Would you categorize the way the Jones family lives as personal selling? Why or why not?
The Joneses are masters at a few things and one of them is personal selling. This is personal selling in its truest form because they are making induvial and personalized sales to everyone they encounter. The “family” unit each works their own specific brand and age group. They have created a personalized group of products for each group they’re in. They started smaller and then worked themselves into bigger and bolder items. Video games, hair products, etc to safaris, high end cars and jewels.
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.
I’m going to use Instagram as my brand for this. The similarities between the Joneses and marketing tactics today used by Instagram are different visually but more similar than you’d think. Instagram’s marketing is more about reading all your personal info, your google searches and your internet likes. After that info is all sold to other companies, it is then used to create personalized items that the user may be interested in.
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?
I don’t think that what they are doing technically classifies as unethical. It is gross and underhanded but its more gray than black and white. They didn’t set out to force people into bankruptcy and foreclosures. We must have our own limits when it comes to the way we compare or compete with other people. I think we see this in its realest form when the neighbor ends his own life after burying himself in debt. We honestly see so much of this now too when people bury themselves trying to keep up with all these influencers who are also getting paid a lot of money to promote these products.
How would you feel if you were friends with someone in the Jones family before you found out their secret? What about afterward?
I don’t consider myself easily influenced, though there was a time in my life when I lived back home in Atlanta (Shoutout to the Real Housewife of ATL in the party scene) like the Joneses, that I was. I wanted to do all the fancy things and have a cute car and buy expensive clothing. I get what they’re doing, and it really is a brilliant way to market if you’re in the absolute perfect market. This wouldn’t work in a market of low-middle class people as they have more real-world problems than people with a large income. I probably wouldn’t be friends with them now. I don’t surround myself with people who boast or are super materialistic. I wouldn’t be friends with them now for that reason and I wouldn’t be friends with them after because just going that deep into a deceit is not something that I would want to be around.