Independent Review?

Over the last few months I have noticed an increase in people selling me marketing in a rather bizarre (and what I feel as unethical) way. It started off by being offered a place to go talk to top level, government decision makers. This was an event aimed to make healthcare better and more cost effective for the tax payer. That sounded a really exciting opportunity; however we and many of the fantastic products out there that make everyday life simpler would not be joining them, because the cost of this was just too much. I was shocked that a chance to show and effect local government spending was being auctioned off to the highest bidder, meaning that smaller companies that could make a valuable and cost effective pitch were pushed away. This meant that the end user would not necessarily be offered my product because we could not fork out thousands of pound on a one day event. There was no assessment of the product (apart from careful flattery by the sales team).

The next incident that spurred me on the write this post was a phone call I got from a company saying that they were writing an independent review of a show that we had recently attended. Our stand had been put forward as one of the top 20 best stands and for a small fee we could be included and have our logo and contact details. I was shocked; I asked the women if we didn’t pay what would happen. She was silent. ‘An independent review’ I told her ‘was not independent if we were essentially paying for a spot in the top 20 list’. On moral grounds I declined her offer.
I understand that there is marketing and product placement and that in the world of marketing companies pay for exposure, however in these instances companies paying for an independent review, or to help governments offer tax payers the best products is not paying for coverage, it’s paying to influence the outcome. The end user does not gain, they do not get an independent view on a product, and we as tax payers do not get the best products and services, only the ones where the companies have paid to get in front of the right people.

A small rant for a Tuesday morning and maybe it’s the fact that I am naive and have too a strict moral code, but to me that doesn’t sound reasonable for the end user, that would use that information to buy a product or who wouldn’t get the product they needed because it wasn’t on the list...

Rant Over,
Ruth x