ETHICAL ISSUES are problems that require an individual or organization to choose between options that must be evaluated as ethical or unethical. Ethical issues in the corporate world is a situation where an ethical conflict exists and must be dealt with. It is an event where a moral principle is challenged.
Ethical issues arise when a decision, scenario, or activity builds pressure with a society’s moral beliefs. Individuals and corporations can be involved in these conflicts, since their actions may be put into question from an ethical perspective. People are accountable for these issues in their relationships with other people or in their connections with organizations.
These conflicts are legally dangerous since some of the choices to solve the issue might breach a specific law. In other circumstances, the problem might not have legal consequences but it might generate an unfavorable outcome from third parties.
Ethical issues are challenging because they are heavy to deal with. Many professionals and industry associations have ethical codes that are assessed and authorized by parties to provide a helpful stand for firms and people to make reasonable decisions when they encounter one of these problems.
ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING
Ethical issues in marketing arise from tensions and the absence of agreement on certain issues. Parties involved in marketing transactions have goals about how the business relationships will take shape and how myriad transactions need to be executed.
1. Emerging Ethical Problems in Market Research
Market research has encountered a rebirth with the large use of the Internet and the popularity of social networking. It is easier for companies to connect directly with customers and obtain individual information that moves into a computer database to be matched with other information obtained during unrelated transactions.
The way a firm conducts its market research can have severe ethical issues that affect the lives of its consumers. Companies also can be confronted with a public backlash if their market research methods are distinguished as not ethical.
2. Grouping the Market Audience
Unethical exercises in marketing can lead to grouping their market audience into different segments. Selective marketing may be used to prevent the demand occurring from these undesirable market segments or not to enfranchise them.
Some examples of these unethical market exclusion include industry attitudes towards the gay, ethnic minority, and plus-size groups.
3. Ethics in Advertising and Promotion
In the early days of the existence of corporations, tobacco was promoted as a substance that promotes health. Later on, an advertiser who doesn't meet the ethical standards has deemed a lawbreaker against morality.
Sexuality is a major point of dialogue when ethical issues in advertising content are assessed.
Violence is also a significant ethical issue in advertising, just like where children should not be affected by the content.
Some types of advertising may strongly embarrass some groups of people even when they are of strong interest to others. Female hygiene products and hemorrhoids and constipation medication are good examples.
The advertising of condoms is crucial in the interest of AIDS-prevention but it is also seen as a method of promoting promiscuity that is unpleasant and strongly criticized in various communities.
A negative advertising policy lets the advertiser conclude different disadvantages of the competitors’ products instead of showing the benefits of their products or services.
4. Delivery Channels
Direct marketing is one of the controversial techniques of advertising channels, especially when the strategies included are unsought.
Some examples include TV and Telephonic commercials and direct mail. Furthermore, Electronic spam and telemarketing push the limits of ethical principles and legality.
For example, Shills and astroturfers are the best ways for delivering a marketing message under the guise of unrelated product reviews and promotions or creating independent caretaker or review organizations. Fake reviews can be circulated on Amazon. Shills are mainly for message-delivery, but they can also be used to increase prices in auctions like eBay auctions.
5. Deceptive Marketing Policies and Ethics
Deceptive marketing policies are not encompassed of a certain limit or to one target market, and it can be hidden by the public.
There are several strategies for deceptive marketing. It can be illustrated to shoppers in various aspects.
Humor gives an escape or solace from different types of human restraints, and advertisers may take its benefits by applying tricky advertising techniques for a product that can potentially harm or relieve the restraints using humor.
6. Anti-Competitive Practices
There are several methods of anti-competitive practices.
Bait and switch is a type of fraud where consumers are "baited" through the commercials for some products or services that have a low price. But the buyers find in reality that the product or service is inaccessible and they are "switched" towards a product or service that is more expensive and was not planned in the advertisements.
Planned obsolescence is another kind of anti-competitive practice. It is a technique of designing a certain product having a limited useful life. It will be defective or out of fashion after a certain duration and will let the buyer purchase another product again.
A pyramid scheme is also an anti-competitive method. It is an unsustainable job model that guarantees the participants payment or services, primarily for recruiting other people into the scheme. It does not provide any substantial investment or sell products or services to the public. This business method demands the first investor to recruit other people for a fee to them who again will further recruit more people to be paid by the company.
7. Pricing Ethics
There are numerous forms of unethical business practices related to pricing the products and services.
Bid rigging is a kind of fraud where a commercial contract is guaranteed to one party, but many other parties will also present a bid for the sake of showing up.
Predatory pricing is the method of sale of a product or service at a bare price, aiming to throw competitors out of the market or to create barriers to entry.
8. Using Ethics as a Marketing Tactic
Major companies fear the damage to their image related to press revelations of unethical practices.
Marketers have been sharp to predict the market’s preference for ethical firms, moving faster to benefit of this change in buyer's taste. This affects the propagation of ethics itself as a selling point or a component of a corporate image.
Marketing ethics regardless of the offered products or services or the target market establishes the approaches for which decent marketing is practiced.
To be ethical and effective in marketing, a marketer must be reminded that marketing decisions and efforts are crucial to satisfy the needs of the consumers, suppliers, and business partners.
The attitude of corporations and organizations is that they are concerned about their business's population and the environment. They believe that they have a social responsibility to society, places, and things in their world of influence.
