Marketing ethics and social responsibility - Contemporary Issues, Marketing Management Video Lecture | Marketing Management - B Com

chapter three marketing ethics
these questions are the learning
objectives guiding the chapter and will
be explored in more detail in the
following slides
why do marketers have to worry about
ethics what does it take for a firm to
be considered socially responsible
how should a firm make ethically
responsible decision how can I fix and
social responsibility be integrated into
a firm's marketing strategy
in August 2007 several time Anna
factures found lead paint in their toys
Mattel recalled 20 million products in
one month
even though Mattel had subcontracted
this manufacturing through China they
took total responsibility for the
problem
profit is important to the success of
the firm but how the firm makes that
profit can have a dramatic impact on the
firm's future greed and short-term
profit seeking usually results in
serious long-term consequences creating
value over the long run can equal long
term success
business ethics refers to a branch of
ethical study that examines ethical
rules and principles within a commercial
context the various moral or ethical
problems that might arise in a business
setting and any special duties or
obligations that apply to persons
engaged in commerce marketing ethics
examines those ethical problems that are
specific to the domain of marketing
marketing and sales professionals
sometimes ranked poorly in the ratings
of the most trusted professionals for
marketers who depend on the long-term
trust of their customers this low
ranking is very disappointing Citibank
addresses identity theft as it becomes a
growing issue that can damage both the
organization and its customers
the process of creating a strong ethical
climate within a marketing firm includes
having a set of values that guides
decision-making and behavior once the
values are understood the firm must
develop a set of explicit rules that
govern all the firm's transactions then
everyone within the firm must agree to a
system of controls that rewards
appropriate behavior and punishes
inappropriate behavior many professions
including marketing have their own codes
of ethics that firms and individuals in
the profession agreed to abide by the
generally accepted code in marketing
developed by the American Marketing
Association flows from general norms of
conduct to specific values to which
marketers should aspire each sub area
within marketing such as marketing
research advertising pricing and so
forth
has its own code of ethics that deals
with the specific issues that arise when
conducting business in those areas
every firm is made up of individuals
each with his or her own needs and
desires every individual is a product of
his or her own culture upbringing genes
and various other influences firms must
establish a process for decision-making
that ensures individuals choose ethical
alternatives more often it is not always
clear why people act unethically and
sometimes illegally but when they do act
in this manner many people may be harmed
decisions often have conflicting
outcomes where both options have
positive and negative consequences in
many cases people must choose between
competing outcomes when faced with a
dangerous flaw in a new model a manager
could choose to delay production and
remedy the design flaw which pushes
production off schedule delays revenue
and may result in layoffs and loss of a
bonus or the manager could stay on
schedule put the flawed design into
production and hope it does not result
in injuries to consumers and loss of
revenue for the firm which option would
you choose
corporate social responsibility
describes the voluntary actions taken by
a company to address ethical social and
environmental impacts of its business
operations and the concerns of its
stakeholders for a company to act in a
socially responsible manner the
employees within the company must also
maintain high ethical standards
this slide outlines a simple framework
for ethical decision-making which will
be presented in greater detail in the
following slides
the first step in ethical
decision-making is to identify the issue
in a marketing research firm ethical
issues might include data collection
methods such as not informing
respondents that they are being observed
hiding the true purpose of a study from
respondents for example telling them
they are in an independent research
company but actually doing research for
a particular politician using results to
mislead or even harm the public for
example results of a pharmaceutical
study
the second step in the ethical
decision-making process is to gather
information and identify stakeholders
the firm focuses on gathering facts that
are important to the ethical issues
including all relevant legal information
the firm must also identify and discuss
these issues with the individuals and
groups that have a stake in how the
issue is resolved
this slide illustrates a stakeholder
analysis matrix the stakeholders are
interrelated because an ethical
violation may impact others falsifying
results for a new pharmaceutical study
will for instance impact the researchers
the pharmaceutical company the legal
system the physicians and most
importantly the patient's after
identifying the issues and the
stakeholders all parties should come
together to brainstorm alternative
courses of action the alternative
solutions depend on the type of ethical
issue and how the stakeholders are
affected after compiling a list of
alternatives the alternatives are then
evaluated and a course of action is
chosen the chosen course represents the
best solution for the stakeholders using
ethical best practices to choose the
appropriate course of action marketing
managers will evaluate each alternative
using a process something like this
sample of ethical decision making
questionnaire
now check yourself one according to the
American Marketing Association code of
ethics what are the six ethical values
honesty responsibility fairness respect
openness citizenship to identify the
four stages in the ethical
decision-making framework stages 1
identify issues stages to gather
information and identify stakeholders
stages 3 brainstorm alternatives stages
four choose a course of action
this slide summarizes the ethical
decision making process with an emphasis
on identifying potential ethical
pitfalls during each stage
by incorporating ethics into the firm's
mission statement the firm sets a
standard for its subsequent ethical
decision making
the mission statement signals the firm
strategic priorities firms often go
beyond the mission or vision statement
by including a values statement Newman's
Own is an example of a company highly
sensitive to its ethical and social
responsibilities Aqua Teen Hunger was
under criticism for ethical concerns in
the implementation phase of their
marketing strategy
you
there are several questions that a firm
must ask itself during the
implementation phase of the strategic
marketing planning process should the
firm be relocating production to another
country should the firm be targeting
this market with this product should the
firm be selling its product in this
market in this manner
during the control phase managers must
be evaluated on their actions from an
ethical perspective systems must be in
place to check whether each potentially
ethical issue raised in the planning
process was actually successfully
implemented systems used in the control
phase must also react to change this
slide outlines the six tests of ethical
action now check yourself one should a
marketing manager insist on assessing
the ethics of a situation she or he is
facing yes to identify one ethical issue
you might face in each of the three
phases of a marketing plan answers will
vary click on each scenario to bring up
the picture and questions review the
scenario in the textbook is this
unethical to mail these two young adults
would it be wrong if it was from an
alcoholic beverage company review the
scenario in the textbook was this wrong
for Victoria's Secret do you have any
additional issues with this company as
they promote body images that are hard
for many women to maintain
review this scenario in the textbook
some states ban such software and
require businesses to display a real
phone number but the practice continues
why would firms want to participate in
it
review the scenario in the textbook when
the owners learn about the deception
should they immediately stop using the
distributors why or why not
review the scenario in the textbook
avoiding a large loss often creates the
potential for ethically questionable
actions would the scenario change if
some infants had died from this product
review the scenario in the textbook many
people feel that the anonymity of the
Internet is concerning in many ways
corporate social responsibility
describes the voluntary actions taken by
a company to address the ethical social
and environmental impacts of its
business operations and the concerns of
its stakeholders