When you run a dodgy marketing strategy, like getting teenagers to secretly sell to their friends, it’s best to band together and create an air of legitimacy. That’s what “buzz marketing” groups did recently with the first meeting of their new group: Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), as this article in Alternet reports.
Buzz marketing in teens is gaining popularity as big companies like Proctor and Gamble (via tremor.com), all scramble for a piece of the $170 billion teens will spend this year on cosmetics, clothes, DVDs, music and anything else that isn’t nailed down. By hiring influencial teens to covertly talk-up product to their friends, many say these marketing tactics take advantage of unsophisticated consumers, who often aren’t aware of that their friends are putting on the big sell:
Teens can also put themselves in danger by giving away too much information when the lines between marketing and community are blurred:
The party line is that WOMMA was formed to set down some guidelines to protect youth against tactics like this. But anyone who has ever hung up on a telemarketer will see that WOMMA is merely marketering types trying to legitmize a dubious practice before government catches on legislates some guidelines.
Putting marketers in charge of ethics is never a good idea. I look forward to watching the shocked indignation from WOMMA reps when the next inevitable teen buzz marketing scandal hits the news.
