Ethical marketing can significantly boost a brand’s sales, reputation and team morale – with unethical marketing putting a brand’s reputation in the firing line. That’s according to new research into ROE (Return on Ethics) published today by marketing language optimisation specialist, Phrasee.
With some brands continuing to use negative emotions like fear, uncertainty and doubt to push sales, Phrasee is urging marketers to swap pressure for positivity, and put ROE at the top of their priority lists for 2019.
The survey of 4,000 consumers and 400 marketers across the UK and US by Phrasee, which empowers brands with AI-powered copywriting, highlights that although shock tactics might gain attention in the short term, they put off many consumers in the long run, negatively impacting sales and the bottom-line. Of the consumers surveyed globally, 68 per cent said they would not buy from a brand that used negative emotions in their marketing and 69 per cent said they would buy more from a brand that used positive marketing.
Negative Marketing Risks Damaging Consumer Trust – And The Bottom-Line
Unethical marketing is also impacting people’s wellbeing – and having a knock-on effect on brand reputation, customer loyalty and ultimately businesses’ bottom-lines:
- UK consumers highlighted anger (50 per cent), inadequacy (39 per cent), FOMO (39 per cent), depression/sadness (38 per cent) and anxiety (34 per cent) as some of the emotions they felt from negative marketing.
- Almost two thirds (62 per cent) agree that brands using negative emotions are, in part, responsible for harming people’s mental health.
- Three quarters of UK consumers agree that brands exploiting their emotions negatively will lose their trust and loyalty.
- 76 per cent are turned off by brands that use high-pressure selling tactics.
The impact of unethical marketing seems to be particularly damaging for young people. 62 per cent of UK 18-24-year olds said marketing had made them experience FOMO, and 59 per cent said it had made them feel inadequate.
More than a third (38 per cent) also said “anxiety inducing marketing has made me buy things I have not been able to afford”, significantly higher than the national average of 24 per cent.
Marketers Under Pressure To Perform
But it’s not just consumers affected by unethical marketing – it also impacts marketing teams themselves, and even a company’s employer brand. The majority (88 per cent) of marketers across the UK and US say ethical marketing is important to them – but they also revealed that they’re under increasing pressure to do more with less (64 per cent in the UK and 56 per cent in the US).
Almost a third (32 per cent) of UK marketers said they’ve felt pressured to use unethical marketing tactics at work, compared to 17 per cent in the US. 82 per cent of marketers globally would not work for a company they didn’t consider to be ethical in its marketing practices and 22 per cent have felt ashamed to be a marketer because of unethical marketing practices.
Emotions Matter
“We launched our Emotions Matter campaign last year as part of Phrasee’s mission to remove fear, anxiety and doubt from marketing. It’s 2019, yet some people are still actively encouraging the use of negative emotions – as an industry we need to do better. This new research shows that marketing ethically really is a win-win – not only is it morally the right thing to do, it has massive commercial benefits. This is something that’s core to Phrasee’s business – our industry-leading ethics policy sits at the heart of everything that we do – and our technology delivers high-performing marketing language to help brands communicate with purpose.”- Parry Malm, CEO and Co-Founder, Phrasee
From day one, Phrasee’s founders committed that the business would take action to help raise awareness of mental health issues. The Emotions Matter campaign was launched in 2018 to empower marketers to embark on a new era of positive, ethical marketing and prove that the approach is a no-brainer for trailblazing marketers and brands. Initial supporters include eBay, Flight Centre, Gumtree, Hilton and Social Chain. Join the movement and support Emotions Matter here.