AU - MKTG 4050 - Discussion Questions for Exam 1 - Study Guide

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Misplaced Marketing Test 1 discussion questions Topic 1- history of consumers in the Market Place
1- First Wave of consumer activism- Late 19 th /early 20 th century- this wave was all about “protecting competition.” Caveat Emptor (the
buyer can figure things out for himself) was prevalent. This is the time
where anti-trust laws started to emerge in order to break up
corporations from getting together and agreeing on what price to set.
This was not about protecting the consumer but about protecting
competition. At this time perfect competition was prevalent in the
market place- no one buyer and no one seller controlled the market.
But you need a level of consumer education for this to work. Food and
drug administration was created after Upton Sinclair’s the jungle- this
was not really to protect consumers but to protect the competitive
market and drive up sales in the meat packing industry.
2 nd Wave- 1930’s – some fatalities resulted because of a preservative in canned peas. Changes to the FDA and FTA were made because the
Gov. realized that they needed to “protect consumers from harm” 3 rd Wave- Ralph Nadar- Unsafe at any speed. Trade regulations to put consumers on equal footing. But deregulations also occurred at this
time because businesses were becoming the constituents of
regulations. They were now in the favor of business and not protecting
competition. Senator Ted Kennedy is credited with starting these
efforts 40 years ago- worked to prevent “captured agencies” 2- The idea behind protecting competition is to ensuring that no one
buyer or seller has control over the market place. There are no barriers
to entry and people will be able to understand what the product is and
have equal access to information. When competition is being protected
the main focus is not the consumer but rather ensuring that the market
place is working properly. This protection of competition in turn
protects consumer because if the market place is working people will
be able to take care of themselves and will have equal access to info
about products. 3- Egregious false advertising from one company can harm the
credibility of all companies. Marketing people want their
advertisements to be believable in order to drive up sales. To do this
they need to increase the credibility of the entire marketplace. Also
deceptive advertisements can lead to unfair market place shares (aka
monopolies) 4- The FDA and FTC came about in order to protect competition in the
marketplace. The FTC was created to stop deceptive practices that
could lead to monopolies. The FDA was put in place after the meat
packing industry’s miss hap. The meat packing industry needed a way

to increase sales and a regulation was the only way to increase
demand again. This once again is about protecting competition in the
marketplace rather than protecting the consumer. 5- Kallet and Schlink wrote 1 00,000,000 Guinea Pigs –showed discontent of highly involved consumers who had no way to acquire
info about new products other than the advertisements they were
subjected to. - Chase and Schlink wrote Your Money’s worth- it called for scientific testing and product standards to provide consumers with
the technical info they needed to make purchase decisions. Upton
Sinclair wrote The Jungle about the working conditions in the meatpacking industry. 6- These industries are not really “competitive” in the 1900 sense
because there is one or two sellers controlling the market place. The
market place in 1900 leaned more toward perfect competition in that
there were no barriers to entry, no one seller controlled the market
place, and there are substitutes for products. Now names like Coke and
Kellogg have gotten so big that it is almost impossible for other
companies to enter the market and compete in these industries. Topic 2- 1- The basic focus of the modern marketing perspective is a concept that combines all facets of product design, price
decisions, where product is available for sale, personal selling,
and mass communication with an orientation to “satisfy
consumer needs and wants.” Misplaced marketing is when
people who should or could be making marketing-based
decisions are misplacing their focus, ignoring, misusing, or
abusing some basic perspective that should be followed. 2- The environment is one of the three nested systems that are crucial to sustainability. Consumers need to understand that in
order to be sustainable we must develop in a way that meets the
needs of present generations without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs. Consumers also
need to understand that the use of nonrenewable resources must
decline at a rate that is faster than depletion before the
resources are exhausted. Also according to Heinberg’s 5 th axiom- sustainability requires that substances introduced into the
environment from human activities must be minimized and
rendered harmless to the biosphere functions. 3- Rachel Carson is the author of Silent Spring who sparked a great amount of controversy over the use of pesticides. Some accused
Carson of causing the death of millions because funding for the
malaria fighting insecticide DDT went down dramatically after
the book was released. She received a great amount of criticism

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