Applying Legal and Ethical Frameworks

Memo From: [your name] To: [officer, company position, and the company]   We appreciate the kind and honest feedback regarding the initial Marketing and Sales strategies that were presented before. Accordingly, in light of the legal and ethical matters discussed in the previous memorandum, we would like to propose some of the proposed changes and improvements. Legal Issues A.    Truth in Advertising   i.            Preciseness in Program’s Benefits We also believe that advertising must be effective, budget-friendly, and compliant with the rules and regulations imposed by the law. As such, this necessitates an improvement in the preciseness of how these rewards programs are to be implemented. Today, our current proposal does not specifically provide the amount earned per transaction or referral. In fact, we are still limited to the use of advertising slogans (i.e., “membership pays for itself”). Thus, we would like to add the following incentives and rewards to our rewards list. These program rewards should be included clearly in participating outlets, brochures, and other marketing materials.  
Purchase Amount
Rewards Program
Individual-level Rewards
$20
1 Point per $20
Community-level Rewards (for communities with at least 100 members)
$30 to $100
 
 
More than $100
 
Additional 1 point for each purchase
 
Additional 1 point for each $100 purchase
 *Each point is convertible to a 1.00 USD discount after reaching a minimum amount of 50 points

1.                  ii.            Non-deceptive Commercial Speech

After resolving the issues related to the preciseness of the rewards programs, we also propose certain amendments to the use of commercial speech. As of today, an analysis of some of the Ad lines for marketing and campaign would suggest that these are indeed vague statements. For example, the term "purchases become rewards" does not provide adequate information for the buyers, which may lead to legal issues especially considering certain purchase thresholds (i.e., minimum purchase of 20 USD). Another point to consider is our credit fees which provide a 2.5% fee for swiped cards and 3.5% for keyed-in transactions. To address legal concerns for these, the marketing department would be changing highly technical terms to simple and easy-to-understand ones.

1. 1.      Substantiating Claims

Finally, there is also the legal concern regarding the substantiation of claims, whether direct or indirect. Since the claims made are based on "community-level rewards" and our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) capacities to help communities, then this information should be made transparent to our consumers. For example, one of the strategies that we can do to increase transparency is by creating a website and help desk for our rewards program. Particularly, our customers can access this site to check the participating stores and outlets, their reward points, their profile, and even the charitable contributions that are made from a part of the proceeds.

1. 2.     Addressing Ad Lines  

Advertising laws, rules, and regulations require a concise, precise, and not misleading use of ad lines. Thus, the following changes are proposed to be done for our current advertisement lines.

1. B.    Data Collection and Privacy
   1.                    i.            Right to Know & Limited Use Purpose

As we improve our compliance with the legal requirements for data collection and privacy, our proposed solution is to amend our current Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. These changes must also be reflected on our site and even disseminated through various non-digital means to properly apprise our consumer market. Particularly, these changes impose a limit to what information should be used, how it can be used, and their rights to opt-out of these data collection practices. Since our main purpose is only to contact them for contacting our customers, then personal information should only be limited to (1) name, (2) postal address, (3) contact number, and (4) email address (essential data). The company should first approve any other information that would be collected aside from these, and dissemination should be done. As such, the team is proposing that all additional information collected aside from those enumerated above, for any intents and purposes, should be approved by (1) the company’s legal department and (2) the marketing and management team. This way, advertising effectiveness could be balanced with the legal and ethical risks that may arise from such procedures. Additionally, we propose that our client disclosures should expressly provide that if our data collection agents ask for more information than the essential data, any party at risk may call a specific hotline or email the helpdesk. This would be an effective approach to maintain compliance with State regulations on data collection.  

1.                  ii.            Opting-out and Data Deletion

Finally, the helpdesk is also tasked with hearing clients' requests for opting out of data-sharing processes. As observed from your memo, we should make it easily accessible and convenient for our clients to opt out of our data-sharing policies. Since not all of our clients have access to phones and digital media, we propose three helplines to make it easier for them to opt out of data sharing processes, namely; (1) hotline, (2) website, and (3) mail. Clients would have free access to how their data a...