The specific ethical issue that I believe warrants the most attention in the marketing management context is deceptive marketing. From the American Marketing Association (AMA), deceptive marketing is outlined as aimed at misleading consumers through a variety of ways. Particularly, corporations engage in deceptive marketing by dishonestly making product claims, by failing to fully disclose the product information, or by combining both. Both the FTC and the AMA consider omissions of certain product information to be deceptive as it could lead a consumer to form inaccurate views regarding the product (Barroso, 2016). Moreover, when consumers take a false advertisement to be true, they may end up purchasing the product. It is possible that more consumers could purchase the product due to the untrue claims that depict the product to be of superior quality and value. As such, deceptive marketing significantly affects consumers when they find that the goods bought do not measure up to the claims made in the advertisements. It is a gross ethical misconduct as consumers feel misled into buying something that ends up performing below the expectations.
Ethical marketing dictates the importance of upholding the consumers’ right to correct information regarding goods and services. On its part, the FTC Act forbids corporations from making deceptive, untruthful, and false claims as well as other practices in product marketing that could potentially deceive a consumer or impact their decision on whether or not to procure a product. Despite the requirements by the FTC Act, corporations frequently exploit consumers through deceptive advertising. Examples of ways in which deceptive marketing is perpetrated include misleading product inserts, labels with unverifiable claims, adverts with misleading information, and deceptive sales presentations among other ways (Barroso, 2016) . Corporations recognize that marketing is the number one mechanism of increasing consumer awareness, sales volumes, market share, and higher revenues. The ills of deceptive marketing implicate negatively on consumers especially if the safety and health claims are untrue.
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Given the gravity of the ethical issue at hand, it is important to look into ethical theory and managerial practices that might be useful to business practitioners as they grapple with deceptive marketing. A notable ethical theory is by Immanuel Kant who maintains that performing one’s duty underlines morality. In this case, duty refers to firm devotion to moral law despite the consequences. As such, Kant’s theory emphasizes on ethical duty where all actions are done with a basis on universal law. In other words, the marketing codes must be appropriate all the time and to all people. Kant’s theory also emphasizes that one has a duty to prioritize the welfare of others before one’s self-centered interests at all times. Hence, application of this theory could result in better marketing practices that prioritize the welfare of consumers.
A different ethical theory is the Rand's theory, which looks at the consequences of one’s actions. This theory entirely inspires individuals to pursue their selfish interests in the capitalistic world. The point of interest is that Rand's theory asserts the importance of pursuing one’s interests without compromising themselves to others or requiring others to sacrifice themselves for one’s interests. In fact, Rand advocates for individuals to trade value for value without any form of shortchanging. Such a theory is important as it encourages corporations to ensure that consumers pay for the true value of the product or service offered without exploitation. Therefore, organizations could borrow from the ethical principles in Kant’s theory and Rand’s theory to develop a marketing policy that emphasizes on ethical practices in marketing. Such practices include ethical advertisements, correct product inserts, and clear outlines of product features indicating only the verifiable claims.
Implementing the business practices underlined in the ethical theories could prove fruitful for corporations in the long run. However, organizational and leadership challenges are to be expected in executing the business principles. From the theory of reasoned action, the major assumption is on the rational nature of human beings. This implies that humans make use of the information availed to them in deciding whether or not to engage in a particular behavior. Moreover, individuals consider the consequences of their activities before deciding to embrace the intended behavior (Kirkpatrick, n.d.). Another important determinant is the person’s intention to engage in the given ethical practices. This implies that although the individual may be well informed about the intended changes in ethical practices, their attitudes towards the changes determine the extent of adherence to change. Therefore, the attitudes of employees towards the proposed ethical practices could pose a challenge to policy implementation.
Another major challenge is arriving at the correct procedures of marketing. Due to the abstract nature of ethics, practices that may seem right to one individual may seem wrong to another person. Moreover, a challenge is to be expected in creating a balance between ethics and marketing to ensure that customers are convinced to purchase the products. However, with strategic planning, this challenge could be overcome. Similarly, the challenge of motivating employees to embrace the new practices is likely to have a bearing on the implementation process. Individuals have the tendency to embrace behaviors that they deem to have favorable outcomes and shun behaviors that could have negative outcomes (Kirkpatrick, n.d.). Therefore, the motivation for compliance among employees could be highly dependent on their perception of the consequences of implementing the ethical practices. All the same, with continued emphasis on the benefits of the ethical practices in marketing, compliance is likely to improve.
In conclusion, ethics in marketing is a pertinent issue in today’s corporate world. Corporations frequently exploit consumers through deceptive marketing practices such as misleading product inserts, labels with unverifiable claims, adverts with misleading information, and deceptive sales presentations. However, with the implementation of the Kant’s theory and Rand’s theory in ethics, corporations could develop ethical marketing policies. Although challenges are to be expected in implementing the policies, determination and commitment cold go a long way in ensuring a fruitful end.
References
Barroso, P. M. (2016). Advertising Ethics. Explorations in Critical Studies of Advertising , 97, 221.
Kirkpatrick, J. (n.d.). Ethical Theory in Marketing . California State University.
