Marketing Communications

REVIEW QUESTIONS 581

Summary

Marketing communications professionals should act ethically because it is in their best

long-term business interest to be perceived as decent corporate citizens that are sensitive to

the moral codes in the society where they market their products. Th erefore they should

set ethical standards and rules for themselves and follow them in every communications

campaign and communications instrument. Th ey should refrain from using controversial and

shocking messages such as fear appeals and provocative ads just for the sake of gaining atten-

tion. Covert marketing techniques, such as stealth and buzz marketing and certain forms of

brand placement, should be used with care and under full disclosure, so that the consumers

are not deceived or misled. Men and women, elderly people and sub-culture groups should

be portrayed in advertising with due care, in order not to stimulate discriminating or off en-

sive stereotypes. Especially when targeting children, marketing communicators should take

into account that they are oft en cognitively not developed enough to recognise the persuasive

attempts of creative marketers, and can therefore be misled in an unacceptable way. Public

relations offi cers, sales managers, salespeople and direct marketers should take care that they

do not invade the privacy of customers and that they do not use unfair or deceptive practices.

At the minimum, marketing professionals should strictly follow the legal and regulatory

guidelines in the countries in which they operate, and should fully co-operate with the self-

regulatory bodies and procedures that are in place. Th ey may also become actively socially

responsible by engaging in corporate social responsibility projects.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. When setting ethical standards, individuals and companies can follow different principles
   such as the deontological, teleological, distributive justice and ‘common decency’ principles.
   In what way are they different and how could they lead to different marketing communica-
   tions decisions?


2. When laying the groundwork for ethical decision-making, several rules and models can be
   used, such as the caveat emptor and caveat venditor rules, and the consumer sovereignty
   rule. Explain the difference between these rules. How would your decisions be different
   when you applied these different rules?


3. What are the main ethical concerns with marketing (communications)? To what extent are
   they correct or exaggerated?


4. What are the most important reasons to be careful with targeting marketing communica-
   tions at children?


5. Controversial and shocking images are often considered as ethically problematic. What
   can be considered controversial in marketing communications and when would you
   consider it an ethical problem?

flavour lovers and the brand lovers, who account for 50% of the sample, only a small minority were prepared to pay

the sample average price premium of 10% for fair trade coffee. The 11% fair trade lovers cannot be considered

equivalent to actual market share, because the amount of coffee they buy relative to the total population is

unknown. However, the authors concluded that, compared with the 1% market share held by fair trade coffee at that

time, the 11% fair trade lovers constituted a substantially larger potential market than actually reached.^132

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