I would consider the Jones’ family as a personal selling family. Based on the movie though confusing in the beginning I began to catch on how they are able to sell after their products. The wife and the children can be seen throughout the movie going out a lot, making new friends, and overall rubbing off on other people the ‘lifestyle’ they are trying to sell. The husband, Steve on the other hand in the beginning of the film can be seen not really able to make friends and find a group of his own to start selling. Throughout the film, we can start to see Steve come into his own friend group to get his percentage up. This goes on to show great examples of how the face to face tactic of personal selling can work great. The wife Kate with all the activities she was involved in, the first month she was up 20%.
Some similarities I saw in the sales tactic in the film compared to what I have seen in the brands I like are mostly within the cosmetics side of the sales. Through Kate in the hair salon or through the daughter in school showing all of her ‘friends’ the newest products in the locker rooms. This related to me or saw similarities within my experience because in the hair salon I will be getting my hair done and the hairstylist will start promoting a product that I should buy from them or accept them using it on me for an extra amount added to my total because they just thought it would make my already great hair from great to fabulous. The other one is not much so selling but I can see it from a brands perspective that word of mouth is great marketing for their products. Similar to a locker room when I was in high school the lunch room was prime time for all the girls to show what makeup products they are using and right after school head down to Sephora and pick up those exact same products, because if it works for my friend it definitely is going to work for me so why wouldn’t I.
Based on what I have read throughout the course I think the Jones’ family way of marketing is both ethical and unethical. I think it’s a mix because of course, it is a movie so it is going to show an extreme version of a situation for the purpose of entertainment. So on the one hand they are marketing in an ethical way just overall spreading the products to their friends and peers out of the ‘sheer’ fact that they ‘think’ it’s an amazing product. The other side of this is that it was not ethical at all because the son went so far as to give alcohol to minors at a party because he believed that ‘it’s his job’ to sell and promote the alcohol. Or even the sheer amount of things they are selling or even the lifestyle they are selling can cause some people to not be able to pay there home for that month or even months. And in extreme cases in the film deaths.
If I was friends with someone in the Jones’ family before I knew anything I would just think ‘Wow they really like talking about the stuff they have.’ I would honestly probably stop hanging out with them because I would just begin to feel like they are showing off to me and not really being thankful for what they have or more so being humbled about the things they have or better said the things they were promoting. After finding out their secrets I would think that it makes sense after them acting weird for so long. But I would start to feel bad for them they couldn’t really live a real life and feel happy for the stuff they would enjoy if they got if they didn’t get everything they wanted in the ‘real world’.
