Case Study 8
Summary:
Ragu Inc. has been a leader in selling Spaghetti sauce in the USA since 1972 later that same year Hunter-Wesson Foods Inc. decided that they would try to enter the market after careful market studies they came up with a sauce whose slogan was “Extra Thick and Zesty”.
Just before hunt introduced their product “Prima Salsa” Ragu Introduce a new sauce with the same Slogan similar to the hunts product it even had the same picture of the product as the Hunt Ad had.
Hunt executives claimed that Ragu stole their idea and there is confusing the minds of the consumers but Ragu explained that they were just a response of competition between two companies but hunt said there is’nt the case as Ragu has the most domination in sales in the marketing and felt that they were not fair.
In 1990 Ragu introduce a sauce which called as “Ragu fresh Italian” but the FDA cited Ragu to use the word “Fresh” as preservatives are used to make the product. In 1993 Campbell introduced its Prego sauce whose ad was similar to Ragu, Ragu then sued Campbell for “misleading Ads” since Campbell did not Ragu’s Thick and Chuck sauce to do the Ad comparisonAt the end of 1993 Ragu sales dropped From 50% while Campbell sales went up from 20%.
Question and their Solutions:
Q#1: I think Ragu is just a worried but careless competitor who did not have any idea of the ethics of advertising and packaging they paved the way for the other competitor to copy and paste the idea of product that one company choses to bring to the consumers.
Q#2: Yes there are many moral violations that Ragu is guilty of but as for Ragu’s is just competition because in his conduct he knows he is doing wrong and against moral values but in order to be the top brand he just ignored all the moral responsibilities obligated to him.
Q#3: I think I would not be comfortable working at Ragu’s if they mean to use