Enterprise Marketing
Ethics in Marketing
Definition:
 Principles and standards that define
acceptable conduct of marketing
efforts.
Social Responsibility
 Definition:
 An organization’s obligation to maximize
its positive impact and minimize its
negative impact on society
 Marketing Citizenship: The adoption of a
strategic focus for fulfilling the economic,
legal, ethical and philanthropic social
responsibilities expected by stakeholders
 Stakeholders: People and groups of
people who are affected by the activities of
the organization
Who are the stakeholders?
 Customers
 Suppliers
 Owners/Investors
 Employees
 Management
 Community
 Governments
 Dealerships, distributors commissioned
salespeople
Corporate Social Responsibility
 Economic: Be profitable. All other
responsibilities rest on this
 Legal: Obey the law. All business
activities are within the boundaries of the
law
 Ethical: Obligation to do what is right,
just and fair.
 Philanthropic: Be a good corporate
citizen. Contribute to the community.
Examples of un-ethical marketing
 Manipulating and/or cheating the customer
 Knowingly bringing an unsafe product to
market
 Making claims about the product that are
untrue
Ethical issue
 An identifiable problem, situation or
opportunity requiring a choice among
several actions that must be evaluated
as right or wrong, ethical or un-ethical.
How Ethics affect the marketing
mix
 Product: when marketers fail to disclose
risks associated with a product or
misrepresent it’s function or value.
 Promotion: false or misleading
advertising
 Pricing: price fixing, predatory pricing
 Distribution: Multi-Level Marketing
Examples of Un-Ethical
marketing
 The recording industry: Payola
 The movie studios: Bundling Gone
with the Wind and Getting Gertie’s
Garter
 The Auto industry: Ford Pinto
 Multi-Level Marketing: NSA Canada
Improving Ethical conduct in
Marketing
 Introduce codes of conduct
 Hiring more ethical employees
 Eliminating un-ethical employees (bad
apples)
 Restructuring (bad barrels)
Implement Ethical and Legal
compliance programs







Educate employees on code of ethics.
Lead by example
Follow-up and enforce
Resources: E-Center for Business Ethics
http://e-businessethics.com
American Marketing Association
www.marketingpower.com
Social Responsibility and
Ethics are good for business
 Cause related marketing: The practice of
linking products to a particular social cause
 Strategic Philanthropy: The synergistic use
of organizational core competencies and
resources to address key stakeholders’
interests. Both organizational and social
benefits are achieved.
Example of good business ethics
 The Body Shop - Canada
 Using natural ingredients, The Body Shop has built a successful skin
and hair care product line. Responsibility for the environment is also
key.
 Product Communications, The Body Shop Canada
 In 1980, The Body Shop Canada was a single shop hidden under a
deli in Toronto's Yorkville district. It's products were hand-labeled
and the warehouse consisted of boxes wedged into the basement of a
house. Today The Body Shop, respected for its distinctive and honest
approach to retailing and its commitment to profits with principles,
has 120 shops across Canada selling high-quality skin care and hair
care products that are not tested on animals and simply packaged, ...
For next class
 Read Brand Marketing case study:
Guinness
 http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/58/
marketing.html
 The “Intel Inside” brand case study
 http://www.intangiblebusiness.com/Brandservices/Marketing-services/News/Ingredientbranding-case-study-Intel~466.html
 Also research: Harley Davidson motorcycles
Your Marketing Project
 Divide yourself into groups of 4 students
 Think about a product that you would like
to export to the Canadian market
 Develop a marketing plan based on the
theory presented in class and the sample
marketing plan
 More details to come…