What a terrible thesis

Marketing has gotten a bad rap because of isolated instances of fraud, this makes people assume that marketing is inherently evil but it is not, marketing just has bad branding.

Strategy 5

Brenkert, George. "Ethics in Advertising: The Good the Bad and the Church." American    Marketing Association 17.2 (1998): 325-31. Print.

In an article by Brenkert entitled Ethics in Advertising: The Good the Bad and the Church Brenkert ponders the ethical responsibilities that are inherently implied upon advertising firms. Brenkert states "[Advertising] has a profound impact on how people understand life, the world, and themselves... if it is done correctly" (Brenkert). In this quote Brenkert talks about the responsibility that advertisers have to their customers and how effective advertsing can change people for the better. 

Ted Talks: Reinventing Marketing

Bhargava, Rohit. "TEDxPennQuarter - Rohit Bhargava - Reinventing Marketing." YouTube. YouTube, 28 July 2010. Web. 10 Nov. 2014.

 Rohit Bhargava Is an experienced marketer who runs his own blog and speaks nationwide about the wonders of marketing. Rohit Talks about the skewed view people have towards marketing in his fifteen minute ted talks. He opens up his presentation by asking "how many people feel that marketing effects their daily life positively?" (Bhargava). He goes on to explain that most of the people who raised their hands are most likely marketers and the positive effect they think of is their paycheck. Although this was only a joke it does bring up a good point, most people don't see marketing as something that effects them or others in a good way. Rohit explains that this is a false point of view, and people actually market every day without realizing it whenever they try to convince someone to do something. Therefore alot of marketing is good  whether it be convincing a child to eat his vegetables or negotiating a peace treaty marketing can have a huge positive impact.
Rohit moves away from the topic of the public marketing without realizing it and begins to talk about the negative stigma attached to marketing. He believes that marketing is inherently good but has bad branding because of few examples of past false advertising. This bad branding creates the need for marketers to re-brand or reinvent marketing strategies. By changing marketing people will begin to trust it again and some real good can be done. His suggested re-branding would require all marketing companies to switch tactics and that is very unrealistic. Although the changes he suggested are very smart and would greatly help both consumers and marketers it is unlikely it will happen because of the stubbornness of marketing companies. Regardless of if his plan will work or not it is still a good plan and a great video about marketing.

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.

Summary of Citations

I decided to blog about my future career field, marketing. Marketing has a checkered past, from blatantly lying in advertisements to the use of subliminal messages marketing is seen as an undisputed evil in the world. This is completely false, it is not the act of marketing that is bed it is the malicious intentions of  a few marketers that give the whole profession a negative connotation. I found sources that support the good, the evil, and look at both sides. These three sources excellently provide support for both sides of the argument. They provide examples of the wrong-doings of past marketing and advertising, and go into depth describing the good and bad behind these actions. The surprising part of the analysis provided by these sources is where they explain the human error factor in each marketing blunder. Each source tells how the mistakes of a few allowed horrible mistakes to slip through the cracks and this provides very useful information that can be used in my blogging. Over-all the three sources I chose provide interesting perspective on the topics that I had not originally thought of while brainstorming for this blog. These insights will make my blog quite a bit more intriguing.

3 Sources

This source is found at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/2118455?origin=api

Becker, Gary. "A Simple Theory of Advertising as Good or Bad." The Quarterly Journal of Economics 4.108 (1998): 941-64. Print. 

This source is found at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/30000783?origin=api

Brenkert, George. "Ethics in Advertising: The Good the Bad and the Church." American    Marketing Association 17.2 (1998): 325-31. Print. 

This source is found at: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/383419?origin=api

Brasel, Adam S., Jennifer Aaker, and Susan Fournier. "When Good Brands do Bad." The  Journal of Consumer Research 31.1 (2004): 1-16. Print. 

Marketing

I have struggled quite a bit on deciding what to base this assignment on. I have gone back and forth between advertising as a career or a drain on the world, on how marketing has both a good and evil side or how the business world itself can be terribly cruel. I decided, in the end, to leave my topic broad and widdle it down to a more specific point later. I decided to write about my future career marketing.
1. I Marketing inherently good or evil?
2. How does it effect the youth?
3. Is an effect made by marketing always negative?
4. Whats the difference between advertising and marketing?
5. Why should the average consumer be concerned with the marketing strategies of today?
6. What allows a company to effectively market to a customer?
7. When should a marketing campaign be abandoned?
8. How does an individual marketer effect the world?
9. How does that same individual effect those closest to him?
10. Can the world as we know it survive without marketing or advertising?