The Black-Hat Marketer approach

In our last article (here), we promised to present the approach of the Black-Hat marketer as opposed to that of the White-Hat marketer.

By now, it should be clear that Black-Hat marketers are highly ideological in their attitude; that is to say: they try to force an idea they have of the world over reality. That means that they have a theory (“customers can be manipulated, and I know the secret formula to do it”), and they do not care if results might contradict it. They are just like machines, repeating their actions over and over, hoping that, sooner or later, they will get the outcome they are hoping for.

Aside from the fact that Einstein once said that constantly repeating the same practice while expecting different results is the definition of stupidity, such an approach can also prove to be highly risky for a company.

The market is not a unique abstract entity; it is made up of people who hate to be taken for a ride. Winning their trust is a tiresome and expensive process, often taking months, if not years. On the other hand, you don’t need much time to throw away this capital; half an afternoon can be enough to lose your reputation.

This could be one of the worst nightmares for a company, and it is a risk always present when a Black-Hat marketer is behind the steering wheel.

So, what is the agenda of a Black-Hat marketer? How do they manage their job?

They usually follow some principles, which can be summarized as follows:

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1.??????Promise the moon

A Black-Hat marketer does not care for competitive advantages; he is not satisfied with winning the competition in one or two areas, thus creating a profitable niche for his company. He wants to win big. This usually happens because his target is not the final customer but the CEO or the other relevant stakeholders internal to the company. He does not care if the campaign will work or not (at least: not at the beginning) as long as he can impress his genuine referrals. This usually leads to overextension and exaggeration, translating into over-emphatic language, double-digit discounts, and the purchase of all the most expensive spaces and channels imaginable. Claims are so exaggerated that they border on scam. Usually, when successful, this kind of campaign creates excessive expectations, which inevitably end up being disappointed, resulting in controversies and negative references from angry customers. Another side-effect is that the conversion rate of such campaigns is often poor, and the rate of buyers sticking to the brand afterwards is even more lacking.

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2.??????Distract consumers to lead them where you want

Have you ever seen street gamblers playing that game in which you have to spot which one of three covered cards is the queen of hearts? The dealer creates the illusion of fair play by letting you see in which position the queen lays at the beginning of the game, but, as said, it is just an illusion because whichever card you choose, once the dealer has decided you have to lose, you will lose no matter what. A big caveat: we are not talking about creativity here. You can have promotions that can be original and paradoxical, but you need to stick to your product or service, because that must be the star of your marketing campaign. Suppose a prospect can’t tell what you are even talking about in your promo (it happens more often than you might think) or does not remember anything of your message after hearing or seeing it more than once. In that case, it is a sign that you haven’t captured his attention. That can indeed happen out of a mistake in the campaign’s production or planning. Still, oftentimes it is a side-effect of something that the planner was actively seeking: consumer distraction. But why distract consumers? Because that way, you can avoid having them concentrate on the qualities of your product/service, and maybe you can captivate their sympathy. After all, it’s easier, and perhaps you can let something else sneak through while they are not paying attention, just like the old gambler with the three cards. More on this in the next point.

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3.??????Abracadabra

You are probably already familiar with the term “neuromarketing”, which refers to the possibility of applying the discoveries of neuroscience about human behaviour to product marketing. You might also be familiar with the NLP acronym, “Neuro-Linguistic Programming”, originally conceived to help psycho-therapists in their practice. You undoubtedly know what a subliminal message is, and perhaps you are also aware that there are a bunch of hypnosis techniques, like “conversational hypnosis”, “street hypnosis”, or “stage hypnosis”, which can be used without full awareness of their target. These all (and others) are at the core of black-hat marketing. In fact, just like the alchemists used to search for the mythical philosopher stone, in the same way, black-hat marketers look for the ultimate technique which will allow them to persuade customers regardless of the product or service they are trying to push. There are two big problems with such an approach: the first being the arrogance of those who believe they have such power. To manipulate others, you must be convinced to be superior to them. The second is that while all those techniques might help you to understand your target better, applying them to force your target’s decisions implies a mechanistic view of the human being. Humans are not computers one can hack with a dos attack or by injecting some malignant code. There is also a gigantic downsize to these faulty assumptions. Users can smell when you consider them manipulable fools, and if they realize you are trying to trick them, they get mad and will drop you forever. And nowadays, word of mouth spreads uncontrollably, thanks to the Internet and social media…

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4.???????Pervasiveness and omnipresence (aka “besiege your target”)

Black-hat marketers usually go big or don’t go at all. This means that they typically need HUGE budgets. They need to go mainstream and exert considerable pressure on their chosen target, and this is because repetition is one of the critical strategies our brain uses when it comes to memorizing things. So the idea is that if you expose people to a significant number of repetitions, they will remember your message and buy your product/service. There’s only one thing wrong with this assumption: whenever we learn something by heart, it’s because we WANT to. Our free will is involved. In other words: I’ve never heard of anyone converting to Jehovah’s Witnesses just because they rang his buzzer thousands of times. On the other hand, I’ve heard of several severely annoyed people because Jehovah’s Witnesses frequently rang their intercom, often at totally inopportune times. This is precisely what will also happen to a marketing campaign if there’s more attention to pressure instead of solid messages. Pressure has a sense on some very generalistic channels if you want to reach a larger target, but that also means that dispersion is a huge factor on said channels. You can and should obviously repeat your message, as, just like Latins used to say “repetitions help”, but always verify that your ad is potentially essential for your target, that the news you are spreading are indeed good news, at least for some.

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5.??????Even if the campaign has failed, find at least a dataset that can be positive for you.

We already talked about big and small data (here), so I won’t dwell on them again. I will instead talk about how black marketers love big data because they are usually so big that nobody inside the company can figure them out. You can always find something useful to muddy the waters. A Dilbert comic strip summarizes this attitude very well: Dilbert’s chief calls him into his office and tells him that he’s worried because they have no rising data to show to the board of directors for the current month. Dilbert goes away and comes back with a fake nose, and he hands a paper to his chief, who happily states: “Wow! Our internal subterfuges have risen by 20%!” Unfortunately, that also happens in many companies, where people try to show rising graphics no matter what instead of checking metrics related to the main KPIs. If campaigns fail, then it’s none of marketing’s business. It is usually the product that must be changed, hence the usual fuss between CTOs, Product Managers and Marketing. Truth is: any marketing campaign should be judge by how many KPIs has managed to directly rise.

CONCLUSIONS

Black-Hat marketers act as they do because they seek shortcuts and have an ideological approach. They presume always to know better than their prospects, and they don’t. Do not make the same mistake. To sell, you need trust; trust is something you earn through honesty and steadiness, not through “subterfuges” (to cite Dilbert).

What you should know about your prospects is their problems and whether your solution can solve at least one of them. That is all.

Remember that marketing should be the art of letting the product sell by itself, and all will go well.