ETHICS

AMA Definition
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.

Why discussion on ethics is required?

Conflict between what has value for different stakeholders (Harmful products like liquor, cigarettes)
Usage of societal resources (Air, water, environment)
Implicit focus on profitability

Ethical Approach
Deontology
Focus on actions and means even if they have unintended negative consequences

Teleology
Focus is on outcomes or effects of actions

Relativism
No universal set of ethical principles
Criticism of Current Marketing Approach

Fostering Materialism
Desire to posses things for reasons other than their functional attributes like status and uniqueness
How many products do you buy for functional reasons? Purchases due to symbolic reasons or status?
Distinguish your needs from wants
Environmental Impact of products you buy?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEExMcjSkwA

Deception and Manipulation

Making consumers act in ways they would not normally
Creating fear and insecurity (Toothpaste; Deodorant)
Subliminal Effect- Customer not consciously aware of the message

Wasteful Strategies
Product Proliferation as no meaningful differentiation
Wasting resources on differentiating products
What will happen if there are very few options?
CSR
Greenwashing (Volkswagen)
CSR by oil, cigarette and liquor companies
Nike
Myth 1- Achieving financial returns with social benefits (Walmart vs Costco; BP)
Myth 2- Consumer will reward ethical businesses (Tata vs Reliance)
Myth 3- Companies and countries will compete to have best ethical practices

Organizational Power
Leaders will exploit (Uber)

Marketing Strategies
Market Research (Consent; Objective)
Consume more in short, wide glasses as compared to tall slender
Candies in clear jars are consumed quickly as compared to opaque
Sandwiched in transparent consumed more; Foods in organized manner; Duplicate buffet lines; Large size of food item;
People don’t keep track of how much they have eaten; why don’t we let them know

Customer Data and Privacy

Product related issues (Safety- Datsun Go; Packaging)
Segmentation and Targeting
Pricing (Price gouging during COVID; Pharmaceutical companies; Skimming; Discrimination; Collusion)
Promotion (Models used in advertisements; White Hat Jr)
DECISIONS WITH ETHICAL DILEMMA
WHICH YOU HAVE TO TAKE?
Which of the options is ethical? Will you buy such car?
Reaction vs Deliberate Decision
What about a random decision?
Who should take the decision?
Programmer, Company, Government, Society? Should we stop using self-driving cars to resolve this
dilemma?

Utilitarian View- Minimize total harm

Technology Ethics
Deontological View- Do not take explicit Action to kill
anyone Tradeoff- Social Dilemma
What will you do now?

Who is more important?

Is it Ethical?
COVERED TILL HERE
Children
Over-eating
 Companies spend more than 15 billon on promoting food and beverages to children in America.
 The number of obese children is increasing at an alarming rate across the world
 Companies like Kraft Foods and Mc Donald’s serving junk food with too much fat and less nutrition are omnipresent
 Promotions targeting children (Discounts after results)

Should we stop these companies form doing their business?

Should we regulate the food business by limiting the choices for customers?
Should we leave it to individuals to decide what they want to eat?

Violent video games

 California passed a law to ban these video games but overturned by court.
 Termed it as unconstitutional as it is the duty of adults to know what to consumer for themselves and their children

Problem is
 misleading children about products performance or benefits;
 exploiting child's imagination or create unrealistic expectation
 product to be shown in safe situations (Oreo cookies going into toaster and popping out as pastries.)
 refrain form encouraging inappropriate behaviour- aggression

Disney have stopped use their brands or characters on foods high on sugar, salt or fat.
Privacy
 Tracking customer movements by accessing the location data
 Video Surveillance during store visits
 Tracking mobile phone activities- Search terms used
 Google Pay prompts message from Paytm; Food delivery apps
 Smart TV captures what all you are watching including advertisements
 Facebook is considered to be the worst abuser of privacy.
 Manipulated posts for checking emotional contagion and emotional suppression without permission
 Determine users political affiliations and label them accordingly to tailor the information shared with them
 Under program “Beacon”, came with a feature where the friends will be notified when they visited their place of residence
 Facial recognition fingerprint scan data collected by different apps

 Why privacy related legal policies not shared with customers in a more understandable manner?

 Any benefits for customers by compromising privacy? Is there a dilemma?

Labels
 Label list information on per serving basis
 Discretion in setting serving sizes
 Some share on the basis of one cup, four cookies; Do people only eat half of a small packet
 Reduced reporting of calories, fat, sugar

 Use of word Organic vs Natural; Natural don't require any compliance;

 Ingredients comprising of GMO crops

It should be total calories per packet followed by color coding for each ingredient
Health Ratings for food products- Single Score
Deceptive Advertisements
 False or Misleading claims (Fair and Lovely; Deodorant)
 Skechers Toning Shoes- Get in shape without setting a foot in gym
 Native Advertising- Planting promotional message in other content- Advertisements in news app.

 Unsubstantiated Superiority Claims- Comparison with other products without any proof
 Omitted Risk Information

Offensive Advertisement

Surrogate Marketing
Consumption Ethics/Ethical Consumerism Spillover Effect
Placing societal needs before individual needs Positive Spillover
Consistency Theory
More focus remains on the Marketing Ethics
Consumption fueled by marketing Social Identity- Social norms of reference
groups

Avoiding Conspicuous Consumption Negative Spillover

Licensing Effect
Green Consumption
Single Action Bias- Way to simplify decision
Responsible Consumption- Combining social and in situations of uncertainty and risk
environmental motives
a
Behavior
Acquisition
Use
Disposal
Why some industries are more unethical than others?
THANK YOU