Ethics in Functional Areas of Business- Marketing Management-1

 

Marketing ethics is the area of applied ethics which deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Some areas of marketing ethics (ethics of advertising and promotion) overlap with media ethics. Dimension of social responsibility that involves principles and standards that define acceptable conduct in marketing. An identifiable problem, situation or opportunity that requires concerned parties to choose from several actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, (ethical or Unethical)

To what extent should firms create demand for products and services, rather than just satisfying established needs and wants?

•       Linked to this is the marketing of products and services to children or other vulnerable groups.

To what extent should marketing create unrealistic aspirations and focus on individual concerns and fears through advertising?

•       Should, for instance, private health care companies raise fears about possible life threatening illness to sell their services?

To what extent should firms market products and services that are dangerous, immoral or a risk to health, even though the sale of the products themselves are legal.

•       Cigarette marketing has been a particular focus with, advertising being banned in many countries. Other issues relate to the legalisation of drugs such as cannabis, and to the sales of replica firearms.

Baumhart (1961) recognized the major ethical problems that must be removed from business process such as

•       Gifts, gratuities, bribes, and "call girls,"

•       Price discrimination and unfair pricing,

•       Dishonest advertising,

•       Miscellaneous unfair competitive practices,

•       Cheating customers, unfair credit practices, and overselling,

•       Price collusion by competitors,

•       Dishonesty in making or keeping a contract, and

•       Unfairness to employees and prejudice in hiring.

Ethical Issues in Marketing

  1. Privacy: Organisations today collect, store and process information relating to customers to be used for targeted advertising. In such cases the concerns for privacy require an effort for informing the customers and acquiring their consent.
  2. Stereotyping: Marketing campaigns based on generalized studies or common perceptions about behaviours and values of certain demographic groups raise important ethical issues. For example, often women are matched up with household products such as cleaning supplies and are shown as doing domestic work.
  3. Objectivity: The concern for objectivity is a vital issue in marketing. The lack of objective research on part of the market researcher may legitimize profiting from poverty, cultural stereotypes and racial tensions.
  4. Vulnerable targeting: Targeting an audience such as children involves ethical consideration. Children have always been an important marketing target for certain kinds of products.

 

 

  1. Unethical market exclusion: The absence of minority groups in marketing in a multi-ethnic society can create image and identity problems among those that are excluded. For instance the adverse industry attitudes to the homosexual, transgender and ethnic minority.
  2. Unintended advertising channels: Direct marketing is the most controversial of advertising channels, particularly when approaches are unsolicited. TV commercials and e-mail are common examples. Electronic spam and telemarketing push the borders of ethics and legality more strongly.
  3. Misleading advertising: Many advertising are misleading. For example, misleading the public by showing turning a black face into white.
  4. Negative advertising techniques: The advertiser highlights the disadvantages of competitor products rather than the advantages of their own.
  5. Anti-competitive Practices: For instance, Predatory pricing which is practice of selling a product or service at a very low price, intending to drive competitors out of the market, or create barriers to entry for potential new competitors.
  6. Use of brand ambassadors: Ambassadors endorsing products they don’t use or whose authenticity they don’t cross check, making profits out of public’s reverence of a person, high cost of celebrity eventually extracted from public, puts newer and smaller brands at a disadvantage hurting fair competition.

Ethical issues relating to Marketing Mix

Basically, the Marketing Mix refers to strategies related to the 4Ps: Price, Promotion, Product and People. Ethics in Marketing is important because when marketing activities deviate from accepted standards, the exchange process can break down, resulting in

•       Customer Dissatisfaction

•       Lack of trust

•       Legal issues

•       Income falls


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