Guide to Marketing Labor Laws

Image Source: lexnexum.com

There are a lot of things to consider when you think of opening up a business, whether it be a micro, small or a huge corporation. Business laws hugely affect your prospective business. Failure to pay attention to these laws can get you into legal and financial troubles. Although, on lighter note, you do not need to have taken up a degree course in Business Law colleges to know the basic ideas of it. Just to give you an overview of what to consider in putting up a small business. The law require you to meet these;

• Civil Rights Act of 1966.
• The Equal Pay Act of 1963
• Americans with Disabilities Act
• The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act
• The Equal Employment Opportunity Act
• The Bankruptcy Act
• The Occupational Safety and Health Act
• Family Medical Leave Act
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act Labor Law
• Fair Labor Standards Act

If you think you are ready to tackle this matters, it is wise to hire a consultant to explore these important aspect of the business that you are about to put up. the bottom line, make sure you comply with all the requirements so as not to put your self and your business in trouble.

Image Source:guzer.com

Ads are everywhere. Posters on walls, standees at the mall entrance. They are ubiquitous little and large things that perk up every readers minds. It provides a certain high for the viewer. Large companies invest on them more than anything. Competition is stiff, every now and then, this so, so company releases a new advertisement for their best selling product for the entire world to promote to.. And the greatest barrier would be…the medium for communication. In the fast paced trend of the marketing world that sometimes lead to advertising booboos. The case of these products may give you a simple but informative lesson to learn…

• An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope’s visit. Instead of “I saw the Pope” (el Papa), the shirts read “I saw the potato” (la papa).
• Pepsi’s “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” translated into “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave,” in Chinese.
• Coors put its slogan, “Turn it loose,” into Spanish, where it was read as “Suffer from diarrhea.”
• When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the U.S., with the beautiful baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what’s inside, since most people can’t read English.

So next time… you really have to watch what you put in your ads.

Image source: www.accountinglaborlawreferences.com
There are a handful of basic labor laws that do generally protect U.S. workers. It’s probably fair to say that most employers adhere to these basic labor laws, because they’d be darned foolish if they do not apply it and if they want to stay out of court. But, that’s typically the job of those in the HR and legal-department levels, where the employees are properly trained in such matters. The companies are also made up of other employees, who might never have heard of these basic labor laws or fully understand their significance. That’s one way problems occur, especially if HR and legal departments don’t bother to properly train those in control, like jerky bosses. Another way problems occur is that, for obvious legal reasons, HR and legal departments are unlikely to openly admit that employee complaints and accusations have merit, and the company is liable. Worse, they might even protect the perpetrators more than the victims.

by: Christine Zafra

Have you seen those little white banners on the side, on top or at the bottom of websites you’ve visited before? Those little banners are called (Google) Adsense. Although there are already lots of internet marketing companies who have embarked on this kind of marketing strategy, Google has been the most successful company in this kind of advertising (almost all website owners get Google Adsense for their web pages).

So, what is Google Adsense, really? Well, these little banners rely on keyword search basically. Assuming you have an Adsense installed on your website (through HTML coding) and your website talks about weight loss procedures. Your website then will send a message to Google that “hey, my website talks about weight loss procedures”, and Google then will return back your query with different weight loss websites.

This actually works best if your website is not protected to search engines (meaning, your website or blog for that matter, is searchable in search engines). If a person enters “weight loss procedures” in the search box and your website comes up, he/she will click on it. If for example, he/she got interested on the websites posted on your banner, then that person will click on it—just like the spider system (plus, you get paid for every click a person makes on your Adsense!).

Photo taken from http://www.kuanhoong.com

The marketing industry utilizes the four P�s or what they refer to as �marketing mix� to make marketing plans successful. Marketing is first and foremost customer-centered, and the four P�s should focus on the wants and desires of the consumers in its target market to ensure competitive advantage.

The four P�s are:

1. Product. This refers to actual specifications of the product or service being marketed. Supporting elements such as warranties, guarantees and support are also included in the scope of the product.
2. Pricing. This aspect is all about setting the price of the product, from wholesale and retail pricing to discounts.
3. Promotion. This talks about the various methods of promoting the product or brand (advertising, sales promotion, publicity, and personal selling).
4. Placement. This explains the manner by which the product goes to the customers such as retailing, direct selling or online.

Enacted in 1975 by the Congress is the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act. One of its goals is to encourage businesspeople to write their warranties in a “simple and readily understood” language.

It is important to have a well-written warranty as it functions more effectively as a legal instrument defining the rights and obligations of your consumers and company. It is also an effective selling tool as it creates confidence in your product and lessens hassle on the customers as it tells what steps to take if ever any problem arises. This can aid in solving problems efficiently and in helping lessen consumer complaints.

The Federal Trade Commission focuses its enforcement and education efforts on novel schemes as well as traditional scams to fight consumer fraud. The FTC has orchestrated 11 major “sweeps” and filed over 50 cases and with law enforcement partners in other federal agencies and the states. These efforts resulted in an additional 374 federal and state actions. The Commission also has the objectives to achieve greater international cooperation to combat cross-border fraud, broaden its education programs for consumers and business and step up criminal enforcement against those violating FTC orders.During the year 1997, cyberfraud only accounted for a relatively small percentage of total consumer complaints. But, with the surge of electronic commerce, it is taking on increasing importance for consumer protection authorities.

Good pricing practices are very good for business as it increases profits and customer satisfaction. Here are suggestions by the Federal Trade Commission and the National Conference on Weights and Measures to improve pricing practices:

1. Written procedures should be developed for all forms of

pricing activity in your store including ways to ensure that the price in the store’s computer matches the posted or advertised price.

2. Training programs should be developed for store employees that stress commitment to accurate pricing.

3. A pricing coordinator should be designated for your store.

4. Give one employee the responsibility for the price accuracy of all Direct Sale Delivery items.

5. Everyday check prices of random sample of items to ensure that the price in the store’s computer matches the posted or advertised price.

6. Prices in every aisle, section or area of the store should be checked several times a year to find all of the undercharges.

7. A pricing audit should be conducted by the inventory audit team while they’re doing an inventory audit.

8. To speed price audits, use hand-held scanners.

9. To immediately replace incorrect or missing shelf labels, use a portable label printer during price audits.

10. For how-to manuals on pricing accuracy, contact trade associations.

11. For information about inspection procedures and pricing laws, contact your local weights and measures officials

12. Encourage your wholesaler or trade association to set up an industry monitoring program.

The Dietary Supplements Health and Education Act (DSHEA) in 1994 was made possible through the collaboration of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA is primarily responsible for claims on product labeling including the packaging, inserts and other materials while the FTC handles claims in advertising whether print, infomercials, catalogs and other similar direct marketing materials.

The act changed significantly FDA’s role in regulating the supplement labeling. It put emphasis that advertising especially on dietary supplements should be truthful, substantiated and not misleading.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is responsible for preventing unfairness and deception in the marketplace. Because of this, the FTC Act was established, giving the Commission the power to bring law enforcement against misleading and false claims that a certain product is of U.S. origin. It requires a product to be “all or virtually all” made in the United States. To provide guidance to all marketers who want to make a qualified Made in USA claim and an unqualified Made in USA claim under the “all or virtually all” standard, the Commission also issued an Enforcement Policy Statement on U.S. Origin Claims.