On Incentivizing Honesty in Buisness

On Incentivizing Honesty in Buisness

Check out this image I took today:


On the left you see the actual product, on the right you see a glorified version of the product.

1) Which one looks better to you?

2) Which one looks more honest to you?

3) Do you think honesty is being incentivized or disincentivized in this marketplace?

4) What could be done to incentivize honesty?

27 March 2025 at 06:47 PM
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17 Replies


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1) Neither

2) Neither

3) Disincentivised

4) fines and regulation and social pressure


Make it illegal for any celebrity to ever get paid for endorsing anything.


by lastcardcharlie

Make it illegal for any celebrity to ever get paid for endorsing anything.

Thanks for being on topic charlie. I endorse love, its free.


They're all actors in adverts, Ryan. I don't think they're even allowed to be real people.


Do you think I got paid to make this post? I've never made money from endorsing anything. I endorse love, which is free.

Oh now I get it.

Okay so what, its pretty dishonest to be an actor, no?

Professional faker?

Have you read The Republic?


by Ryanb9

Have you read The Republic?

No.

Although I suspect I may have pretended to read it.


by lastcardcharlie

No.

Although I suspect I may have pretended to read it.

I've read it a couple times, its really good. You should check it out if you want to!


clear packaging is honesty...


by MSchu18

clear packaging is honesty...

yeah, it is. if you can see in with your own two eyes.

if its a picture or video of a clear packaging, its 50/50 AI (Alien Intelligence) or human made.


WHERE DO YOU GET YOUR INFORMATION, FROM MY ENEMIES????


Honesty doesn’t add value to the business stream. It just confuses the customer, especially when it comes to food products.

Imagine McDonald’s refering to using “patty byproduct number 6” in their hamburgers. They just use the much nicer, inviting “100% Canadian beef” patties wording to make it sound better

If they didn’t:

1 - everybody will be confused
2 - nobody will buy


by Stumeister

Honesty doesn’t add value to the business stream. It just confuses the customer, especially when it comes to food products.

Imagine McDonald’s refering to using “patty byproduct number 6” in their hamburgers. They just use the much nicer, inviting “100% Canadian beef” patties wording to make it sound better

If they didn’t:

1 - everybody will be confused
2 - nobody will buy

It's not meant to add value to the business, it's meant to protect the consumer from deception.


by wazz

It's not meant to add value to the business, it's meant to protect the consumer from deception.

It most certainly is meant to add value otherwise they wouldn’t have bothered investing into promotional campaigns around it in the past.

The average customer just buys it anyway because they already trust the brand


by Stumeister

Honesty doesn’t add value to the business stream. It just confuses the customer, especially when it comes to food products. Imagine McDonald’s refering to using “patty byproduct number 6” in their hamburgers. They just use the much nicer, inviting “100% Canadian beef” patties wording to make it sound betterIf they didn’t:1 - ever

That’s a hilarious but spot-on analogy.
“Product number 6” really doesn’t whet the appetite like “100% beef” does—marketing magic at its finest.


by potibytu

That’s a hilarious but spot-on analogy.
“Product number 6” really doesn’t whet the appetite like “100% beef” does—marketing magic at its finest.

Exactly. Nothing would sell if products were outright labelled honestly. Would even eliminate the need for branding entirely.


by Stumeister

Exactly. Nothing would sell if products were outright labelled honestly. Would even eliminate the need for branding entirely.

Hardly. Mostly branding helps consumers by providing some kind of quality standard and expectations.


by John21

Hardly. Mostly branding helps consumers by providing some kind of quality standard and expectations.

So your angle is that the honesty drives marketability, that’s true. However branding would need to be eradicated completely as to not sway the perception of a consumer into being duped by what they think they’re buying vs. the literal contents of what they’re buying. I believe if we marketed things this way overall it would be harmful, and any other way other than this wouldn’t necessarily be truthful.

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