AMA Ethics Dilemma

John Smith has a difficult dilemma when deciding whether it is ethical to sell the names of surveyed people to a car salesman. The AMA Statement of Ethics basically says that it wants its business owners to conduct themselves in good ways and follow norms established by society and law. The best statement that applies to John Smith's situation is that its an ethical norm to foster trust in the marketing system. This is where the situation gets tricky because depending on some circumstances the situation could be either ethical or unethical to sell the names of potential buyers. It's unethical if the surveying company has bylaws that require them to keep surveyors information private or if state laws require personal information to be kept private. In this case the situation would be unethical because selling these names would be illegal. However, I believe if these parts of the situation are not in place than selling these names is ethical because the people surveyed here are obviously in need of a car. There is no harm done here if a brief phone call or email is sent to them by the car salesman. However, if their information gets into the wrong hands then it becomes unethical. It's a hard decision to make because he needs income to keep employees from being layed off and they support their families. What would you do in this situation?

In Respone to Kevin

Direct mailing as Kevin said is one of the most professional ways to introduce your company to the business world and public. The only problem with this method is that expenses come into play greatly here. Sending out mass emails to users all over the world is not as costly as taking the time to organize, purchase paper, and lettering all those envelopes and sending them to people. Unless there is a specified audience that will only receive letters than sending information via direct mail could end up costing the company more than they profit. Commercials can be somewhat professional because many company's have their commercials in some sort of a cause that tells the viewer that this company really cares. It may not be as inexpensive as emailing potential clients but it can get your message to many people around the world. Making a classy commercial will give off the impression that the company is professional.

Marketing via Twitter/Facebook/Myspace

I was searching the recent sites for our class assignment on ranking corporations by their effectiveness to marketing. I was interested to see that Ford Motor Company had a link to find them on the various social networks like twitter and Facebook. I linked myself to the facebook page and found out some information about the company. As most of you already know facebook offers information on events and pictures for the facebook or twitter page. I found that ford had been basically marketing products using the website because from the facebook homepage you could find pictures of recent cars being built and new events that ford was offering for their company. They also link news articles off the facebook sight incase anyone who is interested in different car manufacturing topics can read them. The sight also allows you to share with your friends. Because of the extent to the popularity of facebook, how come not all company's have shifted their marketing towards social networking sights to advertise?

In Response to Kevin

The question posed was whether the planet could become completely green and if the answer to that would have an effect on marketing. It would be very difficult to completely cut out emissions like carbon dioxide completely from everyday life. The world has become so industrialized and dependent on machinery and electricity that it would require a huge recall to completely cut down the usage of these products. Many big machines require the power that diesel fuels and gasoline can provide and alternative sources of fuel have not yet been discovered that can satisfy the need that diesel fuel and gasoline serves. I believe that marketing can help to greatly reduce the amount of carbon dioxide that products emit. People support a healthier environment and when you can produce greener products that are also efficient then these products have more demand.

Environmentalism: Threat or Opportunity?

Depending on the type of business your organization is involved in environmentalism is a huge factor to consider. If your organization uses and supports environmentally friendly products the the public will more than likely support your organization and by your products. An example of this is Toyota who uses hybrid cars which use less gas and are less harmful to the environment. Sales of hybrids have increased dramatically since the discovery of climate change and global warming due to excess release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Sometimes the eco-friendly product can be a threat to company marketing because the eco-friendly product may be at a much higher cost than the more harmful alternatives. An example of this are the new eco-friendly led lights that are more energy efficient and free of CFL toxins but they are priced much higher than the CFL's so the high price makes them tougher to market. Environmentalism can also be used as a weapon against other companies if one wasn't operating with the best possible enviromnental tasks than a competing company could advertise this to the public to threaten organizational repuations. With all this in mind should all companies be focusing their efforts toward environmental protection?

In Response to Liz's blog "Marketing Principles Applied to Getting a Job"

It feel like you don't see company's going out and marketing themselves to employees as much as you see job searchers marketing themselves to employees. Organization's know they have the upper hand because they know the positions they hold are in high demand. So organizations where the positions are not as highly valued may try the marketing strategy to hire potential employees. If the organization was the product it wouldn't be that different because the end result is getting employees interested in the product. I know that when years ago our Ambulance service in town was just starting up and we were having trouble finding EMT's to fill in shifts. The Fire Chiefs had to market the new positions to the local college in my town and start recruiting potential employees that fit the position credentials from their. They had a target market because the college offered health science as one of their majors so it was easier for the Chiefs to find the types of employees they would need.

Marketing vs. Propoganda vs. Advertising

These terms have major differences that can be outlined.
Marketing refers more to the systematic planning of goals for an organization and analyzing organizational strengths and opportunities that can be used to go about achieving these goals. Marketing is usually done before the release of the product because this is where the overall planning process occurs.
Advertising refers more to the paid, public, or non-personal announcement or a persuasive message by the sponsor or in this case organization attempting to target a market. Advertising more persuasive towards getting potential customers interested and directed at the overall goals of the organization.
Propaganda is another persuasive tool but is used to influence and market to help the organization reach new customers. Propaganda is used to influence customers why a potential product introduced by the organization is better because propaganda uses selective information to produce emotional rather than rational response by customers.