What Is Undercover Marketing?

Also known as buzz marketing or stealth marking, undercover marketing is a marketing approach that is used to attract the interest of customers without making those consumers aware that they are being subjected to a marketing approach. This process relies heavily on the basics of viral marketing, a strategy that involves spreading the word about a good or service from one person to another. Often, the approach is somewhat low key, does not appear to have a great deal of direct involvement with the producer of the product, and may even include the distribution of free samples to target customers.

There are many examples of undercover marketing in use today. One common approach is to engage the services of a well-respected public personality, such as a performer. The performer is then seen by the general public using the goods or services produced by the business, but without any specific type of sales pitch taking place. The performer may offer to share the product with others in his social or business circles, and may even offer a testimonial of the benefits derived from the use of the product. This approach often works based on the rapport that already exists between the performer and interested consumers. In this way, undercover marketing has shown a fairly consistent ability to produce sales over time.

Another example of undercover marketing is one individual's endorsement of certain goods or services to others that are part of his social network. This may include friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, or anyone with whom the individual interacts from time to time. The idea is that at least a few of those contacts will be intrigued enough to try the products for themselves. In the event they also find the products beneficial, they in turn will share the buzz or the good news with the people they come in contact with on a regular basis. This stealth approach to marketing can be extremely effective in terms of reaching consumers who tend to be on their guard when it comes to television commercials, email solicitations, or splashy advertisements in magazines and newspapers.

One of the benefits of undercover marketing is that it can be an extremely cost-efficient way to reach consumers. Assuming that the effort is launched properly, and the products are high-quality and deemed affordable, the potential of this strategy is virtually unlimited. Because undercover marketing relies heavily on relationships and the establishment of trust between people, it is able to reach consumers who may not be easily swayed by more aggressive and conventional methods.

Like any marketing strategy, undercover marketing can be abused. When this takes place, the process is often referred to as roach baiting. Essentially, this means that efforts were made to mislead consumers into liking the product by making a product appear to be something that it isn’t. This can include overstating the attributes of the product, or making claims for its effectiveness that are simply not supported by the available evidence.

What is Timing the Market?

Timing the market is a strategy to buy and sell investments at a preferred price. This includes stocks, bonds, commodities, mutual funds, index funds and real estate. Every financial market experiences fluctuations in their trading range based on news factors such as financial reports, news reports that directly impact the company or product, stock and bond payouts, supply and demand, and the economic health of the industry and nation.

By studying these indicators and the cycles of your particular vehicle of investment, you can predict the market direction. This will enable higher returns as you buy and sell at premium prices. The goal in timing the market is to buy as the price bottoms out and begins to gain momentum and to sell just before the price peaks. Several market strategies are available to help predict where your investment instrument is in the cycle.

The Price/Earnings ratio (P/E), the dividend yield, the price-to-book ratio, the prime rate and the federal funds rate are a few examples of ways to monitor investments for timing the market. Many brokers and investment strategists monitor the up and down cycles and the existing conditions at the time in order to predict market trends. It is important to remember that buying on news is not a good market strategy because by the time news is announced regarding a particular investment instrument, the market has already factored it into the price.

When purchasing mutual funds or index funds, you are buying a composite of securities and the price will not be as volatile. It is helpful to investigate the trading curve for the last few years. This will show you the pattern of the curve so that you can predict when the best time to buy and sell.

The real estate market moves in longer, slower cycles, which suggests staying power is your best strategy for timing the market. For securities, many order types are available in timing the market. Each is unique, depending on your goals and preferences:

• “fill-or-kill order” – instructs a broker to sell an investment at the specified price or better. If the transaction is not immediate, the order is cancelled automatically.

• “limit order” - specifies a buy or sell at a specific price or better.

• “market order” - will negotiate a transaction at the current market price.

• “market-if-touched order” - is similar to a stop order in that it becomes a market order if a specified price is reached. However, a buy market-if-touched order is entered at a price below the current price, while a sell market-if-touched order is entered at a price above it.

• “not-held order” - allows floor brokers to take more time to buy or sell an instrument, if they think they can get a better price by waiting.

• “one-cancels-the-other order” - two orders in one, generally for the same security or commodity. This order instructs the floor brokers to fill whichever order they can first and then cancel the other order.

• “specific-time order” - couples many of the other order types with instructions that the order must be carried out at or by a certain time.

• “stop order” - tells a floor broker to buy or sell an investment once a specific price is reached. These are often called “stop-loss” orders because they are frequently used to protect profits or limit losses.

• “stop-limit order” - turns into a limit order when an investment trades at the price specified in the order. Unlike stop orders, they demand that the trades be made only at a specified price.

• “short” - is to sell stock before buying it in the hope that the price will decline, allowing the investor to purchase the shares at a lower price.

Timing the market can be more certain when predicated on these safeguards. In all legs of investing, buying low and selling high is the purpose, strategy and goal of timing the market properly.