Marketing: Good or Evil? Interview

Sidler, Patrice. E-mail interview. 7 Nov. 2014. 

1.) What company did you market for?
I have worked for many companies in sales and marketing. 



2.) Briefly describe an average day of work while marketing?


My typical day is anything but typical. When I was a professional sales
representative, much of my day was spent traveling to clients,
phoning clients, talking with our customer service representatives,
analyzing sales and forecasting. I spent much time learning about our
products so that I could communicate the features and benefits
relative to the clients needs.

I believe in marketing it is a vital part of our economy. The
definition of marketing is to evaluate clients needs find out how
your products may be meet those needs. I never wanted to sell a
product that wasn't going to be effective for the client because
eventually, if the product didn't work, their reputation was on the
line as was mine. Given that I was in it for the long haul, many
times I would and did advise the client that I did not have a
suitable project for them in this case I might recommend a
competitive product or go back to my engineering team to request
adjustments. If the quantity required was sufficient, the product
engineers often made polymer adaptations to suit the client needs
precisely. This enabled a win win situation.


3.) I am writing my blog about the good that advertising and marketing

can do and how the general public mistake it as an exploitative job

field. keeping that in mind, have you ever noticed anything you felt

was morally wrong going on in your company?


Yes, there were times when the pressure for sales created some stress

which led to some short term decisions that weren't truly in my best

interest in the long run.. For example, at the end the month, if I

was short on my goals, I might reach out to my favorite purchasing

agents and request that they move an order from the following month

up to the current month. This didn't hurt their numbers since they

did not take possession of the goods until the following month due

to the normal transportation delay. While this was a temporary win

for both of us, it only created a shortfall for the next month that

I had to make up. I learned early on that I had to evaluate my

business practices for the long haul. I recognized that I could not

compromise my ethics because those choices typically provide only

short term gain. I did not want to compromise my career for a quick

sale.



4.) Anything you were proud of?

When I was in management, sales

representatives often used me to help them find new opportunities or
new applications for our polymers. I enjoyed mentoring new sales
representatives and teaming on sales presentations.


5.) Do you believe it is easy to exploit the public while marketing and

advertising? Why?


I do not think that companies generally try to exploit the public when

they create marketing and advertising communications. There are many

regulations governing commerce: Federal Trade Commission, the

uniform Commercial Code, OSHA, EPA, WTO,and industry groups that

appropriately restrict firms' behavior. Most of us sign codes of

ethics as well. These documents are often signed annually after

extensive retraining.


6.) Have you seen or done anything to prevent exploitation of the

public?

Have I ever seen any exploitation of the public? Sadly yes. If you go to

the FTC website you can view many different complaints and resolved

cases. class action suits often occur and they are resolved through

sealed settlements. Also another website provides interesting

information: TAF.ORG

As far as personally seeing exploitation or being exploitative

myself... I have been fortunate to belong to many excellent

corporations that hold high standards. In those circumstances it's

easy to play by the rules. I've also been employed by firms that do

not have particularly high standards. These firms tend not to have

long term employees who are loyal and tend to have excessive

litigation. When you're involved in a company such as that, it's

difficult to remain ethical when the corporate culture and

leadership are not displaying appropriate values. Thus it's

important for graduates to look toward joining well respected

firms


7.) Do you think marketing is inherently good or evil? Why?


I am convinced that marketing is inherently good because the premise

is that we meet the needs of our target market and are rewarded if

we do so. I'm thrilled that social media is enabling more consumers

to participate in providing feedback to companies as well as reviews

for other consumers. We live in a wonderful age and time where

unethical companies cannot hide.