This slideshow briefly presents the main ideas of Chris Arnold book "Ethical Marketing & the new consumer" (2009). It only has educational purposes.

1. ETHICAL MARKETING
MANUELA VALIM BRAGAGNOLO
MARKETING AND AGRIFOOD BUSINESS
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI TERAMO
APRIL 7TH 2020
ACCORDING TO ARNOLD

2. FROM HAVING AN ETHICAL REPUTATION TO BEING ETHICAL
(OR BETTER: TO DEVELOP AN ETHOS)
ethos
noun
the characteristic spirit of a culture, era, or community as
manifested in its attitudes and aspirations: a challenge to the
ethos of the 1960s.
ORIGIN
mid 19th century: from modern Latin, from Greek ēthos
‘nature, disposition’, (plural) ‘customs’.

3. BUILDING (AND LOOSING) A REPUTATION
Innocent is a prime example of a brand that has grown off a strong
ethos and reputation. Every touching point with the brand is defined
by its ethos. If you see their marketing team at a show they are friendly,
energetic and honest. It’s all about quality. The ingredients and the
people are the best. You can tell the company cares about what is
put into its bottle and who puts it in. You can’t say the same for any
other soft drink. Brands like Coke have suffered so much adverse
publicity, especially over the water scandal in India, that its behaviour
has redefined the brand. Even given billions of dollars of
advertising, kids see it as a bad brand.

4. BUILDING (AND LOOSING) A REPUTATION
The Guardian, 22 Feb 2013
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2013/feb/22/coca-
cola-full-control-innocent
Ethical Consumer, 9 Sep 2017
https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/food-drink/
shopping-guide/fruit-juice

5. THE UNTAPPED POWER OF ETHOS
Brands that come top of many surveys live and breathe some
form of ethics. They deliver it from the heart.
Ethos is a key element to looking and felling ethical.
You can’t fake it, people see through false claims. And ethos
starts with people.
We trust people; but we don’t trust big corporations or
faceless franchises.
If you want the consumer to feel good about you and view
you as ethical you need to dig out your ethos and deliver it.

6. CHURN AND THE DISPOSABLE SOCIETY
We have become a society that is dedicated to churn,
instant convenience and everything disposable. But society
is waking up and starting to reject these ways. There’s a
return to basics, to old values. As this passes as a wave
through communities those brands that haven’t adapted
will be left out along with all those short-lived items. To
the new consumer, brands can be just as disposable as a
paper coffee cup.

7. FAIR TRADE, SECOND LIFE PACKAGING AND
A RETURN TO POST WAR VALUES
Many businesses have discovered that being more ethical
saves them money; that reducing waste reduce costs. And
some have discovered that their waste has value. Others
have made a business from turning waste into new exciting
objects. Hand in hand with this is the need to treat people
fairly and with respect. It all makes a better business.

8. LOOK AT ALL “PS" AND BUILD A STRONG ETHOS
Gü Puds
https://gupuds.com
Hub Pages, April 27, 2019
https://hubpages.com/art/Things-to-do-with-GU-
pots
“Gü may not be fair trade or organic
but by leaving you with a useful glass
jar, rather that a plastic pot, you fell
it’s more worthy.”
(Arnold, 2009, p. 40)

9. IS NOT WHAT YOU SAY BUT WHAT YOU DO
“Ethics isn’t just about the planet and farm trade but about
showing respect for people, your costumer being one of them."
HONESTY RESPECT
Does your marketing reflect these two words?

10. THINK GREAT, BE HONEST, FEEL PROUD
In marketing we have to face reality. There are good things
like Fair-trade coffee and Tea. There are bad things like oil
and weapons. And there are most thing in between.
Branding isn’t, contrary to what some branding agencies
say, about the image you wish to project but about how
people see you.

11. LIMITS OF BEING ETHICAL
IN CAPITALISM
“Look behind the label”
M&S campaign
"But if we really looked
behind many brands we
wouldn’t like what we saw -
even the ethical ones. It’s
impossible to tick all the
boxes. Big corporate brands
can only do so much and it’s
impossible to be ethically
pure, especially if your main
focus is to delivering more
profit year on year to your
shareholders."
(Arnold, 2009, p. 60)

12. BRANDING ETHICALLY
Branding is far more than a nice corporate identity, it’s
about brand ethos - the WHY behind the WHAT and HOW
you do things. If everyone knows the WHY then the rest
follows. But if the WHY is just ‘buy it cheap, make money’ you
get abuse.
“The sweet taste of low prices is soon replaced by the
bitter taste of a brand reputation destroyed”.

13. HOW TO MARKETING ETHICALLY IN THE CORONA TIMES?
Maybe we can learn some lessons from the last recession
(2008/2009 crisis).
"Even given a recession, surveys reveal that we are actually
becoming more people and community focused not less.
Environmentalism may be old news for the media but
people aren’t.” (Arnold, 2009, p. 66)

14. CHALLENGING SUPERMARKETS ABOUT EXPLOITING THIRD WORD LABOUR
Action Aid Report “Who pays? How british
supermarkets are keeping women workers in
poverty”
https://www.actionaid.org.uk/sites/default/files/doc_lib/
actionaid_who_pays_report.pdf
Action Aid campaign asking to
british consumers “who's
paying for the discount?” and
“when you pick up an apple
do you think about who
picked it off the tree?”
Supermarkets had to announce
in their ads that they were
paying for discount on
bananas.
42000 people signed up to the
Action Aid loyalty card during
the campaign

15. THE ETHICAL TIME BOMB: BANK INDUSTRY
"Another example of brand sucede is the behaviour of banks in
the recession and the failure of some banks to pass on rate
decreases. […] When the recession ends those financial institutes
that put their ‘greed before the public need’ will all be paying a
bigger price - mark my words, it’s an ethical time
bomb." (Arnold, 2009, p. 67)
HBOS was UK’s biggest lender (and would pass on 0,25 of a
percentage point after one reduction by the Bank of England). The
brand was defunct in the UK in 2009.

16. A DRIVING QUESTION
“Once someone has made a conscious shift to a better
product as a consequence of their heightened awareness of
the effects of that purchase, how hard will it be to the switch
that conscience off and return to just buying on price?”
Kelvin Collins on the Foreword of “Ethical Marketing and the
New Consumer”
Arnold C. (2009) Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer.
Chichester: John Wiley & Sons.
REFERENCE