Ethics In Marketing Essay example

Submitted By ulaboola
Words: 2029
Pages: 9
Open Document
Introduction
The aim of this essay is to discuss The importance of the application of ethics in marketing. When first delving into the subject, it seems to be a topic filled with extreme complexity. In this writing I will try to unravel the intricacy of socially responsible marketing. First of all we need to focus on the true meaning of Ethics. Singer (1985) defines Ethics as “moral philosophy the discipline concerned with what is morally good and bad, right and wrong. The term is also applied to any system or theory of moral values or principles” (Singer, 1985). According to Adcock, Halborg and Ross (2001) it is influenced by the common values existing within an organisation and applies moral principles in its decision making process. As far as ethics in marketing is concerned, Lexicon Financial Times (Anon., 2012) describes it as a way companies can attract positive publicity by building strong customer relationships while adding value to the company and attracting stakeholders by taking environmental social responsibility in promoting and manufacturing its products. The principles of ethics are all encompassing throughout the marketing strategies of the organisations concerned with ethics.
Main body
In order to understand how important a role ethics plays in marketing decision making, we should analyse the factors determining the process. Ethical decisions should be influenced by three main aspects: individual factors, organisational relationships and opportunity. The individual factors are heavily influenced by social structure and culture (Dibb, et al., 2006). What some individuals from developing countries consider to be ethically taboo, can differ substantially from more developed countries where education is more widespread, also religion plays a large role in individual ethics, for example in some Islamic cultures they are still subject to an archaic system of law that sentences convicts to extremely disproportionate punishments that appear ethically backward through western eyes (Ahadi, n.d.). This is also true concerning the age of consent and child marriage all of which appears to be socially acceptable locally (Istitute of Social & Cultural Anthropology, 2012). This is just one example of cultural diversity relating to individual ethical viewpoints.
Dibb et al. (2006) states that research have established that the values of an organisation supersede those of an individual. This makes the marketing employees who form the organisations ethical policy and the wealth of ethically minded individuals, who surround them, extremely important. This is true especially when there is potential to take advantage of lucrative unethical policy. One glaring example of this was the collapse of ethics at the corporate giant Enron, which was thoroughly explained in the documentary “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” by Alex Gibney. Enron’s shareholders were being lied to regarding the value of stock by a dubious system called Mark and Market in which projected profits were reported as actual profit. This enabled Enron place stock worth at whatever they wished. This was a very effective way of keeping shareholders in the dark about the deep financial hole that was engulfing the company. This led to massive amounts of shareholders being encouraged to invest more and more money into Enron, all the while company executives were selling millions of dollars worth of stock. These high risk policies, although known to be very perilous were encouraged, led even by the company executives, Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, and Jeffery Skillings, alleged ignorance to the internal auditing system they had in place. The depth of Enron’s unethical issues spiral deeper and deeper. Many people lost their jobs, others lost their entire pension. These people ruined lives for financial gain. Although they may have believed they could lie and cheat their way out of this grievous situation. There was ,however, one member of the board of directors,
Show More

Related Documents: Ethics In Marketing Essay example

Marketing Ethics Essay

Is Marketing Totally Ethical? Kotler and Armstrong, posit that marketing is about managing profitable customer relationships by creating value for the customer in order to get value in return. It begins with identifying what the customer needs, crafting customer driven strategies, fashioning out marketing programs, building customer relationships and capturing value for the firm. In the process of carrying out various marketing activities, through different media, the question of marketing ethics…

Words 1181 - Pages 5

Marketing Ethics Essays

Name: Loo Zheng Xian, George 13th September 2011 Marketing Ethics: A Response to Roger Crisp Introduction In his article “Persuasive Advertising, Autonomy, and the Creation of Desire”, Roger Crisp discusses his views on the issue of persuasive advertising. His overarching argument is that persuasive advertising ‘overrides the autonomy of consumers’ and he concludes that ‘all forms of a certain common type of advertising (i.e. persuasive advertising) are morally wrong’. In my response to this article…

Words 1787 - Pages 8

Marketing Ethics Essay

Chapter 3: Case #5- The Ethics of Selling Violent Video Games. Case facts: * Take- Two Interactive Software designs, manufactures, and markets video games for both personal computers and home gaming consoles, such as the Sony Play Station 2 and the Microsoft X- Box. * Take- Two’s 10 largest video game titles make up 75 percent of their principal products sales. * Their two current top games, Grand Theft Auto 3 and State of Emergency, make up over 50 percent of the company’s total…

Words 580 - Pages 3

Ethics In American Marketing Research

International Marketing And Business 29 January 2013 Ethics in American Marketing And Business Ethical and unethical business practices are the most discussed topic of our times. The difference is doing what’s right and what’s wrong. Businesses basically do whatever they can to become successful. I think that in the beginning owners of businesses start off with the intention to become successful. After the money starts to come in and they feel the need for more there ethics change. This…

Words 331 - Pages 2

Marketing Ethics Essay

Ethics Assignment 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…

Words 1369 - Pages 6

Marketing Ethics Case Study

Marketing ethics Case Study Lei FENG 1187662 Table of Contents 1. Background 2 2. Ethical issues 2 3. Stakeholders 4 4. Stakeholders analysis 6 5. Recommendations 7 6. References 10 1. Background In this age, the development of the world can not without oil. British Petroleum (BP) is the largest energy cooperation…

Words 1970 - Pages 8

Essay about Marketing: Ethics and Women

SHORT PAPER 8-2 Short Paper 8-2 Advertising and Ethics Southern New Hampshire University SHORT PAPER 8-2 Following the release of a client’s advertisement, a high end women’s fashion line, the client received sharp criticism for its use of violence and sexuality in the advertisement featured in Esquire magazine. The advertisement featured a woman scantily clad in line’s couture lying on her back with a man holding her…

Words 649 - Pages 3

Is There A Higher Level Of Ethics In Marketing And Advertising

of the classes I have taken here are Ashford I have found that advertising and marketing is interesting. Though advertising and marketing is interesting it is not without its problems. I am a person that uses humor to lighten the mode with people but is some research that I have saw there tends to be a problem if it is not handled correctly. This led me to the idea of morals in marketing and advertising. Because marketing and advertising is something that most companies use and rely on for improvements…

Words 3410 - Pages 14

International Marketing Ethics and Csr Case Study Essay

are in the highly regarded position that they are in today. The sourcing of cocoa however is currently one the greatest ethical dilemma’s facing not only Mars, but all chocolate companies all over the world. The importance of international marketing ethics across cultures has been noted by a number of authors (Fletcher & Crawford, 2011; Armstrong & Sweeney, 1994; Singhapakdi, Rawwas, Marta & Ismail, 1999). For…

Words 2168 - Pages 9

Ethics: Marketing and Target Market Selection Essay

reign to self-interest; it requires a coexistent ethical system (Dixon 1982). As Robin and Reidenbach (1987) suggest in their discussion of integrating ethical' and socially responsible dimensions into strategic marketing, planners should examine the anticipated consequences of marketing programs on affected publics, including target markets. While this may be a noble goal, within the global context companies may find it difficult to establish ethical guidelines. Robin and Reidenbach (1987) further…

Words 865 - Pages 4