Chapter 10
Marketing With A Conscience: Sales and Ethics1
By Lizabeth England
In this chapter, we will address the topic of marketing with a conscience. Marketing products around the world, whether in person, on paper, or on the World Wide Web, is an increasingly difficult task, and more than ever, subject to public opinion and scrutiny. Marketing professionals must make tough choices in this increasingly competitive business world.
The Classroom Activities in this chapter allow teachers and students to try out some of the concepts presented and to use these tasks in Web-based work. The List of Terms and Expressions offers a beginning for those who may need review on some of the central concepts. The Extensions to the Lesson section offers ways in which teachers and students with particular interests in the ethics of marketing can explore specific issues in more depth. Finally, the Internet Resources list presents two types of information: information on ethics in marketing on the Web and a list of companies that use their Web sites in order to provide visitors with marketing information on their products or services.
The following information on Marketing Ethics will provide readers with a good foundation in the issues that face business professionals in the 21st century. Please note that the focus of this Background, and of the chapter, in general, is on the ethics of online marketing.
Background InformationAs you work through the readings and activities, you may want to explore Web sites in more depth from that required for the activity. Using the Web means making choices about what links to follow, and how to use the information you find.
What is Ethics in Marketing?
According to experts, marketing is viewed as human conduct and is subject to academic analysis and public scrutiny. Ethics is the study of the moral principles that guide that conduct. Historically, there have been two points of view on the study of ethics in marketing: The first is "Let the buyer beware." From this point of view, the rights of the seller are central. A company has little regard for consumers’ needs and wants. The other point of view is "Let the seller beware." Here, customer satisfaction is taken to an extreme. No matter what the customer does, it is ok. Which position is correct? How do we resolve the inevitable conflicts brought by these competing viewpoints?
Nowadays, most ethicists believe that Relationship Marketing is a reasonable practice leading to positive relationships between buyers and sellers. Relationship marketing requires that rules are not necessarily contractual.
Relationship marketing allows buyers and sellers to work together. However, there are disadvantages to this approach – relationship marketing requires time to develop, and it may be difficult to develop a list of expected conduct or "rules of behavior." According to a recently published book2 on this subject, a shift in emphasis in marketing ethics -- toward buyers’ interests and away from sellers’ interests -- characterizes the new century. If this is true, new challenges are presented for marketing ethics and professionals in the field of marketing who want to conduct business in an ethical way.
Visit this Web site for a detailed description of Relationship Marketing: http://www.ba.ttu.edu/mktg/lambe/s99mcchptt7/sld003.htm
What are the Challenges?
Marketers must be aware of ethical standards and acceptable behavior. This awareness means that marketers must recognize the viewpoints of three key players: the company, the industry, and society. Since these three groups almost always have different needs and wants, ethical conflicts are likely to arise.
Ethical conflicts in marketing arise in two contexts: First, when there is a difference between the needs of the three aforementioned groups (the company, the industry, and society) a conflict may arise. Second, an ethical conflict may arise when one’s personal values conflict with the organization. In either case, a conflict of interest is a possible outcome.
An example of the first type of conflict is the tobacco industry. Cigarettes have for many decades been a lucrative business. So, cigarette and tobacco marketing have been good for companies and good for the tobacco industry. Many thousands of people around the world are employed in the tobacco industry. So, the world economy has been somewhat dependent on cigarettes and tobacco. However, cigarettes are harmful to society. There is documented proof that cigarette smoking is harmful to health. This is an ethical conflict for cigarette marketers.
An example of the second type of conflict, when one’s personal values conflict with the organization’s, occurs when a leader in the company seeks personal gain (usually financial profit) from false advertising. "Cures" for fatal diseases are one type of product that falls into this category of ethical conflict: In their greed to make a profit, a marketer convinces those who may be dying from an incurable disease to buy a product that may not be a cure, but which a desperately ill person (or members of his or her family) may choose to purchase in an effort to save the dying family member suffering. Promoting and marketing such products violates rules of marketing ethics.
Ethical dilemmas facing marketing professionals today fall into one of three categories: tobacco and alcohol promotion, consumer privacy, and green marketing.
Standards for ethical marketing guide business in efforts to do the right thing. Such standards have four functions: to help identify acceptable practices, foster internal control, avoid confusion, and facilitate a basis for discussion.
See this Web site for a detailed discussion on these benefits of ethics standards: http://courseWeb.bus.lsu.edu/fall98/marketing/3401-3/module498/mod4
What are the Rules for Ethical Marketing?
Professional associations and accrediting bodies have identified guidelines for ethics in marketing. According to one of those associations, the American Marketing Association, the following rules guide marketing behavior.3
Marketers must accept responsibility for the consequences of their activities and make every effort to ensure that their decisions, recommendations, and actions function to identify, serve, and satisfy all relevant publics: customers, organizations and society.
Marketers shall uphold and advance the integrity, honor and dignity of the marketing profession.
Participants should be able to expect that products and services are safe and fit for intended uses; that communications about offered products and services are not deceptive; that all parties intend to discharge their obligations, financial and otherwise, in good faith; and that appropriate internal methods exist for equitable adjustment and/or redress of grievances concerning purchases.
Marketers should be aware of how their behavior influences the behavior of others in organizational relationships. They should not demand, encourage, or apply coercion to encourage unethical behavior in their relationships with others.What next?
In order to effectively market, advertising is necessary. In the interest of providing an outline on advertising, the information below will be of interest and use to those interested in ethical marketing. According to Boone and Kurtz, 1999, advertising is guided by these five major promotional objectives (in both personal and nonpersonal selling): accentuate product value, provide information, stabilize sales, stimulate demand and differentiate product. It is easy to see how difficult it might be to balance all of these promotional objectives, to address the AMA criteria for ethical marketing (outlined above), and to make a profit. Marketers worldwide have their work "cut out for them" in the 21st century. For those who are interested, the information above will be helpful in order to address ethical marketing in professional and business settings.
Notes
1As a groundbreaking effort in technological approaches to teaching English to speakers of other languages around the world, there are many and new challenges. The following individuals contributed expertise, professionalism and commitment to this volume. I sincerely thank them all. Of course, any errors or mistakes are my responsibility.
First, the following individuals have been involved with the development and testing of the ten units in this chapter on Business Ethics: Ms. Cindy Hewett, ESL and ESP consultant and trainer, Tampa, Florida; Ms. Kathleen Lopez, student assistant at Marymount University, and Ms. Emily Lites, President, American Business English Services, LLC. In addition, I am indebted to two editors - Ms. Melvia Hasman, the current editor of the Language and Civil Society electronic journal, and early on, Mr. Damon Anderson. My thanks also go to the Language and Civil Society Web site designer and editor, Ms. Susan Zapotoczny. Finally, I wish to thank Dr. Rosemary Hubbard, my supervisor and Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences at Marymount University, for her ongoing support for my work on this project over the past several months. -- Liz England .....return2See an overview description of the aforementioned book at this Web address: http://www.gsb.georgetown.edu/faculty/smithn/Markstrat.html .....return
3The full text of the American Marketing Association Code of Ethics, from which excerpts are taken below, is available at the "About Us" link of the American Marketing Association Web site: http://www.ama.org .....return
