I would definitely categorize the way the Jones family lives as personal selling since they made personal connections with their customers. The family members had different products that they wanted to sell to the neighbors. They faked being the perfect family and tried to sell their products to the people in the neighborhood. They did this by befriending the neighbors and talking to them about the products in a good way. They even showed their lifestyles to other people, and other people started wanting to get the same things the Jones family were getting. The neighbors did not know that the products were apart of the Jones family’s business. People feel better listening to the advice of their friends about a product because they don’t know if they should listen to commercials and billboards. This way of marketing to people can have a really big influence in people buying these products.

To me, Amazon is similar to the Jones family. The Jones family tries to find the right people to sell their products to. Same thing with Amazon, they’ll market their products to the right people. For example, if somebody keeps searching for golf sticks on Amazon, Amazon would recommend them a bunch of golf sticks and other products that matches those. Same thing with the Jones family. The dad sells golf items, so he becomes friends with people who are interested in golf to market his golf products to them. EBay does the same thing with recommending products to the right people so it can be personal to them.

I feel as if they way the products are marketed is unethical. The people on the other side of the sellers don’t know that the family are befriending them to sell their products to them. In a way, they’re sort of lying to them. I believe that there are things that people just have to do, but I think it would be a better route being more honest with the neighbors.

Before knowing the Jones family’s secret, I would definitely be really interested in what they would tell me. Since we’re friends, 7 times out of 10 I would listen to what they would tell me or recommend me. After learning about their secret, I would feel betrayed in a way. I would wonder if they actually wanted to be friends with me or sell me their products. Either way I would be amazed at how good they marketed their products to me!