Ethical Aspects In Marketing

The Nut Shell

Marketing is every where, formally or informally. We experience a number of marketing activities in every walk of life and get involved consciously or unconsciously. Individuals and Organizations employ their best resources to yield optimum marketing outcome. Hence, the point is if marketing is important for organizational or individual success, then ethical practices in marketing are inevitable. Marketers shall uphold and advance the internality, honour and dignity of the marketing profession by being honest in serving consumer, clients, employees, suppliers, distributors and the public.

The 4P Components of Marketing Mix

Ethical issues in marketing are:

Establishing ethical standard Socially responsible advertising Ethics in personal selling Strategies for pricing new product Ethics and regulation in pricing Product packaging and labelling

Establishing Ethical Standard

The considerable concern over ethics is reflected in the large number of organizations that have attempted to codify ethical standards. Such codes are based upon legal standard, industry practices, regional ethical ideals and the values professed by their developers.

For maintaining ethical standard in marketing the farm should

have its own standard and control to satisfied performance.

Socially Responsible Advertising

Advertising tries to convince the audience to do something. Thus, advertising is socially responsible. Advertising that give false information or wilfully misleads consumers about the benefits of the brand is deceptive advertising. Corrective advertising must publicly rectify a false impression created by past advertising.

Advertising have a responsibility to avoid manipulating younger

children, who tend to be more gullible than the rest of the population.

The examples of Advertising Ethics

Advertising restrains from making misleading, false or inaccurate claims or statements about products and services or a competitor. Advertising must reveal the fact; the neglect would mislead the public.

Advertising claims are exonerated by evidence in possession of the

advertising agency and the advertiser making such claims. Advertising of guarantees should be explicit with sufficient information to evaluate customer of their explicit terms and limitations the advertisement must clearly reveal where the full text of the guarantee is able to examine

before buying.

Ethics in Personal Selling

The sales person will sell a company products or services in an

ethical manner making good faith effort to determine what the

customer wants, conveying truthful accurate information about the companys products trying to provide customer a solution. Most sales people make false promises and claims to generate sales to achieve the sales target. Govt. can do little to regulate and legislate fair sales practices.

Strategies for Pricing a Product

Pricing a product include two types of pricing:
Skimming strategies Penetration strategies

In skimming strategies the price set high with idea of

possibly reducing as competitors begin to enter the market. In penetration strategy, prices for foreign good based on total costs. The prices kept low to deter competitive entry.

Ethics and Regulations in Pricing

Pricing practices are regulated by Govt. more forcefully than other areas of the marketing mix. The pricing illegalities are made explicit in act as FTC Act

(Federal Trade Commission Act) and Robinson Patman Act.

Product Packaging and Labelling

There are act like Fair packing and labelling Act 1966 to enable consumers to make meaning full value comparison and Nutrition labelling and education act

1990 (NLEA).
NLEA state that the labels on packaged food products contain information about certain ingredients expressed by weight and as a percentage of the recommended daily diet in a standard serving size.

Green Marketing
According to the American Marketing Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be environmentally safe. Thus green marketing incorporates a broad range of activities, including product modification, changes to the production process, packaging changes, as well as modifying advertising. Other similar terms used are Environmental Marketing and Ecological Marketing. It refers to products and packages that have one or more of the following characteristics: (1) are less toxic (2) are more durable (3) contain reusable materials (4) are made of recyclable materials.

Green Marketing (Conti.)

Public concerns over environmental problems produced a dramatic

augment for the introduction of green products.

Green marketing is promoting high standards of ethics in marketing. It recognizes social responsibilities toward customers and the community

for self-discipline.
It involves claims related to environment and ecology for domains like production, distribution, packaging, disposal of goods or services. Green advertising must be legal, decent, truthful and honest. Green advertising ought to be consistent with environmental regulations and conform to fair competition.

Thank You