Marketing
...cal. The number of ethical issues relate to the marketing mix (product, promotion, price, and distribution). Individual’s factors, organizational relationships, and opportunity interact to determine ethical decisions in marketing. 3. Product issue (product trademark)- The prospective appearance of a new movie Muppet Treasure Island resulted in a lawsuit Jim Henson Production, Inc., named the new Muppet, an exotic wild boar, “Spam’am. Hormel Foods Corporation, which manufactures Spam, feared that the use of the Spa’am character would harm sales of Spam and Sued Henson. A U.S. district court judge ruled that the Spa’am Muppet would be unlikely to harm Hormel’s Spam trademark. Promotion Issue (Advertising)- Many local auto dealers advertise deals that are too good to be true. One dealer advertised a $30,000 Mercedes C-class for $18,036. The down payment and other conditions were vague. Pricing Issue (Price fixing)- Archer Daniels Midland, a Decatur, Illinois, company, was accused of fixing prices on key agricultural commodities-high fructose corn syrup, citric acid, and lysine. Distributing Issue (Distributing counterfeit products)- Some record stores offer counterfeit recordings as authentic; in fact, one in four record albums is counterfeit. China and Bulgaria distributed $1 billion in pirated CDs each year. Some direct marketing...