...1. Ethical issues relating to marketing and advertising, intellectual property, and regulation of product safety Ethical issues differ depending on the social code and daily morality. The fact that discussions on stem cell research, abortion, and consumer loyalty still invoke serious arguments proves that ethical issues are still of considerable concern and should be addressed. Most ethical issues including those in the business sector revolve around moral or principles of morality, right, and wrongful actions, expressions of moral approvals in reference to principles of conduct generally viewed as correct by individuals in a particular profession or group. In the business world, ethical issues arise from advertising, personal selling, suppliers, contracts, and pricing. Some examples of ethical issues relating to business activities arise from market research, market audience, and pricing. Market research that invades the privacy of customers or research conducted based on stereotypes is unethical. During any company market research for purposes of marketing or attaining feedback on their performance, the research methods used should respect the rights of customers. Selection of market audience is also a common section of a business, which is likely to bring about unethical practices. It is unethical for companies to exclude potential customers from the target market. Discouraging some customers through selective marketing or targeting customers who are vulnerable such as...
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...Herb 502 Module 3 Discussion Laura Susan Johns ACHS Herbal Materia Medica Herb 502 Catrina Mianecki February 09, 2014 Herb 502 Module 3 Discussion Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) is a perennial that grows in my area of Central Florida, and is one of the Foxglove types that produces the cardiac glycosides, known as digitalis. The plant produces flowering stalks, with the flowers growing on only one side of the stalk and having a long, tubular shape that hangs downward, similar to the fingers of a glove. Its name comes from the Latin, “digitus”, meaning finger, and purpurea, which means purple. Foxglove comes in colors ranging from purple to pink to yellow to white with purple and white spots or streaks on the inside. (Christman, 2000) (Robertson, 2014) The cardiac glycosides from this plant are positive inotropes, meaning that they increase the contractility of the heart, improving cardiac output, and controlling heart rate. It has a very narrow therapeutic window, and the adverse effects from too much of the drug are very similar to effects seen with too little of the drug. The plant itself is extremely poisonous, and, therefore, is not a safe choice for self-treatment. (Foster, 1998) The oleander (Nerium oleander) is a very commonly used ornamental shrub in my area of Central Florida. It is an evergreen plant that grows quickly, able to attain heights of 20 feet, which can cause it to be quite “leggy” if not kept pruned. It produces flowers of various colors, including...
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...Marketing Management (MKT 500) Date: Sunday, May 17, 2015 OUR BRAND STRATEGY- (NAME, LOGO, SLOGAN AND PRODUCT EXTENSION) Well, here we are again at SOMETHING4EVERYONE® Http: www. SomeThing4 Everyone.com. Tom Simmons, our CEO just informed me that he wants a brand strategy, that will not only express our mission statement (Atom Content Marketing, 2009), and target goals, yet he wants something powerful enough, so that our customers can identify and understand, just how and why they should choose the SomethingForEveryone company first. That is, well before even thinking about trying to select any other company, even if they can do the same things that we do. In other words, draw out all of our strong points, versus the competition's weaker ones, and also instill a sense of urgency so that they want to act now. Since we are an everything type of store, we wanted an affinity to connect all of our associations, with something that was easily recognized in a familiar sort of way. Furthermore, as well as find a method, to instantly tie our company name with reliability, quality, trust worthiness, as well as an old world feel, that our vendors, partners and customers alike, would respect and appreciate. Hence, we chose the Alice in Wonderland party Theme, complete with the Mad Hatter, Alice and all the other zany characters to act as an Avatar, Name, Logo, Slogan and Product extension all rolled up in to one. For us, it just seems perfect. It's wild, its familiar, it's trusted...
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...design, manufacturing and marketing. Company’s product lines includes the brands such as Barbie®, Hot Wheels®, Matchbox®, American Girl®, Radica® and Tyco R/C®, as well as Fisher-Price® brands family. Mattel has been putting significant focus on corporate responsibility resulted in the recognition in the various rankings, including FORTUNE Magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" and Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s "100 Best Corporate Citizens". Despite company's efforts towards the product safety, between August and November 2007, Mattel discovered the serious safety issues related to its products: excess lead in paint of some of Fisher-Price products and unreliably fixed small magnets that could fall out of the toys. These issues could produce a significant harm to the kids and after the internal investigations Mattel decided to issue voluntary recall on potentially dangerous products. This paper offers the analysis of Mattel’s actions in view of social responsibility and ethics. Additionally, it suggests specific roles and responsibilities of other stakeholders such as government, industry organizations, and the society that are also involved in assurance of the safety of children’s toys. Analysis of Mattel’s actions and Suggestions for Improvement Corporate social responsibility assumes that companies hold accountability for any of their actions that impact people, communities and environment. With regards to the safety of toys, this means that a responsible company...
