What is puffery and why is it important in marketing?

Answer 1

Hi Phat_woman (?!)
That's odd, just yesterday I was researching about it to write on my blog.
I came across some different and interesting observations.
"Puffery" consists of promotional claims that no one out of diapers takes literally.
Your two-year old son/daughter might believe that polar bears enjoy sipping Coca-Cola. But you know better. Because two-year-olds make no spending decisions, (we) advertisers have always been free to enliven their ads with harmless hyperbole.
By definition, puffery is unprovable claims. Some typical puffery words and phrases:

"We're Number One,"
"We're the best in our business (city/region/nation/galaxy),"
"save big money"
"a lot"
"high profits"
"the fastest, etc.

While these examples of puffery are stock-in-trade for the advertising business, you don't take them seriously. No one else does either.

According to some thesis the fastest way to break trust with your Buyer is to waggle your verbal finger high in the air and claim that you or your company is "Number One."

Representation, on the other hand, is provable, defendable and believable—and this includes facts, figures, testimonials, expert opinions, published articles or any other hard information about the product or service from a reputable source.
Some typical representational statements:
"Increase profits by 8%;"
"Cut labor costs by 4%"
"Save 45 minutes per day"
"In the same location since 1970"
In sales, puffery is a way of life. The Buyer's armor-plated defenses expect puffery. The Buyer is rarely disappointed. The Buyer also expects to distrust you or what you say ("You know how salespeople lie.").
The national Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws is considering amending the Uniform Commercial Code to ease the way for suits against advertisers who use puffery. Because all states, save Louisiana, have adopted the UCC, this proposal will make nearly every firm in America the target of costly litigation.
Under existing UCC law, the burden of proof rests on plaintiffs asserting that particular advertising claims are factually misleading rather than mere puffery. If the Commissioners' proposal becomes law, however, every advertising claim will be presumed to be part of the agreement between the seller and buyer. Buyers will be presumed to have relied upon even the most obviously absurd advertising exaggerations.

The burden of proof will then be on defendant advertisers to prove that a reasonable person would not be misled by the challenged advertising claim. Because lawyers will easily find reasonable-looking plaintiffs to testify that they were misled by this or that advertisement, advertisers who make any claims beyond dry factual statements risk severe litigation losses.

Advertisers are now liable for harms caused by genuinely misleading advertising. For example, Coca-Cola would be liable to consumers for damages caused if it advertises that Coke cures cancer. Reasonable consumers might be fooled into drinking more Coke only because of its alleged medicinal properties. But, by definition, puffery does not mislead reasonable consumers.

Besides, puffery entertains. We all know that Dave doesn't actually cook hamburgers at Wendy's. We all know that toy rabbit powered by a single Eveready battery will not keep going, and going, and going. Even if puffery's only function is to entertain, that would be sufficient reason not to discourage it.

But puffery does far more: it informs consumers as well as promotes product quality. Before a consumer can buy a product, the consumer must be made aware of the product. One function of advertising is to create such awareness. In this age of vivid video images and electronic sounds, sellers must compete hard for consumers' attention. Puffery is one benign means advertisers use to grab that attention.

Puffery enables an advertiser to grab consumers by their collars and say "Hey, have I got a great product for you!" If firms are discouraged from placing in their ads all but the most dry factual claims, consumers will be forced to spend more of their own time and resources discovering which products are available.

One consequence will be diminished product innovation. Because consumers are more familiar with established products than with new products, puffery is pivotal to the marketing of new products. Fewer resources will be devoted to product innovation if firms encounter greater legal risks in bringing new products to consumers' attention. As fewer products are introduced onto the market, established products face less intense competition. Product quality declines.

Advocates of this change in UCC law insist that no real change is in the offing. Northwestern University law professor Richard Speidel, a member of the committee drafting the new law, contends that there is "not a change in substance at all" from the existing UCC. Really? Would Speidel make this claim if, say, a Constitutional amendment removed the burden of proof from prosecutors and placed it on criminal defendants? Moreover, if the proposed change has no substance, why bother with it?

Lawyers will be the big winners from any movement away from the existing uncontroversial legal treatment of puffery. With legal change comes greater legal uncertainty, and with greater legal uncertainty come more legal disputes. Demands on already over-burdened courts will grow. Imagine the billing hours lawyers will run up debating whether or not Chevrolet really is the heartbeat of America. Under the misleading banner of helping consumers, lawyers will reap big bucks cleaning up a mess that lawyers themselves are trying to create.
Cheers
Lucio Dias Ribeiro
http://marketingeasy.blogspot.com

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

marketing can be synonymous with manipulating.
I was in the industry for decades. For example: Big Deal Retail Store has a sale not cause there nice cause they need money to buy more stuff.

Puffery can be both positive and negative. a puffery diaper may imply but not actually be a fact of more absorbency and softness.

Puffery under eyes hair etc. maybe a negative trying to make people with these issues feel intimidated into purchasing a product to get it under control.

Leonardo said, " always look for the hidden messages"

Answer 4

Puffery is a gross or unfounded exaggeration, which can't be proven., but it is not necessarily false.
Example. Coke is the best . ' Sure, but there are those who like Pepsi.
Ford is the BEST car for the money.
. Sure they are.
For the 3rd straight year, Allstate Insurance is number one in customer satisfaction.
Did they ask Nationwide customers I doubt it. Like,did you expect Allstate to say, "we're not as good as Nationwide?"
A good one is Geico,saying in many cases they are cheaper than Allstate, State Farm and Farmer's, Many cases does not mean all, does it.?
Essentially it is a gross exaggeration, which cannot be proven and no reasonable person would accept it as truth without some skepticism.
Your question is the most intelligent I've seen all night. How can I prove this?? I can't.
But it makes you feel good. Right?
And you can "puff" all you want, and who is going to sue you???

Answer 5

TedEx has an excellent answer.

Puffery is also a legal defense. If someone sues you (or your client) over unsubstantiated claims of excellence, "puffery" is expected and normal in advertising.

Certainly can get you out of a pinch.