At first I believed the Joneses family was just a wealthy family when they moved into their new house. However, they were not a real family, they were put into “units” and were actually all working as a sales person. The Joneses family can be categorized as personal selling. Each person in the family had a target audience that they focused on to sell products to. Personal selling is known as face to face selling in which a salesman tries to convince the customer into buying a product. The Joneses family easily did this with their neighbors as they manipulated them into thinking they were living a luxurious lifestyle. They went about their “everyday lives” and were able to mention and promote different products to their neighbors casually. This helped to persuade and influence these consumers to try and buy this lifestyle as well. Since they were focusing on selling an image which was “the perfect family” and a luxurious lifestyle it keeps people always wanting more and makes it easy to trust them since they are just a “family”. 

One of the selling tactics that the Joneses family used was product positioning. In one of the scenes, the mother was supposed to market wine coolers but they were in juice packets. The mother felt it looked a little cheap and even asked how she was supposed to make consumers want this. Her boss didn’t help much but just told her to make it seem high end. However, the teenage brother got his hands on these wine coolers and actually sold them to underage kids at a party. Because the packaging was bright looking and seemed like juice, it easily appealed to younger people to drink it or want to try it. Not that I agree with this tactic in this scene, but the brother knew he would be able to get lots of consumers to buy this especially at a party. Lot of companies use this tactic for marketing especially in the makeup industry. Packaging is very important. It has to look appealing and catch the consumer’s eye. Everytime I go to Ulta Beauty, I am always walking down almost every aisle. And the reason is because the majority of the make up brands look so pretty and there’s bright colors or aesthetically pleasing patterns and prints on the labels. Next thing you know I’m looking at multiple highlighters and different eye shadow pallets that I know I probably won’t really use. But, at that moment I feel like I want to buy it or try it. Another selling tactic that is similar to what brands do in real life is word of mouth.These companies  are sending free products to influencers in return of influencers posting and sharing the products on their social media. In the movie the family are basically influencers, but keep it a secret. The dad is given a high end car for free and it’s his job to promote and sell it. His neighbor is influenced and buys this car as well along with other products the dad has been selling. SKIMS and Pretty Little Things among other clothing brands also use influencers such as celebrities to wear their clothes and post on Instagram. I feel like when I see a celebrity that I like advertising for a brand I’m familiar with, I tend to click and scroll and look through the clothing line. They also used word of mouth as a tactic.

I do not believe all the products that were sold in the movie were ethical. Ethical marketing means being upfront and honest about the product you are selling. And not being manipulative while selling. The Joneses family was very manipulative. They had a secret identity and made it seem so effortlessly that they have all these products. As the movie came closer to the end,their neighbor was pushed to the edge and got consumed with having the best luxurious lifestyle. He ended his life over this which was really sad. The dad wanted to be upfront and reveal to him how he was able to “afford” all of these items because he knew his neighbor was trying to compete with him and felt bad. But, the mother did not allow him too and didn’t want to reveal their secret. In my opinion this is not ethical marketing because they were not honest with their customers and didn’t treat this one specific customer with respect in this scene.

If I was friends with someone in the Joneses family before I found out their secret, I would probably wonder how they have so much money. It would make me probably motivated to have a house like theirs one day too and want this type of lifestyle too. After finding out their secret I would be surprised and probably keep my distance a little bit. I would feel that our relationship wasn’t genuine if it was kept a secret for so long. So I would feel like maybe they only see me as a consumer and would always try to sell me something.