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...receiving department, and we have a conveyor system. The way it works is that the product is received in on one end, and then it is shipped across to us by the conveyor system. This is problematic because the person(s) loading the belt on the other end refuse to wrap the product. The system twists and turns and comes up a shaky elevator and across another conveyor, and by the time the product gets to us it is leaning and sometimes product is falling or has fallen off the pallet. This makes the job harder and we like to consider ourselves quality employees, so this disturbs the employees that are responsible for taking product off the belt without damaging it. The belief is that if the product is received right it can be stored and thus shipped right, this includes damage as well. So if you receive it damaged of course you are going to have damaged product to ship. If the product is pulled from the pallet before it is received it doesn’t get charged to the company it is charged back to the shipper, so if the process starts right then you have less damages. Order selectors don’t pick damaged product, so it gets picked over and the employee’s that stock the pick location have to take it out and put it in a damaged product location. We have said something just recently in a meeting and it seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Nobody wants to take responsibility for the wrapping of the product. We believe that it should be part of the procedure for either the person(s)...
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...Report Abstract The case study involving A.H. Robins Company will discuss blatant lack of due diligence of the product Dalkon Shield. Ignoring appropriate measures to ensure safety or the product along with misleading aggressive promotional strategies and literature show the malicious intent of the company for short-term profits, despite the fatal and devastating impacts on the public. The Dalkon Shield Case Study Report Unethical Practices As inventors, Davis and Lerner, at first were following protocol by developing, testing, distributing, and refining their product to a small controlled portion of the public with good faith and due diligence along with documenting their studies and recording accurate results. The point Dalkon Shield’s life where unethical practices first become apparent was during the acquisition of A.H. Robins Company of the product from Dalkon Company. The first contributing factor was the financial motivations when Dalkon Company realized that their product needed corporate distribution especially since they lacked the sale team in the organization. A.H Robins Company just did not acquire the product, but put the two inventors became consultants for the company as well. This makes a biased unilateral perspective for pushing financial opportunity gains over appropriate procedural practices when offering this particular new product. The second contributory factor is utilization of a legal loophole that the IUD did not require filing a New Drug...
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...how the actions of a company have negatively affected consumers. Product recalls, bans, and warning labels have helped to protect consumers and companies are focusing more today on social responsibility. Examine why has there been such a relatively high number of these incidences and what companies can do to protect consumers. Assignment Guidelines: * What legal and ethical responsibilities do companies have to their customers? * Cite and discuss in detail two cases in which a company endangered customers because of the manufacture or design of their products. How did the company address the issue? * What consequences did the companies in the cited cases face and were these consequences warranted? Why or why not? Compose your findings in a Word document (850–1,100 words), and be sure to cite your sources. Abstract There has been an increase in the number of product recalls, bans, and warning labels in recent years, which could be attributed to increased consumer awareness or better product testing. Consumers expect businesses to operate in both an ethical and legal manner. Businesses that are found to be operating outside of legal parameters will be subject to fines and other penalties enforceable under the Consumer Product Safety Act. W3 Individual Project In recent years, there has been an increase in product recalls, bans, and warning labels, which experts attribute to better product testing and more oversight by regulators. In addition, the use of...
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...Product Liability and Legal Ramifications Christopher M. Branch MBA 5861 New Product Marketing 08/13/2013 Christopher Branch MBA 5861 Term 1A Dr. David Castle 08/13/2013 Product Liability and Legal Ramifications The next time you walk into a retail store like Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Office Depot, Babies R’ Us/Toy R’ Us, you will see a board, typically in plain sight of the viewing public, with sheets of papers titled “Product Recall” or Safety Recall or something of the like. Recalled items run the gamut of consumers good and are generally recalled because of a safety or health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration regularly issues recalls or public safety notices for Medical Products, Pharmaceuticals, Tobacco, and contaminated food items. Product Liability is the responsibility of manufacturers, distributors and sellers, they are expected to act in the best interest of the public; to deliver a product free of defects which can harm an individual or persons; and to make good on that responsibility if their products are defective. These can include faulty auto brakes, contaminated baby food, exploding bottles of beer, flammable children's pajamas, or lack of label warnings. The key element in products liability law is that a person who suffers harm from a product need not prove negligence, since the negligence is "presumed" and the result is "strict liability" (absolute responsibility) on the seller, distributor and manufacturer. An injured person...
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...The first ethical issue presented in the ethics game simulation was whether to warn consumers about the contaminated product and what information to provide consumers about the contaminant. The second ethical issue was whether to sell a product that does not meet U.S. safety requirements in a foreign market that has lower safety restrictions. G-BioSport was not required to meet prior approval from the Federal Drug Administration before they released their product on the market. After G-BioSport ran test, it was determined that there were traces of a contaminant in the sample received. The quality control manager must identify a developmental solution to maintain the company’s reputation and identify the problem. G-BioSport had stumble upon a serious problem that required immediate attention. They had just discovered that there were traces of a contaminant in the sample they received. The question at hand is to warn and give the consumers information to provide them about the contaminant. The course of action was to disseminate the information about the risk for specific groups of people in the area. My first concern was to address the contaminated product and decided to provide the consumers with information on the increased risk to allow them to make an informed choice. Consumers have the right to know about the risk they are taking. We don’t always think like the consumer, so therefore we don’t always get the same results as the consumer. We have to remind ourselves that...
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...Products Liability Research Paper Tonya Bailey Strayer University LEG 500---Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance Professor Lynn Macbeth June 2, 2012 Products Liability Introduction As consumers, we purchase products that we feel are beneficial to us in some way or another. The products that we decide and choose to purchase are solely up to the individual. If there is a problem or accident that may occur a result with use of that product, then the consumer is liable. But producers and manufacturers are not exempt being that it is there product, and this is where legal liability issues occur. “Product liability refers to the responsibility of manufacturers for injuries and damages caused by their products” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, pg. 52). In this paper, I will examine the Toyota Motor Company and how this company has been the subject of a product liability lawsuit. First, I describe the company and the product safety issue that led to the lawsuit. Next, I will discuss the legal theories used by the plaintiff to recover in this lawsuit, how the lawsuit was resolved, and why I agree with the decision in the case. Then, it will be relevant to mention the changes that have taken place in the company to ensure greater safety of this product or its products, including specific policies that the company has put in place to protect consumers and end users who purchase and use its product. Afterwards, I will discuss the regulatory agency that oversees the particular...
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...Final Paper Food Safety Food Safety Food Safety is all conditions and actions necessary to ensure the safety of food at all stages. This refers to the conditions and practices to prevent contamination and food-borne illnesses. Food safety is an essential health function. Food can be contaminated and judged unsafe in many ways. Contamination can occur during the packaging process, by inadequate cooking or storage. Also, different food products may already have different microorganisms such as bacteria or parasites which may be allowed to multiply and cause disease if food is not appropriately handled. With regard to whether or not food safety is currently a problem the answer is clearly, yes. The concern is that daily, people get sick with what is interchangeably called food-borne disease or illness from the food they eat. Specifically, food-borne illness has a severe affect on infants, young children, the elderly and the sick. In both developing and developed countries, it is a strain on health care systems. Not only does food-borne illness affect physical condition, but economically, individuals, communities, businesses, and countries are affected by food safety problems. Data and Investigative Information Being that food safety is an increasingly important public health issue, it is imperative that governments intensify their efforts to improve food safety. These efforts should be in response to an increasing number of food safety problems and rising...
