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MKT 300 - Answer each question as thoroughly as you can (but be to the point). -

ID: 380196 • Letter: M

Question

MKT 300 - Answer each question as thoroughly as you can (but be to the point).

-Internet marketing practices have raised a number of ethical and legal questions. Why is invasion of privacy perhaps the number one online marketing concern?

-How has the implementation of the National Do Not Call Registry changed telephone marketing?

-Discuss the four evolving company orientations. Which orientation is considered most successful and why?

-Identify the three major ways a company can manage its international marketing.

-Compare and contrast the two common principles that can be used to guide companies and marketing managers on issues of ethics and social responsibility.

-How is the societal marketing concept related to marketing ethics?

Explanation / Answer

--Internet marketing practices have raised a number of ethical and legal questions. Why is invasion of privacy perhaps the number one online marketing concern?

From a broader societal viewpoint, Internet marketing practices have raised a number of ethical and legal questions. Now the difficult public policy issue facing the direct marketing industry is invasion of privacy. Mostly consumers benefit from database marketing; they get more offers that are matched to their interests. However, the public worry that marketers may get to know too much about consumers' lives and privacy information and that they may use this knowledge to take unfair advantage of consumers. At some point, they claim, the extensive use of databases intrudes on consumer privacy. Consumers, too, worry about their privacy. Although they are now much more willing to share personal information and preferences with marketers through social media and other source of media, they are still worried about it. In this era of "big data," it seems that almost every time consumers post something on social media or visit a Web site, enter a sweepstakes, apply for a credit card, or order products by phone or online, their names are entered into some company's already bulging database. Using sophisticated big data analytics, direct marketers can mine these databases to "microtarget" their selling efforts. Most of the marketers have become highly skilled at collecting and analyzing detailed consumer information both online and offline. Even the experts are sometimes surprised by how much marketers can learn.

Online privacy is perhaps the number one e-commerce concern. Many consumers worry about online security. Consumers fear that unscrupulous snoopers will eavesdrop on their online transactions or intercept their credit card numbers and make unauthorized purchases. Companies doing business online fear that others will use the Internet to invade their computer systems for the purposes of commercial espionage or even sabotage. Of special concern are the privacy rights of children. Many companies have responded to consumer privacy and security concerns with actions of their own. Still, examples of companies aggressively protecting their customers’ personal information are too few and far between. Most online marketers have become skilled at collecting and analyzing detailed consumer information. This may leave consumers open to information abuse if companies make unauthorized use of the information in marketing their products or exchanging databases with other companies.

--How has the implementation of the National Do Not Call Registry changed telephone marketing?

The National Do Not Call program has proved very popular: as of 2007, according to many survey, 77 percent of people had registered on the list, and 72 percent of those say that it made a huge difference in the number of telemarketing calls that they receive (another 14 percent report a small reduction in calls). Another survey, conducted less than a year ago after the Do Not Call list was implemented, found that people who registered for the list saw a reduction in telemarketing calls from an average of 30 calls per month to an average of 6 per month. But this program is likely to make telemarketing more difficult and less profitable for businesses, but permission-based direct marketing can still be an effective tool. The battle between telemarketers and those who wish to be left alone has also spawned a battle of the technologies. On the other side, newer predictive dialing technologies have been developed to detect such barriers and find ways around them.[5] In fact, one telemarketing proponent argues that closing down telemarketing would cut off a major source of technological innovation in the country. Those who want to continue to use telemarketing will soon need another new technology to prevent telemarketing calls to cell phones. Federal law already bans most commercial calls to wireless phones. However, it is becoming harder to distinguish wireless numbers from their land-based counterparts. In November, 2003, consumers will be allowed to transfer landline numbers to wireless phones – a “portability” initiative designed to increase competition among phone companies, but one that will further complicate the situation for telemarketers.

--Discuss the four evolving company orientations. Which orientation is considered most successful and why?

The four company orientations are

1.       Production concept

2.       Product concept

3.       Selling/ Sale concept

4.       Marketing concept

i) Production Concept: Consumers will favour those products that are widely available and low in cost. Hence, focus is on efficiency and wide distribution.

It’s applicable when Product demand is more than product supply and Product cost is to be lowered to expand market through scale economies.

Scale economies are economics of production achieved through higher level of productin due to fixed cost(overheads) getting distributed over a larger market share.

Eg, – Maruti Udyog Ltd. At the time of launch of M800.

ii) Product Concept:   Consumer will favour those products that offer superior quality, innovation, performance features. Eg.- Gillete, Nokia, Intel, Sony, Toyota. This concept may lead to marketing myopia. PIP television is innovative product, but didn’t sell due to complications. This is marketing myopia.

iii) Selling concept: Consumers, if left alone, will ordinarily not buy enough of the organization product. Hence, focus is on aggressive selling & promotion effort.

Assumptions are Customer shows buying inertia and Company has effective selling & promotion tools to stimulate buying. They are used when goods that buyers normally do not think of buying. Eg.- insurance, credit cards and companies have over capacity.

In some situation, companies have to sell what they make rather than make what they sell.

In current world, many markets are buyer markets. Hence, producers need to sell aggressively. This gives rise to a feeling that selling is all or most important part of marketing. In reality, selling is just one part of marketing.

iv) Marketing Concept: Integrate marketing activities towards determining & satisfying needs/ wants of target market more effectively than competition.

This is the key to achieving organization goals.

Marketing Activities – Activities to create/ deliver/ consume the product to satisfy/ identify need/ want.

Four Pillars of Marketing concept are Target market, Customer needs, Integrated market,Profitability.

--Identify the three major ways a company can manage its international marketing

1. Connect with established companies that can provide local references. Use local business resources, like the Pittsburgh Technology Council, to find companies in other countries that are working in related fields. Reach out to companies with offices in the U.S. and ask them for contacts in their overseas offices. A lot of foreign businesses maintain offices in America. Getting in touch with them here allows you to get familiar with each other while you explore the possibility of working together internationally.

2. Start joint ventures. Once you have uncovered established international companies in your field, work together to build new ones. Joint ventures grow out of relationships, so take advantage of your contacts. Talk with them. Listen to their ideas and desires. Propose areas of mutual growth and benefit. Combining with established companies means you don’t have to invest in your own infrastructure. The buildings, offices and employees are already in place; they already have boots on the ground.

3. Develop local leadership. All international markets work a little differently. Each country has its own rules and regulations, cultural expectations and language. These factors are challenging to navigate and can be difficult to overcome. You need strong local leaders who understand the language, the culture and the ways business works there. Find people you can trust to communicate your vision effectively and clearly to your growing foreign office.

--Compare and contrast the two common principles that can be used to guide companies and marketing managers on issues of ethics and social responsibility

One principle states that such issues should be decided by the free market and legal system. A second, and more enlightened principle, puts responsibility not in the system but in the hands of individual companies and managers. Each firm and marketing manager must work out a philosophy of socially responsible and ethical behaviour. Under the societal marketing concept, managers must look beyond what is legal and allowable and develop standards based on personal integrity, corporate conscience, and long-term consumer welfare

--How is the societal marketing concept related to marketing ethics

Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Societal marketing refers that marketers should satisfy the needs and wants of their target market as such that they enhance the well being of consumers and society as a whole with fulfilling the objectives of the organization. In 2002, approximately $15 billion was spent in the U.S. on marketing communications directly targeted at children. Estimates suggest that today’s children spend an average of 4 hours per day watching television and are exposed to about 5 hours of commercials per week, which amounts to 40,000 commercials in a single year. Approximately 88% of children between the ages of 5 and 14 use computers, and 53% have access to the Internet. According to a 2006 study , within the 4 to 6 year-old age group of children own a DVD player, a portable hand held videogame player, and aTV set in their room. Recent estimates suggest that children account for about $30 billion in direct spending annually and influence an extra $600 billion in family purchases. Marketers view children as the market of the future and often direct campaigns at them with the intent of forging brand loyalties at an early age.

The social marketing that is practised in the cases could be characterised as cause related marketing. This means that the general purpose of these programmes is to deliver mutual benefit and well-being for both consumers and the partners of the programme (in publicly financed programmes the society). In cause-related marketing it must be taken into account that some consumers look for signs of good corporate citizenship. This applies to such programmes in which both social marketing and product sales are combined. In other words, consumers when making purchase decisions regarding for example, energy saving domestic appliances, may have expectations for companies’ public interest to environmental issues and not only for profits. In social and cause-related marketing it is also a question about companies’ reputation as a good corporate citizenship. This sets criteria for planning of the whole project. Several examples of companies implementing or participating energy-related behavioural change programmes were presented among the case studies. However, over half of the programmes were implemented by national or regional organisations concentrating mainly on promoting energy efficiency and/or renewables. It may be possible that these organisations are considered more neutral by the consumers