Brand Jury is a response to a number of disturbing marketing trends, including what we see as a deficiency in market transparency.  A lack of transparency is not always, by itself, a bad thing.  Indeed, some organizations require a level of secrecy in order to compete.  In those instances, the only parties damaged by corporate secrecy are competitors unable to develop strategies mitigating whatever is secretly being concocted.  Furthermore, companies who maintain a privacy shield but practice good faith and fair dealings in the marketplace arguably cause consumers little damage.  Ferrari is loathe to release the cost of manufacturing a $255,000 599 Fiorano, but drooling F-car aficionados want only the 12 cylinder's bella machina, regardless of the surcharge. 

But how should we, as a market, approach the cowled machinations of a smiling corporate facade?  Make no mistake: due diligence does not lead to transparency.  We burden the unwitting consumer with due diligence when we should instead demand greater transparency from manufacturers and retailers.

Understand that transparency is not based on full disclosure, but rather on honest disclosure.  For example, BestBuy achieves transparency when advertising a rebate-free $125 Lexmark printer/toner/printer cable package.  BestBuy, however, doesn't think it will sell $125 Lexmark printers when Office Depot is selling the same printer (sans toner and cable) for $25 after $50 mail-in-rebate.  And so they follow suit by under-delivering on the over-promises made in last Sunday's circular.  

The problem arises when the sham price is couched as an honest and affordable bargain.  The practice amounts to little more than a polished bait-and-switch tactic looped gracefully through a permanent contract law pinhole.  I feel dirty when I'm greased up by the plastic smile of these painted crystals profiting through feigned transparency, and I know I'm not alone.  Isn't it time we asserted ourselves and demanded respect from the cats grown fat from our feeding?          

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