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!

1.At first, The movie starts with a family wealthy in products and luxury goods.The neighbors aspired to be like them, and after many interactions, I noticed many examples of personal selling. The family started building relationships the moment they moved in, each member had a specific category of products to sell and advertise to the town’s people.

2. Some similarities I see between the Jones family and some of my favorite brands are the fact they are promoted and influenced by celebrities. Many companies use up-to-date celebrities to model and speak highly of a product to make or break their sales. For example, chrome hearts was founded in the ’90s and recently brought back to life thanks to rappers speaking about it in their latest songs.

3.Their marketing tactic was unethical, and they weren’t upfront, honest, or perfect. They used people and directed them for their benefit. Multiple times, finessing them by using their trust to make a profit is very unethical. 

4. If I were to be friends and open my doors to people like this and learn the truth, I would be left in deviation and be worried more people like this will come. My trust and loyalty will be broken even afterward.

I’d describe the Jones family’s marketing approach as personal selling because they built personal connections with their customers. Their marketing strategies were quite effective. Each member of the family had their own little marketing niche. One focused on cosmetics, one worked in hair, and one even made cool little gadgets. They each found their own little audience, which became their customers and befriended them to sell their services/products.

The Joneses did make use of visual advertising. Which is similar to what other brands do. In music videos or even social media events, there’s alot of intentional product placement. The characters in the film do things similar to this. One of the characters promoted her clothing by wearing it out in the neighborhood, while another character Kate, promotes hair products simply by having them on display in her salon, or by just showing them to her customers.

I personally believe the the Jones family is on the unethical side. While they genuinely believe in the products they promote, and they share them with friends and peers because they think these products are great. They are constantly trying to deceive their customers throughout the film, which is an unethical form of marketing.

If I had been friends with someone from the Jones family prior to uncovering their secret, my first impression might have been that they were very materialistic. However, once I became aware of the truth, I would have felt a sense of empathy for the pressure they were enduring, and the fact that their way of life was not genuine.

“The Joneses” is this movie from 2009, and it’s about this family working for a marketing company. But here’s the twist – they’re not your typical family; they secretly promote products to their neighbors in a wealthy neighborhood. They are a very smart family.

Personal Selling: These folks are like living ads. They build relationships to subtly sell stuff.

Similar to Brands: It’s kind of like how social media influencers casually promote products.

Ethical Question: Some say it’s sneaky advertising and raises questions about honesty in marketing.

Friendship: Imagine being friends with them before and after knowing their secret. You might feel betrayed or understanding, depending on your values.

In a nutshell, this movie makes us think about whether mixing personal and professional life in marketing is right or wrong, and how we feel about it depends on our own beliefs.

“The Joneses” was presented throughout a wealthy community as a regular family. When in reality they’re salesmen pushing their wealthy neighbors into buying products. I would categorize the way the Jones family lives as personal selling. With an innocent image as the perfect family, the joneses easily were able to influence with different tactics to manipulate them into thinking their lifestyle was the right style to follow, which meant following what products they bought and used.

The similarities I seen between the sales tactics the Jones family employed and the marketing tactics of some of my favorite brands would be when Kate Jones decided to talk a little run around the neighborhood marketing her  sweat suit and her sneakers. This tactic was used upon me, when I started going to the gym I didn’t have anything “cute” workout clothes, but I would always see many people with the same workout brand “Gymshark”. I soon started seeing myself buying that same exact brand. The story repeated when I would see new people at the gym slowly but surely started wearing “Gymshark” as well.

Based on what I learned in this course, I observed that the way products were marketed was unethical. Although everyone has different points of view I could see that their way of marketing was unethical it was ethical as well. The Jones was only looking for their interest and the sales of the companies products. Not noticing they were breaking their “friends” trust. Back stabbing them for their own convenience, which made me believed that how the Jones did business was unethical. on the other hand it was a job that they had to do, and all knew what they were getting involved in. For that reason I see how they were ethical.

If I were friend with the Jones family before finding out their secret, I would honestly feel betrayed and heart-broken. When I give anybody my trust it takes a long time because I’ve always had my guard up. I do feel like I would like an explanation especially if we had gotten close to a point. After finding out I do feel like I wouldn’t talk/socialize to them again, and have trouble trusting people after this experience.

Would you categorize the way the Jones family lives as personal selling? Why or why not?

