Addressing Legal Team Concerns on Low-Income Marketing and Sales Plan
Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:
Make ethically informed decisions based on awareness of legal and organizational parameters
Scenario
In Project Two: Assessing Financial Performance, your loyalty rewards program product line proposed a marketing and sales campaign targeting low-income neighborhoods. While you were doing your KPI analysis, the company’s legal team reviewed the same document to address any legal or ethical concerns.
The company CEO has forwarded you a memo from the legal team that discusses legal and ethical issues. Changes in the plan must be made to address these issues. Without these changes, the legal team will not approve the marketing and sales proposal.
For each issue, the CEO wants you to recommend changes to the proposal that satisfy the requirements the legal team has described. For the legal issues, the company lawyers describe how the company needs to interpret and apply existing laws.
Directions
Your task is to evaluate the memo from the legal department for legal and ethical concerns and recommend ways to address those concerns in alignment with organizational parameters.
Review the memo received from the legal department, available in the Supporting Materials section.
For each legal issue, include the requirements outlined below:
Evaluate the plan for legal issues.
Where in the proposal do the issues occur?
Recommend changes to address the legal concerns.
Cite or quote their language to show what you are addressing.
State what aspects of the plan need to change in some way to address the concern.
Recommend one or more possible changes.
Explain how your recommendations meet the legal requirements.
For each ethical issue, include the requirements outlined below:
Evaluate the plan for ethical issues.
Where in the proposal do the issues occur?
Consider which ethical frameworks apply.
Recommend changes to address the ethical concerns.
Cite or quote their language to show what you are addressing.
State what aspects of the plan need to change in some way to address the concern.
Recommend one or more possible changes.
Explain how your recommendations meet the ethical concerns.
Assess your recommendations for alignment to organizational parameters.
Refer to the mission and vision statement from Project One (linked in the Supporting Materials).
What to Submit
To complete this project, you must submit the following:
Response Memo
Using the Project Three Response Memo Template, create one double-spaced memo of 3 to 6 pages. This memo should address the legal requirements and ethical issues. Check your memo for correct spelling and grammar, and include references cited in APA format. Consult the Shapiro Library APA Style Guide for more information on citations.
MEMO
To:
Don Washington, Director of Marketing, Rewards Membership
Alva Ramirez, Director of Sales, Rewards Membership
Anne Hernandez, Chief Executive Officer
From:
[Insert your name, title as an internal consultant]
Subject:
Addressing Legal Team Concerns on Low-Income Marketing and Sales Plan
Executive Summary
The legal team has raised concerns about the proposed plan to increase rewards memberships in low-income markets. They have identified two legal requirements that must be addressed: truth in advertising and data collection and privacy. Additionally, they have raised three ethical concerns, including direct marketing to low-income populations, language transparency, and consumer data collection and use. To address these concerns, it is recommended that ABC Rewards Membership consider the legal requirements of truth in advertising and data collection, and privacy laws and ethically market to low-income populations by building trust and ensuring the program aligns with the community's needs.
Addressing the Two Legal Requirements
Truth in advertising: Analysis and recommendations
The team believes that the proposed marketing campaign for ABC Rewards Membership should be carefully evaluated for legal issues related to truth in advertising. Compliance with the requirements of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is crucial to avoid any legal repercussions. The issues related to truth in advertising are primarily found in the "Ad Lines" section of the marketing campaign. It is recommended that ABC Rewards Membership conduct a thorough review of the proposed marketing campaign and make necessary changes to ensure that all claims made about the program's benefits are precise, non-deceptive, and can be substantiated.
The language used in the "Ad Lines" section of the marketing campaign should be closely scrutinized to identify potentially deceptive or unverifiable claims. The "Ad Lines" section should be revised to remove any claims that cannot be substantiated or are potentially misleading. Alternatively, adding more detailed information to support claims about the program's benefits would be another possible change. By implementing these changes, ABC Rewards Membership can ensure that the marketing campaign is truthful and non-misleading (Practice, n.d.).
Accordingly, ensuring that the marketing campaign complies with the legal requirement of truth in advertising is essential. ABC Rewards Membership should take the necessary steps to ensure that all claims about the program's benefits are precise, non-deceptive, and can be substantiated to avoid legal repercussions.
Data collection and privacy: Analysis and recommendations
Another issue the legal and marketing team raises is the possibility of data collection and privacy issues. The data collection and privacy issues occur in the proposal section, which discusses the collection and storage of customer data, and the ethical concerns related to marketing to high-school-aged youths occur in the marketing strategy section.
To address the legal issue, ABC Rewards Membership should revise its data collection policies to comply with the CCPA by limiting the data collected to only what is necessary for contacting consumers and shipping merchandise. The company should also make it easy for consumers to opt out of data sharing. By doing so, the organization will be able to meet the legal requirements related to data privacy and avoid any legal repercussions (Klosowski, 2021).
To address the ethical issue, ABC Rewards Membership should develop an alternative marketing approach that does not requi...