After reading this week’s article on marketing, I really don’t see any ethical problems with marketing in itself. If the public is too stupid to come up with their own conclusions, isn’t it their own fault? Even if we did try to employ ethical regulations onto marketing techniques, what would they even look like? This week I’ll be expressing my opinions on what ethical guidelines I think should exist, my thoughts on tracking a consumer's buying habits, and finally, how I would manage the ethical aspects in my own marketing efforts.
There are certain regulations that I think should exist when it comes to ethical guidelines for marketing campaigns. The first regulation I think would be necessary is no outright lies. For example, if Coca-Cola claimed their drinks cured HIV; this is clearly a lie. Another example might be if McDonalds claimed their meals caused people to lose weight; clearly another lie. The second regulation would be one straight out of the DMA’s Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice, “clearly, honestly, and accurately represents its products, services, terms and conditions” (Direct Marketing Association's, 2014). This complements the first regulation by going a step further. An example of where this might be violated is if a marketing campaign claimed a service had a one-time fee of £19.99, but what they don’t tell you is that there are additional monthly fees of £9.99. This would be a violation of clearly expressing the terms of the service and being dishonest by leaving out important information.
With regards to being tracked with buying habits, I see absolutely no wrong by this and even encourage it. Google already does this and states “many websites, such as news sites and blogs, partner with Google to show ads to their visitors. Working with our partners, we may use cookies for a number of purposes, such as to stop you from seeing the same ad over and over again, to detect and stop click fraud, and to show ads that are likely to be more relevant” (Google, n.d.). What makes this a good thing is that their focus is to make the ads more relevant to me. As a male, I have no intentions of ever buying women’s underwear or sanitary products, so I rather not watch advertisements that deal with those categories. Instead, I rather see things that I was actually interested in, like new games or new technology products. This week's article brings up the following point, “making a consumer need a product he or she might not have thought about without being exposed to promotion just to make profits is widely considered as unethical” (SAYED & GHAZALY, n.d.). I completely disagree with this statement as most companies are for-profit companies. So, of course, that’s the idea. In addition, what’s wrong with introducing a product that the consumer may not have known they wanted otherwise? That’s like saying we shouldn’t have advertised cars when they first came out as people were probably perfectly happy to travel by horse or foot! Of course consumers need to be exposed to products they might not have known otherwise; this then gives the consumer the freedom to make their own decision with regards to what they want to do.
Lastly, I would manage my own marketing campaigns by following similar guidelines outlined in the DMA handbook. One such principle was already mentioned before by clearly stating what a product is, does, and what the consumer would be agreeing too. Another principle that I would like to follow: “delivers its products and services as represented” (Direct Marketing Association's, 2014). This compliments the previous principle by delivering a product that we said we would deliver. If the product was advertised to work a certain way, then the delivered product needs to work as advertised.
This week I discussed some of my opinions on what ethical guidelines I think should exist, what I thought about being tracked for advertisement purposes, and finally how I would manage my own marketing team. While I’m no marketing expert nor have any experience in such field, I do have my own opinions on the matter and don’t think the reading material has much weight with the points their trying to convey. While the articles intentions may mean well, I question the solution they seek and the world that they envision for the future.
References
Direct Marketing Association's. (2014). Guidelines for Ethical Business Practice. Retrieved from Direct Marketing Association's: http://thedma.org/wp-content/uploads/DMA_Guidelines_January_2014.pdf
Google. (n.d.). Advertising. Retrieved 2016, from Google: https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/ads/
SAYED, H. E., & GHAZALY, I. E. (n.d.). Is Marketing Evil?Marketing Viewed as a tool. Retrieved from Ethics-Based Marketing: http://www.ethicsbasedmarketing.net/2.html
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