MARKETING MANAGEMENT

ASSIGNMENT
(Title: Ethical Marketing)

Submitted to: Mr. Tanveer Abbas

Submitted by: Syeda Zoya Maqsood(040)
Department: BBA-V

Date of submission; Nov 22, 2018

 Ethical marketing
Ethical marketing is an honest and realistic representation of the product taking into account the
social and cultural values of the consumers. It involves satisfying the needs of customers through
honest claims. Ethical marketing can have significant benefits for business. Marketing ethics can
benefit society as a whole both in short term and long term. General principles of ethical
marketing practice includes a shared standard of truth in marketing communications, clear
distinction between advertising and sensationalism, Endorsements should be clear and
transparent, Consumers’ privacy should be maintained at all times, Government standards and
regulations must be practiced by marketers. Unethical marketing activities, in contrast, can
destroy business's reputation and possibly lead to legal troubles. The examples of Unethical
practices in marketing includes misleading consumers through the style of the packaging,
deceptive advertising, high pressure selling, price fixing cartel, dumping, lack of clarity in
pricing, counterfeit goods and brand privacy etc.

MARKETING MIX

Product
The marketers have to identify and satisfy consumer’s needs in order to earn profit. But
sometimes products offered by them don’t contribute to satisfying existing needs. Ethical
concerns can arise in the development and performance of products/service as well as in the
design and quality. Unethical Practices relating to products can include selling those gods
abroad that are banned, not providing information on side effects of product, unsafe products,
wasteful and unnecessary packaging, incomplete testing of product, deception n size and content
Ethical marketing activity should prevent poorly made and unsafe products. Products that are not
made well or products delivering little benefit or less benefit than promised are commonplace
criticism made to marketers. Packaging is also be a source of ethical concerns. Exaggerating
packaging through design or misleading labels are considered unethical, because they aim at
deceiving consumers by making them believe a pack contains more product than it does in
reality.
Example:

Claim made by Fresher Juice of being

“100% pure” is misleading the consumers.
The company admitted to have used fruit
pulp reconstituted with water sucrose,
acidulants and vitamin C, which
contradicts the claim of purity. This is an
example of unethical practice in product .

Promotion
 Promoting in an ethical way helps a business to build trust as a brand and with individual
customers. Ethical promotion portrays that your offers are honest and accurate. Products should
promote on their own merits and highlight those features that members of a target market might
find valuable when promoting to that market segment. Unethical practices in promotion includes
many things like issues over trust and honesty, issue with violence and profanity, taste and
controversy, negative advertising techniques, "bait and switch" tactic is widely considered
unethical, Portraying rival business negatively, Exploiting vulnerable group for example children
Giving false/ misleading information about product, Not disclosing the effects of the product
The most commonplace ethical concern in promotion is deception.”Deception is commonplace
in advertising. For example, overstating a product’s feature or performance is contrary to the
ethics. Deception in advertising can be either an exaggeration of products’ attributes.

Example:
  Fair and lovely: In the ad a girl is tanned uses
fair n lovely cream twice a day and gets a
very fair complexion after 4 weeks. Unethical
issues in this ad: It violates the Pakistanis
advertisement ethics. According to their claim
this cream gives you unmatched and fairer
complexion than your own complexion in just
4 weeks. But it doesn’t work in the same way
as they show in the advertisement.

Price
The price of a product or service plays a great role in how well it sells. Producers and retailers
practice ethical pricing strategies to earn profits without deceive competitors or consumers.
Marketers should be allowed to charge any price they want provided there is no price
discrimination among consumers. But too high prices are not ethical, when they do not reflect
the existing cost structure but are a means to take advantage of consumers. This happens when
there are monopolies, oligopolies or cartels. Besides, advertised prices should always be realistic
prices that consumers will find in stores.
The odd-pricing practices can also be an ethical concern. With odd-pricing, marketers resort to
odd numbers (e.g., 999 Rs) instead of rounded numbers (e.g., 1000 Rs) because consumers tend
to associate 999 with 90 rather than 100. Unethical pricing practices can also include price
discrimination, price fixing, price skimming, price war, variable pricing etc.

Example:
 Due to monopoly pharmaceutical
companies are charging to high prices for
medicines.

Example of odd pricing

Place
Consumers can be manipulated without
knowing it through subtle marketing
techniques in distribution outlets. For
example, shelves at lower heights target children, and stores can be organized in such a way that
it encourages consumers to pass through more shelves. Ethical concerns are linked with
the segmenting, targeting and positioning process.
Efforts to target consumer populations can be subject to unethical attitudes (e.g.: particularly
vulnerable consumer populations, such as children, the poorest minorities, and the uneducated).
Ethical concerns can also be raised by Marketing to children. That is the reason why candies
have been placed at lower shelves so that children can easily reach them. Unethical practices in
place can include promising shipment when knowing delivery is not possible by the promised date,
exerting influence to cause vendors to reduce display space for competitors' products, selling
products that have crossed expiry date, moving products in unsafe vehicles, paying vendors to carry
a firm's product rather than one of its competitors etc.

Example:
Nike has been targeting children by feeding them the idea that the Nike shoes, will make them
faster, more confident, stronger and able to obtain endless possibilities. Nike’s marketing
campaigns are able to brainwash individuals.

References

 http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/Marketing-Mix-An-Area-of-
Unethical-Practices.pdf
 https://www.cleverism.com/social-responsibility-ethics-marketing/
 https://www.scribd.com/presentation/300425140/Ethics-in-Advertising-in-Pakistan
 https://uhavepassed.com/examples-of-unethical-advertisement-on-pakistan/