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Marketing, public policy, and history
Edited by Andrew Pressey, Mark Tadajewski, Finola Kerrigan and Maria Piacentini
Introduction
Marketing theory suggests there are several methods of enhancing the believability of a marketing message. For example, the believability of a message about the performance of an advertised product can be enhanced by explicitly stating or implicitly suggesting that the performance claims are supported by objective tests. This paper examines a second method of believability enhancement, called masked marketing, where the marketer suggests that a message is not from it but rather from a disinterested third party. The marketer hopes to cloak its marketing message in an aura of third party objectivity that is likely to enhance the message's believability for potential consumers to whom the message is targeted. This technique can be accomplished by disguising a marketing message so it appears to be some other sort of message (full masking) or by including information within a recognizable marketing message that appears to be from an impartial third party when it is not (partial masking).
The masking of the marketing message may be permanent in situations where consumers never realize the communication they perceived as being from an objective third party was actually sponsored by a marketer. For example in the early 1900s, a Printers' Ink article found that most if not all automobile dealers would pay a "handsome commission to impecunious members of the 'smart set' and men who have social entrée into the moneyed class, to push the sale of a certain make of machine in a disinterested, conversational manner" ([15] Dabo, 1904, p. 23). Presumably these "posers" ([59] Petty and Andrews, 2008, p. 8) never reveal their current economic challenges or the fact that they recommended a particular car for money.
The masking of the marketing nature of the message also may be temporary so that the marketer breaks through marketing clutter to get the attention of consumers, but later reveals the true marketing purpose of the communication. A classic example involves sales agents gaining entrance to homes by purporting to only deliver a free prize or booklet. In one case consumers were told that because of their community stature, they were selected for a free set of encyclopedia. The sales agent would then...