PART ONE- ETHICAL DILEMMA
INTRODUCTION
Marketing ethics can be described as the moral values that guide behavior within the field of marketing and cover issues such as product safety, truthfulness in marketing communication, honesty in relationships with customers and distributors, Pricing issues and the impact of marketing decisions on the environment and society. (Jobber, 2007).
ANSWER TO QUESTION ONE
Ethical dilemma has increased in goods as DISTRIBUTION is now seen as a means of competitive advantage because most large retailers seek to expand its operations.
Slotting allowance is the payment made by manufacturers to RETAILERS in other to secure a space on store shelves
Andrews, 2000 noted that it is very observable to
…show more content…
A culture of deterioration of sales ethics.
DIFFERENT STRATEGIES OF DECEPTION AMONG SALES PEOPLE
Boedecker, Morgan and Slotman (1991) Identifies the different deception strategies adopted by most sales people in other to lure their customer to make purchase which may include:
UNINTENDED WARRANTIES: This includes fabricating existence of a product/service warranty or overstating what is covered and the time frame
COMPETITIVE OFFERRING: Include making false statement about competitors’ products
MISREPRESENTATION OF OFFERRING: Include making claims of your product that is not valid
Implication of deception of sales people to customers and companies
Unethical behaviour can have a negative effect on both the consumers and the company. An unrealistic promise or lie by a salesperson to a customer in other to make purchase could lead to the customer suing the company for MISREPRESENTATION AND BREACH OF WARRANTY
The IMAGE and REPUTATION of the company is at stake in situations where its sales force deceive and lie to customers when selling its products all in order to meet harsh short term performance targets.
REMEDIES THAT A SALES MANAGER CAN FOLLOW IN OTHER TO REDUCE THE ISSUES OF DECEPTION AND LIEING AMONG SALES PEOPLE.
Sales manager can improve its ethical climate condition of its sales people by improving its social responsiveness and by ensuring that its company stays on ethical ground
Futrell, 2001 suggest that in other for managers to stay
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.
When companies target consumers who are uninformed, they feed lies to the consumer, tricking them into buying something that they didn't want or even need. An example is when fast-food restaurants advertise a humongous burger. A consumer is intrigued with the size of this burger.But when they eventually purchase this burger, they are unsatisfied with the comparison of the advertisement and the actual product.
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.
1. Breach of an express warranty - An express warranty is a guarantee from the seller of a product that specifies the extent to which the quality or performance of the product is assured and states the conditions under which the product can be returned, replaced, or repaired. It is often given in the form of a specific, written "Warranty" document. However, a warranty may also arise by operation of law based upon the seller's description of the goods, and perhaps their source and quality, and any material deviation from that specification would violate the guarantee. For example, an advertisement describing a product is often full of express warranties; the product must substantially conform to what is advertised. Many advertisers insert disclaimers for this purpose (e.g., "actual color/mileage/results may vary", or "not shown actual size"). Commonly, written warranties will assure the buyer that an article is of good quality and against defects in "materials and workmanship." A warranty may also apply to services that
Not to our surprise, the employee would almost always choose their economic stability over their integrity. It is still not easy to say that the employee’s conscious didn’t warn them of the risks, the first time. It begins with just a simple upgrade tune up and then trickles to $1,000 in new auto parts. If we look back at the Sear’s auto mechanic example, a mechanic could easily convince the customer that their car needed a whole new system because of the customer’s lack of knowledge of the subject. The customer automatically assumes there is a guaranteed trust commitment to their service, but in turn gets fooled. The evidence unearthed by investigators found nearly identical reports of cheating at one Sears auto repair shop after another.
25) A salesperson lies about the product he sells and claims it can do things it cannot do. Which ethical breach is the salesperson committing?
The Australian Consumer Law (ACL) was established to protect consumers in any legal trading activities in Australia. A set of guarantees has also been introduced for those consumers who are acquiring goods and services from Australian suppliers, importers or manufacturers. The guarantees are intended to ensure that consumers will receive the goods or services they have paid for. If they have problems with the products and services they bought, they are entitled for remedies, such as repair, replacement, and refund.
(TCO 5) Fraud is an intentional misrepresentation of facts, made for the purpose of persuading another party to act in a way that causes injury or damage to that party. In our readings and discussions we have seen several examples of fraud in business. Using that experience (1) provide an example of a common fraudulent practice in business with an explanation of how the practice works and (2) name and describe each of the elements of the Fraud Triangle.
This is when a trader made a false statement of a product or service but believed that the statement was true. Example of this would be a trader saying that the phone is water proof but it real isn’t. this would be deliberately done, so to make it fair the court would say the contract would have to be
Businesses could be held liable for negligent tort if their product injury, harms consumers or is falsely represented. Nonetheless, when the circumstances warrant, parties that are not guilty of negligence or an unintentional tort can still be subjected to compensations when their products injure customers (Seaquist, 2012) Recall Negligence is an unintentional tort wherein one party is injured result to some actions of another. There are certain factors that must be considered to determines whether a corporation acted negligently. The elements are the following: a breach of that duty, legal duty to use due care, a reasonable close causal connection between the breach and the plaintiffs resulting in injury, and the actual loss or damage to the plaintiff. This paper is going to discuss a negligent tort due to a company’s recall of its product. The company may be considered liable for negligence if there was no recall on their product and the product caused bodily harm to a consumer (Benjamin, 2015). Throughout the paper will discuss the reason of Toshiba recalling their laptop computer battery packs due to burn and because of its potential to catch fire on March 30, 2016 and the recall number is 16-131. If the company did not make the decision to recall their laptop computer battery could have been diligent. To prove the negligent tort the consumer must prove factors such duty to care and defenses of negligence (Seaquist, 2012).
Misrepresentation: Misrepresentation is where there is a false statement in the contract which is made by one of the parties to the
A product liability suit may also be brought under a claim of breach of warranty. A manufacturer, supplier, distributor, or retailer of a defective product may be liable where the buyer relied upon an Express warranty, or an implied warranty of merchantability, or an implied warranty of Fitness for a particular purpose.
Cases of false affirmation occurred where the buyer was convinced to buy something by the false statements of the seller;
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.
Marketing ethics deals with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of marketing. Possible fundamental frameworks of analysis for marketing audit are: