Reference no: EM133595206

Assignment

Read the Review Exercise about "ambush marketing" at the end of Ch. 3 (pp. 58-59 in the 6th edition), and answer, in separate essays, each of the six questions there.

Ambush Marketing. As billboards, radio commercials, print ads, and 30 or 60 second TV spots become increasingly lost in the blurred onslaught of advertising, the larger advertising companies are increasingly turning to more creative means to get the name of their product or service in front of the increasingly overloaded attention span of Joe Public.

Consider the following:

Imagine you're at [the Washington Monument] when a young couple with a camera approaches and kindly asks if you'll take their picture. They seem nice enough, so you agree to take a photo of them. As you're lining up the shot, the gentleman explains it's the newest model, he got it for only $400 and it does this, that and the other. Cool. You take the picture and walk away. It's nice to help people.

The New York bar is crowded, with a line of people three deep. Just as you manage to flag the bartend- er's attention, a neighboring patron tries to latch on to your good luck. "Say, buddy, I see you're about to order a couple of drinks," your neighbor says. "If I give you a ten-spot, could you get me a Peach Royale?" The request seems harmless. Why not?

A colorful cardboard box plastered with a well- known logo of a certain computer maker sits in the lobby of your building for several days. Not only does the trademark get noticed, but residents may also assume a neighbor has made the purchase. So the computer company gets a warm association in the minds of certain consumers.

All perfectly reasonable and innocent everyday occurrences, right? But how would you feel if the couple at the Washington Monument raving about their new camera was really a pair of actors planted in targeted locations to praise the virtues of digital cameras to an unsuspecting public? Your innocent neighbor in the bar was actually performing a "lean-over"-a paid commercial for Peach Royale; and the computer box was left in the lobby of your building deliberately at the minimal cost of a "contribution" to the building's doorman.
So now you get really paranoid. You've heard of product placement, where movies offer lingering shots on specific products (funny how the actors always drink Coke or Heineken beer; and didn't Halle Berry look great in that coral-colored Ford Thunderbird in the James Bond movie

Die Another Day-did you know you could buy a Thunder- bird in that exact color?). But what if that group of commuters on your morning train discussing a new movie or TV show or book was planted there deliberately? What if the friendly woman with the cute six-year-old at the play- ground who was talking about how her son loves his new video game was also an actress?

Such tactics take the concept of target marketing to a whole new level. Advertisers plant seemingly average folks in the middle of a demographically desirable crowd and begin to sing the praises of a new product or service while conveniently failing to mention that they have been hired to do so, and may have never even heard of the product or service before they took the gig.

Question A. Is this unethical marketing? Explain why or why not.

Question B. Critics argue that such campaigns "blur the lines between consumerism and con artistry." Is that a fair assessment? Why or why not?

Question C. How would you feel if you were involved in such an ambush?

Question D. If the majority of consumers are already skeptical about most advertising they are exposed to, how do you think the general public would feel about such mar- keting campaigns?

Question E. Supporters of these campaigns argue that our econo- my is built on consumerism and that if you don't find more effective ways to reach consumers, the entire economy will suffer. Does that make the practice OK? Should we just accept it as a nuisance and a necessary evil like solicitation calls during dinner?

Question F. Would your opinion change if the advertisers were more obvious in their campaigns-such as admitting after each skit that the raving fans were really actors?

Sources: First and second items are adapted from Neil McOstrich, "Crossing the Line," Marketing Magazine 107, no. 45 (November 11, 2002), p. 24; and the third from Brian Steinberg, "Undercover Marketing Is Gaining Ground-Some Promoters Are Doing It- Others Question Its Ethics," The Wall Street Journal (eastern edition), December 18, 2000, p. B17D.