Ethical Questions In Business

Ethical questions in business

GOING INTO BUSINESS • • •

Would you ever go into business? What advantages/disadvantages does it bring? What kind of business would you go into? Do you think one needs to have a „thick skin“ if one wants to be a good businessman? IMPULSE BUYERS – people who are tempted to buy certain products

HAVE YOU EVER BECOME AN IMPULSE BUYER? WHEN?

BRANDS • •

To what extent are you particular about brands? Do you believe that certain brands (e.g. of clothes) are of a better quality than normal goods that you can buy (e.g.) in the market place?

REPUTATION • •

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How important is a good reputation to a business? If you had to choose between buying something from a well-known shop of a good reputation and buying the same thing more cheaply from a shop you would know nothing about, which would you choose and why? Would you pay more? Give examples How to gain a good reputation? On the other hand, how can bad reputation influence a business? Who can you definitely rely on when you want to know the reputation of a service-provider? E.g. my best friend knows all about the quality dentists in town, I can trush him!

„A GOOD PRODUCT WILL SELL ITSELF“ – is it true?

ATTRACTING YOUR ATTENTION •

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What is the most common way of attracting people’s attention? – advertisting in newspapers, commercials, billboards, ... What kind of advertisting do YOU believe the most? Are there any „unethical“ ways of attracting our attention? e.g. appealing to small children that cannot distinguish between fiction and reality – animated figures in commercials

ADVERTISING YOUR OWN PRODUCT •

If you were the owner of a company, how would you advertise your services?

COMPETITION •

How to deal with competition? What would be good ways of reducing the chances of my competition? E.g. creating a better website, lowering the prices, paying huge money for advertisement, creating a scale of your loyal customers,...

Examples: •

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In Slovakia, which do you think has a better way of advertising, ORANGE or T-MOBILE? Which one do you prefer? Why? Are you a fan of so called „holiday promotions“/discounts/bonuses,... Have you ever been deceived by a certain company? How? What other bad experiences do you have in this field?

VOCABULARY: commercial – reklama (TV) competition - konkurencia deceived – oklamaný, podvedený discount – zľava distinguish - rozoznať goods - tovar influence - ovplyvňovať

loyal - verný promotion – podpora predaja rely on – spoľahnúť sa na tempted – zvádzaný, pokúšaný thick skin – hrošia koža to be particular about – potrpieť si