Have you ever heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect? It’s the tendency for people who are least knowledgeable about something to be most certain of their assertions. In today’s age of disinformation and deepfakes, it’s becoming increasingly common and dangerous. While I don’t have all the answers (though critical thinking skills and education can go a long way), today I’m here to address marketing fallacies and misconceptions and how just because something seems true doesn’t mean it is.

Unfortunately, as humans, we’re prone to many cognitive biases, and unethical actors in the business, marketing, and other domains weaponize those against us. However, knowledge and self-awareness are the armor we can all utilize to defend ourselves against it and make better decisions for ourselves, our businesses, and the world around us.

So, I’ll use my modest platform today to teach you about them in the marketing context, but the good news is that you can generalize them out to every area of your life!

A Word About Metacognition

Everything we discuss today about marketing misconceptions and cognitive fallacies falls under the banner of metacognition. Even if you’ve not heard the word, chances are it’s something you’ve done on occasion.

Let’s break it down. Cognition is, of course, thinking. Meta (from a multi-use Greek prefix meaning among other thing ‘among’) means ‘self-referential.’ So, a meta-joke is a joke about jokes. Meta-cognition is thinking about thinking.

One of the keys to critical thinking is meta-cognition. We must be aware of our own cognitive biases, where they originate, and how to counteract them.

Thoughts Aren’t Necessarily Truths

I had a great conversation recently with former client and Brain Health Coach, Amanda Wright of Creative Genius Solutions, who pointed out that people need to understand that not every thought they have is true.

We went on to discuss that just because something feels true (see latter-day Stephen Colbert’s truthiness) doesn’t mean that it is. I gave her an example of this that keeps me humble.

I know that it is a complete, absolute, proven fact that objects of different masses fall at the same rate. But there’s a part of me that still has a hard time believing it. Luckily, I know to defer to experts (in this case, physicists) for my information.

Knowing that I don’t want to believe that reminds me that I’m fallible.

Marketing Misconceptions and Fallacies

So, with all that metacognition out of the way, let’s discuss some specific common fallacies that affect our vulnerability to unethical marketing and other individuals who can benefit from manipulating us.

Straw Man

The Straw man fallacy is one of the most common in everyday arguments, politics, and marketing. In an argument, it’s one of the most enraging to be on the other side of.

A straw man is a false premise the arguer (or marketer) rails against instead of addressing the actual premise. Your child might ask why you don’t care about their happiness when you won’t buy them candy. Clearly, that’s not the reason you won’t buy it.

An unethical salesperson might say something like, “I guess you don’t really care about growing your business right now” because you don’t want to buy their marketing product.

Often, the straw man argument puts you on the back foot and makes you argue against it instead of focusing on what is actually bothering you. It might lead you to make a hasty decision.

Appeal to Tradition

The appeal to tradition can be used by marketers and others, but most commonly, business owners use it against themselves when making marketing decisions.

The appeal to tradition basically states, “Since we’ve always done it this way and we’ve gotten this far, this is the way to do it.” As a marketing fallacy, this would look like a business owner saying, “We’ve never used social media before, so why should we do it now?”

The problem with that argument is a) it presupposes nothing has changed, and b) it assumes that if things are good, that’s enough, i.e., who needs growth?

False Equivalency

As business owners, we’ve likely all been victims of the false equivalency marketing fallacy.

You’ve heard of comparing apples to apples vs. apples to oranges right? To make false equivalency a marketing fallacy, let’s use cell phones as an example.
Why get an iPhone for almost 2k when you can get a Trac phone for less than $50?

The answer, of course, is that you can do a lot more with an iPhone! That said, if all you need is to make calls, and you don’t want to keep a number long-term, a Trac phone may be just what you need. Just don’t go in thinking it will be as good as an iPhone.

As I began researching this blog, I realized there were so many more common fallacies than I was aware of. So, I’ve decided to make at least one sequel to this blog about marketing fallacies to share additional problematic thinking that leads to poor decisions for your business and elsewhere.

Let me know if you enjoyed this blog about marketing fallacies and what other marketing misconceptions you’d like me to address next!