Professional and respectable marketers follow an oftentimes unspoken vow to “tell the truth in all situations and at all times.” This is a tremendous challenge for all product producers, service providers, and their corresponding marketing arms. This, however, only becomes a problem if the product or service, to begin with, is a lemon or defective. No amount of marketing effort, integrity, and full marketing communications can hide the flaws, inconsistencies, and faults of inefficient and ineffective products and services.

Additionally, a product or service that falls short of its promoted and advertised benefits will eventually just waste its promotional and advertising efforts. Word-of-mouth is the most effective form of advertising. If it works in beneficial ways for a product endorsement, so will it backfire on a bad product and eventually prove to be its undoing.

It is particularly desirable for a product or service to tell the truth at all times. It is advisable to promptly inform the market and advise the customers about the ‘ugly’ truth behind products and services. This can be done in many creative ways that will alleviate the impact of the revelation. But, all in all, it is better to “troubleshoot” reputations as early as possible to avoid additional repercussions. This is the purview of Public Relations.

And the rule of thumb in PR has always been to rectify the reputation of a product at the soonest possible time before there is the need to rectify the reputation of the entire company or organization.

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