Reference no: EM132100796 , Length: word count:1500
Assignment
CASE STUDY
Breast milk is a natural, safe and free human product. Breast feeding creates a strong material bond between mother and child and it is designed to protect the baby against a numbers of conditions such as pneumonia and diabetes. Not only are these, but women who breastfeed themselves given greater protection against breast and ovarian cancers. In this modern world, many women feel awkward in breast feeding and sometimes the medical staff do not have the time to provide adequate training to teach new mothers how to breastfeed.
Now, the infant formula is the obvious alternative. However, this product is derived from cow's milk, which is not designed for humans. Though it can supplement the diet of a hungry baby, or help a working mother during the day, but it should not be marketed as an option that can replace breast milk entirely. The working mothers easily get convinced with the formula manufacturers, as the infant formula is much easier and more convenient to use. In developing nations, the area of breast feeding is very pathetic, sad and uneducated one. The big and powerful multinationals that control the world's infant formula market take all the advantages of the poor and uneducated in order to increase their own profits.
The world Health organization has a marketing code, endorsed by UNICFF and the UNHCR, which bans all promotion of baby milk - both through advertising and indirectly, through health workers and midwives, but these powerful companies pay little more than lip service to it. As the data says in the developing world, one baby dies every 30 seconds from unsafe bottle-feeding. These are some MNCS which enjoys almost 40% of the world-wide infant formulaand try to capture more and more. For this different marketing practice, they conduct.
They send their representative to developing countries identified as ‘knowledgeable medical personnel', who give free samples of formula to hospitals and health workers. The medical staff, health worker's nurses, all these encourage the mothers using the infant formula by providing free samples and therefore discouraging breast feeding obviously for promoting their products, companies give some sort of gifts and incentives to local health officials. Other kind of promotion of their products is in the form of posters on the walls of clinics, some advertisements in national magazines etc. As the company's main aim is to encourage mother's to use the formula but they never provide adequate information about formula feeding. They do not teach these women about sterilizing the bottles they use; they provide no resources with which to do this. So the uneducated and unaware mothers use un-sterilized bottle and use dirty water mixed with formula which causes severe diarrhea and dehydration in the babies further which kill them.
Very soon, after the infants have become dependent on formula as their sole source of nutrition, and the mother's milk has dried up through lack of demand, the free samples stop coming. And now the only option left in front of mothers is to buy the packets with high prices. The majority of families cannot afford this. So either they go without food themselves and feed their babies or just over-dilute the powder to make it last longer. Again the babies will be suffering from malnourishment and often loss of lives. These companies do not follow WHO Codes according to which they are required to put labels on formula products in the appropriate language. They actively promote the use of infant formula as opposed to breast milk and always try to make as healthy a profit as possible.
1. How far are these marketing practices ethical? Explain your view.
2. Some marketers assume that marketing and ethics cannot be combined. Explain your views.
3. What are the basic major reasons for which marketers follow marketing ethics?
Ethics in Human Resource Management
4. Should Ethics be involved in various HRM policies? Why?
5. Explain the role of ethics in Training and development.