Organizations needs to get it all together, they need to take some time out to do a little “soul-searching” and pay a lot of attention to all forms of communications that they intend to put out there. The marketing communications issues nowadays are not grievous as it used to be but rather now subtle offenses that an average consumer might not take not of or mild offense that tend not to get attention of the media. So many organizations are still caught in the act of unethical marketing communications that are worse enough to cause damage to consumers. According to American Marketing Association statement of Ethics, “marketing system must contain no harm, must foster trust and embrace ethical value”. Marketing communications must must have …show more content…
Some advertising messages most times brings ethical issues especially when it comes to international marketing. Due to cultural and language differences between different countries, regions and areas in the world, a single marketing messages will not work because of this global difference, therefore marketers needs to be aware of these differences before launching any form a marketing communications. Lots of marketer engage in unethical marketing strategies and tactics just to gain an unfair advantage over other businesses in same industry by intentionally exalting their products with words that are not true concerning the products putting their own higher at the detriment of competing …show more content…
some companies takes advantage of using unethical communications since unethical does not necessarily means acting illegally, many marketers over exaggerate claims and make confusing statements that could misguide the consumers. It is sometimes difficult to conclude what the society terms as ethical or acceptable when it come to marketing communications, there marketers must be very sensitive enough to know what could generate controversy in their ways of communicating their products to the
Rationale This Further Oral Activity will be presented on a T.V. show format (based on the show “The Gruen Transfer”), with the host focusing on the false advertising of well-known health foods and drinks. This FOA will focus on the persuasive language and manipulative strategies used by businesses to influence and mislead consumers into believing false perceptions of their product, using case examples to support the evidence presented. The purpose of this FOA is to inform the audience on the plethora of manipulative and persuasive language used in advertising for ‘supposedly’ healthy products, while the target audience is Australian T.V. viewers 18-50 who are interested in the influence of advertising. The context of the piece is based on today’s world of marketing and how persuasive advertising strategies can influence Australian consumers.
Michael R. Hyman; Richard Tansey; James W. Clark (1994). Research on Advertising Ethics: Past, Present, and Future: Journal of Advertising, Vol. 23, No. 3, Ethics in Advertising pp. 5-15.: Taylor & Francis, Ltd.
At first I was a little hesitant, walking by the small market stand full of hair styling products I have never seen before. As usual, there is a salesman standing on the other side trying to persuade every individual to buy their new products. That may seem familiar and yes it can be very annoying. Targeting uninformed consumers is extremely unethical because the consumer most likely is not interested and they may be getting lied to. Many people know they will say anything to them to buy their product. In fact, two thirds of salesmen admit they lie about products they sell. Usually when someone is interested in a product, they will proceed to the salesman to learn more. But now, the salesmen are going out of their way to inform others about
Lahdesmaki (2005) argued that marketing can be an ethical contract between businesses and their customers. Therefore businesses are morally obliged to inform their customers about the products in store and provide all the information necessary via marketing strategy so the customer can make informed decisions about their purchase.
While pharmaceutical companies may use creative marketing to mislead consumers, in most cases the companies are not lying about their products to the general public. This deceptive marketing tactic falls in a gray area. Since there is some doubt, one should look at the three formulations of the Categorical Imperative to determine whether this action is moral. “The Kantian test of conformity to the moral law which an action must pass is a formal one. An action is morally right if it has a certain form; it is morally wrong if it does not have that form” (DeGeorge
The abovementioned process is influenced by the commoditisation of products and blurring of consumer's own perceptions of the companies' offering. In order to differentiate and position their products and/or services today's businesses employ advertising which is sometimes considered not only of bad taste, but also as deliberately intrusive and manipulative. The issue of bad advertising is topical to such extent that organisations like Adbusters have embraced the tactics of subvertising - revealing the real intend behind the modern advertising. The Adbusters magazine editor-in-chief Kalle Lason commented on the corporate image building communication activities of the big companies: "We know that oil companies aren't really friendly to nature, and tobacco companies don't really care about ethics" (Arnold, 2001). On the other hand, the "ethics and social responsibility are important determinants of such long-term gains as survival, long-term profitability, and competitiveness of the organization" (Singhapakdi, 1999). Without communications strategy that revolves around ethics and social responsibility the concepts of total quality and customer relationships building become elusive. However, there could be no easy clear-cut ethics formula of marketing communications.
Products are marketed to consumers everyday reeling in one by one with manipulative ways and tricks on the brain. Through an article by The Onion both consumers and marketers and adverises on products is clearly critised. A marketers strategy is to outsmart the consumer with the vast knowledge and benefits a product has to offer in order to sell the product and make profit.
so there is a difference between Nike running an embellished advertisement and a fast food chain running an embellished advertisement as Nike’s product is not normally correlated with harming ones health. Society distinguishes the difference between persuasion to buy a product that is harmful to ones health versus one that is beneficial or harmless to ones health. The idea is that it’s wrong to persuade someone to buy or do something that is harmful to his or her health, especially when persuasion is based upon falsehood.
To begin with, misleading advertising is the commercial speech “that can deceive consumers by ambiguity, through presentation or by omitting important information […] or including false information.” It is subject to federal regulation. Before 1895 fraudulent advertising was everywhere. It was not until 1893 to 1911 “when standards were in the making” due to the acknowledgement of ethical dilemmas of false advertising: deceiving the consumer and dishonesty.
Day in and day out, as consumers, we are inundated with rhetoric in the form of advertising messages. The internet is littered with them. Magazines and newspapers are filled from one page to another with advertising messages. It’s in our junk mails and on billboards. The main purpose of this is simply to promote their product, usually in such way that portrays them as the better brand over their competitors, and ultimately to make profit.
To conclude business organizations do not have the right to deceive individuals and consumers in specific because Albert Carr’s claim that business is a game cannot be justifiable and supported with reasons that may harm or the community and its people. However, I do believe that business organizations should be socially responsible and that would help them maximize profits in the long run (Lauren, 2011)
Marketing is a fundamental aspect of all businesses, whether they are set out to make a profit, or charitable organisations - they will have to carry out marketing research of some description. It has been described as being, “the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.” (Chartered Institute of Marketing) This essay will explore the role of marketing in a marketing oriented business and different aspects of the external environment that a smartphone company should be aware of. The points raised throughout will be supported using relevant journals, textbooks and newspaper articles.
In 1994, a new form of advertising and getting products and services into the world was discovered: the internet. Online advertising has been growing rapidly. We can see advertisements on almost any webpage we go to. Even if you try to avoid ads, you are bound to find some. This leads us to a crucial part of advertising which is ethics.
In order to generate sales, marketers often promote aggressively and uniquely, unfortunately, not all marketing advertisements are done ethically. Companies around the globe spend billions of dollars to promote new products and services and advertising is one of the key tools to communicate with consumers. Conversely, some methods that marketers use to produce advertisements and to generate sales is deceptive and unethical. Ethical issues concern in marketing has always been noted in marketing practice. According to Prothero (2008), ethics itself has a profound, varied and rich past. It emphasizes on questions of right and wrong or good and bad.
In my opinion , it is not ethical for a company to make profit using false advertising , that is because of a few reasons below :