Why Pharisees Would Not Be Effective Marketers

In the Bible, it is clear the Jesus Christ didn't agree with the way that the Pharisees were living their lives. He describes them multiple times as "hypocrites," which by definition is "a person who pretends to have virtues...that [he or she] does not actually possess." (Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. https://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hypocrite (accessed: February 19, 2016)).

To illustrate this point further, He makes a brutal comparison; "...for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness" (The Bible, Mat 23:27).

The main issue wasn't necessarily how they were acting, it was that they couldn't validate who they were versus what they were professing. In marketing, this can happen all too easily. We can get so caught up in what we would like a product or service to be, that some pretty spectacular claims are made that simply aren't true or cannot be filled. Thankfully, there is an antidote for this kind of thinking. This is suggested best by Guy Kawasaki;

"Get Better Reality."

The best way to improve marketing, to get higher returns on marketing campaigns, to increase the number of loyal/returning customers, is to make your marketing coincide with what your product or service actually is. The Pharisee style of marketing is to give a lot of hype to a product or service (the whited sepulchre), and then not being able to match what was marketed (the dry bones).

Last year, I learned this very valuable lesson while doing market research for a restaurant in Rexburg, ID. The assignment came from a class I was taking while attending BYU-Idaho. A team and I were assigned to do market research, both quantitative and qualitative, for a restaurant in town. After many hours of analyzing, we had a lot of very insightful data that we could present to the regional marketing executive of the restaurant. After we presenting what we found out, she thanked us for our hard work and then gave us this great insight; "What's interesting is that a lot of the areas where people said we were lacking are areas that we stress to our employees. But the most important and most difficult lesson that you will learn about marketing is that it doesn't matter how or what you market, if it doesn't actually happen in the restaurant, then people won't come back." She explained that if the customer has a bad experience the first time, if they are lucky, they might give you a second chance. But if that second chance at reality doesn't meet what your marketing is saying, then it's over.

You've become a beautiful whited sepulchre full of dry bones. 

Therefore, what? There are several lessons that we can learn from this:

Recognize that every department in the company is part of marketing, whether they want to or not. If every department doesn't meet what the company professes, then your marketing is off-point. 

If you are going to say something spectacular about your company, then make sure that the company can actually fulfill those claims. 

You don't need to lie or deceive in your marketing techniques. Just do what you say you can do. 

This probably doesn't seem like any spectacular insight, but being reminded of and understanding this will help companies to create more effective and accurate marketing strategies.