#10 Consumerism; We consumers need to be informed.

In chapter 20 in our textbook, "Principles of Marketing," we learned about sustainable marketing and the ethics in marketing. Especially, consumerism is the idea of protecting the rights and power of buyers in relation to sellers. For example, the right to not to buy a product that is offered for sale, the right to expect the product to be safe, the right to expect the product to perform as claimed, and the right to be well informed about important aspects of the product. To protect these rights and power of consumers, marketers must work out of philosophy of socially responsible and ethical behavior, so that they will not make any harms for customers.

When I was reading this chapter, one case in Japan came to my mind. Many Japanese celebrity bloggers got about $500 to $4,000 from the company that manage penny auction sites in return for introducing the auction website in their blog. The big problem here was celebrity bloggers did not tell that they got money for introducing the penny auction, so that many people might misunderstood that those famous bloggers introduced it as a third party and trust that information. In addition to that, many of the bloggers used words and pictures and led viewers to think that those bloggers actually used the auction website and got a product at a good price, however, in the truth they did not use or buy things using the website.

One for the blog that are criticized. Image from http://geinounews.mobi/archives/1163 

The Japanese police arrested the manager of the company that asked celebrities to write about the penny auction website in their blog. Bloggers who gained money from the company and wrote the false or misleading information did not be arrested because the lighter charge and it already run out of the statute of limitations when their bad practice were brought to light.

This case is the one related to "undercover marketing." According to the Wikipedia,

Undercover marketing (also known as "stealth marketing", or, by its detractors, "roach baiting") is where consumers do not realize they are being marketed to. Buzz campaigns can reach consumers isolated from all other media, and unlike conventional media, consumers tend to trust it more often, as it is usually coming from a friend or acquaintance. Overall, the person doing the marketing must look and sound like a peer of their target audience, without any signs of an ulterior motive for endorsing the item.

Example

Sony Ericsson used an undercover campaign in 2002 when they hired 60 actors in ten major cities and had them accost strangers and ask them: "Would you mind taking my picture?" The actor then handed the target a brand new picture phone while talking about how cool the new device was. "And thus an act of civility was converted into a branding event.

In the case of the Penny auction website, consumers were not informed that the celebrities posts on their blog is the advertisement. Also, because bloggers are celebrities and famous people, people were more likely to believe that the website was safe and benefited us with very cheap prices and good products. The penny auction has appeared in 2009 and it was not popular at all, so the company used the celebrities to gain a lot of people's recognition and their trust using the power of celebrities. Thanks to the Internet, we consumers receive a lot of  information very easily, and that means it is much easy to mislead consumers. I think the importance of the marketers to follow the marketing ethics and satisfy customers with satisfaction is increasing.


Sources;
The Japan Times "Celebrity bloggers not required to disclose paid endorsements"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_marketing

For more information......
I found another example of stealth marketing (or undercover marketing) in the USA.
Stealth marketing: When you're being pitched and you don't even know it!

#9 failure of Euro Disney

Even a huge company with enough people's recognition may fail in global market, if it does not conduct an enough market research and adaption to the local. The failure of Euro Disney in France shows us the difficulty of the intercultural business.

The Euro Disney opened the very first park in Paris in 1992. This is created from the blue print of Disney California. Euro Disney tried to sell the American way of holiday, so a few years later Euro Disney suffered from their debts, and there was the rumor that the Euro Disney would be close because of the bankruptcy. Actually, the Euro Disney did not get enough visitors and had a financial problem so that they needed to talk with the bank for help. At this time the Saudi royal family, which now owns 38% of shares, invested $350 million on Euro Disney and saved it from the bankruptcy.




Also, their American way of management did not work well in Paris, so within one year, about 25% of Euro Disney's workforce, which is approximately 3,000 people, had quitted their jobs because of unacceptable working conditions. 

In terms of food and restaurants, Euro Disney did not allow any alcohol in the park, however, people in France usually drink wines for their every meal, so people did not like it. In addition to alcohol, the Euro Disney made a lot of food stand and fast food shops in the park rather than the restaurant because that was the common way in American amusement parks. However, many French people prefer to take a seat in the restaurant and take longer time to eat and enjoy, many visitors concentrated in the restaurant and long line for restaurants disappointed visitors. 

As an advertising, Euro Disney advertised their park emphasizing on the size of the park and the money they spent for the construction rather than telling the attractiveness of the park, those were not appealing to the French. Rather, some French people were mislead to the idea that Euro Disney was arrogant.

In the USA, many people stay at the Disney Resort for three days at average. Thus, Euro Disney expected customers to stay as long as the American people do, but actually, the stay was shorter than it expected.

As a first step to adapting the local, Euro Disney was subjected to the change of the name, and now Euro Disney changed the name from the "Euro Disney resort" to "Disneyland Paris," aiming to wipe out the negative impression on "Euro Disney Resort," and get the local people's attention.

As I wrote above, Euro Disney met a lot of misunderstanding of the French market and got a lot of debts. It is still burdened by as much as $2.20 billion and that is 15 times its gross average earnings. The magic of Disney seems to have a universal excitement, but even one of the most famous company in the world cannot ignore the concept of cross cultural marketing. When a company tries to expand into a new country or region, a company needs to conduct a research to understand the cultural environment, such as folkways, norms, and taboos, because those cultural differences affect consumers reactions.

Sources:
http://www.businessinsider.com/euro-disney-announces-1-billion-crisis-plan-2014-10
http://www.123helpme.com/disney-in-tokyo-and-paris-view.asp?id=164635
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disneyland_Paris#1995_turnaround