Marketing comes in many forms.
The most obvious is the traditional billboard outside, the loud radio ad and the overacted TV commercial.
They underestimate your intelligence and try to be funny, but end up being annoying.

Then there’s the cost based advertising: “Buy now! Cheap! 19.95. Only today!”.
You see it everywhere. It serves the basic survival needs. The only differentiating factor is the price.

Third: Emotional Inception.
You see happy people drinking Coke so you assume that drinking coke makes you happy.
This is higher up on the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, but it works by encouraging you to think that using product X will produce result Y.

Last, let’s not forget Cultural Imprinting.
Cultural Imprinting also works through mass media by communicating a message that you can choose to convey to your friends and peers in a shared space of meaning.
For example, as a “chill” person wanting to socialize with other “chill” persons, you may want to own a special pair of “chill” sneakers, because an advertisement positioned those latest pair of sneakers as an item for “chill” people.

That works as a means of social recognition. You want to maximize the number of social interactions with like minded people. And there’s nothing wrong with that.
We want to belong.
Disguised marketing lets your customers choose and communicate the meaning
But You have a sophisticated product and Your consumers are equally sophisticated.
They are educated and informed and they are doing their own research, following those people and brands that complement their sense of self-realization, and not your sales targets.
They walk their own paths, create their own meanings and stand proud as individuals. They don’t share their experiences with masses but to a few selected individuals. They don’t maximize the number of social interactions but form a few high-quality ones.

Still, you’d like to raise the awareness of your brand, help visitors compare your value offering with those of your competitors, help potential customers decide and service them afterward.
You could try Product Placement by, for example, placing Aston Martins in James Bond movies. Not a big deal, you know they are there already before the movie because that’s what James Bond did in the books, too. But your customers probably don’t watch Hollywood blockbusters.
There’s Guerrilla Marketing that grabs attention in surprising ways, for example with a flash mob, unannounced. It’s fun and the post-mob video may go viral. But Guerrilla Marketing tries to maximize shock value. Your customers don’t move around in masses and don’t look to shock.
There’s also Content Marketing that, when done well, does educate people with valuable “How to” type of articles. But eventually, they will start sending you special offers based on your interests.
Enter Disguised Marketing
Disguised marketing is indirect. It’s marketing that doesn’t look like marketing. It happens within another context than your brand, website or marketing material itself.

Here are some examples.
It may be an online story, where your products are carefully placed in the visual imagery or storyline as objects or themes. But: no special attention is paid to them. The characters may use the objects as any other, but just because they happened to be around.
A brand name may be mentioned in a conversation. A scene may happen in front of a storefront. A person may use a service in a scene, but casually, like any other. No tone of voice, facial expression or other element gives away anything out of the ordinary.
Timing is important here. As soon as the camera follows anything else than the story or the timing of an action related to an object is different from the rest of the story choreography, the viewer will figure out that something’s up.

It can be a YouTube video channel of a lifestyle vlogger, where he/she casually mentions a brand every now and then. But it has to be because the vlogger sincerely enjoys the product or service, and not because it was the one that offered the biggest bribe. Humans can spot fake enthusiasm.
Disguised Marketing can also be in the form of a tangential content site that publishes cat videos and occasionally drops a link to your main site. For example, a luggage retailer could publish country-specific travel guides.
Finally, the traditional link building may be considered disguised marketing. You can, for example, search for discussion forums and social media interactions about a specific topic or industry, get involved and mention your main site in a suitable context. But once again, the key is to remain natural.
Disguised Marketing is an investment
Respect your customers. Act like a human, not like a sales robot. Build links, but don’t be mechanical. Participate in discussions, but don’t sell it. Tell a story.
Disguised Marketing is an investment. Anybody can say “Hey there! Look at this! Good! Cheap! Buy now!”. But that is medieval market square noise.

Your customers are more intelligent. They have a strong psychological immune system, avoid being manipulated and don’t do what everyone else is doing.
With Disguised Marketing you can present them several different messages that they can themselves choose from.