Read the case study below, and put yourself in Maria's position to answer these questions:

What is the ethical issue that Maria faces?

Who benefits/loses if she decides to do as Hans says?

What would you do if you were in her shoes? What does this decision reveal about you?

Cosmetic Applications

Topic: Package Labeling and Advertising Characters:

Hans, Cosmetics Group Product Marketing Manager

Maria, Assistant Marketing Communications Manager

Maria is an Assistant Marketing Communications Manager with TruBlush Cosmetics, a manufacturer of facial cream and other skin moisturizing products. She is relatively new to the cosmetics industry, being a recent college graduate with limited "real world" experience.

As part of her orientation, however, she recently had the opportunity to spend one week with the TruBlush marketing research group, sitting in on several focus group discussions with regular cosmetics users.

Today Hans stopped Maria in the hallway and told her to coordinate the artwork on both the new package label design and the storyboards for an upcoming advertising campaign, to reflect an increase in the recommended application of a facial cream product from one to three applications daily.

While delighted with the opportunity to finally be assigned  something substantive where she can demonstrate what she is capable of doing, she is troubled by the directive.

Maria recalls that in each of the four focus group sessions the week before, the majority of consumers interviewed revealed that just one application of this product "did the job."

While changing the recommended usage would dearly contribute to additional sales volume, what she knows about the product indicates that such an increase would not significantly benefit consumers. On the other hand, Hans is the Group Product Marketing Manager, and he makes the decisions on promoting recent hires for this product.

Author: Richard F. Belhamini, Associate Professor of Marketing and Advertising, Arizona State University.