1. Read the case study below, and put yourself in Maria'sposition 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 thisdecision 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 withTruBlush Cosmetics, a
manufacturer of facial cream and other skin moisturizingproducts. She is relatively new to
the cosmetics industry, being a recent college graduate withlimited “real world†experience.
As part of her orientation, however, she recently had theopportunity to spend one week with
the TruBlush marketing research group, sitting in on severalfocus group discussions with
regular cosmetics users.
Today Hans stopped Maria in the hallway and told her tocoordinate the artwork on both
the new package label design and the storyboards for an upcomingadvertising campaign, to
reflect an increase in the recommended application of a facialcream product from one to
three applications daily. While delighted with the opportunityto finally be assigned
something substantive where she can demonstrate what she iscapable of doing, she is
troubled by the directive.
Maria recalls that in each of the four focus group sessions theweek before, the majority of
consumers interviewed revealed that just one application of thisproduct “did the job.†While
changing the recommended usage would dearly contribute toadditional sales volume, what
she knows about the product indicates that such an increasewould not significantly benefit
consumers. On the other hand, Hans is the Group ProductMarketing Manager, and he makes
the decisions on promoting recent hires for this product.
Author: Richard F. Belhamini, Associate Professor ofMarketing and Advertising, Arizona State University.
