Marketing refers to the human activity with the objective of satisfying their wants and needs through the transaction process. Ethics gets embodied in the practices of marketing in social marketing terms. The main idea of marketing is consumer and society justice. Social marketing stresses on attaining balance in consumer desires and needs, the profits of the business and long-term concerns of the society. This paper analyses the ethical issues concerning marketing, the rank of the ethics, their impacts, the relevance of the ethics to the current and future market and recommendations.
Ethical issues confronting marketing
Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior’s objective is aimed at collecting the factors determining the human needs so that they can better direct market the humans. For instance, perception theory has been used by marketers to guide the consumers into believing that they are getting the value of their money. Knowledge of the behavior of consumers is hazardous since their needs can be controlled by the marketers themselves (Vassilikopoulou, 2008).
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Management of products and services
Management of products and services that entails the basic activities of marketing brings doubts in marketing ethics. Some businesses import products that have short life spans so that they can gain from repurchase of the imported product. The same applies to the good that consumers purchase as a result of advertisements yet the goods do not fulfill their actual expectations and needs.
Advertisement
The advertisement is the primary component of marketing. Marketing has undergone various criticism and legislation that are restrictive. The differences between moral practices and law-abiding are seen on the television. For instance, in the last couple of years, advertisements have involved products that are friendly to the environment and with less cholesterol, reopening the ethics case that had been forgotten. Dangerous messages have been developed as a result of the flux of information to customers. For instance, the commercials in which popular/glorified actors are used to advertise products of low value. The practice evolved further in the production of infomercials. The infomercials take thirty minutes to two hours and are more of a documentary or a television program than a commercial. Also, there are many television series that are animated with the aim of toy promotion to children (Vassilikopoulou, 2008).
Marketing Research
Research in marketing got categorized for being normally objective, although the moral side of it is still questionable. A number of the researchers claim that marketing research intrudes into the private lives of consumers and their data. Those opposed to marketing research have claimed that it is a method to sell products or pretense (Vassilikopoulou, 2008).
Pricing
Price is a vital feature of a product among all the characteristics of the product. The objective of consumers involves maximizing the quality to the ratio of the price. Even though the legal framework on pricing is always strict and precise, some businesses do not stop deceiving their buyers. Such pricing practices are seen on sales events whereby the business gives discounts that are not real and are normally deducted from an initial supposed price which is always higher than usual product price (Vassilikopoulou, 2008).
Ranking of ethical issues as per the literature
According to Parsons, Maclaran & Chatzidakis (2017), the following are the top 5 ranks of ethical issues in Marketing:
Marketing Research
Pricing
Advertisement
Consumer behavior
Managing products and services.
Analysis of each ethical issue according to its impact on the field, relevance to the current and future stakeholders in the field.
Market Research.
Market research is one of the most crucial parts of marketing, and it requires high ethical standards when conducting research. Marketing research involves data collections from the potential clients. Burns, Bush & Sinha (2014) observed that extensive data permits companies or cooperates to select the most optimal techniques for their client base. Companies such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google mainly rely on tracking the web history of the users to generate returns. Market research is a very crucial issue that can lead to dishonesty and deceptive practices because of the ease at which a company can gather and access the data of the customers. Any action which uses deception and lies to establish and find out about customers is a deceptive company, and it should be avoided ( Charter, 2017) .
Also, when conducting marketing research, the company can infringe on the privacy of its customer, and it is unethical. Burns et al. (2014) observed “Companies have an unprecedented ability to collect, store and match information relating to customers that can infringe on a person's right to privacy. In many instances, the customer does not know or understand the extent of the company's infiltration into his life. ” The business or cooperates used the data obtained with a targeted advertisement which can have a chilling effect on individual freedom.
Moreover, breach of confidentiality is another ethical issue that arises when market research is conducted. Dinnie, (2015) observed that companies usually share information about their customers to their affiliates and partners forcing the customer to bolt out of the company if he or she does not want his information shared with anyone. Ethically, any disclosure of the customer's information that is not authorized by the customer is problematic ( Burns et al. 2014).
Lastly, market research can lead to objectivity. Marketing has a huge impact on public perception. Dinnie, (2015) observed that “Market researchers have an ethical obligation to conduct research objectively so that available data allows for the development of a balanced or reality-based picture.” Researchers who permit their prejudices to skew their research tend to contribute to the perpetuation of the enabling of unjust profiting from poverty, the development of destructive social constructs and stereotypes in advertising ( Charter, 2017). For example, a researcher who views customers in one dimension could harm the minority of the customers if he or she is permitted to shape an advertising campaign when relying on data that is gathered skewed.
The relevance of Market Research to the current and future stakeholders in the field.
