The world of lies can mutilate your brand reputation as it ruins your personal relationships , your ties with loved ones , your professional networks , and the society at large . Before you engage in a lie , stop to ask yourself if the impact of your lies will affect others positively or negatively . Would you want to be lied to ? of ever having made the said promises and quick about turns when required as it suits them .
COACHING
Lies
By Thrity Engineer-Mbuthia
The word lie is a noun . The plural is lies . Ever since we were young , we were taught that lying is bad . Most religions classify telling lies as a sin .
The Cambridge dictionary defines lies as “ saying or writing something that is not true in order to deceive someone .” The Merriam - Webster dictionary has a similar definition of “ making an untrue statement with an intent to deceive .”
What is common is deception and an intent . The deception is deliberate and out of choice . The intent is to deceive , to conceal , to change someone ’ s mind , to get some sort of advantage over another person .
You may be wondering what this has to do with marketing . What comes immediately to mind is a marketer who lies about product benefits . One who makes sweeping statements about what kind of service you are likely to get .
Marketing speak asks us to create value propositions . What does a product or service promise to the customer ? What about marketing communications ? What does the marketing campaign promise or is it all a lie ? What about PR practitioners when they write out press releases ? Is that distortion of the facts or lies or just creative writing ?
You put up a billboard claiming only 2 housing units are remaining , yet you haven ’ t sold even a single one . Is that lying or is that marketing ? If you set a sales promotion and offer a 50 % discount but before you communicate the offer , you increase the price and pretend it is an offer to confuse the customer is that a lie ?
Imagine you are a brand manager , and you have a launch planned . You work with marketing agencies to deliver on your materials , campaigns , and collateral . Things aren ’ t ready . You lie to your boss that it is the fault of the agency - they never got things done on time . You omit the part that you never gave them the instructions or authorizations on time . When you omit something , is it a lie ? Or is it distortion ? Or are you covering your backside ? Or are you playing politics ?
Speaking of politics , it seems the political leaders are full of lies . Some are quite blatant about lies . Lots of promises , quick denials
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The world of lies can mutilate your brand reputation as it ruins your personal relationships , your ties with loved ones , your professional networks , and the society at large . Before you engage in a lie , stop to ask yourself if the impact of your lies will affect others positively or negatively . Would you want to be lied to ? of ever having made the said promises and quick about turns when required as it suits them .
Is lying the same as being dishonest ? We tend to dislike dishonest people . Dishonest people tend to behave in an untrustworthy or insincere way . Human beings are social animals and therefore struggle with being disliked . Are marketers disliked because we are seen or perceived to be liars and dishonest ?
Generating lies requires a lot of energy . One must come up with a believable story . One must keep remembering the fake stories . One gets easily caught out when the stories start varying . For those who have elephant like memories , they catch out liars very fast . The media can also help us to recall what we were told before and compare that with what we are being told today .
How can you tell if someone is lying ? There is a four-factor model that outlines the things that people go through when they lie .
• Arousal - lying leads to anxiety or fear . This can manifest into twitching , pupil dilation , repetitions , hesitancy , high pitch communication all of which can be picked up by lie detector machines .
• Behavior control - our expressions or body language can give clues as to if we are lying . It is almost as if the human body doesn ’ t like to lie and so the body ‘ betrays ’ you .
• Emotions - Guilt at lying , secret delight at seeing how the lies are being believed . These can be seen via facial expressions .
• Thinking - lying requires a lot of thinking and this can lead to hesitation when speaking .
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