• Home
  • About
  • Archives
  • Our Book
  • Contact

Marketing for a Worse World: The Case of Juul

March 26, 2020 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

As you know, the new 17th edition of Essentials of Marketing and Teach the 4 Ps have been celebrating the theme, marketing for a better world (#M4BW). We are highlighting the many positive actions firms are taking to create a better world, while also making profits. That is not to say we are so naive to believe that every firm behaves in this manner. Juul’s e-cigarettes have been in the news for all the wrong reasons lately. The one getting more press is the health problems people are having. The company has also been under fire for targeting kids who are supposedly too young to use its products. This article in The Guardian, “How Juul gets kids addicted to vaping: it’s even worse than you think,” (February 14, 2020).

The example could be used with segmentation and targeting (Chapter 4), advertising (Chapter 15) or even as a counter-point to our #M4BW coverage.

Filed Under: #M4BW, Chapter 04, Chapter 15, Ethics, Legal

Skin care brand Sunday Riley wrote fake Sephora reviews…

November 14, 2019 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

We have all worried about it. I love reviews for helping me make buying decisions. It is great to have information from real customers who have experience with a product. But are those reviews real? We have written about it before right here in Teach the 4 Ps. We also have an Ethical Dilemma on fake reviews in Essentials of Marketing.

It came up again recently when it was reported that “Skin care brand Sunday Riley wrote fake Sephora reviews for almost two years, FTC says.” (CNN, October 23, 2019. As consumers increasingly rely on reviews as a source of buying information, there is a growing incentive for sellers to add more information. This story about Sunday Riley is particularly egregious.

This is a major concern for retailers or other intermediaries that add value by providing reviews. For Amazon, good and bad reviews provide valuable information to consumers — but fake reviews threaten trust in the system. Consider, a study by a British consumer education group which found “Many popular tech products on Amazon are boosted by fake reviews, an investigation finds,” (CNN, April 16, 2019). Even travel site like TripAdvisor faces the same concerns, “TripAdvisor defends itself against claim that up to one in seven reviews might be fake,” (CNN, September 6, 2019). For Amazon and TripAdvisor their business models rely heavily on reviews. These intermediaries do not pay customers to provide this information — so it is low-cost to add — but it is one of the main reasons many customers use the sites. Consequently, Amazon and TripAdvisor use artificial intelligence technology to try to weed out fake reviews.

We cover online reviews and related ethical and legal issues in Chapters 13 and 16 in Essentials of Marketing. 

Filed Under: Chapter 13, Chapter 16, Ethics, Legal

Copyrighting the banana

October 11, 2017 by Jon Firooz Leave a Comment

Product innovation comes in many forms, including the banana!  According to this Reuters article, that includes banana Halloween costumes.  The article talks about a lawsuit brought by a banana costume designer against Kmart for copyright infringement.  The article goes on to say that US shoppers spend a staggering $3.4B on Halloween costumes each year.

Intellectual property protection is something all innovators must consider when developing new products.  That can be especially important when a novel idea is easy to copy.  Patents and copyrights provide producers a period of legal exclusivity for their idea or design but it can be tricky when trying to determine if someone has infringed on someone else’s rights.  Historically it was difficult to copyright clothing design but in March, 2017 the US Supreme Court issued a ruling that allowed cheerleading uniforms to be copyrighted.  This has opened the door for significant litigation in the fashion industry but it also provides the opportunity for clothing designers to protect their designs (and ensure their designs don’t infringe on competitive designs!)

With Halloween approaching, this can be a fun way to introduce the scope of intellectual property protection to students and get them to think about their Halloween costumes in a whole new way.

Filed Under: Chapter 03, Chapter 09, Legal Tagged With: copyright, Halloween, intellectual property

What’s Now? Chapter 8 – Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label

July 1, 2016 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

NewLabels

Marketing practices — and laws that govern those practices — are always changing. Chapter 8 discusses food product labels. Recently the Food and Drug Administration made changes to the nutrition facts label that appears on the side of packaged foods. The new label reflects the latest scientific information on how foods — in particular sugar — contribute to an unhealthy diet. For full details, we refer you straight to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration website, “Changes to the Nutrition Facts Label” (May 20, 2016).

Review the press release at the FDA website (link above). List three changes to the label that help it comply with the Federal Packaging and Labeling Act discussed in chapter 8. Do you think these changes will change consumer behavior? In what ways? Why? How do you think these changes will change packaged food producer’s behavior?  

Filed Under: Chapter 08, Legal, Product, What's Now?

Is this ad misleading? The FTC decided it was…

March 6, 2015 by Joe Cannon Leave a Comment

Where does the FTC draw the line on misleading advertising. We have a recent example that you can show in class. Often such ads are pulled, but Nissan’s misleading ad is still available:

You might ask your students what might make this ad misleading. It turns out at least two factors contributed to the FTC’s decision. First, the truck couldn’t actually perform as shown in the ad. Minor issue right? Cables hidden in the sand actually pull the dune buggy up the dune. Second, camera angles were played with to make the dune steeper that it really was. While Nissan claimed the video was meant to portray a “fantasy scenario” — the FTC also felt that making it look like a YouTube video was also misleading. The ad does include a small disclaimer “Fictionalization. Do not attempt” which runs in small type in the first three seconds of the ad. This article, “FTC Says ‘No Way’ to Nissan Frontier – Pushing Dune Buggy Ad” (Adweek, January 23, 2014) notes that advertising agencies should know better and can be held liable. See more at the FTC’s website. We have also posted this at Learn the 4 Ps. 

This video might be shown and discussed when you cover legal or ethical issues in advertising.

Filed Under: Advertising, Ethics, Legal

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • …
  • 7
  • Next Page »

Categories

  • #M4BW
  • Advertising
  • B2B
  • Chapter 01
  • Chapter 02
  • Chapter 03
  • Chapter 04
  • Chapter 05
  • Chapter 06
  • Chapter 07
  • Chapter 08
  • Chapter 09
  • Chapter 10
  • Chapter 11
  • Chapter 12
  • Chapter 13
  • Chapter 14
  • Chapter 15
  • Chapter 16
  • Chapter 17
  • Chapter 18
  • Chapter 19
  • Competition
  • Consumer behavior
  • Cross-functional
  • Customer service
  • Demographics
  • Ethics
  • External market environment
  • Flip Exercise
  • Integrated marketing communications
  • International
  • Legal
  • Logistics
  • Market research
  • Marketing strategy planning
  • New-product development
  • Place
  • Positioning
  • Price
  • Product
  • Product life cycle
  • Promotion
  • Publicity
  • Retailing
  • Segmentation
  • Selling and Sales Mgmt
  • Service
  • Social media
  • Social responsibility
  • Strategy planning
  • Sustainability
  • Teaching Technology Tips
  • Tips for Teaching
  • Tips for Technology
  • TV Commercial
  • Uncategorized
  • Video
  • Viral campaign
  • What's Now?
  • Word-of-mouth

Archives

  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • June 2020
  • May 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019

Copyright © 2021 · Lifestyle Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in