CURRENT         ETHICAL ISSUES IN                 MARKETING

Ethical issues in marketing arise due to the conflicts and lack of agreements on special issues. Parties involved in all marketing transactions have a lot of expectations about how the business relationships will be and how various transactions need to be carried out.

[1] Ethics in Advertising and Promotion

Sexuality is the major place of discussion when ethical issues in advertising  are considered. Violence is another  important ethical issue in advertising, specially where the children should not be affected by the contents in the advertisement.Some select different methods of advertising that may strongly offend some groups  of population even when 

they are of strong interests. 

[2] Pricing Ethics

There are various forms of unethical business practices related to pricing the products and services.

Ø Bid rigging it is the type of fraud in which commercial contract is promised to one party, however, and in that other parties also present a bid.

Ø Predatory pricing is the practice of sale of the  products or services at  negligible price, intending to make competitors out of the market, or to create some barriers to entry,so that they can rule the market.

[3] Anti-Competitive Practices

There are various practises that are anti-competitive in nature. For example, bait and switch is a type of fraud where customers are "baited" through the advertisements saying some products that have a low price; however, the customers finds out that the advertised good are unavailable and they are "switched" towards a product that is more costing  and was not intended in those advertisements.

[4] Delivery Channels

Direct marketing is one of  the most controversial form of advertising channels,they are like that  particularly when approaches are unsolicited. TV commercials and direct mail are the very common examples. Electronic spam is one majour issue and telemarketing push the borders of ethics and legality more  powerfully.

[5] Using Ethics as a Marketing Tactic

Major corporations fear the damage of  their image associated due to unethical practices. Marketers have been very fast  to understand the market’s taste or like for ethical companies, often moving faster to take advantage of this shift in the  consumer  taste. This results to the propagation of ethics itself as a  component of a corporate image.

Current Unethical Issues In Marketing

There are many unethical practises done or faced by marketing  departement or managers,some of such practises are:

[1] Misleading advertising

Misleading advertisements are very much unethical—they’re illegal. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) regulates “truth in advertising,” and strictly watching  that businesses make very accurate statements in their advertisments . However, it is very common for advertisers to exaggerate some of the features and fake others in order to make their products look more  attractive as possible, and the line becomes somewhat blurry.

Contacting people without consent.

Many businesses have used this tactic to contact people whom they dont   know.
this is happening because of stealing or due to misuse of credentials or private informations which is unethical.

[3]. Insensitive controversy.

making up a bit of good controversy more can be an effective way to get more attention in marketing. you can stand out as a thinking leader by presenting a not so popular opinion, and cultivate discussion among the readers. However, when you enter into a world of controversy , you will be probably end up making more enemies than new fans.

[4] Stereotyping 

Considering women as sex symbols just to draw attention to a product.While it might be intuitive to use models in adverts for beauty products and , having half-naked models in advertisements for generators, heavy machinery, smartphones and other products will not strongly related to women is both nonsensical and unethical.

[5] Exploiting emotions or a news event

 events like this  pop up every once in a while, then make  quick exit when the consumers complain about feelings that are manipulated. Such was the case after the September 11 terrorist attacks, when some of the  advertisers tried to evoke sympathy – for New Yorker, firefighters and survivors – while also selling their products.This is exploiting emotions for business which is unethical.