(D). Describe the Use of Business Ethics in Promotion

4.01d Acquire a foundational knowledge of promotion to understand its nature and scope.
Performance Indicator

¨  (D). Describe the use of business ethics in promotion

¨  Explain ethical issues associated with fear-based advertising.

¨  1. Fear-Based Advertising defined as:

¡  A proven set of marketing strategies and tactics used to ______target audiences to take massive ______quickly.

¡  Desired outcomes are achieved quickly through persuasive techniques that tap into powerful ______.

¡  The objective is to focus attention on the painful ______of inaction contrasted with the hope of a desired future.

¡  These marketing techniques are best used when credible ______are combined with uncertainty and ______.

¨  ______= Fear, uncertainty, and doubt

¨  Gene Amdahl after he left IBM to found his own company: “FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering [Amdahl] products.” The idea, of course, was to persuade them to go with safe IBM gear rather than with competitors' equipment.

¨  Fear-based advertising is upon a potential customer’s fear of ______, to stimulate them into purchasing a product ______they’re ready to do so.

¨  Fear is also used as a way to suggest that, if you don’t purchase the product, all sorts of ______will happen to you. You won’t make a million in 30 days, you won’t be able to quit your day job, people won’t like you, etc.

¨  2. Begin with three-powerful words: "______..." For instance, "In my experience, I wouldn't be here today without the help of (fill in the blank) drug, car, doctor, etc."

¨  3. Then take message frequency and ______with something relevant, and you have fear-based advertising.

¨  TARGETING - ______and ______ the maximum number of qualified prospects at the lowest possible cost - in part by leveraging proven high-tech marketing systems that enable you to measure and manipulate every aspect of your online marketing campaigns in seconds at the click of a button; and,

¨ 
POSITIONING - ______ the maximum number of your prospects to buy from you by using high-touch sales techniques that tap into the most powerful motivating emotions - ______and ______.

¨  4. Tapping into our fear is a huge marketing tool. Why?

¨  Because we humans respond to bad news, situations, stories, etc. The fear factor causes us to _____. It’s basically the “fight or flight” response.

¨  5. Fear is the ______human motivator.

______use fear to get their child to act or react to situations from when they were an infant. Here are a few favorites:

¨  "Don't play with (interject any long, slim object) or you will poke your eye out." It must work, because I have never met anyone who has actually ever poked his or her eye out.

¨  "If you make a face like that it will stick like that." Yep, we all know a few people this has happened to.

¨  "If you fall out of that tree and break your legs don't come running to me." Makes sense.

¨  "Don't sit so close to television or you'll go blind." I still don't sit close to the television.

¨  6. Effective use of fear in advertising when:

¨  They provide (1) high levels of a ______threat or important problem

¨  (2) high levels of ______or the belief that an individual’s change of behavior will reduce the threat or problem. That is, fear appeals work when you make the customer very afraid and then show him or her how to ______by doing what you recommend.

¨  7. Fear-based advertising is unethical when:

¨  engendering perceptions or attitudes that are ______or unethical, e.g.,

¨  overly dramatic and ______,

¨  lacks ______responsibility,

¨  exploitative,

¨  stimulates ______demand, and

¨  involves inappropriate ______techniques

Discuss sexism/stereotyping in advertising.

How ethical it is to do so?

¨  Three areas of focus

¡  (1) if sex actually sells and if so, ______is it being used in advertising,

¡  (2) the use of men and women in ads of a sexual nature,

¡  (3) the role that ethics plays in the use of sexual appeals in advertising.

¨  What can Advertisers do to ease public concerns:

¡  (1) targeting commercials as carefully as possible to avoid unnecessary conflict and to ______the viewing of sexual appeals by people who might be ______by them,

¡  (2) heightening their own awareness of the ______of their sexual appeals on the public at large as well as on their ______market,

¡  (3) testing the ______of their commercials, not only on their target, but also on other members of the public who might see their commercials, and

¡  (4) considering the effects of their commercials in prompting individuals, whether in their target or not, to take actions that have ______consequences

Children are an important marketing target for certain products.

