Unethical Issues in Marketing

 

Un-Ethical Issues and Their Impact on Marketing:-

Advertisements are a great way to spread knowledge about a product or service, but sometimes the messages in advertisements are questionable. Vintage advertisements from the 1950s and 1960s, for example, were created in an era with far less oversight. Today, many of these ads are more offensive and unethical than persuasive. If you look at an ad for Camels cigarettes from the 1950s, you’ll see a doctor smiling while holding a cigarette, and the caption, “More doctors smoke Camels than any other cigarette”. This ad demonstrates hypocrisy, since doctors spend their careers advocating for healthy lifestyles. It also sends a message to society that if doctors are smoking, then it must not be all that bad.
In marketing, the strategy of promotion is used to gain the interest of consumers and to persuade them to try a product or service, but too often, the objectification of women is implemented in this strategy. Carl’s Jr. is well known for doing so. Since 2000, the majority of their advertisements include models eating hamburgers and wearing revealing clothing. Carl’s Jr. defends their actions by saying “We believe in putting hot models in our commercials, because ugly ones don’t sell burgers.” Because of their unethical choice to objectify women, many women believe they are not the target audience, but that males age 18 – 35 are.

Ethical and Unethical Data Collection:-

Before a new product or service is released, research is conducted to gain feedback on how well it will test in the market. An ethical marketing research strategy used to gain this information is focus groups. The main purpose of focus groups is to get the consumers’ opinions, beliefs, or perceptions about a product or service. This form of qualitative research consists of a moderator that interviews a small group of people, or respondents. The interview is set up in an informal way, so the respondents are free to give their stance without restrictions.

Another strategy is data collection. Many websites like Google, Facebook, and Amazon collect their users’ data, including web search habits, name and contact information, and location. They use this to build a profile of their customers which they then use to show ads for products and services that are tailored to consumers’ interests. Data privacy issues are currently a very hot topic – there is a serious trade-off between protecting individual privacy, and building more effective marketing strategies.