Marketing Ethics
Marketing Ethics are marketers' standards of conducting and moral values. People make standards of ethical behaviourdepend on their own systems of values and that can differ from employer's organizational ethics, which generate conflicts Conscientious marketers face variousmoral dilemmas. Companies have to develop corporate marketing ethics policies-wide guidelines that everyone in the organization has to follow. Areas of concern include following:
- Advertising standards.
- Distributor relations.
- Pricing.
- Customer service.
- Product development.
- General ethical standards.
The optimum guidelines cannot resolve all the hard ethical situations a marketer faces. What principle might guide companies and marketing managers on issues of social responsibility and ethical? Two general philosophies are used which are following:
1). Issues are selected by the free market and legal system. Under this particular system companies and their managers are not responsible for creating moral judgments. Companies may do whatever the system permits.
2). Issues are the responsibility of each companies and managers. This methodology says that the company should contain a "social conscience" that guides action. It is a more enlightened philosophy.
Each of the company and marketing manager has to work out a philosophy of ethical behaviour and socially responsible. Remember that written codes do not confirm ethical behaviour. The issue of ethics gives special challenges for international marketers. Bribery can be socially acceptable in one country and fully illegal in another. Companies have to commit to a single ethical standard that may be applied worldwide. Several industrial and professional associations have recommend codes of ethics; several companies are now adopting their own codes. Companies are making programs to teach managers regarding important ethics issues and help them discover the proper responses. Still, written codes and ethics programs do not give surety of ethical behaviour. Given the challenges of this century, companies which are able to makes new values in a socially-responsible way will have a world to conquer.