Conscious Marketing, Corporate Social

Responsibility, & Ethics

(Chapter 4)
 Learning Objectives
LO 4-1 Define conscious marketing
LO 4-2 Describe what constitutes marketing’s greater purpose
LO 4-3 Differentiate between conscious marketing and corporate social
responsibility
LO 4-4 Describe the ways in which conscious marketing helps various
stakeholders
LO 4-5 Explain how conscious leadership can produce a conscious culture in
the firm
LO 4-6 Describe how ethics constitute an integral part of a firm’s conscious
marketing strategy
LO 4-7 Identify the four steps in ethical decision making
 Conscious Marketing

• Menti.com

• Code: 2914 0171

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 Conscious Marketing
Principles: When Walmart issued new standards for
livestock products to be raised on food w/o
1. Recognition of marketing’s greater antibiotics or artificial growth hormones, it
considered multiple stakeholder groups
purpose including the ranchers that supply the food, its
customers, & animal welfare groups.
2. Consideration of stakeholders and
their interdependence
3. The presence of conscious
leadership, creating a corporate
culture
4. The understanding that decisions are
ethically based

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Organics image library/Alamy
Marketing's Greater Purpose

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 Marketing's Greater Purpose
• Corporate Social Responsibility
as an Element of Conscious
Marketing:

• Economic Performance

• Social Performance

• Environmental Performance

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Sampling of Major Companies’ CSR Programs
Company Illustration of CSR Program

Coca-Cola The Coca-Cola Foundation has donated over $1 billion to communities worldwide since 1984; its
priorities are empowering women, protecting the environment, and enhancing communities through
youth development.
Amazon Created the Simple Pay Donation system to help nonprofits raise money on its site more easily.

Microsoft Developed the Microsoft TechSpark to provide computer science education, increase access to
broadband to rural areas, and provide cloud computing and AI to nonprofits, start-ups, and other small
companies.
Disney The Disney Conservation Fund supports nonprofits dedicated to saving wildlife.

Nike Nike Grind collects and recycles shoes to create basketball courts, turf fields, and running tracks.

Starbucks Continues to develop ecologically friendly growing practices, reduced plastic by eliminating plastic
straws, and is dedicated to building more LEED-certified stores.

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Adapted from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/most-admired/.
How Conscious Marketing Differs from CSR
CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY CONSCIOUS MARKETING
Is independent of corporate purpose or culture Incorporates higher purpose and a caring culture

Reflects a mechanistic view of business Takes a holistic, ecosystem view of business as a

complex adaptive system

Often grafted onto traditional business model, Puts social responsibility at the core of the
usually as a separate department or part of PR business, viewing community and environment as
stakeholders

Sees limited overlap between business and Recognizes that business is a subset of society,
society, and between business and the planet and that society is a subset of the planet

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The Stakeholders of Conscious Marketing

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The Stakeholders of Conscious Marketing

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Employees

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• Hero Images/Getty Images
 Employees
Although closing its stores on Black Friday meant
that REI lost some sales, the conscious culture in
the firm emphasized that employees should be
enjoying time outdoors with their families too.

Basic responsibility:
• Ensure a safe working
environment, free of threats to
physical safety, health, or well-being

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Hero Images/Getty Images
Current and Potential Customers

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 Current and Potential Customers

Walt Disney’s VoluntEARS program is one of the

biggest CSR programs in the world.
• Act quickly to shifts and trends to
meet customer needs

• Conscious marketing:
• Increases awareness
• Leads to better brand equity
• Increases sales

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Marketplace

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 Marketplace
• One firm in the industry can lead the way toward conscious
marketing

• Partners and competitors often have no choice but to follow

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Society

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 Society

• A firm that fails to act

responsibly causes damage to
all the preceding stakeholders
as well as to itself

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Environment

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 Environment

• Sustainability combines
considerations of all stakeholders

• Everything that we need for our

survival depends directly or indirectly
on our natural environment

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Environment

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Integrating Conscious Marketing Throughout
the Firm: Leadership and Culture

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Integrating Conscious Marketing Throughout
the Firm: Leadership and Culture

Implementation
Planning Phase Control Phase
Phase

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Planning Phase

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 Planning Phase

• The mission or vision statements

set the overall tone for Conscious
Marketing

• For General Electric, the

complexity of its organization and
the wealth of ethical issues it faces
necessitated an entire booklet,
“The Spirit and the Letter”

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Conscious Leadership: Newman’s Own
Donating over $400 million since 1982

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Alexandr III
Implementation Phase

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• Shutterstock / WilleeCole Photography
 Implementation Phase
• TOMS Shoes gives one pair of
shoes to someone in need in poor
countries for each pair it sells
TOMS social media campaign asks
consumers to post pictures of their
bare feet with the event hashtag, and
for every photo the company will
donate a pair of shoes.
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Shutterstock / WilleeCole Photography
Control Phase

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 Control Phase

• Check successful implementation

– Were conscious marketing issues
successfully addressed?

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Marketing Ethics as a Conscious Marketing Principle

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Marketing Ethics as a Conscious Marketing Principle

• Often difficult to balance needs and preferences of various

stakeholders

• Marketing ethics is an integral component of a conscious

marketing initiative

• When a firm embraces conscious marketing, it implements

programs that are socially responsible, and its employees
act in an ethically responsible manner

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Paul Maguire
Ethics vs. Social Responsibility

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Ethics vs. Social Responsibility

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 Ethics vs. Social Responsibility
Examples?

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Ethical Decision-Making Framework

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Ethical Decision-Making Framework

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Step 1: Identify Issues: Marketing Research Firm
as an Example

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Step 1: Identify Issues: Marketing Research Firm
as an Example

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Step 2: Gather Information and Identify
Stakeholders

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Step 2: Gather Information and Identify
Stakeholders

Gather facts important to the

ethical issue, including relevant
legal information

Identify all individuals & groups

with a stake in how the issue is
resolved
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Step 3: Brainstorm and Evaluate Alternatives

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 Step 3: Brainstorm and Evaluate Alternatives

• Relevant parties should together brainstorm

alternative courses of action
• Company leaders review & refine the
alternatives

• Marketing research firm example:

– Halt the market research project
– Make responses anonymous
– Institute training on the AMA Code of Ethics for all
researchers

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3D_creation
 Step 4: Choose a Course of Action

• Weigh the alternatives

and take a course of
action

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Pressmaster
Ethical Decision-Making Metric

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Ethical Decision-Making Metric

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Ethical Decision-Making Metric

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Adapted from The Art of Achievement: Mastering the 7 Cs of Business and Life, Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC, 2002.
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Adapted from The Art of Achievement: Mastering the 7 Cs of Business and Life, Andrews McMeel Publishing LLC, 2002.