The Stealth Influence of Covert Marketing and Much Ado about what May be Nothing

Abstract

Most discussions of covert marketing stem from three basic statements: (1) People are generally skeptical of any business-provided sources of information, so publicity or even random endorsements by strangers on the street might provide consumers with more persuasive sales messages; (2) advertising creators repeatedly say that they need to “break out” from the increasingly cluttered mass media environment; and (3) news reports of any pervasive marketing activity include a direct assertion, or at least an implicit presumption, that business managers do it because they know it “works.” Management decisions to use any covert marketing tactic are driven by the first two beliefs, and public policy worries of its improper or deceptive influence on consumers flow from the third. However, most covert marketing efforts are undertaken with professional uncertainty of whether anything really works as they create new areas of consumer skepticism and even more commercial clutter.