A634.5.4.RB - Is Marketing Evil?
After reading the article "Marketing Ethics" by Linda
Ferrell:
1. Do you feel ethical guidelines make a difference to marketers?
Ethical guidelines make a
difference to marketers as long as it is profitable for them. This sounds jaded
and is very much a generalization. I know that some ads have a legitimate
intention of just informing the public of something. A jazz club marketing team
tasked with advertising upcoming acts and happy hours probably have no other
ulterior evil motive. However, having worked in on-line marketing for the
Seattle Times, I can say with confidence that most marketers will have no
problem targeting specific people any way they possibly can. Companies can
target their potential customers down to the IP address of their computers. The
people who decide how, when, and where to target their preferred market have
guidelines that do have to be followed though. Part of my job was to test the
ads and edit for grammar, links that didn’t work, and inappropriate content. We
had one advertisement for a weight loss product where if the user clicked on
the “X” to clear the ad a confirmation would pop up that said something like:
“By closing this ad you are indicating that you are a fat loser who doesn’t
care about their health.” It was brutal and definitely not the image or message
the Seattle Times wanted to convey and we removed the ad immediately. No
marketing strategy can be implemented without complete understanding of its
objectives and employee cooperation to make it work. (Ferrell, n.d.)
2. How can companies balance the need to win with being ethical?
If all companies adhere to the
ethical guidelines then yes. Unfortunately, those companies that play fast and
loose with the guidelines tend to get the upper hand. Transparency though can be that balance. If
I, the consumer, know what I’m getting into from the beginning, then I’ve
entered my personal information willingly and understand the consequences. When
companies use underhanded tactics like the examples of Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart
to gain footing in another market it really just assumes that the consumer
isn’t smart enough to make their own choices. Marketing in itself is a study of
the human psyche though; ad agencies have to work miracles to make something
common uncommon while convincing the public that they will become better people
if they buy it. The key is whether the organization has adequately planned to
mitigate the potential results of poor choices through leadership, effective
ethics programs, prompt response, disciplinary actions, appropriate disclosure,
communication to the workforce, and the public crisis management communication
so that they do not escalate into catastrophes. (Ferrell, n.d.)
3. Is it ethical to track your buying habits or web visits to target
you for marketing purposes?
No, it really isn’t. However, is it
ethical to put a bunch of ads in the Sunday paper knowing that more people buy
a Sunday paper than any other day? Pop-up ads and strategic ad placing on
websites has become the new normal. Somehow, we’ve bought into the belief that
companies that track our buying habits is actually a convenience for us. How
lovely that since I ordered my face cream on Amazon yesterday that today I’m
seeing ads for youthful skin and other beauty products that somehow tie back
into that purchase. What if I made that purchase for my sister? The same can be
said for grocery stores that have the “loyalty” cards. We get “special”
discounts without coupons just because we’ve signed up for the Safeway Loyalty
card and inadvertently given them access to our purchase history. Is it ethical
for the websites to allow companies to do this tracking through their sites? If
you open the door, isn’t whoever is standing on your doorstep going to try to
come inside?
4. As a leader, how will you manage the ethical aspects of your
marketing efforts?
As a leader, you have to hold
people accountable, lead by example, and live the values you tout. This
situation is made more dynamic because individuals are culturally diverse, have
different values, and have different personal attributes, such as personality,
age, and gender, which may influence how they will react in an organizational
decision. (Ferrell, n.d.) Again, I have to say that even as a leader marketing your
product, whether that product is a new soft drink or data that backs up a
recommendation to spend millions of dollars, transparency is essential;
transparency and thorough preparation. Recently at work, a presentation was
given to primarily executives and finance about three new CAMS (I think it
stands for Camera Measurement Software) shoot tools. These are basically super
fancy laser level/tolerance/balancing tools to make sure that when the airplane
is joined together, everything lines up. It’s done before and after the join. The
presentation mentioned how the tools were part of a strategy and of course it
mentioned the cost. The justification for the cost was wrong though. The data
given was full of false promises like they would never have to replace these
tools, they never broke down, etc. Ridiculous claims that had anyone with any
background at all working with these tools been present would know to be
absolutely not true. Marketing is a
functional part of an organization, and ethical decision making must be
coordinated with the other functional areas. Without the ability to coordinate
across functional areas, key oversight and understanding will be lost.
(Ferrell, n.d.) Now that the project has gotten approval and we’re moving
forward on the purchase, the true capabilities are being talked about like the
real maintenance and upgrade needs, possibility of downtime, and the need to
always have a back-up for this downtime, etc., the people who approved the
money disbursement are all in shock and feel lied to. Once we recognize that
both actions and omissions shape [our] propensities for future behavior, it is
apparent that slopes cannot be avoided. (LaFollette, 2007) I don’t know who was
more wrong, the people over-promising or the executives who did not ask
critical questions about the tools and the processes. I feel that the company
who sold this amazing-never-breaks-down version of this tool marketed their
product with half-truths and bloated data. I also think that the leadership
involved didn’t want to admit that they needed help from the lowly mechanics to
make this decision. These assumptions on my part are all conjecture since I
heard about this second-hand but I’ve been in these meetings before, and I’ve
been with my organization long enough to know that while most of our leadership
have the very best of intentions, ego can be a problem.
References
Ferrell, L. (n.d.) Marketing
ethics. University of Wyoming.
LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice
of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
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