Ethical and Social Marketing

Question: Discuss about the Ethical and Social Marketing. Answer: Introduction Ethical marketing means the use of good values and moral guidelines in the process of marketing. Use of marketing ethics helps the society as a whole both in short and long term. Ethical standards are very important in business, particularly where online marketing has become vital source of income to the organization. In the age of internet organization information can be seen by everyone (Sirgy, 2001). Therefore, any false information published by the organization can lead to adverse impact on the future revenue. Ethical issues in the marketing can arise due to conflicts of interest in parties involved in the business with each other. It is true that each party in the business deal has its own expectation on how the relationship should be carried out. In this paper, various ethical issues in the marketing will be discussed along their impact on the organization. To explain ethical issues in detail, two Australian companies will be taken and marketing issues faced by them will be elaborated. Different Ethical Issues in the Marketing Issues Ethical marketing refers to the philosophy that guides all the marketing efforts and it does not mean marketing strategy used by the organization. Use of false advertising is the most common issue in the marketing process and mostly people are aware of the exaggerated products and do not indulge in such business transactions (Burrow and Fowler, 2015). In the todays world, companies involving in the unethical practicing of marketing may be caught and can be punished. There various ways to promote the unethical marketing and these practices may lead to wrong information to people. Various ways to unethical marketing Stereotyping: Organizations are involved in ways to promote their products to the specific group of users. In order to promote such product they use stereotyping marketing to show the product as appealing to their desired target market. Stereotyping can be seen in advertising that contains children where boys are shown as rough or aggressive and girl are shown as more feminine. There are market campaigns that use particular group of people in the stereotypical roles (Preedy and Wise, 2003). For example, in case washing powder advertisement women are portrayed as housewives who are surrounded by the laundry and washing the cloths. This campaign targets the housewives as their target market and excludes males from such ads. Such unethical advertisements leads to negative impressions in the minds of other class of people but it can be familiar for the organizations as it increases the sales target and also lead to potential consumers (Linett, 2007). So stereotypical marketing in the com mercial ads means full of possessions that led to fulfillment and happiness. Subliminal Messaging: It is now the general practice of organizations to insert the subliminal messages in the marketing ads in order to manipulate the thinking of the customers. Such false message changes the thinking power of consumers and they are diverted from the real truth and are leaded towards the goal of organization (Hoffman, 2005). There are various examples of such unethical marketing in the Australian market and organizations in Australia are using this marketing strategy to increase the customer base and divert the people from the real cause of products (Darouni, 2002). As published in Australian media, people in Australia are willing to pay more for the brand that promote goods using the ethical practices of marketing and are avoiding the brands that are using false message in their campaign (Chan, 2016). So, unethical marketing can be good in short run but proves to be adverse in long run. Exploiting Social Paradigm: There are certain advertisements that are causes adverse harm to the society moral values at large. The cultural and ethnic values of certain group of people find some campaigns against their moral values and beliefs (George and Wilding, 2013). For example, in promoting the luxury car by the driver that can lure or charm the sexy woman can put the question mark on the cultural values of the society and can lead to wrong message to the society. The message provided in this advertisement means that woman can be impacted the financial success of the man not by his behavior and moral values (Nguyen and Rowley, 2015). Vulnerable Audiences: Organizations are willing to promote such marketing strategies that target that section of society that earns more 70 % of total GDP. In short, organization only wants to sell their to the people who can afford them with ease and put aside such people who even cant think of it. Such way of advertising explore the negative human behavior and follows the dividing policy on the basis of class of people (Linett, 2007). Targeting the people for the unhealthy fast food and snack will lead to society that only loves fast food. It will promote obesity in the society and large number of people will be impacted through such unethical marketing policies. There is publication in the Australian media, that to have the good life you have to earn good (Long, 2016). There are certain people who spent a single penny on thinking that what maximum can be achieved through such money. Ethical Issues in Marketing in context with Australian Companies The major example that can be cited in the context of practicing deceptive marketing practices includes of Volkswagen. Volkswagen enjoys good brand reputation worldwide but has been involved in case of breaking Australian Consumer Law. The company was found guilty in case of inculcating unethical marketing practice by promoting its diesel cars as low emission vehicles. