Marketing Ethics Into The Marketing Process

Marketing Ethics: The Marketers standards of conduct and moral values. The 5 areas of ethical concerns for Marketers are: Marketing Research – ex: Gathering marketing information in exchange for money or free offers. Product Strategy – ex: Product quality, planned obsolescence, packaging. Distribution – ex: Determining the appropriate degree of control over a channel. Promotion – ex: Gifts and Bribes Pricing – Most unethical pricing behaviours are also illegal. Social Responsibility: involves marketing philosophies, policies, procedures, and actions whose primary objective is the enhancement of society. The 4 levels of Social Responsibility are: Economic – Be Profitable; the foundation upon which all others rest Legal – Obey The Law; Play by the rules of the game Ethical – Be Ethical; Obligation to do what is right, just, and fair. Philanthropic – Be a Good Corporate Citizen; Contribute resources to the community, improve quality of life.

Marketing is like a double-edged sword, if it is adopted properly, it will give profits to a company; however, if it is used inadequately, it will give harm. It is undeniable that today’s business operations have more intense competition level against each other due to the advancement of technology that allows people to receive more information. Marketing plays the key role in making products being recognized by consumers. To get people’s attention, some massages about the product need to be sent to the target market. With the high level of competition, the unethical marketing issues arise in order to make their own firms gain more

This case study analyzes the experiences of Courtland Kelley at General Motors (GM). Courtland Kelley a third generation GM worker put his job on the line by pushing the GM managers and executives to fully respond to the safety issues found while working as a safety inspector at the company. Kelley along with his supervisor Bill McAleer first discovered the issues while auditing GM cars at rail yards across the country, a spot check of vehicles before the cars were cleared to be delivered to the dealers. McAleer was taken off the audit as a result, who subsequently sued the company seeking whistle-blower protection. The case was eventually dismissed by a judge in favor of GM. The judgement only increased Kelley’s

The primary purpose of ethics and social responsibility is imperative to the way we do business and live amongst society. Ethics most commonly know as the rights and wrongs are principles and standards that establish what is know as acceptable conduct within an organization. Organizations have moral and legal duties to implement ethics when developing a strategic plan while considering stakeholders and consumers, they do not want to be lied to or cheated into buying a false product. Unethical companies will use aggressive sales tactics and mischievous ways, of doing business to sell, promote and profit from vulnerable consumers. Unethical organizations believe in these tactics

Ethics is an important consideration in marketing decisions because a company wants to instill a relationship or trust with consumers. Consumers are not as likely to purchase a company’s goods when they have been caught lying. Take for example Dannon yogurt, which told consumers they would have better digestion because of their yogurt. This was before probiotics were added to yogurt, and as a result it was nothing but their word and consumers fought back. I received a refund for $15 because of the amount of yogurt I bought during a year of their misleading information. The outcome for me was that I no longer bought Dannon yogurt for my family. It was Dannon’s misleading information that prevented me from purchasing it later on, and proved that the consumers would not stand by it, which caused litigation and millions of dollars paid out to consumers.

• If I were offered a business deal that violated common business ethics I would first assess the situation and look at the reasons that the offer is unethical. Once I analyzed the situation I would address

Ethics is generally defined as “the standard of behavior by which conduct is judged”. In other words, individuals execute actions in different ways based on their ethical beliefs which are obtained by their personal moral principles. While we usually associate this notion to people, it can also be used for businesses. The latter can judged by potential customers, other firms, and many other different actors. Marketing plays an essential role in communicating and building judgements regarding a particular company. It generally showcases a company’s beliefs and values. It upholds them to their social responsibilities.

"Germany's 'social market' economy largely follows free-market principles, but with a considerable degree of government regulation and generous social welfare programs" (Doing business in Germany, 2013, Export.). When contemplating entering the German market, it is useful to learn from the example of other firms, including their mistakes. Germany, although superficially similar to the United States, Great Britain, and other European countries in many ways, has some critical cultural differences which will impact the ways in which a foreign company presents itself and interacts with local organizations.

1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer

Ethics is defined as what is right and what is wrong. Every business should behave ethically. The moral principles that guide the way a business behaves are business Ethics. Ethics are moral guidelines to people or to an organisation which govern good behaviour. So behaving ethically is doing what is morally right. Doing an ethical business may always be not profitable but it will be more beneficial to company and the people involved in company as well as the people who are getting influenced by the company. If a company is acting ethically then it is trying to differentiate between right and wrong and then chose the right decision for everyone. It is very easy it identify any unethical

To fully understand the nature of the question posed one must know the meaning of ethics. Webster’s dictionary defines ethics as the philosophical study of the moral value of human conduct and of the rules and principles that ought to govern it; moral philosophy, the moral fitness of a decision, course of action, etc. Basically, I believe ethics is how one makes a decision according to the social norm that surrounds him. The social norm includes not only the culture but the laws and standard procedures of the environment. These laws and norms must be fully understood before one can understand the ethical significance of one’s decision.

Ethical problems in marketing starts with conflicts and disagreements. Each party in the marketing transaction brings expectations of how the business relationship will exist and how the transaction should be conducted. Some ethical problems in marketing research aren’t always the invasion of privacy and stereotyping. Selective marketing is used to discourage the demand from undesirable markets or just by disenfranchising them altogether. Examples of unethical market is the exclusion markets such as gay, ethnic minorities, and plus-size markets.

Businesses have been relatively passive in investigate their in marketing ethics and are still operating according to traditional business models and process that do not reflect consumer interests and ethical implications of their activity often continue afterthought and are yet to be thoroughly incorporated into management decision-making. The contingency framework can accelerate this pre-emptive approach to ethical decision-making. To embed ethics into firms planning and strategy formulation process , marketers should learn from consumers ethical evaluation of their marketing techniques (Smith and Cooper-Martin 1997). An “ethical execution of the marketing program. In addition to financial , market, and competitive objectives, marketers should include consumer concerns and ethical integrity as important criteria for management decision making . Furthermore, ethics must be matched throughout the marketing planning process from product development, market selection , advertising and promotion execution.

1. The Sales Rep. A sales representative for a struggling computer supply firm has a chance to close a multimillion-dollar deal for an office system to be installed over a two-year period. The machines for the first delivery are in the company’s warehouse, but the remainder would have to be ordered from the manufacturer. Because the manufacturer is having difficulty meeting the heavy demand for the popular model, the sales representative is not sure that the subsequent deliveries can be made on time. Any delay in converting to the new system would be costly to the customer; however, the blame could be placed on the manufacturer. Should the sales representative close the deal without advising the customer

Process-orientated framework, analyzing ethical problems in terms of the categories used by marketing specialists; Research, price, promotion, placement Specific issues in marketing ethics: