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Jennifer Rice Jennifer Rice
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Andy Lark Andy Lark
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John Winsor John Winsor
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Johnnie Moore is a marketing consultant and facilitator based in London. As well as 20 years of marketing experience he's trained in psychotherapy, NLP and Improv. Find out more at his blog.

Andrew Lark's more than 18 years experience of all facets of marketing, branding, sales and communications spans technology, Internet, telecommunications and consumer sectors. There he has led award-winning programs and teams for brands such as Dell, Sony, SBC, IDSoftware, Nortel, Microsoft and Sun. He is a thought leader and innovator on the convergence of brands, communications and social networking technologies. Find out more at his blog.

Jennifer Rice is a strategist and evangelist for relationship-centric brands. She brings 15 years experience in brand strategy, customer insight and marketing communications, and has worked with companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, Alcatel and Corning. Her current passion is exploring how brands are being impacted by blogs and other social technologies. Her company blog is What's Your Brand Mantra?

John Winsor is the author of Beyond the Brand: Why Listening to the Right Customers is Essential to Winning in Business and the Founder/CEO of Radar Communications, a consumer-centric consultancy. You can find out more about him at Beyond the Brand.

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May 16, 2005

Lies, Damn Lies and Branding

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Posted by John Winsor

I was disheartened today when reading Jeff Leeds' article about Russell Simmons in the New York Times today. In a civil deposition in July, Simmons is quoted as saying:

"You give out false statements to mislead the public so they will then increase in their mind the value of your company."

In a February 2003 appearance on CNBC Simmons stated that Phat Farm was "doing $350 million" in sales when, in reality the company had revenues in 2002 of $14.3 million. Talk about hype!

He also told Newsweek that Phat Farm's sales at $340 million "accurately reflected my optimism or my brand position statement, a good brand positioning statement. In other words, did I say it? I was hoping it would sound good."

I agree with Seth Godin's premise of his new book, All Marketers are Liars, that storytelling is important. But, it seems that some stories, like Simmons' are so outlandish as to damage the power of storytelling itself and call into question all marketing.

And people wonder why customers have a lack of trust?

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COMMENTS

1. Ben McConnell on May 17, 2005 11:51 PM writes...

I used to like Russell and what he stood for, which was graduating from a life of drug selling to successful (and reformed) entrepreneur.

But outright deception in the name of marketing? Guess I'd thought wrong.

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2. Dustin on May 18, 2005 02:09 PM writes...

The moral: If you choose to tell a story, make sure it's not a fish story or your market may be the "one that got away."

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