The largest major initiative that was chosen was to market to schools, students and the educators that are employed within the educatory system. When marketing towards a vulnerable demographic e.g. children or the disabled then it obviously comes with a lot of speculation and raised eye brows. So, what are the benefits for this initiative? Well, major corporations have fistfuls of cash and educatory centres such as schools, nurseries and colleges (especially public ones) do not have a large financial budget at all. On average in the U.K. a primary school receives £1,300 per pupil (Gov.Uk, 2017). If a company such as Apple who in the first quarter of 2017 alone made a revenue of $88.3bn, up 13 percent on Q1 2017 and an all-time record (Haslam, K. 2018).

The benefits of a school creating a business link with a major corporation are obvious, especially in terms of discounted products and financial input. This can create a huge positive media spin for a large company and this in turn will generate increased sales for them. These actions could provide companies with the opportunity to show that they care about children and schools get something extra for their students that they couldn’t otherwise afford – a win-win for schools and their business partners. It has also been proven that students are a very engaged and captive audience – they are guaranteed to see these messages every day they are in school, often many times per day. Even just the product alone being seen multiple times around a schooling environment would cause a student to familiarise themselves with the brand and the synonymous meaning that they are a company who care and want to help and assist, let alone being reliable.

Now with such a large reward which works out significantly cheaper than radio or televisions marketing, there surely must be risks. The biggest concern is whether a larger company would use the information they are gaining from students and exploit it and their privacy. Using the technology that is being pushed into schools through clever deals and negotiations, it is possible that sponsored equipment or curriculum could in turn push students to use certain features and sites to gain information, and this in turn then gathers ad viewing data like any other website on a home internet system. Although numerous laws and policies already exist to regulate what marketers can do with student information, legislation on student data and privacy continues to be unclear and difficult to navigate.

The other negatives also come from a social perspective and a company as large as Apple wouldn’t want to be known for this; brands can be the cause of social division amongst children resulting in the formation of “in” groups and “out” groups. Those who do not own the right brands may be discriminated against and experience social impacts which include being teased, bullied, having low self-esteem and being socially excluded. Their parents also felt the effects through pester power, the guilt of not being able to buy their children the latest brands or by financially struggling to provide these brands for their children. (Roper, S. Shah, B. 2007). As Klein (2007) observes, the ethics and social responsibility communities seem to agree that targeting vulnerable groups with marketing campaigns that take advantage of their vulnerability is unjust. This puts corporations at huge risk when spreading their brand image all over an area of education or an assistant of education, such as a book store which supplies the schools with learning support and materials, or the exam board which must control the school’s examinations without bias from a major company. The risks and rewards are large but if carried out correctly, a company such as Apple could exploit the market endlessly and create a huge dedicated following from a young age, massively increasing sales and market share.

References:

Department of Education (2012). Fair Funding for All Schools. London: Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government.

Harris, J. (2014). Costs and Benefits of Allowing Marketing in Schools. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/kids-under-the-influence/201405/costs-and-benefits-allowing-marketing-in-schools [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].

Haslam, K. (2018). Apple reports its best ever financial quarter, thanks to iPhone X. [online] Macworld UK. Available at: https://www.macworld.co.uk/news/apple/apple-financial-results-3581769/ [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].

Palmer, D. and Hedberg, T. (2018). The Ethics of Marketing to Vulnerable Populations. [online] Academia.edu. Available at: http://www.academia.edu/14862711/The_Ethics_of_Marketing_to_Vulnerable_Populations [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].

Roper, S. and Shah, B. (2007). Vulnerable consumers: the social impact of branding on children. [online] EmeraldInsight. Available at: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/02610150710822339 [Accessed 25 Feb. 2018].