Marketing Ethics

3. Marketing Ethics
 Marketing Ethics is an area of applied
ethics which deals with the moral
principles behind the operations &
regulations of marketing.
 Some areas of marketing ethics (ethics of
advertising & promotions).

4. Unethical Marketing Practices:
INCREASED corporate competition coupled with
the strides in information technology has
enhanced the importance of aggressive marketing
for selling goods and services. While a firm is
entitled to persuade the potential customers that
by buying its products they will get the best value
for their money, the persuasion should be based
on facts rather than deception, information rather
than disinformation. In other words, the
businesses should desist from indulging in
deceptive marketing practices.

5. Examples of Unethical Marketing Practices on
elder & illiterate people:
 Making false, exaggerated, or unverified
claims.
 Distortion of facts to mislead or confuse
potential buyers.
 Concealing dark sides or side effects of
products or services.
 Bad-mouthing rival products.
 Using women as sex symbols for advertising
 Using fear tactics.

6. Contd..
 Plagiarism of marketing messages.
 Exploitation.
 Demeaning references to races, age, sex, or
religion.
 Spamming.

8. What do you think on this one? To me, there are two instances of puffery here: "Serving the
Best" and the actual brand of "Seattle's Best."
I'd say it is fairly obvious why these two phrases were chosen -- Starbucks is the coffee king of
Seattle. So what better way to try and compete than make your brand claim that there is
nothing better out there. Both of these claims are puffery, however, because -- based on my
simple working definition above -- neither claim can be positively proved or disproved, or they
are simply opinions.

10. Ethical values that marketers are expected to uphold:
1) 1. Honesty
2) 2. Responsibility
3) 3. Fairness
4) 4. Respect
5) 5. Transparency
6) 6. Citizenship