Are You Doing Business with Disclaimers?

Drive away in a new car for only $99 down, $99 a month! … Lose 20 pounds in 20 days! … The easy way to get live TV and the online entertainment you want! …  endless examples exist.

And so too, does the “fine print” in advertisements.

Results not typical  …  Following a strict diet plan with nutrition guidance … Valid only to new customers … With $2,500 trade allowance, military discount, recent college graduation discount, 4 year lease at 10K miles per year, plus first monthly payment, tax, tags and registration fee extra due at signing (unfortunately, this last one is an actual example).

Bait-and-switch or legitimate price-leaders?  Spinning or story-telling?  If the advertising message leans too heavily towards exaggeration, the marketer should beware, for what was once a trend, is now the norm.

With the confirmation by Google earlier this month, that mobile internet search is outpacing  desktop platform, it’s no longer localized word-of-mouth marketing; rather, it’s the potential ramifications to a company’s reputation that are now significant, starting with every advertisement, every marketing message, as now found by users on phones and tablets.

Begin a product/service search on your mobile device (like any normal shopping experience in the B2C retail world) and read reviews of some customers’ experiences to get an idea, as to how many potential clients are lost, before they ever get to the company website, never mind their brick-and-mortar location?  …

If you saw this on your phone …

               “I saw an advertisement for a special and when I got there, the salesman told me they couldn’t match the price in the ad, because they ran out of that product … but they happened to have a similar model (of course, more expensive) in stock.”

Would you click the call button?  Would you visit the location?  If it was the new Apple Watch, perhaps, but aside from those outlying products, it would take a strong “want/need”, to ignore a trend of these types of reviews.

If you saw this on your phone …

“You’re not you, when you’re hungry”

Would you forward the brand-content, start a hashtag, thumbs-up a post?

For better and worse, the first impressions of a company, its services and/or products, are being formed by people who search online, with possible motivation from an advertisement; therefore, a marketing director’s position on marketing content shouldn’t be one of “just get ‘em in the door”, rather one with a much greater responsibility of setting customer expectations.

• Aggressive, but attainable pricing  :::  do you have sufficient inventory and what percentage of your prospects qualify?
• Realistic customer service capabilities  :::  do you advertise customer messages, that aren’t reflective of online ratings?
• A marketing message reflective of your company’s values, philosophy, and/or culture

Fair or not, the reality of first impressions are being created on a roughly 5 inch screen, connected to millions of other similar devices.

So, in addition to adaptive/ responsive websites, mobile apps, video distribution based on connectivity, etc, consider that none of these points are more important, than the medium which drives a mobile user online; reviews, viral content, and the advertisement headline/call-to-action.  If this marketing content isn’t genuine, the disconnect between a single prospect and your company can be shared with a couple clicks, influencing future impressions.

The suggested direction from here, is to ensure tag lines, advertising visuals and verbiage, and customer reviews are legitimate to the abilities of the business model, with current resources and staff.  With direction from the marketing department and inclusion of a critique by sales management (to ensure a sales dept can fulfill the advertised experience), the “stars should align” … I’m referring to more 5-star online reviews.  Reduce the “fine print” and increase the transparency to let your customers do the “talking” for you, versus disclaimers.

Best of luck carving out and maintaining your digital footprint, for positive customer experiences.

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Shawn M. Ramsey
Digital and Sales Process Consultant
20 years automotive – Retail, OEM supplier, Vendor
20 years American Council on Exercise certified trainer