STREETWISE MARKETING
Deceptive Marketing
By Evans Majeni
M
y good friend was over the
moon. He had just won a
holiday to some exotic location
with his wife and children. I was curious
to know how he landed this good fortune.
He explained, “I have been selected.
We just filled some forms with my wife
outside the supermarket and was called
hours later with the good news. Somehow,
I was the only one selected and not my
wife. May be it’s the way I filled the form,
you know-my previous work experience
and my exposure. I just out qualified
everyone. Be happy for me buddy. Stop
being jealous.”
They are usually stationed around
supermarkets, road junctions or petrol
stations. They pounce on you like a
hungry lion on unsuspecting prey. You are
ambushed with a smile and dragged into
a forced conversation. “Hi, do you have an
Airtel line? If so, go over there to that van
for a free T-shirt.”
You will unsuccessfully try to shrug them
off as they block your way. It doesn’t
matter whether you have that line or not,
or whether you want or don’t want a free
promotional T-Shirt. They would insist
and literally drag you to the van where you
encounter even more polished fraudsters.
You will then be presented with a form
or a card to scratch and promptly be
announced the winner of some “expensive
phone” at a fraction of the cost. And they
will make sure you pay for that fraction.
Usually, you end up buying a useless phone
that you did not need in the first place and
at an exaggerated price.
Another group of marketing conmen come
A group will get you fill forms where-upon you
will be called back and announced a winner
of a holiday with your spouse in some special
trip. You will be invited to a workshop one
evening where you will be bombarded with
a forced sales pitch not on holidays but on
some investment products! Talk of deceptive
marketing. You get bored to death listening to
unrelated product pitches as you patiently wait
for whatever you had won, usually in vain.
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in the shape of promoters who burst into
your office unannounced and immediately
launch into a spirited rehearsed monologue
that includes a hushed introduction and
pitiful product sales pitch.
Usually, they are out of breath from the
heavy load they are tagging along and reek
of sweat having trekked across town. Their
pitch goes like this, “I’m so and so from
this promotional company today we are
giving away this product at half the cost
plus these additions! Wueh. You have been
cornered.
Yet another group will get you fill forms
where-upon you will be called back and
announced a winner of a holiday with your
spouse in some special trip. You will be
invited to a workshop one evening where
you will be bombarded with a forced
sales pitch not on holidays but on some
investment products! Talk of deceptive
marketing. You get bored to death
listening to unrelated product pitches as
you patiently wait for whatever you had
won, usually in vain.
The friend who was over the moon was a
victim of this marketing con. He travelled
all the way from Kitengela in unforgiving
evening traffic to Westlands for an evening
workshop with his spouse. They found
themselves walking back in the middle
of the night through the lonely streets of
Westlands looking for public transport
with a worthless paper for a purported free
breakfast in unknown hotel in Dubai!
Then there are the online conmen who