Naïve Marketing

By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY)

Introduction

Marketing today is often built on manipulation, exaggeration, and emotional pressure.

Companies are trained to sell at any cost, even when the message loses its honesty.

Naïve Marketing is a new idea that proposes a different way — a way to market with sincerity, fairness, and good intentions.

Naïve Marketing means to communicate truthfully, to promote without deceiving, and to build trust before profit.

It is marketing that keeps its conscience.

What Naïve Marketing Means

The word naïve here does not mean simple-minded or ignorant. It means pure in intention — acting without hidden motives.

A naïve marketer shows the product or idea as it truly is.

They speak clearly, admit limitations, and believe that people can see and value honesty.

In this approach, marketing is not only about persuasion; it is about representation — representing the truth of what is being offered, and the character of those who offer it.

Core Principles

Truth First — The message must never distort reality.
Good Intentions — The purpose is to help, not to exploit.
Transparency — Prices, processes, and terms should be clear.
Respect — The audience is treated as intelligent and capable.
Simplicity — The presentation should be direct, not manipulative.
Consistency — What is promised must match what is delivered.

These principles form the foundation of Naïve Marketing. They do not weaken a business — they build credibility, loyalty, and long-term value.

Practice and Application

Naïve Marketing can be applied in every field — from food and design to technology and media.

For example:

A brand explains both the advantages and the limits of its product.
A service provider shows how they work, not just the results.
A company admits when something can be improved.
A creator markets their work through real conversation, not slogans.

This approach is not about appearing good — it is about being honest and responsible in how we communicate and earn attention.

Why It Matters

People today are tired of being convinced. They want to be informed and respected.

Naïve Marketing answers that need.

It builds relationships through honesty and humility, not manipulation.

It also protects the integrity of the creator or brand — because when marketing is honest, there is nothing to hide.

Naïve Marketing recognizes that credibility is the new form of influence.

When people trust what you say, they listen — not because you pushed them, but because you told them the truth.

Conclusion

Naïve Marketing is marketing with a conscience.

It means selling with respect, communicating with sincerity, and presenting truth as the main strength of a brand or idea.

It replaces pressure with trust and noise with clarity.

In a time when exaggeration has become common, choosing honesty is revolutionary.

Naïve Marketing is not about being less clever — it is about being more human.

Naïve Marketing: An Ethical Paradigm for Honest Brand Communication
By Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY)

Abstract
Traditional marketing models increasingly draw on psychological persuasion, emotional pressure, and strategic exaggeration—often at the expense of transparency and trust. This paper introduces the concept of Naïve Marketing—a marketing philosophy grounded in sincerity, clarity, fairness, and moral intention. Unlike typical ethics-based marketing frameworks that focus narrowly on social responsibility or compliance, Naïve Marketing asserts the entire marketing process should be honest, audience-respecting, and consistent with the character of the brand and producer. The paper defines core principles, situates the concept within the literature on ethical and transparent marketing, outlines practical applications and challenges, and proposes a research agenda for further empirical validation.

1. Introduction
Marketing today famously rests on tactics of persuasion, emotional appeal, scarcity heuristics, and often strategic manipulation. While such techniques may drive short-term sales, they increasingly provoke consumer distrust, brand scepticism, and regulatory scrutiny. Research highlights that transparency and ethical practices are positively associated with consumer trust and brand loyalty (Ali 2025). Ava Battocchio+3Advances in Consumer Research+3Advances in Consumer Research+3

In response, there is increasing interest in authentic, values-driven marketing: brands that say what they mean and do what they say. Yet even these frameworks often accept manipulation or persuasion as inherent to marketing, rather than fundamentally questioning those assumptions. Naïve Marketing goes further, proposing that marketing should be honest in intention, transparent in process, and sincere in representation—not simply ethical by compliance, but ethical by design.

The term “naïve” here does not refer to ignorance or lack of skill, but to moral purity—acting without hidden motives, presenting the offering exactly as it is, admitting limitations, and treating the audience as intelligent partners rather than targets. In this way, Naïve Marketing invites brands to adopt a new posture: marketing with a conscience.

2. Situating Naïve Marketing in the Literature
2.1 Ethical Marketing and Transparency
Literature on ethical marketing emphasises product ethics, pricing ethics, place/distribution ethics and promotion ethics. Lee (2019) found that ethical marketing significantly strengthens the consumer-brand relationship and perceived product quality. MDPI Transparency literature further shows that brand openness regarding processes, cost structure, and motives drives perceived authenticity and trust. Ava Battocchio+1

2.2 Authenticity, Trust and Consumer Perception
Studies show consumers demand authentic communication and may penalise brands seen as manipulative or insincere. A recent empirical study found transparent ethical marketing practices explain over 60% of the variance in consumer trust. Advances in Consumer Research+1 Additionally, “radical honesty” in branding is cited as an emergent trend in the media and business press. Vogue

2.3 Limitations of Existing Frameworks
While many frameworks talk about ethical marketing or responsible marketing, few articulate a marketing mindset where honesty is the central strategy, rather than an adjunct. Moreover, many models still operate within the logic of persuasion and brand-advantage, rather than flipping the logic to audience-service and truth-telling. Naïve Marketing fills this gap by reframing marketing as representation, not persuasion.

