Basic Marketing: A Global Managerial Approach

Perreault−McCarthy: Basic
Marketing: A
Global−Managerial
Approach, 14/e

22. Ethical Marketing in a
    Consumer−Oriented World:
    Appraisal and Challenges

Text © The McGraw−Hill

Companies, 2002

649

One of the advantages of a market-directed economic system is that it operates

automatically. But in our version of this system, consumer-citizens provide certain

constraints (laws), which can be modified at any time. Managers who ignore

consumer attitudes must realize that their actions may cause new restraints.

Before piling on too many new rules, however, we should review the ones we

have. Some of them may need to be changed—and others may need to be enforced

more carefully. Antitrust laws, for example, are often applied to protect competitors

from each other—when they were really intended to encourage competition.

On the other hand, U.S. antitrust laws were originally developed with the idea

that all firms competing in a market would be on a level playing field. That is no

longer always true. For example, in many markets individual U.S. firms compete

with foreign firms whose governments urge them to cooperate with each other. Such

foreign firms don’t see each other as competitors; rather they see U.S. firms, as a

group, as the competitors.

Strict enforcement of present laws could have far-reaching results if more price

fixers, fraudulent or deceptive advertisers, and others who violate existing laws—

thus affecting the performance of the macro-marketing system—were sent to jail or

given heavy fines. A quick change in attitudes might occur if unethical top

managers—those who plan strategy—were prosecuted, instead of the salespeople or

advertisers expected to deliver on weak or undifferentiated strategies.

May need to change

laws and how they are

enforced

Internet

Internet Exercise Obvious Implementations Corp. is a small consulting and

manufacturing firm. Go to its website (www.obviously.com) and then select

How to stop junk mail, e-mail, and phone calls.Read through the information

and, if you wish, follow some of the links to other sites listed. Should it be

easier to avoid mail, spam, and calls you don’t want? Explain your thinking.

Laws should affect

top managers

Promotion Managers Go Back to School

Schools are a targeted place for youth-oriented

marketers to promote their products to the U.S.’s 45

million elementary and secondary students. Coke and

Pepsi are eager to contribute scoreboards (or is that

billboards?) for high school sports fields. In school

cafeterias, which serve 30 million meals a day, Kellogg’s

cereal and Dannon’s yogurt sponsor programs to

motivate learning (and increase consumption). A school

district in Colorado got national attention for selling

advertising space on the sides of its school buses. This

is not a new idea. The National Dairy Council has

promoted dairy products in the schools since 1915.

Even so, the launch of the Channel One television

network with ads and programming for schools brought

new attention to the issue. Many critics saw it as a crass

attempt to exploit captive students. Some schools even

hand out coupons tied in with the ads. Channel One

notes that schools get benefits. Besides the excellent

news programs, they get video equipment and chances

to win support for Internet access. Even Internet access

is a mixed blessing. It’s a great research tool, but there

are virtually no limits on Internet advertising banners or

websites. A teacher who does an in-class search on an

innocent topic like “Asian teens” may click on one of the

websites listed and instantly face a screen full of explicit

pictures from a Japanese website that sells porno

videos. To prevent that sort of thing, many schools use a

web-filtering program from N2H2, Inc. But critics are

troubled that N2H2 sells information about student surf-

ing habits collected by the program.

To find more targeted ways of reaching students,

some consumer products firms turn to promotion spe-

cialists, like Sampling Corporation of America (SCA).

About 70 percent of all schools participate in SCA pro-

grams. For example, every Halloween SCA provides

schools with safety literature wrapped around product

samples or coupons provided by sponsor companies.

Other firms create teaching materials. Dole Foods’

nutrition curriculum, for example, centers on a multi-

media CD-ROM featuring 30 animated fruits and

vegetables. Dole also urges supermarket produce

managers to contact their local schools to arrange

special tours. More than 750,000 elementary school

students have taken in-store produce tours.

There is no question that in-school promotion

efforts do provide budget-strapped educators with

added resources, including useful teaching materials.

Yet promotions targeted at students also raise sensi-

tive issues of educational standards, ethics, and

taste. Marketers who are not sensitive to these issues

can provoke a hostile public backlash, including a

host of new regulations.^15

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