To what extent unethical marketing techniques could damage the sustainable business environment. Discuss.
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
…show more content…
To illustrate, the famous fast food restaurant, Burger King, used the famous clown character, Ronald McDonald, from its competitor’s company, McDonald’s, in Burger King’s TV advertisement. It is obvious that the advertisement tries to communicate that even Ronald McDonald chooses Burger King’s hamburger (MARQUES, 2005). And, this is misleading as it effects McDonald’s reputation. In addition, this TV advertisement was banned in Germany and was a big discussion issue in Netherlands (van Leeuwen, 2005; MARQUES, 2005).
Figure 2: Ronald McDonald visits Burger King advertising campaign
From: http://www.marques.org/Newsletters/Downloads/Issue%20No081.pdf
The sustainable business environment can be greatly impacted by these unethical marketing practices. More and more companies use unethical techniques to market their target group, and sometimes, to beat their competitors. Those companies may select the unethical way to do marketing and may claim that it is technically legal as the action is not against the law, but it fails in term of the ethical view. Nevertheless, it is not worth for those companies to apply unethical marketing strategies as there are negative consequences from using these unethical tactics. Before discussing about the negative impacts of immoral marketing techniques, let’s take a look at the sustainable business environment first. Lee Cockerell, the former executive vice president of
Greenwashing is the practice of promoting environmentally friendly programs and products to draw away attention from an organization’s who is unfriendly environmentally. Large companies often use this art form to sell products to consumers. In most cases the companies try and target customers who are more environmentally cautious when purchasing certain products. The idea first originated in the late 1980’s (Dash and Routray). The purpose of its origination came from the growing interest in environmentally friendly and sustainable products from consumers. Greenwashing is a widely known and used concept by companies to deceive and trick consumers into purchasing their products that they claim are healthy, safe, and ecofriendly. However, as consumers, we strive to buy better options for the environment, but large companies use this to benefit and make more money. This strive can also result in measures humans can take to protect themselves from these dangerous manipulations. Companies are constantly manipulating the minds and beliefs of the human population and falsely advertising their “ecofriendly” products to make them more beneficial for the environment. However, in some cases greenwashing can be used for benefitting certain companies. Greenwashing can be stopped, but to do this people need to understand the dangers associated with it and they need to ban together to make a change. This change can mean that people are demanding that there are higher restrictions on the
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.
Marketing: Delivering Benefits to the Organization, Its Stakeholders, and Society. “Marketing” is the activity for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that benefit the organization, its stakeholders, and society at large. This shows that marketing is a much broader activity than simply advertising or personal selling. Environmental forces involving social, economic, technological, competitive, and regulatory considerations also shape organizations marketing activities. These marketing decisions have an important impact on society as a whole. Marketing touches our lives on a daily basis and affects every person and organization. Clearly, business firms involved in manufacturing (Heinz), retailing (Target), and providing services (Marriott) market their offerings and
Fast food chains such as McDonald’s and Burger King can be very appealing to children and teenagers in the 21st century. Both McDonald’s and Burger King both have a “mascot” so to speak; a clown and a king. In advertisements by both companies, both mascots are urging consumers to buy their product because that is what they do. If the ‘cool’ mascot does it, then nothing else matters. McDonald’s, especially, is the biggest appeal to children in all of fast food chains. They have Ronald McDonald, a big indoor play scape, and they
Imagining a world where all the resources are abundance: we get what we want, we create, we consume, and we destroy.
Marketing is the process by which companies create customer interest in products or services. Big companies spend millions of dollars on marketing to promote their products therefore, they use different marketing approaches and strategies. They send to many ads via mails, emails, and social media every day to encouraged people for buying their products. While as a consumer, it is hard to ignore all these advertisements since most of them put a lot of cool products or either nice offers which feel worthy buying it. For example, fast food companies mostly target families with children by sending promo coupons such as buy one get one free, or prize down, etc. This considered to be a good deal for some of the families while other talks about its endemic problems, such as being unhealthy, increases overweight in children and adults, destroy
Marketing has been used as a forefront for promoting the sale of products, and services to customers for centuries. We see examples of marketing every day channeled through mediums such as television, radio, newspapers, product packaging, and massive billboards on the side of the road. As humans, we are naturally wired to fall for the so called ‘next best product’, the ‘intriguingly eye catching packaging’, and the ‘lowest price’. However, what we are not able to see, are the true intentions of the marketer, and whether his/her intentions are ethically sound.
The market is the set of actual and potential buyers of a product. Building customer value and satisfaction is the key to product success. Marketing is about understanding customers needs and developing a product that provides value and promotes effectively. Marketing, in addition, is also about wants and demands. Wants are shaped by culture and personality. Demands are wants that are backed by purchasing power. As a marketer responsibility is formed to provide a combination of products, services, information, or experience to satisfy these needs, wants, and demands. Customers form expectations about the value of products and
In the text, the issue of greenwashing was addressed and its impact on consumer purchase decisions and on the sustainability market. Greenswashing can be described as “the practice of overemphasising a company 's environmental credentials, often by misinforming the public or understating potentially harmful activities” (Doyle 2011). The practice of greenwashing has led to consumers being more sceptical of products marketed as ‘green’ or ‘environmentally friendly’. This scepticism may result in consumers avoiding sustainable products for fear that the ‘green’ labelling may indicate an inferior product using promises of sustainable resources and production to increase its prices (Rettie Burchell & Riley 2012, p. 422).
In the McDonald’s case the company uses a clown to target children to consume their products. Ronald McDonald is a clown character used as the primary mascot of the McDonald 's the occupation of the clown is to make children accept as true that eating food from this restaurant will make them happy. An example of this is the commercial where Ronald is an a playground and children going up and down the slide smiling, grandparents enjoying playing twister and parents dancing around the playground. This commercial is a clear example that this company focus to target children and making grown-ups accept that this fast food is “healthy” because is made for children and their families. Media uses colors,
In the Marketing structure, each candidate offers a particular goal relating to the business model of the product or service, and in what particular manner where the business deal should be executed. Every layer of ethical marketing has dangerous factors that will be elaborated
Have you ever wondered what was the reason you decided to buy your first car or what made you lean towards going to one store compared to another? Maybe it was cost, maybe it was something your friend suggested but every decision made to buy something can be contributed to marketing. Marketing is a widely used term to describe the means of communication between the company and the consumer audience, it is also the adaptation of the commercial activities and use of advertizements by the organizations with a purpose to induce mental thoughts in the targeted consumer.
In the past decades, the role and form of marketing has rapidly evolved to match the now global environment. This rapid growth and change has made it necessary for
Businesse’s are in danger of not fulfilling their optiminal sales if they do not market and promote their product successfully. According to statistics more than 70 percent of new products launched in the market fail in the first year of operations due to limited or bad marketing. Marketing affects everyone including the buyer, the seller and the public.
Advertising and promotion, ethical pitfall: Issues over truth and honesty. Issues with violence, sex and profanity. Taste and controversy and negative advertising