Business and Management Assignment Sample
“Discuss the legal constraints a marketer should consider when managing social media channels for Unilever”
Introduction
Businesses who use social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to garner more attention and generate more revenue stand to gain much more from their efforts than those that do not. Although many firms are either uninformed of or uninterested in the legal ramifications of using social media, this is a disservice to the industry as a whole, and it is regrettable that so many are. On completion of the course, you will have a solid grasp on the most essential legal challenges that organisations are currently grappling with at the highest levels of management.
Discussion
Visual pictures are ideas that originate in Unilever head rather than in Unilever hands and are referred to as such. For legal reasons, businesses must be aware of their own trademarks as well as the trademarks of their competitors in order to avoid legal ramifications. Following the registration of a trademark, the firm’s owner will be able to control how and when the mark and associated assets are to be utilised (IBOJO,2020). Consequently, people will be less likely to utilise their services without their consent as a result of this. It is possible to find out if you may register Unilever trademark or service mark as a social media user name by conducting an online search for the appropriate domain name. In the aforementioned situation, the fact that Coca-Cola® has taken the necessary steps to register its logo with the United States Patent and Trademark Office makes it relatively simple for the company to file a lawsuit against an unrelated Facebook page for trademark infringement on the basis of the company’s trademark registration. Being granted permission to use a logo or mark when you do not own it is extremely difficult, if not impossible to accomplish in the absence of ownership (Birn,2021).
Also important is to be aware of any and all trademarks owned by third-party organisations, which should be avoided at all costs. A trademark or service mark may be infringed upon, and legal action against an individual or organisation may be necessary to enforce the rights of the owner. The term “violation” refers to any scenario in which there is a “probable cause for confusion.” Based on the appearance of you and the Coca-Cola® Company on Unilever social media pages, it would be impossible for him or her to distinguish between the two of you. The best way to avoid trademark infringement is to avoid using another company’s trademark and giving the impression that you have any kind of link with another company when you do not in fact have any such relationship.
Employment. It is imperative that business owners exercise caution while establishing “hiring and firing” procedures through the usage of social media outlets. The LinkedIn profile of Unilever competitor’s new recruit has been updated, allowing you to have a more complete understanding of who they are as a person. This task falls on Unilever shoulders to send an email to all of the contacts mentioned on Unilever new employee’s LinkedIn page as well as to any past clients. In order to guarantee confidentiality (Meral,2021). As part of the confidentiality agreement Unilever new employee signed, he is not permitted to speak with clients who have previously received his services (Luttrell,2021). Unilever are fully aware of the limitations imposed on you. He no longer has the ability to communicate with them. If Unilever prior employer files a lawsuit against you, do you know what will happen to Unilever new employee in the event of a lawsuit against you? In the event that you are sued by a former employer for interfering with a commercial transaction, is it feasible that you may lose Unilever job as a result of the lawsuit? Both of them are correct in their assumptions about the situation (Moriuchi,2021). Even if you are victorious, you will still be obliged to pay a substantial sum of money to the government. To learn more about a job candidate, you can look him or her up on social media sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. The religious or political beliefs of that individual are a factor in this circumstance, and you do not want to hire them to work for Unilever organisation because of this. According to anti-discrimination regulations, it is not permissible to reject or recruit someone on the basis of their race, gender, or country of origin, among other factors. If you were in violation of the regulations, this may be adequate evidence to prove it to the authorities (Paul,2019).
It was a sobering reminder of how essential privacy and social media are on the Internet these days when a freshman at Rutgers University committed suicide because his friend captured and posted recordings of him having sexual relations with another person. Invasion of personal privacy is a crime that can be prosecuted regardless of whether the video was shared by you or someone else (Birn,2021). Prosecutors are currently conducting an investigation into the evidence in order to determine whether or not bias/hate crime charges should be filed against the defendant in this case (Laczniak,2019). Anyone providing personal information over the internet should be aware of their whereabouts at all times, regardless of the circumstances in which it is provided. For Unilever own safety and security, you should avoid disclosing Unilever residence or the activities you engage in on a daily basis (Bishop,2021).
Business owners who use social media to promote their companies are often not interested in becoming involved in the personal lives of other people, and this is especially true in the case of celebrities. It is possible for someone’s privacy to be violated by others who post “innocent” comments on social media, even if they have no intention of causing harm to anyone. A reasonable person would not want that information to be made available to the wider public, in which case this is true.
Conclusion
It doesn’t matter how popular social networking sites are; the business owner must maintain complete control at all times, no matter how difficult the situation appears to be. Owners of businesses can avoid falling into these and other legal snares in the future by maintaining vigilance in their business operations. It is critical to have a well-thought-out social media marketing strategy. Workers should be informed of the company’s Social Media Policy, which should specify what they are allowed to do and what they are not allowed to do on social media sites. They will be more productive as a result of this. After a policy has been devised, it must be implemented, personnel must be made aware of it, and its enforcement must be a top priority at all times. A strong probability exists that the firm will be viewed as though it did not have a policy in place in the event that the policy is not invoked by the company.
References
Birn, R. and Stone, M.,( 20201. Key issues in managing marketing research and customer insight. In The Routledge Companion to Marketing Research (pp. 219-243). Routledge.
Bishop, S., (2021). Influencer management tools: Algorithmic cultures, brand safety, and bias. Social Media+ Society, 7(1), p.20563051211003066.
IBOJO, B.O., Impact Of Strategic Placement On Product Accessibility In The Nigerian Food And Beverage Industry. A Case Study Of Unilever Nigerian Plc.
Laczniak, G.R. and Murphy, P.E., (2019). The role of normative marketing ethics. Journal of Business Research, 95, pp.401-407.
Luttrell, R. and Wallace, A.A., (2021). Social media and society: An introduction to the mass media landscape. Rowman & Littlefield.
Meral, K.Z., (2021). Strategic Social Media Marketing and Data Privacy. In Management Strategies to Survive in a Competitive Environment (pp. 187-199). Springer, Cham.
Moriuchi, E., (2021). Cross-cultural Social Media Marketing: Bridging Across Cultural Differences. Emerald Group Publishing.
Paul, J., (2019). Marketing in emerging markets: a review, theoretical synthesis and extension. International Journal of Emerging Markets.
Thompson, J.D. and Weldon, J., (2022). Digital Marketing. In Content Production for Digital Media (pp. 35-46). Springer, Singapore.
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