UCLA Marketing and Disclosure of Information Paper

On Holley’s account, how might a salesperson’s obligations to her customers differ if her clients are businesses rather than ordinary consumers? Make sure you describe and respond to at least 1 difficulty for your interpretation.

Notes

You may choose to focus on 1 of the 3 conditions (knowledge, non-compulsion, rationality) for discussing the differences, but make sure you cover all 3 when you set out Holley’s account.

The question asks you to explore potential differences between the cases. It’s perfectly fine to argue that there is no difference. (Spoiler: I think there are plausible arguments that there are no differences as well as plausible arguments in opposition.) What matters is that you set out your reasoning and show that you’ve really thought this through.

It’s fine to raise a difficulty which you find you can’t answer. I want to see you explain why potential answers won’t work. (Some good advice I got long ago: If you start out an essay saying ‘I will prove x’ and run into a problem you can’t solve, go back and change the beginning to ‘You might think that x is true, but I will show it is not’.)

You need to discuss at least one potential difference between the cases. You may discuss more than one difference. However, quantity does not substitute for quality. One potential difference that is carefully explored —where multiple reasons for and against are considered—is much better than just tossing out several potential differences.