Deceptive Marketing - Need Advice - Non political

I think I have been duped and I am looking for info, perhaps even the name of what happened to me. This almost sounds VLish, but this is real.

I had numerous interactions over the course of a week or so (3+) between the "public" and one of my businesses showing demand for a particular product. It happens to be perishable. I stock said product and now there is no demand. Also happened to have minimum initial stocking so I am standing here holding the rotting ball.

I think I got hit with a deceptive marketing strategy and I am not sure what to call it to even start searching for info on it. I think the company (or likely a subcontractor that does this for anyone for profit) sent fake customers in to show fake demand to get us to stock a product - one even mentioned that a local competitor stocks the product (I learn this after deeper discussion in retrospect with the manager that alerted me to the demand). It is a great/effective idea, but underhanded. I want to learn more about it to both combat it and perhaps use it in some way in the future back against these folks. I am thinking of contacting some of the competition, perhaps not local, and seeing if the same happened to them.

Any thoughts? What is this called? I was looking under terms like artificial demand, false demand, etc. but there are many econ concepts being discussed so the waters are muddy.

Thanks.

Good question. Sounds like pumping and dumping in the stock market. King Soopers will take special requests but they make you buy a case.

I kind of need more info. Where did you find these people?

FredHayek wrote: Good question. Sounds like pumping and dumping in the stock market. King Soopers will take special requests but they make you buy a case.

I found that concept and tried combining it with retail and it did not produce any descriptions that sound like what happened to me.

CinnamonGirl wrote: I kind of need more info. Where did you find these people?

Regular small retails store (I know getting rare). Mostly sell products with long shelf lives (or forever).

Sell a few perishable items. Customers came in asking for a new product - call it a Super Pear. 3 different people over the course of a week or so in addition to a regular customer that heard about the new Super Pear.

Min order on the Pears was $500, so I took the risk, the Pears sell for $100, plus I had to buy a half dozen mini pears that sell for $40.

I think the customers that were not regular were fake, sent in by the Pear distributor/grower to make me think that this was the new up and coming fruit. We respond to demand and often turn down new vendors based on lack of demand.

I was stupid, or just caught in a coinkiedinkie, but I think this is a scam, or underhanded attempt to create demand that someone in my position is geared to respond to. 3x is what it takes to really hit home, especially in a short period. This does happen legitimately with other products, so the fundamentals of high demand are not the only indicators. It is the nature of the product and the lack of demand since this initial burst a couple months ago. These Pears will last at least a few months. Too late to pick a better example.

Is that what you were asking, any insight? Pretty smart. You could build an entire fortune in a few months by implementing such a strategy with small businesses or even large ones effectively. Simply put some ads in industry trade mags (any industry). A couple months later send some direct mail. A month after that send 3-5 people around the country a few days apart to go into stores or make calls (this I have seen a lot, folks need to hide caller ID). Then sit and wait for the calls or make a few direct sales calls just to ring that bell for the busy store owners or managers. It likely happens far more than we know. It may be illegal and is certainly cutting edge simple (which is cool, even if it hurts), which may be why it is harder to find info on. I do feel taken advantage of, but mostly by my own stupidity.

That sounds to me like a brick and mortar way to "seed" a market. Reminds me of how gold mines were sold in Mark Twains day.

Blazer Bob wrote: That sounds to me like a brick and mortar way to "seed" a market. Reminds me of how gold mines were sold in Mark Twains day.

Good phrase, getting closer. Found one post that seems pretty close based on this, no new info. Boy there is a lot of seed out there. Is anyone around here in marketing?

http://marketingdeviant.com/seed-marketing/

Oh, I see. That is going to be hard to prove. I think this happened to me once at a craft fair downtown years ago. A friend of mine and I were at a booth for this pie thing. It was cool but not that cool. A lady came up to the booth and was telling the lady selling that she had bought one a the year before and all her friends just had to have one and bought five. She told us the same. We both fell for it and bought them as gifts. After I left, and especially after I gave the gifts, I could not shake this feeling that the so called "customer" was a plant. I never even ended up using the item. This is a very effective ploy. I wonder what you can do about something like that legally.

It is sort of the equivalent of fake reviews on Amazon or Yelp.

Yes, the fake on line reviews came up quite a bit in my searches.

I am not interested in proving it to anyone but myself, I understand that would not be easy if I had to. The company does make their product and they are not huge.

I think I am going to call and ask them point blank. I bet I can tell from the response if they did what I think. If they did, I will ask them to take the product back for refund or to just refund whatever does not sell before it goes bad.

Part of me was expecting to quickly find a firm where I could hire such a service myself. A site that says "We send out Teams of Drivers to Drive Demand to your Door!" so I could just call and tell them they suck as people.

I find the deceptive marketing combined with first order minimums on perishables to be an exponential frustration. In the end just about all marketing is fake, so I guess I just got marketed to just like anyone else. Just usually when I am face to face, I have more faith.

Unfortunately, the FTC is out to protect consumers, not middle-men.

Deceptive marketing practices can get you into lots of trouble if you sell to consumers.

Not so much so when you sell "wholesale."

I'd make a point:
a) To refuse to purchase products from the company I feel conned me
b) Find other deceptive practices they engage in - and expose them
(if they're ready to deceive you - I'll bet a nickel they're willing to deceive consumers)