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...without regard to proper safety features and concern for proper ethics while producing this automobile. Buyers wanted lower pricing and bigger trunk space more than the consideration for safety. Lee Iacocca, president of Ford, ran the business striving for higher profits and cutting costs. His lack of interest for human life initiated many lawsuits against Ford and, in the end, was a far bigger cost than installing safety features in the Pinto in the beginning. The biggest concern regarding the role people played in the Ford Pinto case was the concern for cutting costs and making the biggest profits over the concern for human life. Severally jeopardized in this case were proper corporate morals and ethics. This started when Lee Iacocca acquired the position of president from the former President Semon Knudson. Lee Iacocca celebrated much success with the Mustang and wanted to market small cars to compete with the foreign car markets. Lee Iacocca drove to promote the Ford Pinto by 1971. Because it typically takes three and one-half years for the production of an automobile, to have the Ford Pinto to the showrooms by 1971, only left two years to launch the Ford Pinto. During the production process, crash tests revealed safety issues with the gas tank in the rear of the car. If the car were struck from behind even at a slow speed, the gas tank would rupture, and explode upon impact. Lee Iacocca’s decisions on cost savings over-shadowed any safety issue in terms of design...
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...Foods Ethical Issues Lisa Johnson MGT/216 March 1, 2013 Diane Garvey On June 18, 1998, founder Kathy Kudler opened the first Kudler Fine Foods store. The stores are stocked with domestic and imported goods including fresh bakery and pastry products, fresh produce, meat and seafood, cheese and specialty dairy products. The mission is to provide customers with the finest foods, wines and related needs in a great environment. “Our selections, coupled with our experienced, helpful and knowledgeable staff, merge to offer each customer a delightful and pleasing shopping outing.” The first store was a success and led to opening two other locations in 2000 and 2003. The three San Diego locations are La Jolla, Del Mar and Encinitas. In the business world, everyone must have a code of ethics that needs to be followed. There are several moral and ethical issues within the food service industry. Some of those issues are currently faced by Kudler Fine Foods. An issue within the food industry is safe food handling practices. Kudler Fine Foods sells meat, produce and dairy products that could cause illnesses among the customer’s if these products were to be contaminated or stored improperly. Meats are suppose to be kept separate, surfaces where the meat is handled need to be cleaned and disinfected before switching meats to prevent cross contamination. Many of these products need to be stored at a certain temperature and packaged appropriately. This is an ethical issue simply because...
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...Product Safety Martisa Green BUS642: Business Research Methods & Tools Instructor: Loay Alnaji October 5, 2014 Introduction According to Landrum (2014), “business research involves the application of scientific principles to gather relevant data to aid in decision making. Businesses will obtain and will analyze data for a company to manage their financials, market analysis, consumer’s feedback or product research. When it comes to product recall, if you are a distributor, a manufacturer, or a retailer of consumer products, there will be a time that they will probably have a product recall sometime in the future. So, if a product recall happens, the above entities must have recall plans in place to be able to accommodate the consumer and be in accordance with following the requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The dilemma for management is can companies fix the crisis management of the impact on a brand image that failed in the perception of the consumer. Background It is important that a manufacturer, a distributor, and retailer of consumer products will not produce/create products that will not cause harm, physical, or mental injury to a consumer. Whenever a business does a product recall on a product, they must have a recall date, a recall number, and a reason for the recall. It is a requirement for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to put safeguards in place that will have an impact on product safety in the marketplace. It...
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...to be quality product failure. Four people died in California in October of 2009 due to stuck accelerator pedal on their Lexus vehicle which is a Toyota made product. The key to the initiation of this case was that it was a State Trooper and his family that had died as the cause of the acceleration pedal failure. One amazing thing about this fact, is that it took the loss of life of a police officer and his family for the Toyota company to recognize that there was a product failure problem. Although the NHTSA had apparently received many reports of this accelerator pedal problem happening, it is cited by Bearman Law as having been ignored although previously investigated. As the investigation unfolded, many injuries and fatalities were uncovered that were caused by this Toyota malfunction and the public was not notified. The solution was for owners to remove the floor mat and not replace it. (Bearman Law Firm, 2012) I personally was shocked when I read further into this case as I recalled that this happened to my mother a number of times in her Toyota Lexus while on the highway and merging with traffic and the pedal sticking. I thought initially at the time, that this could not possible be true, Toyota was a well manufactured vehicle and was the reason we selected the vehicle; a safe and reliable vehicle always. As she continued to have these issues and we were not receiving resolution, we traded it for a new Toyota. Even though, we had these issues, we still believed...
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