▴ The NBA will now allow advertising on team jerseys.
For example, what if Arby’s wished to buy jersey advertising but a player’s religious faith or personal preferences prohibits and resists eating meat? Should that player be required to wear the jersey carrying the ad?
Although such questions will require resolution, Silver noted,
“The media landscape is changing. People are watching less live television outside of sports. People are watching fewer commer- cials. This will become an important opportunity for companies for connecting directly with their consumers.” Consequently, a new era in sponsorship marketing has begun.38
13-37. Describe the stakeholders and the positions of each group involved in this story.
13-38. Which would have been a more valuable approach: To allow for-profit advertising on jerseys or to instead feature cause-related messages, such as for cancer research or anti-drug and -violence messages?
13-39. How should NBA league officials respond to complaints about the program?
13-40. What should happen when a player does not wish to have a particular advertising appear on his jersey?
On June 2, 2016, actress and singer Denise Ho was performing at an event in Hong Kong called Occupy Central, a civil disobedience movement. She then innocently posted a picture on Facebook about a Lancôme HK concert that was going to take place on June 19. Her post was picked up by many fans in Mainland China and reposted on Weibo.
Occupy Central is extremely controversial in Mainland China, and Denise Ho, a supporter of the movement, had left Mainland China due to opposition to her stance. The situation worsened in May when she met the Dalai Lama, with whom the Chinese government has had a fraught relationship. Now, this friction was about to overwhelm Lancôme HK and all of the brands that belonged to L’Oréal Paris.
On June 5, moving quickly to distance the brands from Denise Ho, Lancôme China’s Weibo account featured an official announcement stating categorically that the actress has no connection with Lancôme China. Unfortunately for Lancôme China, it was too late. Net-users in Mainland China were not about to forgive or forget the connection, however unintentional it may have been. Damaging hashtags started appearing, such as #againstlancôme and #againstl’oreal.
Lancôme China was forced to announce (for security reasons) that a concert planned for June 19 had been cancelled. On June 7, China’s Global Times blamed Denise Ho for implicating Lancôme with the Occupy Central campaign. The newspaper went on to suggest that Chinese consumers would not be quick to forgive in circumstances such as this and that Lancôme would continue to suffer adverse publicity as a result.
The situation was fast becoming an international incident.
French consumers were emailing Lancôme HK directly and demand- ing that the company reinstate Denise Ho as a spokesperson or they would boycott L’Oréal. The company now found themselves trapped between their Chinese and their French consumers, with nowhere to go.
Consumers in Hong Kong were also highly critical of Lancôme.
Some of the Lancôme stores were forced to close during the pro- tests amid accusations that the company was backing down. As for Denise Ho, the concert on June 19 went ahead without Lancôme’s
sponsorship. She was, however, retained as the face of L’Oréal’s Listerine brand in China.
The fall-out was not over, though, and the crisis had its casual- ties, the biggest one being Stephen Mosely, President and Director General for L’Oréal Hong Kong, who took early retirement effec- tive from the end of June 2016.
International brands are keen to find spokespersons who can have a positive impact on their image in regions around the world.
What they are not looking for is controversy. The problem is that if an adverse story connects a spokesperson to a brand, it will spread very quickly on social media. In China, Weibo is widely used for information sharing, news, and promotion. Just as social media can be used as an effective and positive tool to spread the brand’s message, it can equally be used to destroy it.
Lancôme could have never predicted that an immediate and highly damaging connection would be made between Denise Ho and their brand in a vital market. Public relations challenges come in many forms, and as this case demonstrates, sensitive subjects can prove to be dangerous in many regions of the world.39
CAse 2 LAnCôme’s Pr DisAster in ChinA
▴ Lancôme HK’s became embroiled in the controversy over Occupy Central.
13-41. Who are Lancôme’s internal and external stakeholders that have been affected by this turn of events?
13-42. How should Lancôme have prepared for the results of hav- ing Denise Ho as a spokesperson?
13-43. Is this event an instance in which damage-control pro- grams were in order? If so, what were they?
13-44. In this case, is the old adage “any publicity is good publicity”
true? Why or why not?
13-45. If you were the public relations agency for Lancôme and L’Oréal, how would you handle this situation? What steps would you take and what tactics would you use to ensure that the brand images are not adversely affected?
MyLab Marketing
Go to the Assignments section of your MyLab to complete these writing exercises.
13-46. When Starbucks opened its first coffee shop inside a public library, ten percent of all proceeds from coffee sold there went to support the operation of the library. Describe the benefits to Starbucks of this type of sponsorship. What ben- efits accrue to the library? Some consumers feel this type of sponsorship is inappropriate because it involves a for-profit company selling products in a government entity. Examine the various methods of damage control. Which method or methods should a library use to reduce the criticism and to prevent any negative fallout? Justify your choice.
13-47. You are the new marketing intern for a local CPA accounting firm that has both business and consumer customers. List the steps in selecting a sponsorship or event. Identify a sponsorship or event in your community that you believe would be a good fit for the CPA firm. Explain why. For each of the steps you listed, discuss how it would apply to the CPA firm.
For instance, for determining objective, what objective do you think is relevant based on the event or sponsorship you picked? Do the same for each of the other steps.
Buzz Marketing
Communications
Social Media
Advertising Promotions
Digital
Branding Mobile Marketing
MyLab Marketing™
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Chapter 14
Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
14.1 Which agencies and laws regulate marketing communications?
14.2 What are the relationships between puffery, deception, and substantiation?
14.3 What legal remedies can agencies use to correct deceptive communications practices?
14.4 How do the three major industry regulatory agencies help keep advertising and business practices from injuring customers or other businesses?
14.5 What ethical criticisms have been registered against advertising and marketing practices?
14.6 Which marketing tactics raise ethical concerns?
14.7 How can marketers apply the various ethical frameworks and ethics programs to their activities and actions?
14.8 What international issues influence the discussion of legal and ethical marketing activities?
Overview
The final level of an IMC program concentrates on making certain the communications program meets ethical and legal requirements and that effective evaluation of activities takes place. This part of the text will examine these topics. Figure 14.1 displays the completion of an IMC program.
The fields of marketing and marketing communications have long been the subject of scrutiny from the general public, special interest groups, and the government. This may not be surprising. In marketing and sales, people spend money on purchases. Many individuals and organizations express concern about the public trust and the well-being of the community.
When companies sell goods and services that can injure people or cause harm in some other way, criticisms and legal actions likely will follow.
Regulations and Ethical Concerns
Part 5