I would categorize the way the Joneses family lives as personal selling through conversation and demonstration. Their sales performances are dependent on the relationships they create with their neighbors, schoolmates, and anyone they meet in between. They establish their connections and use demonstration in their day to day lives to sell their company products. They place products in clear view creating a sense of need and wants for things their consumers had not been exposed to before. The sales tactics the Joneses used are like many, they rely on multi-level marketing to expand their sales and reach different territories. Similarly, athletic brands like Nike use co-branding with celebrities to promote their shoes and active wear. Nike places and overpriced product on a well-known personalities t entice their consumers to purchase their goods and with popularity, more and more of their product is sold.

The marketing tactics used are unethical, the sales strategies used in the movie are based on deceit and are fueled only by their personal goals to hit a specific sales mark. The Joneses are not in control of the products they sell, and their sales are motivated by be jealously and/or the need of their clients to live up to a particular lifestyle. Morally, the “unit” is disheartened and unfulfilled in the life they lead. If I became friends with people like the leading family, I would question their ideas and need for perfection and wonder how genuine their being with me if it seems they aren’t genuine with themselves. Once I find out their secret, I’d essentially feel played and question if the friendship was all part of an act. After the initial anger, I would feel bad for the lives they lead.

I 100 percent think that the way the Joneses live is categorized as personal selling. Everyone one of them put themselves in a position where everyone around them wants what they have and are eager to be like them or friends with them. Everything about the ladies, especially the mom looks new or very expensive so everyone looks at it in a way where they need to have it. They’re so intelligent that the way the mom knew how to sell the tracksuit she was wearing without having to say anything is incredible and she knew they were all attracted to her attire.

A lot of my favorite brands use athletes or celebrities to try and convince us to want to have the product. The Joneses use new expensive things to impress and convince others around them to want what they have. For example Nike uses Lebron James to push some of their products and sneakers.

The marketing here was definitely unethical . This fake family was a rich, lying, and almost untouchable type of family and they purposely moved to a spot where people where miserable and would want everything that they have.They became close with people and build relationships just for it to be a lie at the end of it all. It went on for way too long and impacted way too many people.

I would hate to be friends with these people. Imagine having a great friendship with someone just to find out they were manipulating and lying to you the whole time. It makes it all feel unreal and waste of time.

I would definitely categorize the way the Jones family lives as personal selling. Everything in the Jones family’s house is put strategically in a way where you look at it and you want to have it. Not only the items in their house, but they themselves. Everything about Kate Jones feels and looks so expensive and tailored to her, so when someone (especially me) sees her, they would buy it. I felt that way when I saw Kate in a blue tracksuit and I caught myself wanting to buy one, even though I already have the exact same one. And I didn’t even know at that point that she was trying to sell the tracksuit.

I do not have a favorite brand. I don’t really pay attention to brands since I prefer not showing off brands or money (probably cause I grew up poor). I think Versace is very pretty though, and I think the marketing tactics for Versace and this movie are similar. Versace is a high-end brand, so they use their models and influencers to show off their beautiful, luxurious pieces to make regular people want it. That is exactly want the Jones’ did.

I definitely believe that the marketing in this movie is unethical. The Jones family was a rich, trendy, untouchable family and when they move to a neighborhood where everyone is miserable and everything is about appearances, it drives people to do terrible things. Larry, for example, just kept buying products trying to one up Steve. This lead to serious debt and ultimately his suicide. This type of marketing is driving people to insanity just for pride and satisfaction.

I would be very depressed. Being next to the Jones’ would make me feel poor. I would feel terrible about myself, my family and my financial situation because I know for a fact I could NOT afford any of those items they kept showing off. A Juicy Couture tracksuit is $100 for just the pants!! I can afford that, but that is unreasonable. If I found out their secret, I would probably get violent. All that emotional and financial degradation just for none of that to be real. They would catch all this smoke. But not Kate, though it’s not her fault that her whole vibe is luxurious.

The Joneses was a great movie. Personally, I would categorize the Jones family’s lives as personal selling. Just because they don’t tell the client to buy the product straight up doesn’t mean they’re not telling them to buy it. For example, when Steve went up to Larry to convince him to buy some gifts for Summer to improve his romantic relationship with her he wasn’t telling Larry he had to buy it, but he suggested it could help because it works on Steve’s relationship. Steve was telling him to buy the products without being obvious about it, like how Summer would market her products. The family is smart about the way they present themselves and the products. It’s strategic so that a customer would subconsciously think, “Wow, that’s so pretty. I have to buy it.”

