By: Susane Rodrigues

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 The Social Responsibility of Ethics in Marketing
 BY: SUSANE RODRIGUES

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“Don’t find customers for your product.
Find products for your customers.”
-Seth Godin

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 What exactly is “ethical marketing?” According to The Wordstream
Blog (www.wordstream.com), “ethical marketing refers to the
process by which companies market their goods and services by
focusing not only on how their products benefit customers, but also
how they benefit socially responsible or environmental causes.”
Further, ethical marketing goes a step beyond, say, automotive
smart selling or on-trend, innovative makeup packaging: it takes
into consideration the long-term impact of product use and how that
product is sourced. This is especially true for companies that are
focusing on thinking green—that is, designing products that not only
have little to no harmful impact on the earth, but also are made from
safer packaging and ingredient materials.

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 Socially conscious companies are thinking ahead, asking
themselves how they can best reach their target market while
leaving an ethical stamp in the process. An example of this is how
McDonald’s has been using recycled and repurposed materials in
their food and drink packaging. Not only are they aesthetically
designing the french fries and Big Mac boxes, they are ethically
doing so as well. Reusing paper, plastic, and other materials is a
forward thinking manner of considering that the earth’s resources
are not infinite. Socially conscientious consumers will not only
enjoy their favorite McDonald’s meal, they will likely feel good about
how the company designs and markets its product line with the
message that with good food comes ethical presentation of that
food.

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 One of the website’s examples of an ethical marketing brand is
Dr. Bronner’s, the #1 selling organic soap in the US. With the
myriad soap brands available today, few stand out the way this
name brand does. The first eye catching element of the brand is
that a 30K word philosophy can be found on each bottle! Known
as “Cosmic Principles,” company founder and doctor Emanuel
Bronner spoke these words while touring the US’s lecture circuit
in the 1940s. Attendees of the lectures received a
complimentary peppermint liquid soap.

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 The company is known as a Benefit Corporation (B-Corp),
meaning, this type of company must be a for-profit firm that
presents a positive influence on society and the environment based
on “legally defined goals” (Wordstream.com). Moreover, Dr.
Bronner’s is invested in multiple goals, such as creating awareness
of the importance of USDA-certified fair-trade ingredients, as well
as fair compensation implements that “limit executive pay to five
times that of lower-level employees” (Wordstream.com). Dr.
Bronner’s overall B Impact Report score is a 149, with 80 being
the minimal score to be eligible for certification. The brand stands
tall among other B companies with respect to the following: (1)
environment, (2) workers, (3) community, and (4) governance. The
environment ranking alone - at 47 - is nearly seven (7) times that of
the median environment score.

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 The above example illustrates how business marketing can be
successful both monetarily and ethically. Making a sizeable profit is
ultimately what determines the corporate stature and net worth of a
company, but there is something to be said for companies that give
back—that work just as diligently at delivering a socially responsible
message as making a “hit product.” Ethical marketing companies
like McDonald’s and Dr. Bronner’s have embraced the idea that
socio-environmentally aware marketing strategies are just as
appealing as producing a highly functional, popular brand.
Consumers who care about the mountingly precarious, vulnerable
state of the earth look for brands that incorporate similar core
values of sound ingredients, sustainability, waste control, etc.

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 Ethical marketing is about “helping consumers make better, more
conscious choices about the products they buy and the stores they
frequent” (Wordstream.com). It is about pro-environment and pro-
people activism and progress. Ethical marketing teaches us to be more
choosy in our purchases and more thoughtful in our comparitive
shopping. For every popular brand, there is another awaiting discovery
— another that believes that intelligent harvesting of resources is just
as important as “the bottom line.” This is especially crucial for the
younger and yet-to-be generations, for they will inherit the environment
that we leave behind as part of our human legacy. Teaching young
people to look for key brands, ingredients, and pro-earth business
philosophies can transform the way they act as a consumer and seller,
alike. Options are important, and conscious buying is everything as we
all face uncertainties living on this much depleted planet. Our children
and children’s children will have the ability to alter their consumer
footprint and thus leave the environment healthier than the state in
which they came to know it. Our legacy need not become theirs.

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 Acknowledgment:
https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/09/20/ethical-marke

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Dr. Bronner’s
liquid soap

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Dr. Bronner’s
liquid soap