1. Corporations and marketing in general has received very bad press of late.
In some cases, companies have faced orchestrated efforts by individuals and
groups to highlight alleged ethical misdemeanours of companies. The most famous
case of this was the “McLibel” case where McDonald’s sued two activists for
handing out anti McDonald’s leaflets outside one of their outlets, the result
was one of the longest ever English trials. The trial lasted 292 days and involved
over 180 witnesses. McDonald’s won the case, yet McDonald’s didn’t receive
a penny, except bad publicity. Explore the “Mclibel” case at www.mcspotlight.org. QuestionsWhat can companies do in the face of growing criticism and activism? Should McDonalds have sued and what is their best course of action? Similar anti company websites include www.untied.com
, where visitors are asked to fill out automatic complaint emails to United
Airlines. Discuss why marketing and public relations has such a bad image.
Is it self-inflicted? How can marketing improve its own reputation and image? Visit: http://www.mcspotlight.org http://www.untied.com http://www.prwatch.org/ http://www.corporatewatch.org http://www.transnationale.org 2. Ryanair, is one of Europe’s’ leading low cost airlines. The company is growing
rapidly and is one of the few airlines making a profit. Ryanair was a pioneer
in their use of a website as a marketing channel for their products, bypassing
traditional intermediaries. Now Ryanair take almost 90% of their reservations
through the web. Ryanair.com has turned into a destination site, with high
volumes of web traffic and are selling a wide variety of products not even connected
with flying. Visit www.ryanair.com. QuestionsDiscuss Ryanair’s marketing mix, using the 4 P’s framework. How does Ryanair create customer value? How does Ryanair’s strategy compare to that of British Airways Visit: www.ryanair.com www.britishairways.com | 
2002 A McGraw-Hill Online Learning Centre