Today, the NMA report that John Lewis are to stop using voucher codes out of a fear they could provide consumers with a brand-damaging experience. Luke Kingsnorth, development manager for online marketing at Lewis Direct said,

“The main issue for us was the deception around voucher codes. We’d have people putting up our free delivery offers as a voucher, which was open to anyone on the site anyway, and then using that to place a cookie and grab a commission on a sale”

“The worst part of it was people would feel cheated when they clicked through and wonder why we were doing business with such site, so it was damaging to the brand.”

Is this a problem you’ve seen or heard of first hand? It’s interesting to note that Robert Glasgow of Webgains today called for more transparency within the affiliate marketing industry. He talked of a “tit-for-tat scam fest” often taking place between the Merchant and the Affiliate. He went on to argue that “it’s an absolute given that a basic level of openness and clarity is necessary for the industry.”

It sounds like a move towards more “social” values, yet openness and transparency are ideas that have been at the heart of the social media revolution for years. Why is it taking the affiliate industry so long to catch up? Even with Glasgow’s discussion of becoming more open and transparent his sentiments fell short of pushing affiliate marketing toward entirely social values by accepting that affiliates should be asked to “respect the brand” and “maintain the necessary high level of confidentiality” about the work they do. All this at a time when bloggers in the USA are now facing fines of up to $11,000 for not disclosing any sweeteners they get to blog about a product - something very similar to affiliate marketing.

With John Lewis declaring themselves out of the voucher affiliation game because of the sketchy tactics going on, the question is, will affiliate marketing have to take on board social values to keep their clients and remain relevant?