Marketing Ethics

Marketing Ethics

It is undeniable that today’s business environment has been changing dramatically and more rapidly considering the fast-growing development of technology. Product marketing, following the pace of technical achievements, has become an integration of technology, humanities, and social science (Majtán 2008). Despite the ostensible positive effects, ethical problems also occur inevitably when a producer would rather resort to unethical practices to earn profits than remain honest and ethical during the business process.

On the basis of this, marketing ethics is put forward. Ethics in marketing operation is the area where providers develop responsible and caring manners and set up moral standards within the organisations to live up to buyers’ expectation (Perera 2014). In the long term, ethical marketing is considered as an essential component as it helps providers maintain and strengthen the relationship with customers, therefore producing numerous profits. Several framework attributes are set up to address ethical factors. Among these characteristics, the process-oriented framework, according to Majtán (2008), analyses ethical problems in terms of the categories which are utilised by marketing specialist. These types include market research, pricing, promotion, advertising, etc. In this essay, the process-oriented framework would be chosen to analyse marketing ethical issues.

The first element in the process-oriented framework, market research, is defined as the attempt to collect information from target consumers and market (Mark & Waceke & Ndutah & Kesuka 2014). Companies are able to conclude the needs of consumers and understand their responses towards specific products or service by carrying out market research. However, ethical issues would arise if the research is not correctly presented. The first problem is the invasion of privacy, as businesses may ask typical questions which involve personal details and information that the answerers are unwilling or reject to share. What’s worse, many people do not have the knowledge or the time to discern that whether their privacy is infringed or not. Besides, stereotyping is another problem that triggers numerous debates of marketing ethics once the collected information is categorised into particular individuals rather than certain groups. In order to avoid unnecessary loss, consumers should stop right away when they realize companies have infringed their privacy. For those who do not have the knowledge to distinguish, regulations should be established by relevant organisations or government to protect consumers’ rights. Stereotyping could also be eliminated on the grounds of proper classification when it comes to target consumers.

Pricing, on the other hand, demonstrates the value of products. Any unusual rise or drop of price would bring chaos into markets. There are various approaches that unethical providers could utilise to maximise their short-term profits without taking the ethical dimension into account. For instance, some may set the price so low, and as a consequence, competitors are driven away and new suppliers find no room for entering the market. Some may alternate the price several times within a short period. Others may demand unreasonably high prices for products or service. In summary, unethical pricing practices consist of price skimming, price discrimination, predatory pricing, bid rigging, dumping, and so on (Majtán 2008). Under the circumstance, pricing should be regulated regarding the true value of products and should be corrected to reflect the relationship between supply and demand in real time.