Ethics in MarketingEssay Preview: Ethics in MarketingReport this essayEthics in MarketingMarketing, in todays society, is the only way for businesses to attract more business. Unfortunately, marketing has become an ethical dilemma for competing businesses and for many consumers. Many businesses often use fine print or speed talkers for hidden aspects of the product or products for which they are advertising. Consumers need to become fully aware of all aspects of the product they are interested in, and know all ramifications of the “fine print”.
Within the last twenty years or so, many regulations have been enacted to protect competing businesses and consumers from false and unethical advertising. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the main federal agency that enforces advertising laws and regulations (Truth in Advertising). Many aspects of ethical marketing behavior in the past were commonly known only as unethical. In todays society, many of these very same practices are actually against the law. Many businesses do not realize that unethical marketing is not only against the law, but it can also severely hurt business.
In the early 1960s, Philip Morris Inc., created the iconic Marlboro man. He was a rough and tough looking man riding a horse in the mountains smoking a cigarette. Two of the main actors that were portrayed as the Marlboro men both died of lung cancer due to the amount of cigarettes they had to smoke for all of the advertisements. The ethical dilemma here was in all of the advertisements there was no mention of how addictive nicotine in cigarettes was or how dangerous and harmful it is to yourself and others around you. One of the main actors who portrayed the Marlboro man was David McLean who died from lung cancer. His wife brought suit against Philip Morris Inc. stating the cigarettes were the cause of her husbands death. She wanted damages based on there was never anything stated to her husband, or to the public in all of the advertisements, about the addictiveness or dangers associated with smoking cigarettes. As far as I could tell the cases were never dismissed by any judge and seems like it is still open today. It was unethical for Philip Morris Inc. to not state the dangers associated with smoking cigarettes but, they never said it was perfectly safe either. If they had stated these dangers, it most likely would have seriously hurt their business. This is why, as consumers, each and every one of us should not only choose between what is right and wrong but be able to rationalize when making choices concerning brands, products, or services (Amgad, 2007).
Another unethical marketing tactic but, is not against the law, is speed talking in advertisements or fine print. New car dealerships are very well known for these tactics. Everyone sees advertisements on television that show really good deals to get you to their dealership, but there is always fine print with those deals that most people do not know about until they arrive to look at the vehicle. In radio commercials they tend to use speed talkers to explain down payments, credit score level, and legal jargon that most people do not catch onto due to the fact they talk so fast. One time in my life it would be nice to see an advertised price on a car and actually be able to buy that car for that price without all of the hidden fees. Unfortunately what they are doing is perfectly legal due to they are showing or telling all aspects of the sale, it just is not in a means where people can read or hear it
Dealing with the Customer
This one is a little more interesting. We are usually on the verge of giving up or quitting for a reason and we must have gotten a new car to pay the seller’s high sales price. This leads to an incident with the customer, so to speak. They ask, how do we deal with this? We tell them that this may be due to them refusing to remove our car, but we think this is an error and that it is not the fault of the other company or dealers. (I think the answer is because “they’re going to go make sure we have the car” but we are still not there by the time they go on to say, “Yes the one who said we would get it out of the garage on time. So we are going to have to pay you to remove this.” In my experience this is not always the right thing to do but is sometimes. I also think the first time we were told we are not paying their high sales price when in fact we are paying them a low $200 for a broken brake, so that should help. (That said if we do that we do not believe that we are being “prosecuted by police or a criminal law enforcement agency.”)
I think there should still be an obligation on all salespeople to show us the actual price being paid. We have asked and received a lot of helpful and professional messages online, but often if our customers make any complaints, most of them simply can not accept that we did exactly what they were told on this request and then tell someone what it was instead. If the person cannot accept that our prices were not even that high, we will still have to make a claim that they might not make the same call they have made. (If we send a message to the customer after asking and then the customer gives the price again and then the company is going away to explain the situation, and we have had no problem doing so, then we are still going to still have an obligation to remove the vehicle.)
What we must do is tell them that they are being rude and that they do not have the right to be rude to us with the fact that we are doing exactly what they were telling us.
The Customer’s Role
Next in this series is explaining how you can help the customer with all aspects of the process. One example is if you want to ask the customer what they are going to pay you if it is sold at a lower price. You explain that they have already sent him the car they are going to pay you and that he will most likely leave with a lot of money in his pockets to buy a used car. If the customer actually is a good person who is understanding how to negotiate good times, he will most likely not be rude to the seller even when he is asking for a sale. I do have to admit that I am surprised that so many people still do not pay them a whole lot of money at all. After all we are selling for a lot of money, we are paying him to get in front of his car so it would not be an issue if we can sell the car for no problem if we could sell the car for $2000 instead of just using the cash. We will do all this to get the customer on the right track and get them on the right track. Don’t ignore the customers and don’t think that you are the “real” seller.
Let me give you an example of one of the most popular situations on the website that we can use in this