Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors Subject: Maintaining Sales An independent consultant recently identified two important factors in an industry...

Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors Subject: Maintaining Sales

An independent consultant recently identified two important factors in an industry study that will affect our company’s competitiveness. In the first place, it was identified that one of our competitors is planning a significant price cut on their sensors. Secondly, it has become clear that we are possibly not keeping up with the competition in terms of product improvements and/or new product development.

To address both problems, I’d like to create a task force with company-wide representation. The mission of this task force will be to analyze our competencies and processes, and identify competitive advantages that we can immediately address in a new marketing campaign.

Sincerely,  Chief Executive Officer

January 27, 2021 - Email: Maintaining Sales

RE: Maintaining Sales  From: Taskforce Subject: Maintaining Sales Date: January 27, 2021 8:00AM CDT  To: Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors

Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors,

We have completed our company review and industry competitive analyses. We think our key competitive advantage may be new production processes, which were recently improved to cut production costs. Most impressive among these innovations was our adoption of a natural chemical compound to wash the raw materials used to make our sensors. This has completely changed the preparation phase of our production cycle, reducing labor and electricity costs and increasing overall productivity. Our natural chemical process is unique as our competitors do not use a similar process. However, conversion to this process did not reduce our facility’s waste output. Our marketing representative suggests highlighting the new process as environmentally friendly by focusing on our conversion to this natural compound and the subsequent reduction in energy usage. Marketing proposes using the slogan “Green Sensors from Green Machines!” and forecasts that demand could increase 12 to 16 percent.

Taskforce

February 5, 2021 - Fax: FTC Guidelines

February 5, 2021 -------------------------  transmittal ------------------------ 123-555-1212  ------------------------- number of pages 1 of 1  February 5, 2021  Chief Executive Officer, Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors, Task Force Subject: FTC Guidelines

Please be advised that all environmental advertising and marketing practices must conform to the FTC guidelines for such claims as listed here: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/grnrule/guides980427.htm. Specifically, these guidelines apply to the environmental attributes of a product, package, or service. It is not clear from the information provided that the revamped production process enhances the product itself in any way such that it constitutes a consumer benefit, i.e. it does not make the product any more environmentally safe to use. Secondly, asserting that the production process is "environmentally friendly" may be too general an environmental benefit, and as such considered deceptive under Section 260.7 (a). To summarize, the FTC requires the following principles apply to all environmental marketing claims: a)    Qualifications and disclosures should be "sufficiently clear and prominent."  This includes the "clarity of language, relative type size and proximity to the claim being qualified, and an absence of contrary claims." b)    Distinction between benefits of product, package, and service must be made clear as well as whether the environmental attribute or benefit applies to the entire product, package, or service, or a portion thereof. c)    Overstatement of environmental attribute: "An environmental marketing claim should not be presented in a manner that overstates the environmental attribute or benefit, either expressly or by implication." d)    Comparative claims: "Environmental marketing claims that include a comparative statement should be presented in a manner that makes the basis for the comparison sufficiently clear to avoid consumer deception." Our strong recommendation is that our marketing team consider a corporate-oriented campaign that portrays only our company's environmental sensitivity. However, even if the marketing campaign meets the FTC requirements, you should be aware of the following:

·        Our plant is more energy efficient, but it still produces the same amount of waste.

·        Using the natural chemical compound is irrelevant to the product we make.

·        Being the best in our industry on environmental issues doesn’t necessarily mean we are "environmentally friendly."

·        We will need to support our claims with competent and scientific evidence.  

Sincerely,  General Counsel

February 6, 2021 - Email: Greening the Message

RE: Greening the Message  From: Taskforce Subject: Greening the Message Date: February 6, 2021 8:00AM CDT  To: Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors

Executive Steering Committee of the Board of Directors,

We have reviewed General Counsel's suggestions, but we are not confident that a corporate-oriented campaign would effectively reach our core customer base in a memorable way. Secondly, we feel qualifying our message about our use of the natural compound and the reduction in energy usage will dilute its effectiveness. Our focus groups strongly indicated that the slogan “Green Sensors from Green Machines!” will be catchy and memorable. Options to reduce production waste levels are currently being explored, but we cannot promise when any reduction could be accomplished for the foreseeable future. For now, we wish to continue with the marketing campaign as planned.

Make ethical decision for the CEO and draw from ethical theories. 5 pages single spaced.