Question

1. Read the case study below, and put yourself in Maria's position to answer these questions:

What is the ethical issue that Maria faces?

Who benefits/loses if she decides to do as Hans says?

What would you do if you were in her shoes? What does this decision reveal about you?

Cosmetic Applications

Topic: Package Labeling and Advertising

Characters:

Hans, Cosmetics Group Product Marketing Manager

Maria, Assistant Marketing Communications Manager

Maria is an Assistant Marketing Communications Manager with TruBlush Cosmetics, a

manufacturer of facial cream and other skin moisturizing products. She is relatively new to

the cosmetics industry, being a recent college graduate with limited “real world” experience.

As part of her orientation, however, she recently had the opportunity to spend one week with

the TruBlush marketing research group, sitting in on several focus group discussions with

regular cosmetics users.

Today Hans stopped Maria in the hallway and told her to coordinate the artwork on both

the new package label design and the storyboards for an upcoming advertising campaign, to

reflect an increase in the recommended application of a facial cream product from one to

three applications daily. While delighted with the opportunity to finally be assigned

something substantive where she can demonstrate what she is capable of doing, she is

troubled by the directive.

Maria recalls that in each of the four focus group sessions the week before, the majority of

consumers interviewed revealed that just one application of this product “did the job.” While

changing the recommended usage would dearly contribute to additional sales volume, what

she knows about the product indicates that such an increase would not significantly benefit

consumers. On the other hand, Hans is the Group Product Marketing Manager, and he makes

the decisions on promoting recent hires for this product.

Author: Richard F. Belhamini, Associate Professor of Marketing and Advertising, Arizona State University.

Answer 1

1)a)Maria is an assistant marketing communication manager at TruBlush cosmetics firm and marketing company. Hans is a group product marketing manager. He is concerned about the manufacturing of the cream, labeling of the cream, distribution, delivery and marketing of the products in the market. he has emphasized that Maria should sell atleas 3 cream applications rather than one cream application one day. This has put considerable pressure on the job requirements of Maria as well as the timely delivery of the creams to the customers in the market. Maria is a graduate and new to the field of marketing and advertisement. There are chances that Maria will face issues of exploitation at work with more job demands as she is new without experiance. This can lead to the development of stress related to job. There will be lack of communication with the product manager leading to the problems in job. It can lead to emotional differences and argument in communications. If change of strategy is not implemented , there is chance that Maria has to leave this job and look for some other job or the product manager can implement a self-managinf team for Maria will little supervision and the final analysis and interpretation of the work done during a single month. This will decrease the pressure on Maria as she is only a graduate and does not have much experiance. A problem solving team and cross-functional team can further address the issues and problem of the marketing advertisement requirements related to Maria job and address it further to the product manager Hans.

2) b) The benefits of implementing the policies of the product manager Hans will be that she will gain experiance in the field of marketing and advertisement of banner of the cosmetics product, which will provide her incentives in job with increase in the salary. The disadvantages will be that may not be able to withstand the pressure of the job requirements of the manager and she might lose her job if there is an argument with lack of communication and coordination.

3)c) If i were in her place, i will definately ask for help from the senior marketing executives in the organization, who have experiance in the handling of the sales of the products in the market with customer satisfaction. The survey should be conducted to listen to the requirements of the customers in the society, and the product should be manufactured according to the needs and requirements of the customers and the region of the distribution of the different products. I will definately follow the sequential interdependence system of working where help from the senior marketing executives can be attained. The gain of the experiance can lead to reciprocal interdependence of relationships where the work can be discussed and implemented by working together with the marketing executives.

The attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model by Benjamin Schneider can be implemented where group discussions can take place regarding the running of the organization and distribution of the work culture among the marketing executives. This model explains the necessity and importance of gaining experiances in a job with time leading to their increment in salary and finally allowing them to leave jobs if they face recession or stagnation in jobs.

The Tuckman model of team development can be considered which includes forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning.