Is Your Marketing Ethical?
Lately, is seems the issue of ethics in marketing is popping up all over the place. We recently blogged about the Federal Trade Commission’s move to strengthen rules regarding marketers’ claims about green and eco-friendly products, and there is an ongoing debate about whether fast food companies should be able to include toys with children’s meals (with California’s Santa Clara County going so far as to ban them completely). In the realm of social marketing, bloggers are being encouraged to improve transparency by disclosing their relationships with companies and brands they endorse.
All of this raises the question about where marketers should draw the line between promoting a brand and making exagerated claims. We all know what ethics are, but how should we define ethics in marketing? Practicing ethics in marketing means deliberately applying standards of fairness, or moral rights and wrongs, to marketing decision making, behavior, and practice in the organization. If your organization does not have a marketing code of ethics, take a look at the American Marketing Association’s Statement of Ethics – it is a great template that companies can adapt for use in self-regulating.
Ethical marketing is good business. When an organization behaves ethically, customers develop more positive attitudes about the firm, its products, and its services.