What are some examples of dirty marketing tricks?

Rakesh Jilla, former Application Developer at Wells Fargo

Ray-ban and Oakley.

Couple of years ago, when I first entered the US, I wanted to buy sunglasses. Previously, I owned sunglasses, but they were unbranded. So, this time I want to both invest my money and time to buy the best sunglasses.

I stumbled upon these two brand’s wayfarers.

I looked into couple of websites, and understood that there was an untold rivalry between these two, both in comments and reviews posted by these sunglasses owners. At least, I was in an assumption of so. One brand customers always bashed the other brand’s customers and vice-versa.

So, after doing my research, I got a good pair of one of these and was happy with them. Although, after learning so many reviews, I always wondered if I chose a wrong pair and whether the other brand sunglasses are much more comfortable since there are lot of good reviews. Although my brand sunglasses have the same amount of good reviews, I was always on the edge.

Couple of months later, out of curiosity, I bought the other brand sunglasses as well, which were around the same price line. I could see no difference, both were very good, has its own pro’s and con’s.

I, now owned both brand’s sunglasses and was in tranquility. Out of curiosity again, I looked into the sales of each of the brands to see who is the winner.

When I first researched a bit, I was surprised to see that, both these brands are owned by a same owner! This is the one.

How could I missed this when I was researching on the glasses in the first place? Later I discovered that this brand keeps the secrecy so. It doesn’t let you to know that these two brands are under the same company, unless you want to know so. Not only this, around 70% of high-end sunglasses manufactured are owned by Luxottica. If you own a pair of a good brand sunglasses, chances likely are that they are manufactured by Luxottica.

What’s Dirty Marketing in this?

The established secrecy and rivalry, pushing you to want to purchase one product over the other. A simple mind trick to project both the brands are rivals and cashing out. At the end, whatever you purchase, the money is going into Luxottica’s pocket.