What the Jones family did was textbook definition of personal selling. Personal selling is a marketing technique that features direct, face-to-face interaction with potiential customers. The family would make sales with the personal interactions made by them.

Being the sales representatives, the Joneses served as the personal connection to the Company’s products and their buyers.

What similarities do you see between the sales tactics the Jones family employs and the marketing tactics of some of your favorite brands? Give an example.

The Jonese’s use a lot of similar tactics that I see in the makeup industry. Especially back in 2016 at the height of the consuming of Beauty products. Makeup companies (Morphe for example) will use Youtuber’s who have a parasocial relationship with their viewers to consume their products on camera. Which results in the massive consumption of their products.

Based on what you read in the course materials and what you observed in this movie, do you think the way products are marketed in this movie is ethical?

The products marketed in this movie is definitely unethical. The family became friendly with everyone for a selfish gain, which was to increase company product sales. Even if these people were genuinely liking the consumers there were a lack of transparency. The lack of transparency led to serious consequences (promoting underage drinking and Jenn’s misleading age)

How would you feel if you were friends with someone in the Jones family before you found out their secret? What about afterward?

Honestly I would feel torn. At a business level I understand the decision behind this but personally I feel like on a personal level tricked because I wouldn’t know if this relationship is genuine. I would likely then begin to second guess all interactions with this family. I strongly dislike being misleaded and like to have transparency in all my personal relationships.

Before jumping into the answers to the given questions, let’s understand what the plot of the movie is about. In the film “The Joneses,” the Jones family plays a clandestine marketing team that moves into a posh suburb while pretending to be a regular family moving because Kate and Steve’s careers are changing.
Their job in the plot, is to use their personal experiences as a means of commercial promotion. The family’s lifestyle is crafted to establish recognition in a coveted consumer market, and the apparel, accessories, furnishings, and even food they consume are thoughtfully chosen and supplied by multiple businesses.
Now, when we talk about the questions:
Ans 1. For sure, I would classify the Jones family’s lifestyle as personal selling. They are generating demand for items by leveraging their personal lives as promotional platforms.

Ans 2. The Jones family’s sales strategies and those of some of your favorite businesses have one thing in common: they both use product placement as a marketing technique. For instance, famous brands, such as the beer producers, “Corona” display their features in movies (The Fast and the Furious, Vin Diesel and his crew enjoying a crate of it in every other sequel), to increase its popularity.

Ans 3. In my opinion, the manner in which things are marketed in this film is unethical, based on my observations during the viewing experience. It is unethical for the Jones family to use deceit to market goods.

Ans 4. If I had been friends with a member of the Jones family before to learning of their secret, learning of their true motivations would make me feel cheated and misled. After that, it would be challenging to trust them once more.

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’.

The Joneses

The movie, The Joneses, starts out with this picture-perfect family who just moved into the neighborhood. The Joneses consists of husband and wife, Kevin and Kate as well as the siblings, Jenn and Mick. The family was put together, and Kate was the leader of the team. Their goal as a “family” was to sell products from various companies in the neighborhood.

I would categorize the Jones family as personal selling as they made personal connections with the buyers. The way they strategized their marketing was excellent, especially on Kate’s side and more so Kevin once he realized how to connect with the dads in the neighborhood. Kate targeted the mom and hair salon whereas Jenn and Mick targeted people from their high school. Kate was a trendsetter in their neighborhood, everyone started following her style as soon as they saw it. Mick’s sales mostly came from his high school, he quickly gained popularity for the cool gadgets he had. On the other hand, Jenn’s sales came from the girls in their high school as they bonded over make up and accessories. I believe at one point diet pills were one pf the products she was promoting.

Based on what I observed in this movie, I believe that the way the products were marketed is unethical. The family befriended everyone in their neighborhood for their own gain, which is to increase company products’ sales. They may have developed relationships with the people surrounding them, but they were not honest to them at the start. Everyone in the neighborhood only found out the truth when Kevin came forward due to his guilt. Mick, who was promoting an alcoholic drink at a party ended up causing someone to get into a car accident. They knew the risks of the product, yet they promoted it to underage kids.

If I were friends with someone in the Jones family before I found out their secret, I would feel betrayed. The family did well marketing the products, but once you form a bond it would be very hard not to feel betrayed. The only thought running through my head would be was it only to sell the products and increase their sales? From the movie, Larry was affected by their strategy the most as he ended up committing suicide over his debts. This is one example why I would find it very hard to understand why they did it because this can affect people greatly in so many ways.