preview

Marketing Ethics and Society Essay example

Best Essays

Introduction
The term “Marketing ethics” has been defined as how moral standards of right and fair practices are implemented into organization and strategy (Murphy et al., 2005). In fact, marketing and ethics are usually seemed as a contradiction, because the purpose of marketing is monetary-oriented. The ultimate goal for business is making profit or generating sales, while ethics is moral and societal, such as contributing to the society. Introcaso et al (1998) quotes Michael Novak’s (1998) words that business might fail in the short term if introducing ethical model in competition, because high moral standards increase costs. Consequently, numerous companies launch misleading advertising, manufacture unsafe products, exploit labour …show more content…

Core values associate with the internal brand founding step by connecting the brand to the company’s mission, vision and fundamental organisational values (Kent and Stone, 2007). In addition, Talbot et al. (1998) describes it is significant that a company holds core values that are used as working guidelines, has intrinsic value and which believes to be essential. Such vision and faith in corporate values makes TBS integrate naturally-inspired products and moral issues appropriately to differentiate itself clearly as an original and ethical beauty brand at a reasonable price. Therefore, individual characteristics can affect leadership, which then determines marketing strategies.

Individual characteristics and TBS’s marketing strategy analysis
Based on Solomon’s (1992) research, there are five characteristics that an ethical individual should possess: (1) honesty, (2) fairness, (3) trust, (4) friendliness and (5) shame. These traits have profound effect on marketing strategy in companies. Honesty, fairness and trust involve integrity, justice and dependability, since it can build consumer loyalty and long lasting reputation. Gundlach and Murphy (1993) noted that, to endure long-term relationship, businessmen have to be trustworthy, impartial, responsible and promise-keeping. Moreover, friendliness can add a positive dimension to consumer relationship and make it more sustainable. Shame is a driving force to

Get Access