Advertising is a Marketing Tool - Essay Example

?DQ1 Advertising is a marketing tool that is used to market the company’s product or services. Advertising campaigns are prepared for different products. For example General Motors will create separate advertising campaigns to advertise its Volt model than for the advertisement of its different pickup truck models. Advertising campaigns are prepared with a specific intention in mind. They target specific products or the overall product attributes of an enterprise. Wendy’s has prepared advertising campaigns to highlight the fast service of its carry out window order service with the added message that is open after midnight. The use of publicity is much different than advertising. The purpose of creating publicity is to raise awareness about the company as a whole. An unwritten rule about publicity is that any publicity either positive or negative is good for the company because it gets the name of the company out in the conscious of the customers. Sometimes companies create stunts to create publicity in an unethical manner. For instance a CEO might go on public television on a rampage burning the competitor’s products and services in order to create a media reaction. These types of publicity stunts should not be used since they hurt the integrity of the marketing profession. 2. In your response you mentioned a lot of differences between advertising and publicity. I like your response a lot. One of the differences between the two concepts is the planning associated with each of them. Advertising requires a systematic plan that requires a specific budget, timeline, and other variables. On the other hand publicity a lot of times occurs as a spur of the moment event. For instance if a company wins an award from a recognize magazine for best customer service within its industry this occurrence will create publicity for the firm. The company did not plan for the publicity. 3. participation article In the article Marketing Ethics in Emerging Markets – Coping with Ethical Dilemmas the author mentions some cases concerning lack of marketing ethics including the Nestle occurrence in India. Nestle took advantage of the ignorance of portions of the Indian population to launch a fear campaign in order to persuade people to switch from tap water to the bottle water the company was launching. To me this type of behavior is unacceptable. Corporations should try to educate the local population in emerging economies to make the customers more aware of the virtues of acquiring consumer products. Corporations should not use disinformation to confuse the consumers in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage. Sele, K. (2006, March). Marketing ethics in emerging markets -- Coping with ethical dilemmas. IIMB Management Review, 18(1), 95-104. 4. Participation – Dave I agree with you that the publicity that BP received for committing one of the biggest blunders in the history of mankind is a disgrace. Unfortunately there is a rule in marketing that states that any kind of media coverage irrelevant if is good or bad provides a positive impact to the company in the long run in terms of free publicity. Another example of a company that gained a lot of free publicity for doing a bad act was Nike Corporation during the late 1990’s. The company was involved in a sweatshop scandal that was perceived by the general public as an abuse of power and a disgraceful act considering the prices the company charges for its tennis shoe models. 5. Participation – Article The article Marketing Wisdom for 2006: 110 Marketers & Agencies Share Real Life Tips was a very interesting piece of literature. The topic that I liked the most from the article was the website segment. In this section the author emphasized to trust your marketing instincts and not to be intimidated by technology. The opinion of a software engineer in regards to what should be included in the content of the website is not as important as the recommendation of the marketing department. Other technologies such as CRM system should be welcomed by marketing people because these tools can help marketing people retrieved feedback and raw data that can be used to improve the operations of an enterprise. Marketing Wisdom for 2006: 110 Marketers and Agencies Share Real-Life Tips, Marketing Sherpa, 2006. 6. Discussion Question 2 Corporations that perform business in international markets face numerous ethical dilemmas in regards to their marketing of products. One of the dilemmas faced by companies is in regards to price. For instance an American company has a specific price structure. Once the firm enters into a foreign location the company has to reconsider the price structure based on the circumstances of the local market. An example of an industry that faces major dilemmas in regards to pricing is the pharmaceutical industry. Underdeveloped countries such as the Sub-Sahara desert African region simply cannot pay the same prices Americans pay for pharmaceutical drugs. The cost of producing a specific pill might be very low, but in this industry companies have to recover in the final price of the drugs the R&D costs related to the development of drugs. It is estimated that due to the high rate of failure of new drugs it costs a pharmaceutical company about $800 million for every successful drug that reaches the marketplace. Many of these companies are aware that one of the purposes and mission for doing business is to cure diseases, but these firms cannot give away the drugs at steep discounted prices because they have a responsibility to the shareholders to maximize shareholder’s wealth. Also it is unfair and unethical for American customers to pay let $10 a pill to then offer the same product for $1 to customers in South America. In regards to economic exploitation this occurs when companies use marketing techniques that exploit the foreign population. 7. Participation – Samir One of the biggest emerging markets in the world is China. China has the second largest population on earth. As the gross domestic product per capita in this country has increased the general population has increased their buying power. A lot of Chinese are enjoying the virtues of owning consumer products such as air conditioners, televisions, or computers for the first time. As these families realize that owning these products increases their quality of life these consumers are going to continue to spend money in consumer products. The fact that the government of China is not as strict as in the past has liberalized the minds of the Chinese people. 8. Participation - Jaime To be successful in an emerging market companies have to have a lot of money in market research. There are a lot of cultural differences that can hurt the ability of a company penetrate a marketplace. For example Wendy’s is one of the most successful burger establishments in America. The success of this company would not be as good in an emerging market such as India due to the fact that the culture of India consider the cow a sacred animal. There are huge differences in customer taste across cultural boundaries. 9. Participation – Kelly I agree with you that putting the welfare of the country over the consideration of maximizing profits is a major ethical dilemmas corporation face. In a lot of these emerging countries there are large portions of the population that are living in extreme poverty. Companies that offer first necessity goods such as hygiene products, food, and medicine face greater social pressures to reduce their prices in these markets in order to help out the community. It is hard for companies to not to comply with the needs of the community. Read More