response

In response to M-blog  "the case of Jonh Smith"

Questions: Should John smith sell the names? (Be sure to answer the poll to the left of this post.) Also, Does the AMA Statement of Ethics address this issue? Go to the AMA website (American Marketing Association) and look at their Statement of Ethics. What in the Statement relates to John Smith's dilemma?

It is my opinion that John Smith is in his ethical and professional rights to sell these names to anyone whom would wish to purchase them. It is common knowledge that any personal information given in today’s media like surveys, online forms, and prize giveaways without the agreement from the primary party to not sell the information they collect is free game to be given to other companies or parties. Ethics according to the AMA (American Marketing Association) is derived mainly from the collective norm of the population. If the agreed upon norm for giving away personal information is that it is not okay to do so when the information is protected with a terms of agreement stating that the primary party will not sell your information; then when no agreement is associated with the form that you put your information on it becomes public information and is fair game to sell.

            The only unethical issue I see associated with Smith selling the information from his survey is the honesty value of ethics. Honesty is important and John Smith should have contacted these people asking them if he could use their information for something other than the survey. This would have been the best way to handle the situation however he should not be accused of being unethical for selling information that had never been protected in the first place. People are in constant jeopardy of their information being used for such purposes which is why people need to take the proper steps by not putting their information on such forms without an agreement to not use their information for anything else.

            If John Smith is being unethical then why can certain websites gather information about your searching the internet to build profiles on who you are and what interests you: google.com, netflix.com, facebook.com?

In response to Brookes blog: Tide Laundry Pods
 All the ads contain bright colors with energetic, attractive models. "The 'pop' motif is repeated in phrases that appear in the ads, among them 'Get ready to pop your laundry,' 'Pop of fresh,' 'Pop of clean' and 'Pop of hello gorgeous.'" Do you think this campaign is going to be successful in targeting the younger audience by using these phrases and colors in the ads? Will people be open to trying something new or just stick to their usual detergent?

I believe that the campaign will be success in advertising and increasing the consumer interest in the new product, however I also feel that unless the product has been properly designed and works as good as advertised they will not see anyone switching over from their normal routine/ product. Tide is already one of the leading competitors in the laundry detergent business and will not lose any revenue if the product doesn’t take off but if it does they stand to control yet another part of the laundry detergent market. The fact that they are now marketing their product to a younger more technologically equipped generation tells me as a consumer that this product is worth giving a shot. The younger generation may be more experienced with technology but what really makes the difference is the trust we as a young generation automatically put into new technologies whether they have been proven to be successful or not. I believe the success of this product will be determined strictly by how the product performs and how user friendly the product is. Time will tell if Tide Company has made a good or bad decision marketing a new product to a younger generation. Let’s face it most of young kids still bring our laundry home for our parents to do; just kidding.

Summer fun; local threat

Marketing can be broken down in many different ways through orientation or environmental and so on. This post is being used to evaluate the environmental analysis associated with small businesses in Keene NH and the local surrounding areas. Keene presents an interesting environment which consists of many different geographic and demographic differences. The most important environmental analysis that should be drawn about this area is the thousands of college students that inhabit the area, the most notable problem with marketing to this demographic is the fact that they are only around Keene for half the year and then they head home for the other half. This makes it difficult for small businesses to tailor their operations to the genre of students. Businesses like Wallmart, Dollar Tree, and supermarkets need to anticipate the change in the environment to dictate how much and of what products they need to have stocked. Any business dealing with the sale of alcohol will see the same trend when in the summer brings less sales on alcoholic products. Small local businesses will find it much harder to make such changes to their business operations that the big corporations because of their limited resources and limited employee base. Small businesses face a much bigger threat to their success than their much larger competitors and such threats can eventually lead to the downfall that ends the small business altogether. It is important that these businesses tailor their operations to deal with the sudden drop in sales and customer base to ensure they do not have too much lost inventory/ overhead.  

What else can these small local businesses do to combat the sudden fall in customer clientele and how can they go about structuring their employee roster without hiring and firing people twice a year?

I caught a BIG ONE!!!

If I were a product... perspective employee

resoponse to Molly (http://mollysmarketing.blogspot.com/)

Do you feel that propaganda is a way of advertising? why or why not?

In response to Molly’s question http://mollysmarketing.blogspot.com/, I think that Propaganda has its place amongst advertisement but advertising is and should always be focused on conveying true knowledge about a person, place, or thing and should not try and persuade the viewer using any techniques like you find in propaganda. Propaganda does serve a very important purpose in the media we expose ourselves to everyday. An advertisement  that is found to be profoundly successful will most likely contain propaganda that is underlying the ultimate message the company is trying to get across, the propaganda is used to sway the already formed opinion about the product the consumer has. An example of this would be a commercial for Miller beer MGD 64, the Miller will be in a full glass and look very appealing and having only 64 calories (advertising). Then a person orders 64 calories of some other beer and the glass is cut in half (propaganda), this tactic would most likely be overlooked by most but when you break it down the Miller Company is saying that their beer is less fattening than all other beers. When the Miller company brought into question the other beer in the commercial they went from advertising their product to slanting/ discrediting another product. This type of propaganda is successful but most likely not ethical, I think advertising is different than propaganda.

Joe Almeida

advertising vs. propaganda

Advertising vs. Propaganda

Advertisements and propaganda are very different forms of conveying knowledge to a community, public, or even a person. I personally have found the difference to be when someone or a company is “advertising”- they are working to give you useful knowledge about who they are and what their products and/or services consist of and how they can help you. Propaganda is different in more than one way, propaganda is used to convey someone’s opinion and the purpose is aimed at converting or corrupting mass opinions. Using propaganda is a way of influencing a group into thinking what you want them to think. A good example of these differences are when a commercial for the presidential election for 2012 comes on it should generally give you knowledge of when it will take place, where it will take place, and even who the candidates are that will be running for office. This would be a form of advertising whereas, another commercial comes on right after this one and it is a spite video of one of the democratic candidates. This video contains information that might be either true or false and is used for one purpose to get you to not vote for that candidate. An advertisement should endorse its own product or service not try and put down another product or service from a separate company. If you see an ad in a magazine and it says Gatorade helps promote good heart health and keeps you hydrated, and then you see an ad on the next page from PowerAde that says Gatorade is lame and the son of the Gatorade CEO is an inmate doing prison time, how does this make you feel about each of the companies and which would you buy when looking for a hydrating beverage?