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LITERATURE REVIEW (Manipulative marketing: persuasion and
manipulation of the consumer through advertising)
Advertising manipulation has become a problem that customers are confronted with on a nearly
daily basis. This strategy shifts the marketing mission away from satisfying client demands and
increases power imbalances between both the business and the customer. Companies tend towards
manipulation whenever their interests and goals start misaligning from the consumers’ perspective
and needs. One of the biggest roles played in manipulation of consumers is the manipulation
through advertising as it is the mix of misguided promises to lure in the consumer into buying their
products. Although, many companies use manipulative advertising but it is really difficult to prove
due to their nature and content. Marketing basically is done to cater the needs of customers and the
company should give priority to their customers. But sometimes, company’s goals and objectives
misalign and don’t hesitate to use wrong means to achieve their target, and one of the means of
achieving such misconduct is through marketing communication. Since, advertising uses processes
and mechanisms that consumers use for making purchasing decisions. As Maslow established,
consumers have three types of needs. 1) Utilitarian needs such as need of shelter, nourishment, etc.
2) Social needs are to be accepted or acknowledged by others. And the third is psychological needs,
which causes the consumers to act in ways that are compatible with their self-image and enhance
their self-image to others (https://www.masterclass.com/articles/a-guide-to-the-5-levels-of-
maslows-hierarchy-of-needs#what-are-the-5-levels-of-maslows-hierarchy-of-needs). Another stimuli
is persuasive marketing, which is categorized in two that are manipulative and non-manipulative.
Where non-manipulative means that companies don’t lie, omit details about their products or use
any mischievous techniques to lure in customers. This type of truthful advertising presents true facts
in a logical manner and provide clear information to convince the consumer (Grover, 2011). This also
brings about the ethics in marketing as it also plays an important role because many firms tend to
behave unethically to misguide the customers so that they can achieve their targets. Ethics is
concerned with how well versed are the marketing techniques and decisions with ethical guideline.
Advertising practices must have some sort of standard set so that managers could evaluate
themselves and decide how far they could go. The study of the issue reveals three major ethical
concepts in advertising: obey the law, operate in your own self-interest, and follow the ethics code
consumers in order to improve marketing practices.
