Everything is allowed in love and war. But what unfair practices have you encountered in business?

Question

In marketing it can be deceptive advertising/commercial, in the case of SEO, embedding words on the website and colouring the font and background with the same colour so that the keyword is not visible. (just giving an example)

Every day showcasing your business and competing with others feels like a war. 😀

What about your experiences?

Simona O'Neill · Accepted Answer

Stealing other people’s content or ideas and presenting them as your own. Happened to me before and I was really angry and upset at the time. Now, looking back I kind of feel sorry for people like that. They obviously don’t have enough creativity and are just copy cats. My conscience is always clear and that’s how I like to live my life.

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@simona_o_neill3 you need to take it this way: You are so good (and top of their minds – top-notch) that your content is worth of stealing. :D But I feel you. It is a disappointment.

Simona O'Neill · Answer

@marvin_maendle I’m also in support of a fair game , but unfortunately that’s not how this world works. It’s sad really, but some people always have and always will be trying to gain an unfair advantage.

Boris Markarian · Answer

Everything is allowed in love? I've never heard about it.
Now I know 😁

Answer

There is a practice that some people hate: companies advertising on competitors' keywords. However, I kind of like it when they make bold statements. For example, when you search for "Zendesk pricing," you get "Intercom is better" as the first result. This is aggressive but takes guts. You have to be super confident in your product to do something like this.

Marvin Mändle · Answer

@busmark_w_nika in which area of Germany are you?

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@mehtab__faiz you are right. It's a shi💩y approach from other people.

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@marvin_maendle @simona_o_neill3 people who know how to find holes in the system and circumvent the rules usually somehow "win". And then I think to myself: Oh, I'm a fool if only I were a little less honest. 😅

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@mehtab__faiz So? :D I am listening those bad things

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@marvin_maendle hahaha, we have that saying too :D BTW, now I am in Germany. Love it there :)

Business Marketing with Nika · Answer

@boris_moris44 It is a Slovak saying :D please, do not cheat so much :D

Michael · Answer

I've seen a few shady things in business. Fake reviews and keyword stuffing are some common ones. We focus on staying honest and delivering real value. its okay to building trust.

Daniel Engelke · Answer

I’ve seen:
- Investors pretending to be interested in investing to learn information for one of our competitors who they had invested in and not told us
- Competitors pretending to be potential customers to try and get information from us
- Competitors creating fake LinkedIn and Reddit profiles to pretend to be customers using their product

In all of these situations behaving unethically caught up with them and it hurt their businesses, but is super annoying when it occurs.

Michelle Duval · Answer

oh wow @marvin_maendle 😔

Everything is allowed in love and war. But what unfair practices have you encountered in business?

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