3. Defining Naïve Marketing
Naïve Marketing is defined as the marketing of products, services, or ideas in a way that retains moral clarity, prioritises trust before profit, and openly acknowledges both strengths and limitations. Key characteristics:

Truth First: No distortion or exaggerated claims.
Good Intentions: Marketing aims to help, not exploit.
Transparency: Clear about processes, pricing, terms, and limitations.
Respect: Audience is treated as intelligent and capable.
Simplicity: Presentation is direct, free of manipulative gimmicks.
Consistency: Promises match delivery; marketing aligns with product reality.

In effect, Naïve Marketing shifts the brand-audience relationship to a co-creation of trust: the brand markets as if it is revealing, not seizing.

4. Practical Application
4.1 Across Industries
Naïve Marketing is applicable in any domain from food, design, technology to media. Examples: a brand actively communicates both benefits and limitations of a product; a service provider shows not only results but how work is done; a creator markets through genuine conversation rather than hype.

4.2 Implementation Steps

Audit current marketing messages for exaggeration, hidden claims, or manipulative framing.
Revise messaging to include accurate statements of value, clear disclosures of limitations or trade-offs.
Adopt transparency in cost, supply-chain, pricing and terms.
Use tone and formats that treat the audience as autonomous decision-makers.
Monitor consumer trust, feedback, and brand perceptions to gauge shift in credibility rather than only sales.

4.3 Benefits
Research shows transparency and ethical marketing are strongly linked to consumer trust and brand loyalty. Advances in Consumer Research Naïve Marketing aligns with these findings and moreover may reduce consumer scepticism, regulatory risk and long-term reputational damage.

5. Challenges and Limitations
5.1 Over-Simplification
Moral clarity is easier said than achieved—real contexts may involve trade-offs (e.g., cost-versus-quality) that challenge a purely naive posture.

5.2 Competitive Disadvantage
Brands adopting this model may initially face slower growth if competitors continue high-pressure tactics.

5.3 Audience Expectations
Honest marketing may paradoxically reduce short-term excitement or the “novelty effect” of conventional hype.

5.4 Cultural and Market Variation
Transparency and simplicity may be interpreted differently across cultures: what is honest in one context may seem weak or incomplete in another.

6. Research Agenda
Key empirical questions include:

How does Naïve Marketing behaviour correlate with consumer trust and loyalty over time?
What is the ROI of adopting a Naïve Marketing stance relative to conventional marketing tactics?
Which industries benefit most from this approach?
How do cultural, regulatory and digital media contexts moderate its effectiveness?
What organisational capabilities are required (e.g., supply-chain transparency, pricing clarity) to support Naïve Marketing?

7. Conclusion
Naïve Marketing offers a new paradigm—a marketing stance rooted in moral clarity, transparency and respect. As consumer trust becomes the scarce asset in saturated markets, marketing that begins from honesty may not only be virtuous but pragmatic. By shifting marketing from persuasion to representation, brands can build deeper relationships, avoid reputational harm, and contribute to a more ethical marketplace.

References
Ali, S.M.S. (2025). The Role Of Transparency And Ethical Marketing. ACR Journal. Advances in Consumer Research
Lee, J.Y. (2019). The Role of Ethical Marketing Issues in Consumer-Brand Relationships in the Context of Social Media Marketing. Sustainability, 11(23). MDPI
Trinh, C. (2024). Honesty in Marketing Communications: The Role of Humor. American Journal of Marketing. Digital Commons Kennesaw
Montecchi, M. (2024). Perceived Brand Transparency: A Conceptualization and Measure. Wiley Marketing Journal. Wiley Online Library
Malik, F. (2023). A Literature Review on Ethical Marketing with an Emphasis on Responsibility and Transparency. SSRN. SSRN
Sameen, T. (2025). The Role of Ethical Marketing Issues in Consumer-Brand Relationships in the Context of Social Media Marketing. European Journal of Business and Management Research, 10(1). EJ Business & Management Research

Author’s Note — Original Concept

The term “Naïve Marketing” and its definition as marketing based on honesty, good intentions, and transparency rather than manipulation or pressure are original ideas developed and authored by Ronen Kolton Yehuda (MKR: Messiah King RKY).

This concept introduces a new ethical approach to marketing — where sincerity, respect, and moral clarity form the foundation of communication and brand identity.
It is part of the broader Naïve Philosophy created by the author, which also includes the frameworks of Naïve AI and Naïve Ethics.

Relevant links:

Loyalty to Justice Only — A Universal Ethic of Truth and Responsibility

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The Personal and Social Self-Actualization Model: A Framework for Modern Democratic Societies

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International Falafel Standards Organization (IFSO)