Definition of Marketing Ethics
Marketing Ethics are the basic principles and values that govern the business practices of those engaged in promoting products or services to consumers. These are a set of criterion by which moral principles are considered within the marketing profession and execution of an advertising campaign for a business and/or organization.
Marketing Ethics in Global Marketing Practice
In recent years, owing to the internationalization of markets, businesses and production processes, more and more marketers and entrepreneurs have to deal with ethics and social responsibility issues in cross-cultural settings. Growth in globalization increased the ethical and social responsibility of corporations across the world. Huge Multinational corporations often have more bargaining power than some of the national governments. At times the annual turnover of these corporate giants is greater that the GDP of some national governments for example Annual revenue of General Motors is bigger than the GDP of Bangladesh (Bangladesh's GDP: $104.92 billion GM's Revenue: $135.59 billion (Business Insider). International markets specially those of developing and under-developed countries can be exposed to unprincipled marketing practices due to their weaker economic potential, low bargaining power, lack of legal framework and law enforcement to protect domestic companies, consumers and society as a whole. The problem of ethics is considerably more intricate in international marketplace, because value judgments differ widely among culturally diverse groups.
Need for Ethical Literacy and Ethics Review framework
The literature provided emphasizes the role of marketing communications in creating perceptions and influencing human behavio...
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...s that can be used to judge the ethical neutrality of a campaign so that it does not end up negatively impacting any section of the society.
References:
Articles Reviewed:
1. Jonathan E.Schroeder and Janet L. Borgerson (2002) “Ethical Issues of global Marketing: Avoiding bad faith in visual representation”, European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 36 Iss: 5/6, pp.570 – 594
2. Jonathan E. Schroeder, Janet L. Borgerson, (2005) "An ethics of representation for international marketing communication", International Marketing Review, Vol. 22 Iss: 5, pp.578 – 600
3. Wible, Andy. "It’s All on Sale: Marketing Ethics and the Perpetually Fooled."Journal of business ethics 99.1 (2011): 17-21.
4. Business Insider: http://www.businessinsider.com/25-corporations-bigger-tan-countries-2011-6?IR=T#general-motors-is-bigger-than-bangladesh-18 (last accessed on- 2nd March 2014)
Kotabe, M., & Helsen, K. (1998). Global marketing management. Temple University. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Michael R. Hyman; Richard Tansey; James W. Clark (1994). Research on Advertising Ethics: Past, Present, and Future: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Ethics in Advertising pp. 5-15.: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
Lahdesmaki (2005) argued that marketing can be an ethical contract between businesses and their customers. Therefore businesses are morally obliged to inform their customers about the products in store and provide all the information necessary via marketing strategy so the customer can make informed decisions about their purchase.
The author, in order to complete the report studied several texts with regards to marketing and consumer ethics. The author also researched many useful websites with regards to Sainsbury's. The information studied can be found in the bibliography section found at the closing part the report.
The abovementioned process is influenced by the commoditisation of products and blurring of consumer's own perceptions of the companies' offering. In order to differentiate and position their products and/or services today's businesses employ advertising which is sometimes considered not only of bad taste, but also as deliberately intrusive and manipulative. The issue of bad advertising is topical to such extent that organisations like Adbusters have embraced the tactics of subvertising - revealing the real intend behind the modern advertising. The Adbusters magazine editor-in-chief Kalle Lason commented on the corporate image building communication activities of the big companies: "We know that oil companies aren't really friendly to nature, and tobacco companies don't really care about ethics" (Arnold, 2001). On the other hand, the "ethics and social responsibility are important determinants of such long-term gains as survival, long-term profitability, and competitiveness of the organization" (Singhapakdi, 1999). Without communications strategy that revolves around ethics and social responsibility the concepts of total quality and customer relationships building become elusive. However, there could be no easy clear-cut ethics formula of marketing communications.
Young, D. (2012). Green Marketing & Marketing Ethics, Room 009, Block 17, Middlesex University Dubai. (25th March, 2012)
Customers are the king in the marketplace. They determine what to produce and by whom. To a great extent, success in businesses depends on their ability to create, satisfy, and retain customers. Unfortunately, many businesses, all around the world, are focused on short-term profit from their customers by engaging in various unethical activities such as deception and producing harmful products. In the United States, businesses like car dealers, and other big ticket home appliances sellers purposefully hide their a...
Marketing is a system of business activates designed to plan, price, promote and distribute want-satisfying products, services and ideas to customers in order to achieve business objectives. Consumer law protects consumer’s rights in the marketplace as well as fair trading, competition and accurate information. On the other hand, ethical aspects of marketing are about making marketing decisions that are morally right. However, consumer law and ethical aspects of marketing have a lot of advantages and disadvantages in the marketplace, which impacts business 's sales and growth like it happened to: Harvey Norman, Nurofen, apple, etc.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
In conclusion, companies that seek to integrate into global markets usually encounter several problems because of the effect of globalization on business practices. The challenges originating from such integration is attributed to the differences in cultures in various societies across the globe. As evident in Google’s dilemma in China, there is no single set of universal ethics that are applicable to all settings and societies across the globe. Companies such as Google need to develop varying ethical standards that are relevant and appropriate to various nations and cultures in the world. This would enable the companies that are integrating into global markets to avoid ethical issues while maintaining effective business practices.
Different individuals vary in their ethical convictions. For example: some are willing to work for the tobacco industry while others are not. Some are willing to mislead potential customers while others will normally not do this. There are, however, also broader societal and companywide values that may influence the individual business decision maker. In cultures where the stricter interpretation applies, a firm may be unwilling to set up an interest-based financing plan for customers who cannot pay cash. The firm might, instead, charge a higher price, with no additional charge for interest. Some firms also have their own ethical stands, either implicitly or explicitly. For example, Google has the motto “Do no evil.” Other firms, on the other hand, may actively encourage lies, deception, and other reprehensible behaviour. Some firms elect to sell in less developed countries products that have been banned as u...
Advertising is an information source to inform people about the products and prices of the company, which can help them to make informed choices. More recently, a huge amount of money has been spent on advertising throughout the world. Different types of advertisement such as television, radio, magazine, newspaper, the internet, billboards and posters can influence consumer’s behavior positively or negatively as there are different arguments and opinions. This essay will focus on the purpose of the advertisement for the company, the positive and negative effects of the advertisement on consumer behavior. According to Shimp (2007), there are five important factors which determine the purpose of an advertisement in terms of marketers’ communication with consumers.
According to the Handbook of Media Management and Economics, marketing is “the art and science of satisfying consumer needs.” Marketing campaigns are strategic plans that will allow a company to push their consumer into buying their product. A good campaign will identify the consumer, their consumer’s needs and desires, and what the consumer needs to experience to convince them the product will fulfill that need or desire. T...
(Mathenge, 2013) The research conducted to examine the ethical issues in advertising and marketing in Kenya. The result of Focus group discussions explores that companies just have cushion on ethical advertising and marketing they just have a trigger for profit. It was recommended that ethics should be made a tool for working effectively and efficiently in
Advertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and priorities of our society with sexism and feminism, advertising has become a poison snake ready to hunt his prey. However, on the other hand, advertising has had a positive effect as a help of the economy and society.