Marketing and advertising are indispensable tools for any kind of business. To grow the business, the company needs to stand out from other firms offering similar products and services.
Being an entrepreneur means giving your full commitment to the business you’ve put up. To be a successful entrepreneur, one must have the skills, knowledge, and the right attitude.
Businesses blossom after years of hard work and perseverance—that’s how it works. People working in the company should believe in what they sell and have a clear vision about how their products or services can be as competitive as others.
When you have figured out what kind of products and services you want to offer, you need to have a great marketing plan. But never make false claims about your product or service just to get customers.
What is False Advertising?
Customer purchase a product or service based on the cost, quality or feedback from other customers. But some business owners go beyond this by doing a little “magic”. Some online sellers resort to this.
Some say the clothes they make fit a certain size, but upon receiving the ordered item, the customer discovers that it is several sizes smaller.
Some makers of beauty products claim their soap or lotion can give you whiter skin but turn out to be not effective or lack FDA approval.
Some online sellers of cosmetics offer counterfeit products, which means that they may seem physically the same but the chemical components are different.
If you’re an entrepreneur who engages in these advertising gimmicks, think again. You might end up “earning an invitation” for fraudulent advertising.
Effects of False Advertising
A company that knowingly makes false claims or falsifies advertising may face both financial and legal repercussions.
- A company may be investigated. The content of the advertisement will be reviewed and evaluated. This is quite common in the pharmaceutical industry when a medication is advertised as having certain results, but the side effects are not stated.
- The company may receive a cease-and-desist order to stop the ad from running. Only when the false claims have been rectified will the company be allowed to operate again.
- The company may suffer a great financial loss. The ads will be pulled out and the money spent to develop these ads would go to waste. The company may also be charged for both current false advertising and any future incidents of deceptive advertising. The company may also get sued and ordered to pay customers who filed the suit.
- Worst of all, a company can lose the trust of its customers.
Imagine how one product or service that is falsely advertised can damage a whole company!
If you want to be recognized as the best, always make sure that you don’t make false claims. Always speak the truth.
Armando “Butz” Bartolome’s Wealth of Advice appears Thursdays on GoodNewsPilipinas.com
(Armando Bartolome is known as the Philippines’ Franchise Guru, a mentor to numerous micro entrepreneurs who are now themselves big names in the industry. This article is reposted with the author’s permission and was previously published on The Business Mentor column posted by ABSCBN News. For questions and more information, you may contact Armando “Butz” Bartolome by email: philfranchiseguru@gmail.com or on Twitter @philfranguru. His website is https://www.gmbmsglobal.com/ )
