Ethics in Functional areas of

business
Marketing Ethics:-
Marketing Ethics is the systematic study of how moral
standards are applied to marketing decisions behavior and
institutions.
Marketing Ethics concerns the application of ethics
considerations to marketing decision making. Marketing Ethics
can be considered as moral judgments and behavior standards
in marketing practice or moral code or system in marketing
area.

Principles of ethical marketing:-

1. All marketing communications share the common
standard of truth.
2. Marketing professionals abide by the highest standards of
personal ethics
3. Advertising is clearly distinguished from news and
entertainment content.
4. Marketers should be transparent about who they pay to
endorse their products.
5. Consumers should be treated fairly based on the nature of
the product and the nature of the consumer (e.g.
marketing to children)
6. The privacy of the consumer should never be
compromised.
7. Marketers must comply with regulations and standards
established by government and professional organizations
8. Ethics should be discussed openly and honesty during all
marketing decisions
What is unethical marketing?
Unethical marketing activities in contrast can destroy your
business’s reputation and possibly lead troubles. Unethical
advertising is often just as effective as it is unethical and since
behavior is not necessarily against the law, there are many
companies who use unethical advertising to gain a competitive
advantage.
For companies looking to improve the image of a brand and
develop long term relationship with customers this kind of
unethical behavior can quickly lead to failure. Customers do not
want to feel manipulated by the brands they like.

Unethical marketing practices that can destroy

reputation
1) Making false exaggerated or unverified claims
2) Distortion of facts to mislead or confuse potential buyers
3) Concealing dark sides or side effects of products or services
4) Bad – mouthing
5) Using women for advertising
6) Using fear tactics
7) Plagiarism of marketing messages
8) Exploitation
9) Demeaning references to races, age, sex or religion
10) Spamming
Ethical issues in marketing:-
1. Stereotyping
2. Subliminal massage
3. Exploiting social paradigms
4. Vulnerable audience
5. Post purchase dissonance
Ethical issues in marketing
mix ;-
1) Product
a) Development of product or services
b) Performance of product/ services
c) Poor design or lack of quality
d) Packaging

2) Price
3) Promotion
a) Deception
b) Invasiveness

4) Place

Guidelines for the marketing manager to tackle with

ethical issues in marketing mix
1) Statutory regulation
2) Internal procedures
3) Pre-test with consumers
What is advertising ?
Advertising is a messages designed to promote and persuade
people to buy a product a service or an idea. These advertising
messages are on television, in newspapers and magazines,
radio, internet and outdoor signs.

Advantages of advertising
1. Introduced new product in the market
2. Expansion of the market
3. Increased sales
4. Fights competition
5. Enhances Goodwill
6. Educates the consumers
7. Elimination of middleman
8. Better Quality products
9. Supports the salesmanship
10. More employment opportunities

Disadvantages of advertising
1. Adds to cost
2. Undermines social values
3. Confuses the buyers
4. Encourages sale of inferior products
5. Some advertisement is in bad taste
Ethical issues in advertising

1. An ethical ad is the one which doesn’t lie , doesn’t lie

,doesn’t make false claims and is in limit of decency.
2. Ethics in advertising is directly related to the purpose of
advertising and the nature of advertising.
3. Ethics also depends on what we believe.
4. One sided truth
5. Use of children
6. Use of alcohol
7. Cigarettes and tobacco
8. Ads for social causes

Ways/ Types of unethical advertisement:

1. Surrogate advertising
2. Puffery advertising
3. Exaggeration
4. Unverified claims
5. Women in advertising
6. Unhealthy brand competition
7. Use of children in advertising
Moral and ethical principle in advertisement:

Advertisers must have sufficient knowledge of ethical norms and

principles so that they can understand and decide what is correct
and what is wrong. Here are several ethical and moral principles
that are particularly relevant to advertising.

a) General moral and ethical principle:

1. Principles of the moral order must be applied to the domain
of media
2. All attempts to inform and persuade must respect the
purpose of human freedom if they are to be moral
3. Morally good advertising is that advertising that seeks to
move people to choose and act rationality in morally good
ways
4. Morally evil advertising seeks to move people to do evil
deeds that are self-destructive and destructive of authentic
community
5. Means and technique of advertising must also be
considered.
6. Manipulate exploitative, corrupt and corrupting methods of
persuasion and motivation should be avoided.

b) Specific moral and ethical principles :

1. Respect truthfulness
2. Respect the dignity of the human
3. Respect social responsibility