I don’t have a favorite brand just because I don’t pay attention too much to brands, so I personally can’t tell any similarities between the Jones family and a brand.

I don’t think the way they marketed the products in the movie was ethical at all. They entered people’s lives and built a relationship with them just for it all to be a lie. It ended up with Larry committing suicide because of all the products the family was marketing. It went too far.

If I were friends with someone in that family and found out their secret, I would be so upset. I would feel lied to and exploited just for personal gain. I would probably be very petty and expose them just because what they’re doing to the neighborhood is just messed up. I would reassure them I wouldn’t tell anyone, then tell everyone.

First of all, I personally enjoyed the movie and found quite interesting. I would categorize their  the way the Jones family lives as personal selling, because they are using their personal skills to sell those products, also being “face-to-face” with those “costumers”.

Comparing the Jones family with my favorite brands, I can see the Jones family easily becoming a digital influencer if the movie was from 2022. Digital influencers are being hired from various companies to convince people, (especially people between 15-30 years old) to buy their products, they are there to make them feel like they need their product in their lives, and this happened in the movie.

Talking about ethical behavior, I do not believe the movie portraited an ethical way of marketing, starting with lying and pretending to be family, cars, houses, jewelries… they did not belong to them, also, they were using fake names, making connections and relationships that were not real, using those people for their own benefits.

If I met those people I would probably believe in everything they were saying, because it all was very well planned and it looks very legit. Afterwards, I would feel very disappointed and used, I would want to report this kind of business to the authorities.

Another thing that I found interesting about this movie was how they portraited Larry, the neighbor , committing suicide towards the end of the movie, this was a critique of how marketing can make people compared their lives to others, generating depression.

After seeing this movie and connecting it to the definition of personal selling, I would put the Joneses in this category. The Jones family used their platform (being “wealthy,” throwing parties, having conversations to influence people, and so on) to persuade others to buy the products they received, and the more people who bought the products they used, the more profit they made. The Jones family’s sales tactics are similar to those used by high-end brands because these brands promote the idea that in order to be liked or influential, you must buy their products. After watching this movie and reading the course materials, I realized that the way the products are marketed is unethical because it forces people to try to pay for a lifestyle they cannot afford. For example, Larry viewed his friendship with Steve as a competition after a while of knowing him, and as a result, he had multiple bills unpaid as a result of trying to maintain a lifestyle he couldn’t afford. Going by my current mentality, I would not feel any particular way being friends with someone who was a member of the Jones family, even after their secret was revealed, because to be honest, I don’t worry about how someone lives or what they have. And I just want to thank professor buckler for allowing us to watch this movie because at first I thought it would be boring or that I wouldn’t like it, but I was wrong, and it was a good movie that I might want to watch again someday.

First of all, I really enjoyed this move, and I’m glad that Prof. B. assigned it. It made me understand even more what I have learned during this short semester. I would categorize the family’s way of life as personal selling. They applied selling techniques such as sales presentation in-person, conversations – the family built a relationship with customers in order to influence them to purchase the products, and demonstration – they presented their products’ work and its benefits. By employing these tools in order to increase sales, the family used similar sales tactics as luxurious car dealerships marketing tactics are employed. Most of the time car dealers are influencing people to finalize their purchase by transmitting that the key for happiness are their products. Same as The Joneses did. However, this might be unethical. I think that the way car dealers, but mostly how The Joneses marketed their products are unethical. The family intentionally influenced the neighbors to their own advantage to buy their products. Of course, this manipulation of influence was planned and finalized without the buyer’s knowledge. So, that’s why I think that the way of how the products were sold is not ethical. If I was one of their friends, most likely I’d buy their products as well. They knew what the neighbors needed, and they knew very well how to attract people. The only thing that I’d do differently, and I’m doing differently in my everyday life, is that I buy products that I really need, and not because I want to be like others. As a result, at the point of discovering the truth I would not have any disappointing feelings because I would feel like I haven’t wasted money just to be equal to them.