Ethical way of selling or not?

Hi,
One would-be customer approached me and while planning his website he told me about a selling technique he wants to use, besides his website.
He is manufacturing and selling a particular musical instrument and at the moment he is using mouth-to-ear and Facebook to sell, which works pretty well.
The chap (still at college) told me he was about to do the following: send a friend to music shops around the city asking for the type of instrument he builds and a few days later he would come up to the shop showing what he is doing.
I don’t know if I am too naive but I thought this wasn’t an ethical way of selling and perhaps illegal. Besides the fact that it might backfire in case the shop guess what’s going on.
What do you think ?

That is a Set-Up

And believe me, not every shop owner will be so naive to not see the “coincidence” of him showing up later.

I don’t know about the legality, and ethical could be debated.
It’s one thing to make yourself appear to be more desirable to “get the girl” (still dodgy perhaps, but something most could understand and accept) another when it’s to increase business.

I thought so too about the show owner who probably will guess what’s going on.

Another “creative idea”, as he calls them, is give one instrument in some shops and purchase it back thru a friend. That one made me even more uncomfortable !
He is so young that I would like to make him see this is not the way to go.

Seems to me a better way - as long as he can play the instrument - would be to give free concerts and give it more exposure in the hopes of building a demand.

Not to give an impression of a demand that isn’t there yet.

But leaving example instruments in shops might not be a bad idea i.e. on consignment, only the “have a friend buy it” part bothers me.

Maybe everyone else in the world can get away with fraud, but I wouldn’t risk it.

Yes, he plays the instrument, teaches how to use it and gives free concerts, it’s what he has been doing for over a couple of years now and that is mostly how he has been selling so far.
He reached the point where he wants to go a step further, that is when he came up to me for the website and told me about his other ideas.

The on consignment could work.

He’d need to cut a deal with the shop owner, and probably need to teach them how to play it.

Con: the shop owners would be taking a cut of profits
Pro: exposure to a targeted market

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