Marketing Ethics and Criticism

Does the Marketing profession behave responsibly? Caveat Emptor!

The function and practice of marketing has been criticised because it is claimed that it deliberately creates partial truths about products and services and exploits the fears and weaknesses of fellow human beings.

It is frequently claimed that the ethics of marketing can be criticised because it is he only business function that deliberately sets out to emphasise the gap between a persons reality and their expectations in such a way that people feel 'lacking' in either self esteem or posessions so that they feel compelled to close the gap by unnecessary spending.

Personal critcisim is often levelled at practioners who are characterised as vapid unscrupulous indidviduals who believe they hold superior knowledge about human behaviour, motivation, persuasion, influence.

Academically the profession is criticised from a managerial standpoint because it exists in state of torpid uncriticality...making claims to be a 'profession' when it is only attracts self opinionated gurus and mystics with a lack intellectual rigour and commercial discipline

Philosophically much of the critical position towards marketing takes a post modern standoint in opposition to the predominantly positivistic and managerialist stance of much of the pro-marketing academic and business management literature. Customers and markets are seen as resources to be exploited for shareholder gain, and scant regard is paid to the systemic problems that such behaviour creates.

For over 100 years marketing management has sought scientific credibilitity. Perhaps the most influential thought leader in that regard is Philip Kotler In his view customers are there to analysed and understood in order that their needs can be supplied by competitively differentiated value propositions. His work avoids many of the ethical consequences of such an approach.

The 'marketing way' either explicitly or implicitly endorses the philosophy of Milton Freidman and the belief that the ends justifies the means. In other words businesses are accountable to shareholders and shareholders alone.

Marketing as a profession nevertheless suffers from a continual identity crisis. Profesionally it distinguishes between 'marketing as a business environment aware philosophy' and marketing as a customer facing function The former characterises marketing as a fundamental and strategic process that guides the sustained competitiveness of the organisation (something that public service organisations naturally struggle with) the latter talks about marketing's 'jobs' in managing product & service development, pricing, channels to market, communications, service, relationships, and image. (The marketing mix)

The man in the street and many businesses (much to the annoyance of many marketing professionals) just regard marketing as responsible for influencing and persuading people to buy things by face to face selling and/or advertising Both of these things become associated with and represent the 'brand' and brand management is perhaps the most strategically important aspect of daily marketing management. Marketing in the minds of the public and many managers is associated with slapping lipstick on pigs and is sometimes disparigingly refered to as the the colouring in department

That said marketing is commonly understood to be in the persuasion business, and in doing that it naturally presents a biased version of products and services. Caveat Emptor is the cry and the best defence against what Bob Cialdini calls the 'Compliance Professionals

Marketing - A Critical Introduction

This is an excellent introduction what for most marketing professionals would regard as 'off piste'. Chris Hackley introduces the themes and perspectives that are usually reserved for obscure academic tomes. I love this book. If you are interested in re-instating the human being into marketing management then grab yourself a copy.

Marketing: A Critical Introduction

by: Dr Chris Hackley

Amazon Price: $39.20 (as of 07/12/2009)

Ethical Marketing

Ethical marketing is an honest and factual representation of a product, delivered in a framework of cultural and social values for the consumer. It promotes qualitative benefits to its customers, which other similar companies, products or services fail to recognize. The concern with ethical issues, such as child labor, working conditions, relationships with third world countries and environmental problems, has changed the attitude of the Western World towards a more socially responsible way of thinking. This has influenced companies and their response is to market their products in a more socially responsible way.

The increasing trend of fair trade is an example of the impact of ethical marketing. The idea of fair trade is that consumers pay a guaranteed commodity price to a small group of producers. The producers agree to pay fair labor prices and conserve the environment. This agreement sets the stage for a commerce that is ethically sound.

The philosophy of marketing is not lost with this newfound ethical slant, but rather hopes to win customer loyalty by reinforcing the positive values of the brand, creating a strong citizen brand. However, this new way of thinking does create new challenges for the marketer of the 21st century, in terms of invention and development of products to add long-term benefits without reducing the product's desirable qualities.

Ethical marketing should not be confused with government regulations brought into force to improve consumer welfare, such as reduce carbon dioxide emissions to improve the quality of the air. Enlightened ethical marketing is at work when the company and marketer recognize further improvements for humankind unrelated to those enforced by the government. By way of example, the Coop Group refuses to invest money in tobacco, fur and any countries with oppressive regimes.

Marketing Ethics and Criticism

Does the Marketing profession behave responsibly? Caveat Emptor!

Contents at a Glance

Contents at a Glance

Marketing - A Critical Introduction

Ethical Marketing

Who's Marketing's Ethical Bad Boy?

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Do Social Networking Companies Behave Ethically?

Are members of social networking sites exploited by the owners of the sites they use?

Customer Sovereignty

How To Assess The Ethics and Transparency of Business Values

Greenwash

Links Suggesting That Marketing might be unethical and deserves criticism

If you agree, add links (proof!) that help me make my case

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Ethics and Marketing

Marketing seen critically

Who Controls Your Wallet?

Criticised Marketing links

'Bad Marketing' Books

off the rails

Bad Marketing

What others have to say

Critical Marketing

Challenging Conventional Understandings of Marketing Theory and Practice

Marketing Ethics Blog Posts from Google

Marketing manipulation

Are You A Marketing Addict?

Critical Marketing Link List

Conflicts of interest

Uncovering hidden agendas

Tescopoly

Is this a fair picture of what Marketing is about?

Is marketing really this bad?

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by reasonablerobinson

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