In Nadia’s blog, she addresses the issue of bad publicity backdropped by the case of United Airlines. In this situation, United Airlines poked fun at a sombre event in an attempt to win the attention of consumers. I strongly agree with her belief that “companies must balance creativity and sensitivity in marketing”.

GroupOn’s most recent Super Bowl advertisement was similar to the above case as it poked fun at the Tibetan political hardship in an attempt to receive attention and worldwide publicity. Although the ad was never intended to be disrespectful, it has raised doubts about the company’s apparent lack of compassion towards global issues.

So the question remains, why did they do it? CEO Andrew Mason explains it quite simply: “Because it’s different”. With increasing competition from other discount companies, GroupOn may have felt that they needed to reposition themselves in the market by developing a unique point of difference. In accordance with our COMM101 discussions and the insight of Ries and Trout, this may be a valid marketing strategy to penetrate the minds of the consumer and avoid being lost in the trap of “information overload”.

GroupOn Superbowl Ad

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GroupOn Superbowl Ad Article

In Andrew’s SocialSafe Blog, he discusses the benefits of the recent partnership between Ticketmaster and Facebook. Among these are peer connectivity and the ease of group buying. As an avid music fan myself, I agree with him that this is an incredible idea to connect friends and allow them to share in the experience together, although I do have concerns about privacy rights.

Facebook and Ticketmaster have teamed up to bring customers a unique social networking experience that allows them to tag their seats on an interactive map and browse where friends are sitting.This feature allows customers to post events they are attending, tag a seat near their friends, and pressure other members of their friend group to do the same.

Although this may be viewed as an innovative social service, Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard did not act with purely selfless motives. “Each time a ticket buyer shared with Facebook friends that he was attending an event, that alert generated $5.30 in additional ticket revenue”, spilled Hubbard. From a marketing point of view, Hubbard is a genius. Without even realizing it, customers are advertising for ticketmaster every time they post an event.

Ticketmaster Delivers Social Connectivity Into Interactive Seat Maps

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Ticketmaster Article

As one of the largest multinational corporations, Wal-Mart represents our era of globalization, expansion, and greed. The given article, however, depicts behaviour much to the contrary as Wal-Mart begins to rethink their global footprint and introduce ethics back into business. Wal-Mart Brazil announced that their supply chain will use: “no companies that employ slave labour”, “no soybeans sourced from illegally deforested area”, and “no beef sourced from any newly cleared Amazonian land” (businessweek.com).

The main ethical issue being addressed here is the tendency of large companies to sacrifice human and environmental rights for wealth and company expansion. This raises many questions such as: Will consumers react significantly enough to change Wal-Mart’s profits? How will this effect Wal-Mart’s production costs? Surely minimum wage labour will cost more than slave labour, and legally obtained soybeans ought to be more expensive than those sourced from illegally deforested area- but where is the line? When does a company draw the line between ethics and cost cutting?

The decision by Wal-Mart Brazil’s President, Héctor Núñez, to publicly announce these goals is an inspiration and aimed to spark worldwide action. Wal-Mart Brazil is just the beginning of the reintroduction of ethics back into business!

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Business Week Article

Fast Company Article