while looking up at a piece of their pizza. It is shocking that such blatant objectification of women could even be considered to have been approved for an advertisement. Unfortunately, this is not the only such advertisement. There have been many more examples of women being objectified for the sake of marketing a product, and we do not even have to look too far in the past to notice those examples.

Another cheap marketing tactic is the act of misleading the consumers with false promises. For instance, there are several allegations of defrauded customers who bought products from online shopping platforms. An article in the Prothom Alo talks about how e-commerce sites in Bangladesh make use of several loopholes in their terms of services.

According to the article, Bangladeshi e-commerce businesses are able to loosely allude to how late delivery dates can go way past the stated delivery date, how orders can be randomly cancelled by the online shopping platform, etc. A condition of one of the online shopping platforms justifies these terms by stating that an order can only be fulfilled if the product is in stock, while still listing that product to be available for sale. The article also pointed out that the Directorate of National Consumers' Rights Protection (DNCRP) received 4,091 complaints from e-commerce consumers alone from July 2020 onwards, where consumers felt misled about the services the e-commerce sites offered.

These are just a few examples of the many cheap marketing strategies brands have used in the Bangladeshi market. Unfortunately, this trend seems to be on the rise because of the unbound attention these strategies seem to rake in. The term "any publicity is good publicity" seems to be the driving factor for these brands, and they could not be any more incorrect.

When you market your brand under the methods of such questionable campaigns to the public, the public has a notion of viewing your brand under the image you portrayed with the marketing campaign. Sleazy marketing campaigns will mark your brand with the tag of "sleazy", misleading campaigns will tarnish your brand's image in the future with the "fraudulent" tag, derogatory campaigns will have retaliation—whether it is from the competitor(s) or the segment of the consumer base being made fun of.

An advertisement follows a set trend of the Hierarchy of Effects model—from noticing a brand through advertisements to purchasing products from the brand. There are three stages to this model: the cognitive stage (awareness and knowledge) where customers perceive the brand and keep it in mind, the affective stage (liking and preference) where the customers consider the pros and cons of purchasing the brand's product, and the conative stage (conviction and purchase) where customers are convinced to purchase the brand's products.

The notion of "any publicity is good publicity" does not hold up as strongly as it used to. In an era of more socially conscious consumers, negative publicity often does not get past the cognitive stage of the Hierarchy of Effects model in the long run. If the brand is lucky, a cheap marketing tactic may make customers jump to the conative stage, but it will often not last for long, as the brand only gets past the cognitive stage because of the brand becoming a "trend". Trends do not last long. There are plenty of alternatives for a customer to consider within any of the Bangladesh markets, competitors are always ready to capitalise on any mistakes the competition makes. And consumers can shift their attention at any time on trends once realisation sets in.

The only way for a brand to save itself from backlash is proper PR activities and, if the situation goes too far, rebranding. PR activities do work, but they are tricky to carry out—since there are a lot of stakeholders to appease (like consumers, authorities, suppliers, communities, etc.). And not every company can afford a PR team. Rebranding, if things go too far, is much more expensive and focuses on completely changing the image of a brand. Smaller firms cannot afford rebranding and renowned brands often do not retain as much clout after a marketing fiasco.

While what marketing campaigns should be cannot be set in stone, since marketers should aspire to pleasantly surprise a customer base with any offerings a brand puts forward, there must be a code of ethics when marketing a brand. Themes of love, familial bonds and patriotism often strike a good chord with customers. Cultural celebrations like Ramadan and Pohela Baishakh stand as opportunities to market your brand too.

The point is, unethical marketing methods that promote sexist notions, that misrepresent a product and that uses cheap tactics of demeaning a competitor do nothing but damage the image of the brand. The campaigning brand may enjoy its cheap thrills for a short while, but it does not last.

Araf Momen Aka is an intern at the Editorial department of The Daily Star.