Chapter 17 - Ethics and Socially Responsible Marketing

Question 1

Business ethics

Answer 1

concerned with distinguishing between right and wrong actions and decisions that might arise in a business setting

Question 2

Marketing ethics

Answer 2

in contrast, examines ethical situations that are specific to the domain of marketing, including, societal, global, or individual consumer issues

Question 3

Marketing societal issues

Answer 3

Can involve societal issues such as the scale of products or services that may damage the environment, global issues, such as the use of sweatshops and chillabour, and individual consumer issues, such as deceptive advertising and the marketing of dangerous products

Question 4

Ethical climate

Answer 4

• includes the set of values that guides decision making and behaviour
  Everyone in the firm should have the same understanding of these value and how they translate into the business activities of the firm, and they must share a consistent language to discuss them
• Once the values are understood, the firm must develop a set of explicit rules and implicit understandings that govern all the firm’s transactions

Question 5

The Influence of Personal Ethics

Answer 5

Every firm is made up of individuals, each with their own needs and desires - people are expected to know what is right and not ethical behviour

Question 6

Corporate Social Responsibility

Answer 6

refers to the voluntary activities undertaken by a company to operate in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable manner

• For companies to maintain this - employees must also maintain a high ethcual standard and recognize how their individual decisions lead to the collective actions of the firm

Question 7

Socially responsible

Answer 7

going above and beyond the norms of corporate ethical behaviour

Question 8

Consumerism

Answer 8

a social movement aimed at protecting consumers form business practices that infringe upon their rights

• Consumers increasingly want to purchase products and services from companies that act in socially responsible ways - when companies embrace CSR they appeal to not only shareholders but also their key stakeholders

Question 9

Employees

Answer 9

• Ensure a safe working environment, free of threats to their physical safety, health or well-being
• Employers are realizing that happy employees make more productive employees, so they are offering more benefits

Question 10

Customers

Answer 10

• As changes in the marketing environment emerge, firms must consider the effects on the customers who currently patronize them and future customers whom they are targeting
• Some trends - respecting and protecting privacy in an electronic world and offering environmentally friendly products
• When conscious marketing takes on pertinent issues, it often increases consumer awareness of the firm, which can lead to more brand equity in the long run

Question 11

Marketplace

Answer 11

When one firm in the industry leads the way toward CSR, its partners and competitors often have no choice but to follow

Question 12

Society

Answer 12

• Firms expend considerable time and energy engaging in activities aimed at improving the overall community and physical environment
• Companies cannot ignore societal demand that they act responsibly

Question 13

Environment

Answer 13

Interested in understanding the overall environmental impact of a company’s products

Question 14

Framework for Ethical Decision making

Answer 14

Step 1: Identify Issues
Step 2: gather information and identify stakeholders
Step 3: Brainstorm and Evaluate Alternatives
Step 4: Choose a Course of Action

Question 15

Step 1: identify issues

Answer 15

Ex - misuse data collected from consumers by a marketing research firm

Question 16

Step 2: Gather Information and Identify Stakeholders

Answer 16

• Gather facts that are important to ethical issues, including all the relevant legal information
• Have discussions with the individuals and groups that have a stake in how the issue is resolved

Question 17

Step 3: Brainstorm and Evaluate Alternatives

Answer 17

Come together to brainstorm any alternative courses of action

Question 18

Step 4: Choose a Course of Action

Answer 18

Weigh the various alternatives and choose a course of action that generates the best solution for the stakeholders by using ethical practices, management will evaluate and rank the alternatives in terms of preference, and establish the advantages as well as disadvantages

Question 19

Integrating Ethics into Marketing Strategy
Planning Phase

Answer 19

Introduce ethics at the beginning of the planning process simply by including ethical statements in the firms mission statement

Question 20

Implementation Phase

Answer 20

When firms are identifying potential markets and ways to deliver the four P’s to them, companies must consider several ethical issues

Question 21

Control Phase

Answer 21

• Managers must be evaluated on their actions from an ethical perspective
• Systems must be in place to check whether each ethical issue raised in the planning process was actually successfully implemented
• Must react to change