Ethics Case Study: Facebook Offers to Fill a Void
You are the new marketing directorfor Moodiesa mid-sized company that markets nutritional supplements for adultsbased in Baltimore, Maryland. The company's best-selling product is a line of mood support supplements.
As your first major task for Moodies you and your team were invited to a meeting with ad strategists from Facebookto hear about a new opportunity to target Facebook users using a newly developed digital adstrategy.
You are now in New York, meeting with the Facebook people.
The room is full of advertising strategists and market research analysts. TwoFacebook executives give a brief presentation. The first speaker makes two points.
First, Facebook has invented a sophisticated algorithm which will identify users who are feeling "empty;" and second, Facebook would like to offer relevant products and services for users identified as being in the "empty" state.
Moodies, which already has done some advertising on Facebook, was invited to this presentation because the companywas identified through search patterns as offering products - such as the mood support supplements - likely to be sought when users experience feelings of emptiness.
The second speaker was a Facebook analyst. The analyst reminded everyone that Facebook's data scientists have proven in a prior research study that certain newsfeed posts were found to be effective in influencing users' emotions."The news of the day certainly can make one feel empty, can't it?" she asks rhetorically; she then mentions that more relevanttargeted ads would provide userspotential solutions with just-in-time products and services.
A handout mentions that Facebook will be asking Moodies to provide specific customer data for the target group to Facebook; this would allow Facebook to match-up with known Facebook users and develop ads specifically to appear in the newsfeeds only of those targets.
The data points suggested for good matching are: email, phone number, first name, last name, ZIP or postal code, city, state, country, date of birth, year of birth, age, and gender.
This is your first Facebook strategy meeting so you are not quite sure how to react. The Facebook strategists and your teamare all looking at you for your reaction. Meanwhile, your phone buzzes providing a well-timed reason to excuseyourself; you seeyour boss has texted you,
"How's the Facebook meeting going? This quarter's numbers down. We need a big win."
Case Study Questions
1. Describe all known elements of the marketing strategy proposed by Facebookfor the campaign. [2 paragraphs]
2. What are the marketing objectives of Facebookfor this advertising campaign? Who is the target market?[1 paragraph]
3. What are the ethical responsibilities of Moodiesand Facebook? [3 paragraphs]
4. Evaluatethe ethicsof the proposed marketing strategy using Josephson's Core Values model,including all five steps. [3-5 pages]
5. Make recommendationsfor Moodiesabout the proposed marketing strategy, based on the ethical analysis.
Remember, you are not a disinterested observer; you are the marketing director for Moodies! How should theserecommendationsbe communicatedto your boss? How will you respond to your boss's text?[2-3 paragraphs]
Assignment
Analyze this case study by responding to the case study questions and present your analysis and recommendations in acase study analysis paper.
The factual information needed will be found within the case and the resources. No additional research, outside the resources, is expected for this assignment. Information on writing a case analysis paper can be found here.
The suggested lengths for each section appear in the case study questions above.
Suggested fonts are:
• Arial
• Cambria
• Calibri
• Times New Roman
The font size is 11-12.
All factual material must be properly source cited in APA format.A reference list in APA format is required. This is an individual assignment; no collaboration with other students is permitted.
Follow this format:
I. Introduction
II. Case Analysis
a. Marketing Strategy
b. Marketing Objectives
c. Ethical Responsibilities
d. Ethical Evaluation
e. Recommendation
III. Conclusion