Bus 105 1st EditionFinal Study Guide Foundations of Business Thought Study QuestionsThis document is designed to provide suggestions for ideas and concepts which might be worth considering in preparing for quizzes and exams. It does not necessarily cover all material on which you may be tested. You should use these questions in conjunction with the textbook and your notes.Marketing: Marketing is about having ideas, selling products based on ideas, and selling those products through distribution. It’s more than just selling products based on one’s ideas; it also consists of managing customers and services. Those who work with marketing begin with a conception and then figure out what they’re going to make or what service they’re going to offer. These people also need to have a way to get it where they desire to have it and this is known as distribution. Marketing also involves promotion of the service or product and market research, which is where people go out and test ideas to see what people like. The four p’s of marketing include product, price, place and promotion. Sun-Tzu, from The Art of War1. What is basis of all warfare? The basis of all warfare is deception. Why is this tactic pervasive in marketing? Tzu argues that it’s important to keep the enemy confused in order to win in battle. When we consider the deceptive nature of marketing we come to realize that companies deceive each other and the consumers. Companies lie about what their products will and will not do. But the federal government intervened and stated that consumers have the right to know what the product or service really does. But regardless of this safeguard against the deception of consumers, companies still lie. There are outright lies and only telling the customers good things. It’s all about lying by omission and avoiding telling the consumer what’s wrong with the product. 2. What are the two military “virtues” which are not appropriate for governing a state? Opportunism and flexibility. How are these virtues relevant to marketing? Opportunism and flexibility are marketing virtues not civic virtues. Wal-Mart, Apple, Microsoft, and Google are all examples of companies who had idea of an idea and found a way to implement them. For example, the Internet existed back in the day and provided access to enormous amounts ofinformation and Google figured out a way to allow people to access it through search engines. McNeil labs (Tylenol), Coca-Cola (“New Coke”), General Motors/Chrysler and IBM (personal computers, services) are all examples of flexibility within marketing. 3. Sun-Tzu discusses the use of both direct and indirect methods in warfare. Give examples of direct and indirect methods used in marketing. The Pepsi challenge is a direct marketing method because it shows you that Pepsi is better than coke by having a bunch of people say that and filming them. An indirect method is when Ironman purchases a burger from McDonalds because it’s less obvious. Cicero, from De Officiis1. What is meant by the phrase “specious appearance of expediency”? He mentions the story of the ring of invisibility and we are asked to consider the ability to conceal an injustice. This might be a specious appearance of expediency. There are also the stories of the king and of the foot race. In the story with the king, the king founds a city and decides that it’s more expedient for him to reign alone than to share the throne with his brother and as a result he kills his brother. Inthe foot race story, we learn that we are not required to sacrifice our own interests, but we should not act unjustly in order to achieve an advantage. Its when you use cheating or morally messed up methods to get what you want. 2. What are the two “marketing” stories which Cicero tells? Cicero tells the story of the grain dealerand of the house seller. For the grain dealer story there is a famine in Rhodes and the grain dealer who is headed to Rhodes see’s more ships with grain headed to Rhodes. The question we must ask ourselves is when he arrives first, does the grain dealer have an obligation to inform the Rhodians that more grain is on the way? The story with the House seller is about an honest man who has his house for sale. The house is unsanitary but has a reputation of being healthful; it is not generally known that there are vermin in the bedrooms; and it is not known that it is likely to collapse. Should the seller of the house tell the consumer about the defects of the house? 3. What are the opposing arguments? For the grain dealer example Diogenes argues that the grain dealer should only declare defects as far as required by law but otherwise the grain dealer has no other obligations. In other words, Diogenes argues that the grain dealer is not required to tell them about the other grain. On the other hand, Antipater agues that the grain dealer has a social responsibility to the community and if he didn’t tell them that more grain was on the way he’d be cheating them and it’s important to tell the customer all that one knows if it’s in the customer’s best interest to know. One must think about the interest of the whole rather than one’s own interest. In this situation there is information asymmetry about the market because the grain dealer knows more about the market than the customers do. For the house sellerexample, Diogenes argues that it is the buyer’s responsibility to learn about the condition of the house – the concept of “caveat emptor” (buyer beware) and that the salesman did not force the customer to purchase the house. On the other hand, Antipater argues that if the person selling the house didn’t tell the customers about the defects he would be “deliberately leading a man astray” and this is a crime. In this story there is information asymmetry about the goods becausethe seller knows more about the house than the buyer does. 4. In each case, which side does Cicero take and why? Cicero does not suggest the middle ground of informing the buyer of the defects after he has examined the house and expressed an interest– Aquinas will find this middle ground. “Concealment consists in trying for your own profit to keep others from finding out something that you know, when it is for the interest to know it.” Cicero argues that it is the duty of the grain dealer to not withhold information from the customers and the same goes for the house seller.