Bev, one of the owners of S
& L Associates, tasks Dave with coming up with some ads to promote new loan
products.
Dave
recruits his co-worker Fred to brainstorm some concepts for ads. Since they are
starting this project in late September, their main ad revolves around
Halloween. It has a banner across the top that says, “Don’t be afraid of our
sweet deals!” Okay, so it’s not the greatest advertisement ever created, but
Dave and Fred are proud of it.
With
the big creative hurdle out of the way, Dave delegates the job of filling in
the standard information to Fred. The rest of the flyer is pretty standard
stuff:
·
Interest
rate quote;
·
Repayment
term of the loan in years;
·
APR;
·
Company
name;
·
Company
address; and
·
A
statement that says, “Official Arizona Mortgage Licensee”.
Fred
even adds “Established in Arizona in 1987” right under the S & L Associates
logo as a final touch – just to give potential clients confidence that the
company has longevity in the community.
Meanwhile,
spurred on by his burst of ad-making creativity, Dave decides to design some
new business cards for himself. He uses the S & L logo as a faded watermark
across the front of the card, and includes:
·
His
name;
·
His
unique identifier;
·
The
office address;
·
The
office phone number; and
·
The
company’s website address front and center.
Fred
brings his finished ad flyer to Dave for approval. Dave looks it over and
decides it looks great. He tells Fred to take it down to make some color copies
there in the office for immediate use. Dave knows a few real estate agents with
open houses coming up that could use the ad right away. Once Fred does this,
Dave sends the master copies of the ad flyer and his new business card to the
print shop they always use.
A
week or so later, the print shop courier stops by with boxes of flyers and
Dave’s business cards. Everyone in the office is so impressed with Dave’s
business cards that they decide to make it a company-wide design.
Also,
the few color copies of the ad flyer that Fred made a pretty significant impact
among Dave’s real estate buddies. Two of them sold properties because the ad
flyers helped give buyers a fuller picture of the deal from start to finish,
and three more had buyers who were really interested.
Word
gets around, so the demand for more of these Halloween-themed flyers has gone
through the roof – so much so that every last flyer that they got back from the
print shop had to be shipped right back out to Dave’s real estate contacts.
All
in all, it was good creative project that broke up some of the monotony of Dave
and Fred’s workday. The only problem is that the print shop did not send back
the CD with the master files on them, and Fred accidentally deleted the flyer
file.
So,
while Dave’s business card master file is safe on his computer, they no longer
have a copy of the ad flyer in the office. But it’s not such a big deal. After
all, the ad was only good for the month of October and they are already well
into the month. If they need to make more, they can call the print shop and,
hopefully, the shop will be able to locate the CD and make more flyers.
Now,
let’s take a closer look at this whole process and see what we can learn from
it.
Case Study Questions
1. Look
back over the information that Fred included in the flyer. Did he forget
anything?
A. Yes.
He forgot to include his and Dave’s unique identifiers.
B. No.
For once, Fred actually did a thorough job in filling in the advertisement
information.
C. Yes.
Fred forgot to include S & L’s license number.
D. Both
A and B
2. Did
Fred include any language that goes directly against Arizona state law?
A. Yes.
Instead of including the phrase “Official Arizona Mortgage Licensee”, Fred
should have stated that S & L was a “Arizona Licensed Mortgage Company”.
B. Yes.
The phrase “Established in Arizona in 1987” is a misleading statement that is
specifically prohibited by Arizona state law. Potential borrowers might
construe this phrase as an endorsement by the state.
C. Yes.
Instead of including the phrase “Official Arizona Mortgage Licensee”, Fred
should have included the statement that S & L is “Licensed by the Arizona
Department of Banking and Consumer Finance”.
D. No.
Fred’s use of language in the ad flyer was entirely legal.
3. What
about Dave’s business card? Did it comply with Arizona state law?
A. Yes.
He put all of the pertinent contact information on it that a potential client
would need.
B. No.
Dave should have included S & L’s license number on the card.
C. No.
Dave should have the words “Arizona Licensed Mortgage Company” with the company
name.
D. Both
B and C.
4. What
do you think about the print shop not sending back the CD with the master file
for the flyer?
A. It
is not really a problem. They can always call the print shop and have them find
the CD to make more flyers.
B. It
definitely poses a problem because S & L needs to keep a copy of the flyer
on file for at least two (2) years.
C. It
will not really be a problem, since the law only requires the licensee to keep
such a flyer on file as long as the promotion is running. Because this
promotion is only for October, and they are well into October, not having a
copy on file in the office is not entirely legal, but okay.
5. As
far as the flyer goes, Dave and Fred forgot one more thing that is required
under Arizona state law. What was it?
A. They
forgot to get Bev’s approval on it.
B. They
forgot to get their co-workers’ approval on the flyer.
C. They
forgot to include their co-workers’ unique identifiers on it.
D. Actually,
they remembered everything.
After you finish with the assignment you may return to finish the rest of the course content.
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