The marketing myths and consumers' fear of marketing

Purpose This paper aims to assert how common yet unfounded claims to persuasion power are not in the best interest of marketing professionals. News reports of any pervasive marketing activity include a direct assertion, or at least an implicit presumption, that business managers do it because they know it “works.” And since consumers know that marketing wishes to influence their decisions, they fear that they are being manipulated. Design/methodology/approach With marketing professionals claiming great power to move the masses despite their uncertainty of just how effective their tools might be in causing sales, consumers tend to believe the claims of sales influence and, in turn, blame marketing for many consumer or social problems. Findings Marketing is not as all‐powerful as some consumers believe or fear, but marketing professionals tend to claim their work has all sorts of expansive powers. Originality/value Many public debates put marketing people in the strange position of noting the limits of their persuasion power and the uncertainty of past claims successes. Unfortunately, as marketing professionals try to gain new business budgets and make claims of their worth, their failure to admit the limits to knowledge of how or why people might be persuaded to buy products results in many consumers blaming marketing for all types of social problems. Public education and understanding might be best helped by some practitioner honesty.