As is the case with many professions and fields of human endeavor in contemporary times, even the seemingly cutthroat arena of marketing has been under greater scrutiny for ethical conduct. To answer the question of whether or not ethical guidelines make a difference, although it might not be a conscious discussion in daily activities, the heavy consequences for marketers caught in the midst of unethical conduct as well as the notion of an organization's reputation as being one of its "...greatest intangible assets" (Ferell), suggests that if guidelines haven't already made a difference, they certainly should matter. Even years ago, there were ethical concerns surrounding how advertisers handled marketing to children, with some stating that intensive advertising created a widespread of materialistic values among children that risked leaving them feeling deficient if they can't keep up with new products (Clay, 2000)
With the contemporary ethos of ethical business, it falls upon marketers to remain true to their objective in conducting fruitful business, but they also need to balance this out with taking the high road. As suggested in the El Sayed and El Ghazaly article, there are organizations that primarily seek to make a quick buck. However, an organization can commit itself towards integrating an ethical culture in order to achieve their end goals while striving to do only good. This would happen best by upholding as heroes those who achieve the most through righteous means, while giving cautionary tales of those who met their downfall by trying to cut corners. Leadership would have to set the example for up and comers, and recognize those who best exemplify the ethical values of the organization (Ferell). In short, a victory in good conscience can't simply be an objective, but must become a way of life woven into the very fabric of the organization's identity.
Tied into the discussion of marketing ethics is the question of consumer data collection. Whether or not this practice is acceptable is still an emerging debate. For the United States, it is known that companies collect data on consumers through tracking social media posts, online purchases, and search habits. There have, however, been instances where companies have embarrassed themselves in applying the information gathered, as in the case where Target sent coupons for baby products to a teenager after analyzing her shopping patterns, leading to her parents finding out she was expecting (Martin, 2014). Admittedly, speaking from personal perspective, people do accept a modicum of invasiveness to have their free services, but this doesn't happen globally. Speaking from personal experience, a close friend of mine related to me that in the process of continuing to create and expand the content for a major apparel company's web site, while Americans didn't balk at the idea of accepting location tracking, they had to work on a solution for the European market as people there apparently don't consent as readily towards sharing their location through web services. Like many questions of acceptable behavior, the answer comes down to the practice being only ethical as far as a given society is willing to permit it.
If placed in the position of managing marketing efforts, I might start at the initial onset by asking what constitutes acceptable behavior not only within the given culture of the organization and its respective industry, but more importantly by the ethical context of our customers or our target audience. It isn't up to us to arbitrarily decide Perhaps the simplest way to deal with this though might be a rule of thumb I've heard by a couple different names, to include the New York Times test or the Washington Post test. Simply put, if we were to do something and it made the front page headlines nationwide, would we feel shame, embarrassment, or otherwise like we were "caught" doing something? If the answer is no or if we would feel proud, then great...if not, then there needs to be immediate course corrections made. Admittedly, there is a potential challenge in that with today's technology driven communications and marketing landscape, there is the chance that unexplored ethical concerns could present themselves within the new mediums of communication or in the initial churn of defining what's acceptable...if virtual reality ever becomes a regular thing, will the regular rules of real society still apply, or will people be permitted to roam as they please? I believe then that management efforts will come down to regularly checking with the organization to ensure we are on course and can sleep soundly at night with our decisions.
Resources
Clay, R. A. (2000, September). Advertising to children: Is it ethical? [Electronic version]. Monitor on Psychology, 31(8), 52.
Ferrell, L. (n.d.). Marketing Ethics. In Cengage. Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://college.cengage.com/business/modules/marktngethics.pdf
Martin, E. (2014, March 27). The Ethics of Big Data. In Forbes. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/emc/2014/03/27/the-ethics-of-big-data/
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