How the largest Ponzi scheme used good marketing
Bernard Madoff…more like Bernard Made-off…
For those of you in a cave, please read this article. Bernard Madoff managed a large investment firm and had a corrupt business operation on the 17th floor utilizing the oldest scam in the book…a Ponzi scheme. So how was this good marketing?
Branding
A huge, beautiful building in Manhatten. Name recognition. An elite status. Wealthy clientele. A history of taking care of employees. A high-end investment firm. A massively corrupt business operation.
By establishing brand recognition and a perception of quality, the folks that were scammed out of BILLIONS of dollars never saw it coming. The faithful, hard-working employees didn’t even see it coming. By having an established brand, the con of the century happened and there aren’t many stories of whistle-blowers, or folks that knew what was going on (yet at least), it happened in the middle of the night for all we know.
So how can we take a bad use of good marketing and spin it on its head?
Apply the same concepts of branding, but provide a great product or service for your customers. Find your core competency, whether it is offering the best service, the lowest price, the highest quality product, the most accurate blood pressure devices, or the most reliable customer service. Stick to that core competency! Your messaging and strategy is developed around your competency and should support it in every way. Bernard Madoff knew this. He had an elite, high-end investment firm catering to the rich and famous and knew that if his brand was strong enough…he could gain trust and use it to his advantage.
And the word of the day is greed.
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