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
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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
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.
In order for business ethics to work, the top executives and presidents of the company need to take a closer look at what the company stands for, such as Toyota. The President of Toyota stated that the company was going back to the founder’s philosophy of building a quality product and not for what profit could be earned by cutting corners and producing an inferior product. ”Moral standards deal with matters that we think can seriously injure or seriously benefit human beings.” (Velasquez, 2001) This is a big step towards instilling trust from the consumers back into a stumbling
The author Robert Solomon argues that ethics has to an integral part with regard to business management. He does not believe that business management must include unethical or illegal methods to be able to succeed. Solomon preaches that business management is not as simple as obtaining revenue. “Businesses need to abide by fair policies and their owners have to be ethical in dealing with their customers” (Shaw p. 37). The author acknowledges that while illegal practices in business management could bring positive results at first, eventually the business is bound to fail. This is why Solomon recommended eight important policies that can help businesses in integrating ethics into their operations.
Today, marketing research managers must fully take into account the marketing research process and marketing ethics while conducting their research. According to Brown (2014), the marketing research process is the process of gathering and interpreting data for use in developing, implementing, and monitoring the firm’s marketing plans; whereas marketing ethics are the principles, values, and standards of conduct followed by marketers. To stress the importance of both the marketing research process and ethics, I will apply the principles of each one to a different scenario.
An important factor that determines whether consumers should return back to the store later is the intrinsic value the business portrayed. Staff aids potential buyers with their product knowledge as well as having a further evaluation with their products. The simple values David Jones provides are various experiences such as fitting in clothes before you purchase the product for second thoughts and having the ability to smell the fragrance before purchasing it and knowing what it smells like.
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
3. The policy should be changed and this impact AAA to acquire more Wholesalers and grow their profit margin by allowing the label.
The corporate world has an unfavorable view of itself by being selfish, evil, and against the average American. Companies market themselves and their products in certain ways that makes them and their products appealing to everyone and if not everyone then a certain group of people. Every company has a mission to follow and values to go by, but some companies lack ethics and morals. In this paper I am going to talk about one company that engages in ethical behavior and another that doesn’t.
Discuss what is meant by the term “customer orientation”. Illustrate with examples how companies demonstrate their customer orientation by reference to at least two elements of the marketing mix.
The objective of this paper is to identify and analyse the policies specified by government and organisations for the protection of consumer interests and the role of ethics in consumer choice. It also analyses the role of ethics in consumer culture and give examples of how the service sector reacts to it.
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.
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.
This assignment will initially describe social marketing and then indicate how corporations affect stakeholders through companies’ social marketing and responsibility. Following that, the importance and functions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and social marketing will be demonstrated. Finally, it will explain how organizations reflect CSR and make a short conclusion to indicate the relationship between social marketing and CSR.
Process-orientated framework, analyzing ethical problems in terms of the categories used by marketing specialists; Research, price, promotion, placement Specific issues in marketing ethics: