Question 1: Ethical Issues in Target Marketing
American Marketing Association Board of Directors approved the definition of marketing in July 2013 as ‘Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.’, Ama.org (2015). With the growth in economy, competition and market fragmentation, the marketing became more sophisticated. The large heterogeneous markets were divided into smaller segments with similar needs, wants and buying behaviour, Kotler,P., Armstrong,G. (2014).
BusinessDictionary.com (No Date) defines ethics as ‘A problem or situation that requires a person or organization to choose between
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Teens face a lot of peer pressure to conform to the group and are willing to pay top dollars for being seen as ‘cool’. And this trait of the teens is used for target marketing which sometimes results into unethical practices, Mediasmart(2015a). It becomes difficult to develop healthy self-image when advertisers use best models to portray as norm to be followed by the consumers. Calvin Klien ads were banned after they were branded as unethical, Mediasmart (2015b). Marlboro global advertisements for the campaign “Don’t be a Maybe’ were found to be unethical in a number of countries, as it promoted a harmful product to teenagers, …show more content…
G.Heileman Brewing Company marketed a new product called PowerMaster. The segment targeted was African-Americans. It created such a furore and was considered a failure for unethical target marketing, that it became a case study at Harvard, Greyser, S.(1991).
Women also are considered to be a vulnerable group. Fairness cream is a product marketed to women in India and faces a flak for unethical marketing as advertising uses a good amount of stereotypes, Gundala, R.R., Chavali, K. (2005). American Marketing Association has come out with a Code of Ethics, which mandates that stereotypes should be countered with showing respect to all stakeholders Archive.ama.org (2015).
The geographic variable for segmentation also poses risks for marketer as an issue could be ethical in one country/geography while it may be considered unethical in another country. Shiva, V. (2015) describes Indian Monsanto seeds of genetically modified BT Cotton as ‘Seeds of Suicide’ due to the terminator technology which makes the seeds sterile. In India it was a huge ethical issue, while in USA this was an acceptable
Marketing is the process of searching for options for accumulating profits by identifying the demands of the people and satisfying their needs with appropriate products. In today’s globalized business world, marketing can play a vital role in establishing trade blocks all over the globe with competitive and cutting edge market, research, policies, strategies and activities.
Marketing In this day and age is vital for a company to perform at its possible best. Marketing’s main focus is to give great satisfaction to a customer. There are many aspect of marketing, these aspects give marketer’s the tools to help strive for the best possible success they can achieve. They hope that they can create exposure for their brand, product or service.
One classical ethical theory that can be seen in advertising practice today is utilitarianism. Under utilitarianism, the only concern is for the greater good. This means that any decision or action that is taken should result in the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people (Bivins, 2009). Numerous advertisements involving clothing and beauty products have been called out over the years for being discriminatory against women and self-serving for the company’s interests over society’s. Under utilitarianism, two brands stand out with their messages that promote happiness in the form of boosting self-esteem and redefining beauty among a large number of people in society.
[2] An Ethical dilemma is defined as “a situation that arises when all alternative choices or behaviours have been deemed undesirable because of potentially negative ethical consequences, making it difficult to distinguish right from wrong” (Samson and Daft, 2005, p.158)
An ethical dilemma is a form of problem facing an individual, which includes complex and often conflicting principles of ethical behaviour. A typical example of an ethical dilemma is a salesman; when selling a certain type of product he may face the dilemma of telling the truth about a product and end up losing a sale and his commission. However, he may feel that being truthful reveals he wants the best for the customers and is being more considerate about them. It all depends on how you deal and understand a situation.
Marketing is a process of determining a consumer’s needs, devising a product or service to satisfy those needs, and trying to focus customers on the goods and services you are offering. Marketing is extremely important, and a fundamental building block for business growth. A marketing team is given the task of creating customer awareness through a variety of different marketing techniques. If a business does not pay close attention to their consumer demographic and needs, they will eventually fail over time. Two important aspects of marketing include acquiring new customers, and the preservation and growth of relationships with current customers. Marketing has always been viewed as a creative outlet, which encompassed advertising, distribution, and the selling of goods and services. Marketing staff will also try to anticipate what customers will want in the future, often being accomplished with market research. In summation, a good marketing plan should be able to create a favorable proposition or series of benefits that a customer can value through goods or services. The marketing mix is normally described as the strategic positioning of a product or service in the marketplace, using the specification of the four Ps. During the early 1960’s, Professor E. Jerome McCarthy of Harvard Business School stated that a marketing mix contains four elements. The four key points are product, pricing, promotion, and placement. It is recognized that all these aspects must be present to ensure a successful business model within a given industry. We will now take a thorough look at the four marketing mix points.