¨  Why are children vulnerable:

¡  Because their ______about products, the media, and selling strategies is usually ______as well developed as that of adults

¡  Children are ______of marketing tactics and messages. For example, studies linking relationships between tobacco and alcohol marketing with youth consumption resulted in increased public pressure directly leading to the regulation of marketing for those products.

¡  The use of the Internet to market to children also raises ethical issues. Sometimes a few ______marketers design sites so that children are able to ______adult supervision or control; sometimes they present objectionable materials to underage consumers or pressure them to buy items or provide credit card numbers. When this happens, it is likely that social pressure and subsequent regulation will result.

¨  In the United States, marketing to children is closely ______. Federal regulations place limits on the types of marketing that can be directed to children

ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING TO MINORITIES

¨  Concerns:

¡  Ethical issues arise when marketing tactics are designed specifically to ______or ______a minority market segment.

¡  Offensive practices may take the form of negative or ______representations of minorities, associating the consumption of harmful or questionable products with a particular minority segment, and ______portrayals of a race or group.

¡  Ethical questions may also arise when high-pressure selling is directed at a ______, when higher prices are charged for products sold to minorities, or even when stores provide poorer service in neighborhoods with a high population of minority customers. Such practices will likely result in a bad public image and lost sales for the marketer.

When targeting minorities:

¨  Firms must evaluate whether the targeted population is ______to appeals because of their minority status.

¨  The firm must assess marketing efforts to determine whether ethical behavior would cause them to ______their marketing practices.

Discuss the ethical issues associated with sales promotion sweepstakes, samples, rebates, and premiums.

¨  In the area of promotions:
• avoidance of false and ______advertising;
• rejection of high-pressure manipulations, or ______sales tactics;
• avoidance of sales promotions that use ______or manipulations. (AMA Code of Ethics)

Explain the use of stealth marketing.

¨  In stealth marketing people are paid to use or pitch products in public settings ______disclosing the fact that they are being ______to do so.

¨  FTC states that "the failure to disclose the relationship between the marketer and the consumer would be ______unless the relationships were otherwise clear from the context."

¨  Four areas of concern:

¡  1) it's ______,

¡  2) it's ______,

¡  3) it can take ______of the kindness of strangers (like the camera phone example), and

¡  4) it can turn family and friends into corporate ______, eroding bonds of trust.

¨  Discuss ethical issues associated with use of customer information obtained on the Internet.

¨  Privacy
Information collected from customers should be ______and used only for expressed purposes. All data, especially confidential customer data, should be ______against unauthorized access. The expressed wishes of others should be respected with regard to the receipt of unsolicited e-mail messages.

¨  Ownership
Information obtained from the Internet sources should be properly authorized and ______. Information ownership should be safeguarded and respected. Marketers should respect the integrity and ownership of computer and network systems.
Access
Marketers should treat access to accounts, passwords, and other information as ______, and only examine or disclose content when authorized by a responsible party. The integrity of others’ information systems should be ______with regard to placement of information, advertising or messages.

Describe ways that businesses use socially responsible promotions.

¨  Socially responsible companies are increasing their ______contributions and committing to making the world, or their community, a ______place.

¨  What is CSR? ______is short for corporate social responsibility, a concept whereby businesses and organizations perform a social good or take responsibility for the impact of their activities.

¨  Examples:

¨  A company investing in ______and not just in promoting their alcoholic beverages.

¨  Tyson Foods launched a campaign in Austin in which it agreed to donate 100 pounds of chicken to the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas for every comment posted on its blog. They received 658 comments in two hours and loaded up two trucks filled with chicken for the hungry

¨  Haagen-Dazs: Honeybees are disappearing at an alarming rate — and that’s bad news for the global food chain. Haagen-Dazs decided to create a microsite to raise awareness about the issue: “Honey bees are responsible for pollinating one-third of all the foods we eat, including many of the ingredients that define our all-natural ice creams, sorbets, frozen yogurt and bars.” Again, smartly tying it back to the company’s core mission.

¨  The company is donating a portion of proceeds from its Haagen-Dazs honeybee brand to research on the topic, and it launched a modest Twitcause campaign through the #HelpHoneyBees hashtag, raising $7,000 in two days last November (“Bee Buzz generated: 643,748 tweets”).