Honour And Wealth : Can They Go Hand In Hand

Ethical Issues and Their Impact on Marketing


Advertisements are a great way to spread promotion of  a  product or service, but sometimes the messages in advertisements are doutable. Advertisements from the 1950s and 60s, for example, were created in an era . Today, many of these advertisment are more offensive and unethical than persuasive. If you look at an ad. for (cigarettes) from the 1950s, you’ll see a doctor smiling while holding a cigarette in his hand, and the caption, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”. This ad demonstrates pietism, since doctors spend their careers  for healthy lifestyles. It also sends a message to society that if doctors are smoking, then it must not affect our health.

Women objection implemented in this strategy. A person is well known for doing so. Since 2000, the majority of their ad. include models eating hamburgers and wearing revealing clothing. He defends their actions by saying “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.” Because of their unethical choice to objectify women, many women believe they are not the target audience, but that males age 18 – 35 are.

Ethical and Unethical Data Collection

Before a new product is released, research is conducted to gain feedback on how well it will test in the market. A ethical marketing research strategy used to gain the knowledge is focus groups. The main aim of focus groups is to get the consumers’ opinions, beliefs, or perceptions about a product or service. This form of qualitative research consists of a moderator that interviews a small group of people, or respondents. The interview is set up in an informal way, so the respondents are free to give their stance without restrictions.
Another strategy is data collection. Many websites like Google, Facebook, and Amazon collect their users’ data, including web search habits, name and contact information, and location. They use this to build a profile of their customers which they then use to show ads for products and services that are tailored to consumers’ interests. Data privacy problems are currently a very hot topic – there is a serious trade-off between protecting individual privacy, and building more effective marketing strategies.

Ethical Standards in International Markets

Culture has a big influence on ethical principles since it refers to a set of values and attitudes that are shared among a group of people. However, not all cultures are the same which makes ethics vary among countries. Ethical standards should be relevant to international markets and should be equal in all markets, meaning that ethical practices carried out in the home country should be carried out internationally as well. Avon ( AVN)is committed to this. The marketing strategy they use to distribute their products in Asia, Europe, and South America, is the same marketing strategy they use in the United States: Direct Selling. Avon recruits many local sellers, who then market the beauty products individually to friends, professional contacts, and others. By using this direct marketing strategy, Avon tries to make sure its marketing efforts are specifically tailored to micro-markets, avoiding ethical complications.
At the same time, this same strategy has potential for abuse. Herbalife ( HLF) is constantly dodging lawsuits challenging that it operates as a pyramid scheme, making more of its money by requiring membership fees and minimum payments from its individual sellers than it does by selling its products. These lawsuits push the bounds of marketing ethics – a huge number of potential customers avoid Herbalife’s products entirely because of the allegations.