Marketing is not a static construct, but it grows and develops over time to become what is known as marketing today. “The marketing revolution divides neatly into four separate eras’, eras’ which parallel rather closely the classic pattern of development in the marketing revolution.” (Keith, 1960). The first of these 4 eras was until the 1930’s and was production and profit orientated, and are considered to be outdated. During this era “the new product decision was product oriented not marketing orientated.” (Keith, 1960). “The second era was a sales oriented era, whereby marketing was seen as a series of activities designed to produce profit through ascertaining, creating, stimulating, and satisfying the needs/wants of a selected segment of the market.” (Eldridge, 1970, p. 4). The 3rd and 4th eras are a representation of what
To begin with, the definition of marketing has different explanation for different individuals so it is highly controversial (Kotler et al., 1983). The Marketing Association of Australia and New Zealand (2005) also states that there are diverse description of marketing and the concept of marketing is different from earlier time which is more restricted to present time which is boarder. However, it is comment that although in the different time period the concepts of marketing is different, the key points such as understand customer wants and needs will always expected rel...
We have a lot of important issues today that are unprecedented in history due to technological advancement of our age, such as: global warming, ecological pollution, DNA modification and patenting of crops, meat industry, and the list goes on. All these issues have to be addressed and decided upon with as much ethical prowess and unity of opinion among people as possible. Public opinion is a huge power and ability to sway it one way or the other can make or break a presidency, a corporate monopoly, domestic and foreign policies, or pass laws. Advertising is a very large omnipresent industry, whose sole purpose is to skillfully grab our attention and shape our decisions, thus manipulating public opinions. According to communications professor Joseph Turow, by targeting certain niches among consumers based on lifestyles, advertising segregates already diverse community even further, thus making it impossible for people to come to a consensus on critical issues, which demand our attention without delay (Goshgarian and Krueger 297). Therefore, it is important to consider how ethical advertising tactics really are, and whether it is necessary to create adequate regulations in order to control the industry.
Introduction In this paper I will define marketing in my own words and also research the definition using two different sources. While supporting my answers with three examples from the business world, I will show the importance of marketing. Marketing applies to many different areas of an organization and after close review, I will make it clear on how it relates. Personal Definition Marketing is how a company or organization promotes the service or product the company uses to generate revenue.
In today’s world, advertising reaches and influences teens in both negative and positive ways. Teens are bombarded with ads through television, teen magazines, radio, and the internet. Advertisers know teen’s buying power and their willingness to spend their money. Many companies even hire teens to be “consultants” and trendspotters. They want to know what teens are thinking and their likes and dislikes. Some feel this is a good thing and that teens are letting companies know what they want. On the other hand, many believe all this advertising to teens has a negative impact on them. Ads show models with “perfect” bodies. “Every year, the average adolescent sees over 5,000 advertisements mentioning attractiveness” (Haugen). Some feel this leads to teens having low self-esteem, while others argue that it does not have an effect. These people believe teens have the power and control in the advertising world.
A good definition of marketing is the process of the intermediary function between product development and sales. (Reddy ) The field of marketing entails taking a generic product or generic service (the product or services do not have to be “generic” they may be actually unique to the marketplace) and associating the generic product with a brand name (Petty 2001). Under this generic concept are the activities of advertising, public relations, media planning, sales strategy and so on.
According to Kotler (2012), Marketing is about identifying and meeting human social needs, thus it is not only about advertising and promotion it is more than this. It includes setting competitive price, communicating effectively with potential and existing customers and also introduction of new products.
As shown in Figure 1 there are many different definitions for Marketing. The key is that they all share a common theme, marketing is: “Meeting the needs and wants and providing benefits for customers.”
Ethics is simply doing the right thing. In the business situation ethics are the moral concept of a firm getting through it organizational duties ethically.