The title of this blog “is Marketing Evil?” this is
a broad topic and makes you ask the question, is marketing really evil? Overall,
I don’t believe marketing is evil, but there some instances where marketing has
been use for evil, like the holocaust campaigns, or communist propaganda. In
2011, Marlboro a tobacco company ran a campaign with the slogan: A maybe never
reached the top, don’t be a maybe. This was controversial because it presumes
that Marlboro was trying to persuade the young to smoke, which goes against the
tobacco company ethics (Boseley, 2014). So why do companies think its ok to
market these types of advertisements? Consider this, the Centers for Disease
Control found that Americans bought over eight billion packs of cigarettes in
2014 and spent nearly 50 billion dollars on liquor, beer and wine in 2014. Furthermore,
the Daily Mail reports that Americans spend on average 1,200 dollars per year
on fast food (Revesencio,
2015).
The demands of such commodities and the competition might be why companies are
trying different marketing approaches. El Sayed and
El Ghazaly (n.d.) suggest that “marketers try their best to attract and keep
satisfied, the customer” (n. p.). However,
this doesn’t excuse unethical approaches. The Washington Post reports that nine
out of 10 pharmaceutical companies now spend more on marketing than on research
and development (Revesencio, 2015). If
companies are investing in their marketing strategy, they must consider how their
image is perceived. The American Marketing Association has 6 ethical values
that marketers are expected to uphold: (Anastasia, 2015).
1. Honesty – Be forthright in dealings
and offer value and integrity.
2. Responsibility – Accept
consequences of marketing practices and serve the needs of customers of all
types, while being good stewards of the environment.
3. Fairness – Balance buyer needs and
seller interest fairly, and avoid manipulation in all forms while protecting
the information of the consumers.
4. Respect – Acknowledge basic human
dignity of all the people involved through efforts to communicate, understand
and meet needs and appreciate contributions of others.
5. Transparency – Create a spirit of
openness in the practice of marketing through communication, constructive
criticism, action, and disclosure.
6. Citizenship – Fulfill all legal,
economic, philanthropic and societal responsibilities to all stakeholders as
well as giveback to the community and protect the ecological environment.
These ethical values are guidelines
that companies can follow, but it’s up to the company to follow their own ethical
values. Companies need to balance the need to win with being ethical. This
means that each organization has to try innovative ways to reach the consumer while
being ethical. Take for example, Victoria Secret perfect body campaign. Many
people thought this was unethical, because it didn’t include all women from all
types. Victoria Secret reevaluated the strategy to fit in the need of the consumer
and made bad marketing campaign into a positive one by being ethical. No longer
can companies silent the consumers. With the advances of technology and social
media, the people have a stronger voice against unethical behavior. This is a
driving force in the need for companies to be ethical in their marketing
strategy. Technology has made marketing easier for organizations. By tracking
your shopping habits and web searches, companies are marketing to individuals.
Is this unethical if being done without your consent? In my opinion this is unethical if they don’t
make it apparent of the tracking. Most companies will tell you or have it in their
sites that they are collecting data to enhance your shopping experience, like
amazon suggest items base on you search history.
As a leader, we must properly use our
resources to enhance the company to consumer experience. One way to do this is
by being truthful, ethical and fair when implementing marketing strategies. It
takes days or even months to develop a positive customer relationship, but it
takes a bad marketing strategy to lose their trust. The change start from the
top to the bottom and leaders need to lead the way toward more ethical and
morally decision and marketing strategies.
Anastasia. (2015). Social
Responsibility & Ethics in Marketing. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from
https://www.cleverism.com/social-responsibility-ethics-marketing/
Boseley, S. (2014). Marlboro
marketing campaign aimed at young people, anti-tobacco report says. Retrieved
April 23, 2016, from
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/12/marlboro-marketing-campaign-aimed-young-people-cigarettes-report
El Sayed, H., & El Ghazaly, I.
(n.d.). Ethics-Based Marketing: Ethical Articles. Retrieved from http://www.ethicsbasedmarketing.net/2.html
Revesencio, J. (2015). 4 Examples of
Dubious Marketing Ethics. Retrieved April 23, 2016, from
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonha-revesencio/4-examples-of-dubious-marketing-ethics_b_7292370.html
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