“Skechers USA Inc. will pay $40 million to settle charges by the Federal Trade Commission that the footwear company made unfounded claims that its Shape-ups shoes would help people lose weight and strengthen their butt, leg and stomach muscles. Kardashian, Burke and other celebrities endorsed the shoes in Skechers ads.  (USA Today, May 17, 2012)

This case provides a current example of deceptive advertising.

It might be interesting to show this to students and ask if they think these are ethical practices.  Should it be buyer beware?  Are these customer-oriented practices?  I think one could question whether they are customer-oriented — and even raise a debate on their ethics.

The shoes are not cheap ($190 – $320 a pair), in part because the company emphasizes production in safe, ethical, highly monitored conditions — significantly raising production costs.  The company has done a marvelous job generating publicity, but right now is selling just about 60 pair of shoes per month.

The story brings to mind another social entrepreneurship venture in the shoe biz — Toms (read or listen to more at “‘Soul Mates’: Shoe Entrepreneur Finds Love In Giving,” NPR All Things Considered, November 26, 2010).

This might make a fun case study to have students address with a written assignment or in-class discussion.  You could assign students to read (or listen to) the NPR story about Gideon Shoes — then look at the other media reports and the company’s website.  Then they could be asked to develop and defend a marketing strategy for Gideon Shoes.   Any such plan should keep in mind the company’s limited resources and its values.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

The interview raises a lot of questions about consumer privacy and ethics.  On the one hand, receiving ads and perhaps coupons for new skis when we are in the market for new skis might be a good thing.  I tell my students that it is only junk mail or spam when we don’t want it.

But what if we prefer our privacy?  What if  we are diabetic and there are new products to help make my life easier — do I want to know?  Or if I am overweight — do I want to receive promotional materials from health clubs and diet programs?  What if potential employers can also pull this information — and don’t want to hire me because my health problems might lead to higher health insurance costs down the line?

This whole issue is complex and in a state of flux.  This interview and book might help get you up to speed.  The topic can be used to stimulate a discussion of marketing practices and related legal and ethical issues.

There are already examples of parts of this technology. My Virtual Model allows you to build an avatar with your body type and face can be placed on a “virtual model” — allowing you to virtually try on clothing. Lands’ End has used this technology for several years now. What is to prevent Facebook ads from using the photos you post to put you in a Facebook ad?  The natural next step, suggested by the article, is that you may walk by a billboard or store and see yourself in an ad.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

It might be fun to engage your students in the same thought experiment described in the article as a way to open a discussion into technology, privacy, and ethics.

In “Big Brother is Watching You Shop” (Bloomberg Businessweek, December 15, 2011), you can read about retailers using in-store video cameras and tracking your cell phone to better understand how you move through a retail store.  Analyzing video from a Miami store allowed Montblanc managers to more strategically locate merchandising, signage, and salespeople.  The result — a 20% bump in sales.  Other retailers follow customers’ cell phone signals to track and map movement through stores.  This of course is raising privacy concerns.

These two stories can be useful examples for marketing research (where we cover dashboards and marketing models), retailing, and in discussions of privacy.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

• Go to a dance class with a physician?
• Bring elaborate meals to doctor’s offices?
• Sell medical devices in the operating room?
• Hire doctors to speak about the pharmaceutical firm’s drugs at medical conferences?
• Switch on and off various accents, personalities, etc.?

It might be fun to describe each of these actions — and ask if students thought each was an ethical practice — and why.  It is easy to say they are not ethical, but then how would sales reps get their information to doctors?  And how do they compete with other drug makers that may be utilizing these practices?  Users of our text books might find it useful to contrast this description with the video we have that shows a sales call for a Johnson & Johnson sales rep and a doctor.  Also posted at Learn the 4 Ps.

The debate could be extended into your classrooms when you cover ethics, legal, or corporate social responsibility — which comes in the first and last chapters of our books.  It could also be discussed in the segmentation chapters (we have an Ethics Exercise on a topic relevant to this in our segmentation chapter) or in ethics when covering promotion or product.

Sometimes students like to hear about marketing mistakes — and this one works.  It might be interesting to tell students about the idea — and ask if they like the plan and would have any suggestions to improve it.  Then lay out the “what happened.”