An Report On Ethical Consumerism

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.

Primark, an Irish clothing retailer company was set up and headquartered in Dublin in 1969. Nowadays, there are over 250 stores across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Europe and the United States. Moreover, Primark operates with about 700 suppliers in China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey and Eastern Europe. Primark takes corporate social responsibility for the shareholders, owners, customers, suppliers as well as employees. Corporate social responsibility is that a company not only creates profits for the shareholders, but also undertakes the social responsibility for customers, employees and environment, including complying with business ethics, rights of workers and the rules of environmental protection. In order to develop continuously, corporate social responsibility plays an significant role in a company, which drives stakeholders have reliance on the company. This essay focuses on the ways in which Primark taking its duty to society and the ways in which the company should have done better.

Admittedly, more and more brands and retailers are taking action to respond to the ethical and sustainable issues. From the consumer side, there is an apparent growth of ethical purchase. Kate Spade, as an American luxury fashion brand, undergoes ethical enhancements of its manufacturing process in Africa. However, instead of transforming this approach into a charitable purpose, Kate Spade chooses to retain its high-quality standard and beautiful products to attract customers . This report will first focus on the elements Kate Spade practically supports in Africa, then review the performances of their program, using a comparable retailer’s moral action as a comparison. We will eventually conclude by examining the positive and negative impacts of such a policy for Kate Spade.

Target has suggested that its vendors create special products or prevent price comparisons to help decrease consumer show-rooming (Kinicki & Williams, 2013). Pressure of this sort could create opportunities for vendors to participate in unethical practices and could create a negative image for Target (McKay, Nitsch, & Peters, 2015). Although laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, are basic frameworks that business operations must comply with, there is no guideline that businesses have to follow when making business decisions. Furthermore, ethical behavior can be perceived by customers, investors, and society as corporate responsible while creating additional value for products or services (Kinicki et al., 2013). Target should ensure that it ethically follows all constraints of the law while considering the impacts its decisions will have on its stakeholders, and while fostering an image, responsibly by corporate.

In this report I will be talking about how my chosen organisation, which is Primark, uses ethical issues to consider in its every day operational activities. Primark may not have some ethical issues that I will be discussing about in this report, but I will talk in detail about how they could use them, issues in their business. I will be explaining how Primark’s way of selling affects ethical issues and will be discussing about the things they need to be aware of whilst selling their clothes.

As more and more people are aware of environmental problems which our human being are facing, most people nowadays do shopping with some degree of morality in mind, taking social or environmental issues into consideration as they select from a range of product or services. Therefore, the concept of

Consumers increasingly consider the social impact of the money they spend. Some will pay more to support retailers who assert sustainable practices, for instance, by buying products made with recycled material. Others avoid companies notorious for irresponsible or unethical practices, such as outsourcing manufacturing to exploitative sweatshops in under-developed countries. More than ever, retail store owners must consider the ethical and social ramifications of their actions, as well as the actions of their suppliers (Mack, n.d.).

We do not compromise our ethics for the sake of meeting our sales, profit or other targets or goals. Steering a customer to an inappropriate or unnecessary product harms the customer, damages our reputation and may be illegal in certain situations and jurisdictions.

Ethical behavior is behavior that a person considers to be appropriate. A person’s moral principals are shaped from birth, and developed overtime throughout the person’s life. There are many factors that can influence what a person believes whats is right, or what is wrong. Some factors are a person’s family, religious beliefs, culture, and experiences. In business it is of great importance for an employee to understand how to act ethically to prevent a company from being sued, and receiving criticism from the public while bringing in profits for the company. (Mallor, Barnes, Bowers, & Langvardt, 2010) Business ethics is when ethical behavior is applied in an business environment, or by a business. There are many

Consumerism often causes people to identify with a product or brand on a personal level. Certain products have come to represent different levels of society, with swankier products like muscle cars indicating high class and such products as generic “store brand” shampoo indicating low class. People feel that they have relationships with their favorite brands and products and define themselves by what they buy and own. The mass production of cheap products uses precious fossil fuels at an alarming rate. This has an obvious negative impact on the environment.

One of the leading companies that adopted CSR as a pioneer of ethic is The Body Shop. The company has used CSR as a competitive strategy in order to succeed in business. The shop owner knows what she does best. So, products are developed based on a specific group of customers in order to create a strong brand preferences and unique way with a perception of enormous customer groups, called sustainability ideals. The source of The Body Shop success is to utilize the benefits of CSR by selling products based on natural ingredients, paying a fair price and no testing on animal. According to porter (1985), he claimed that sustainability of differentiation depends on two things: "it is continued perceived value to buyers and the lack of competitor ability to imitate it" (Porter 1985 cited in Mallin 2009, p.71). It requires a transparency of work process with stakeholders. From this example, it explains why CSR is important to modern businesses like The Body Shop (Mallin 2009, pp.59-78),(Kwapong 2005, p.89).

Social responsibility and marketing ethics are natively controversial , continues research in this area represents conflicts and challenges addressed to marketers in respect to socially responsible approach to marketing activities(Laczniak and Murphy, 1993; Smith and Quelch, 1996).The aim of the essay is to explain arising phenomenon of Ethical consumption by the use of related theoretical frameworks, as well as explaining Fair Trade and paradoxes of ethical consumption in

This report is aimed at the ethical dilemma faced in Tesco. Tesco is one of the biggest food and grocery retailers in the world. Recently Tesco had approximately 4,811 in the world and it employing over 470,200 people. Moreover, Tesco also provided approximately 7,000 products, it including food and non-food products (Tesco, 2012). This report is on all pertaining to Tesco ethical issues. The main dilemmas that are facing by Tesco are the product and service problem and these dilemmas are invented through environmental scanning analysis.

Stakeholder-orientated framework, analyzing ethical problems on the basis of whom they affect: consumers, competitors, society as a whole •

In the modern world, two things are most sought after: goodness and prosperity. However, given the innate nature of mankind, and his compulsions towards greed and selfishness, complete morality is impossible. This idea has roots in the definitions and ideals found in utilitarianism, a term that will be defined later, and has led many to call business ethics an oxymoron. “In the US generally, the ethical road that is paved with good corporate intentions and constructive programs includes some bumps,” (McClenahen 60). Although bumps may exist, many companies are striving for excellence in this area as statistics show ethics are related to customer loyalty 's. These businesses have found that improvements can be found through understanding and action. Business leaders can increase morals by understand utilitarianism, leadership, correct forms of communication, and how these affect customers.