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is investigating the unethical marketing practices of the company on two bases, that is, providing misleading information to the consumers and breaching of mandatory standards through the implementation of defeat devices. These defect devices were used by the company in passing the emission tests in diesel vehicles (Thompson, 2015). The scandal had negatively impacted the brand image and goodwill of the company globally. It has resulted in causing loss of billion of dollars to the company and decline of its sales and profitability. The adoption of such type of busin ess practices by Volkswagen represents the case of exposing consumers to false, misleading and deceptive representations. Another example that can be cited in this regard is of Calvin Klein Company in Australia. The company is recognized as a clothing retailer in the country and holds a good brand reputation worldwide. The use of sexual content in launching the denims has highlighted the unethical marketing practices followed by the company. The brand has featured youths sexting and sending sexually explicit messages in its advertising for jeans that has put questions on the ethics and morals of the company. The company was believed to promote more than its denim products though display of such advertisements (Hagenbuch, 2015). The sexual content in advertisements of the company has become more explicit in the recent years. This has negatively impacted the goodwill of the company across the world thus negatively damaging its brand reputation. Thus, the above two examples emphasized on the importance of inculcating ethical practices in marketing strategy of business organizations. The adoption of false and deceptive marketing practices leads only to negatively impacting the brand reputation of the companies. The companies should abide by the statement of standards and values that guides and directs their organizational behavior. Each and every organization should develop their own codes of conduct and moral obligations that should strictly adhere to and thus restraining themselves from implementing unethical business practices. The development of standard codes of conduct proves to be very useful for the organizations to maintain good public relations, protect the interest of employees and gain customer satisfaction. Developing trust and goodwill in the mind of customers is very essential for the survival and growth of an organization. Thus, organizations should restrain themselves from indulging in any type of unethical p ractices as seen in the case of Volkswagen and Calvin Klein with the aim of maximizing their profitability. The organizations should also monitor and review the performance of the employees to identify the adoption of standard codes of ethical conduct by them. The organizations should provide ethical training to the employees so that they can effectively resolve ethical dilemmas faced by them and work according to the rules of conduct. The organizations should adopt more transparency in their business operations for promoting ethical behavior. The above two examples emphasized on deceptive marketing practice relating to the use of unethical advertisements that provides misleading and provoking information to the people. Conclusion The above two examples have highlighted the importance of adopting ethical advertisements marketing practices in business organizations. Ethical advertisements are more important for building trust of consumers and thus achieving their satisfaction. References B Nguyen and C Rowley Ethical and Social Marketing in Asia (Chandos Publishing, 2015). C Long., Ethical shopping: a good life doesn't have to cost the Earth (2016) [Online]. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/money/saving/ethical-shopping-a-good-life-doesnt-have-to-cost-the-earth-20160721-gqatof.html Accessed 23rd August 2016. D Hagenbuch., Calvin Kleins new sexting ads are not only unethical, they may not even be effective (2015) [Online]. Available at: https://theconversation.com/calvin-kleins-new-sexting-ads-are-not-only-unethical-they-may-not-even-be-effective-45676 Accessed 23rd August 2016. J Burrow and A Fowler, Marketing, (Cengage Learning, 2015). J Chan. , Australia: Ethical consumption bogged down by affordability, availability, apathy (2016) [Online]. Available at: https://www.campaignasia.com/article/australia-ethical-consumption-bogged-down-by-affordability-availability-apathy/428351 Accessed 23rd August 2016. J Thompson. Despite the recent scandals, 'business ethics' isn't a contradiction in terms (2015). [Online]. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-05/thompson-business-ethics-isn't-a-contradiction-in-terms/6827488 Accessed 23rd August 2016. K Darouni, Advertising and marketing communications in the Middle East (Notre Dame University Press, 2002). K Hoffman, Marketing principles and best practices (Thomson/South-Western, 2005). M Linett, Modernism, Feminism, and Jewishness (Cambridge University Press, 2007). M Preedy and C, Wise., Strategic Leadership and Educational Improvement (SAGE Publications, 2003). M Sirgy, Handbook of Quality-of-Life Research: An Ethical Marketing Perspective (Springer Science Business Media, 2001). V George and P Wilding, Ideology and Social Welfare (Routledge, 2013).