What is an ethical marketer? How can one be more ethical in their profession?
Ethics and moral judgement is an essential component for anyone engaging in business activities, in our case, marketing practices. We may often think that ethical guidelines and personal moral compasses are somewhat exempt from business activity and commercial affairs.This could only be further from the truth. My aim is to discuss a variety of different schools of ethical thought and the ways in which they ought to be applied to real-life business scenarios. One main school of thought that shall be discussed is, Utilitarianism. Above all, my intention is not to provide an absolute or orthodox truth about a ‘right’ ethic, rather to provoke thought.
Utilitarian ethics and marketing:
Lets take a little look at the Utilitarian perspective….
Utilitarians believe that the purpose of morality is to make life better by increasing the amount of good things (such as pleasure and happiness) in the world and decreasing the amount of bad things (such as pain and unhappiness). They reject moral codes or systems that consist of commands or taboos that are based on customs, traditions, or orders given by leaders or supernatural beings. Instead, utilitarians think that what makes a morality be true or justifiable is its positive contribution to human (and perhaps non-human) beings.
“Marketing is human activity directed at satisfying needs and wants through exchange process” (Kotler and Turner, 1981).
Does the statement above constitute a Utilitarian perspective of marketing? Here is my perspective, so what are your ideas?
Interestingly, this definition is its almost entirely utilitarian aspect. This characteristic is typical of marketing whose central theme, ever since its very first definitions, has been the satisfaction of the needs of consumers. Since the satisfaction of consumers’ needs is the final objective of marketing, one would be inclined to believe that the ethical approach which dominates is, for the most part, utilitarian.
What about the possibility of ethical consumerism?
References:
Kotler, P, Turner, R. 1981, Marketing Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Schiffman, L, O’Cass, A, Paladino, A, Carlson, J, 2014, Consumer Behaviour, 6th edn, Pearson, Frenchs Forest, NSW, AUS.
Arnold, C, 2009, Ethical Marketing and the New Consumer, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd, West Essex, UK.
Masters, T and Media, D 2016, Ethical Considerations of Marketing Research, Smallbusiness.chron.com,Viewed 5 May 2016, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ethical-considerations-marketing-research-43621.html
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