Market research is crucial for every company since it dictates the future of the company. It is crucial for companies to ensure that when conducting market research, the privacy of their client is not infringed since many customers prefer companies that value their privacy. Hacking has become common in this century and customers’ needs assurances that the companies will protect their data they entrust to share their information with ( Burns et al. 2014). In incidences where the company that clients have entrusted them with their confidential information uses this information without the knowledge of the customers, it may lead to massive loss of customers since it will be like a bitter betrayal from the company. Facebook is a good example of a company that used the confidential information of its users to generate campaign strategies for president Trump ( Charter, 2017) . The campaign strategists of Trump used the data generated from Facebook to generate an advertisement that campaigned for president trump. These strategies elicited an outcry all over the world since many people thought their data was safe with Facebook. Mark Zuckerberg who is the CEO and founder of Facebook came out and publicly apologized to its customers for sharing their information with their partners and other associates ( Burns et al. 2014). The company suffered massive losses, its stock drop massively in the New York stock exchange market and a significant number of people deactivated their account because they felt that their information was not safe with Facebook and they will be susceptible to hacking.
Many companies have suffered from there recklessness in handling client’s information, and that served as the best example for any company that mismanages client’s information. In future, many companies will handle clients information with a lot of care since they know the repercussion involved if the information of the client is mismanaged. Additionally, stakeholders will ensure that the best interest of the clients is placed first when it comes to their information’s they share with the clients ( Burns et al. 2014).
Pricing
Dinnie, (2015) observed that for fair pricing “producers sell products at wholesale costs that pay for the labor, materials, and overhead to make the products with a reasonable margin of profit. ” Retailers usually mark up the price of their commodities up to twice or thrice what the wholesalers will pay for overhead and employed with considerate profit margin the stakeholders and the company. Occasionally, retailers reduce prices to stimulate sales of a specific product or large sale quantity of products which is popular among the consumers. If the wholesalers or manufacturers increase the prices of their commodities insanely, they might hurt their loyal customers since they will not be able to obtain their preferred products. Loyal customers deserve fair pricing, or else they will find a company that offers an alternative commodity at a cheaper rate ( Charter, 2017) .
Also, at times companies reduce prices to sell the stocks which are outdated so that it can introduce new products. However, some retailers set the prices of commodities to be low so that they can introduce new products to the market with the aim of inspiring consumers to buy the new product. These are both ethical and legal pricing strategies. At times, companies can use unethical pricing cuts to crush the sales of the competitors by vending similar products at prices which are low. Federal laws shield entrants from undercutting.
The relevance of Pricing to the current and future stakeholders in the field.
Pricing is very crucial in attracting new customers and maintain new customers. If a company offers quality products at a lower price, it is likely to attract new customers who can find the value of their money. Also, the loyal customers will continue to be loyal to the company since they have the perception that there are no other companies that can offer the same quality at that particular price. Pricing is relevant to the current and future stakeholders because it determines the loyalty of customers to the product ( Burns et al. 2014).
Advertisement
When companies are advertising their products, they should ensure they consider inclusivity. Social equality and gender equality is an ethical issue that should be in consideration when they create their advertisement since mixed-race couples, gay couples with families and even lesbian should fell included in the advertisement. To appeal to many women, the advertisement done by the companies should not be objectified ( Burns et al. 2014).
The relevance of Advertisement to the current and future stakeholders in the field.
In the current marketing, the present stakeholders should ensure that they are sensitive to the advertisement they generate. Advisement may be generated in good faith but may end up eliciting a mixed reaction that may lead to loss of customers. Future stakeholders will be required to be more sensitive to ensure social equality and gender equality are achieved since in future advertisement will be required to reach everybody ( Dinnie, 2015) .
Consumer Behavior
Consumer behavior involves studying the trends of the clients in conjunctions with a particular product. Ethical issue in consumer behavior dictates that companies should pay to tell its consumer the negative side of their products if there are negative side effects. For instance, companies that sell cigarettes should educate the consumers on the negative side effect of smoking ( Burns et al. 2014).
The relevance of Consumer Behavior to the Current and Future Stakeholders in The Field.
Studying consumer behavior is important because it helps the current and future stakeholders to determine if the products produced are likely to be accepted by many consumers ( Dinnie, 2015) .
Managing of Products and Services.
Products and services that the company markets to the customers should be standardized to ensure certain condition are met. If the companies sell substandard gods, it may end up affecting the health of the client or impact the clients negatively. Ethics dictates that there should be standards of quality that each product should have before goods are dispatched for consumptions ( Dinnie, 2015) .
The relevance of Managing of Products and Services to the Current and Future Stakeholders in The Field.
Managing products and services is important for future and the current stakeholders since it ensures the products that are availed to the consumers are standardized. Managing of products and services is important to current and future investments because it gives stakeholders a platform to ensure gods are of certain qualities ( Burns et al. 2014).
Recommendations
The businesses should attempt ethics promotion in marketing. Environmental and social matters can be included in the products and services of the businesses. Companies should try to adopt ethical approaches since they give benefits to the companies. Ethics improves the
company’s market position as compared to other companies they are competing with ( Dinnie, 2015) .
Additionally, ethics would improve their market position compared to their direct competitors. On top of that, ethical strategies could improve the society’s welfare and make a better world to consume (Vassilikopoulou, 2008).
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