Portfolio Activity

Word count: 628

Introduction

Most companies market their brand based on trust, because they understand the importance of

getting customers’ trust in building the brand. However, if the company should engage in

deceptive activity then they will lose that trust as quickly as it was gained. Marketing is the link

that connects customers to the company, a relationship based on trust is built ethically through

marketing, or an unethical relationship based on lies or deception is built. Ethical marketing is

simply making honest claims to attract potential customers while unethical marketing sends

wrong messages to potential customers about products and services, which may lead to the loss

of the company’s reputation in addition to the legal damages that may be caused to it (Oswald,

1995).

Unethical behavior,

Unethical marketing comes in many forms; the practice may intentionally invoke sadness or rage

that influences and manipulates consumer decisions. Although, the tactics used behind such as

fear, which unfortunately gets into the consumer's psyche and affects the emotional states

negatively tricking customers into buying their products/services. Unethical marketing is divided

into many segments, which are:

1- Making false, unverified claims, some marketers use this false statement or make unverifiable

claims about the offerings they provide. Hence, this is common in the reputation loss in the
industry, convincing potential customers about a product that can help them; for example, losing

weight without exercise or dieting.

2- Distorting product facts to confuse potential buyers. Notwithstanding, this is another unethical

approach to the market. So to say, when a food/drinks processing company manufactures a

product that contains sugar or calories and markets it as a sugar-free or calorie-free product

because customers are unlikely to purchase their products.

3- Concealing side effects of products, also known as deceiving customers that the manufactured

product has no side effects and marketing it as made from natural ingredients.

4- Negative word of mouth on rival products. Emphasizing the dismissive sides of a rival product

intentionally to turn customers towards one's products is a common unethical marketing

approach.

5- Using genders as sex symbols for marketing and advertising, many brands use this unethical

advertising approach in our modern-day marketing, which is essentially alarming, such; as

having half-naked men or women to attract attention to the product.

6- Plagiarism of marketing strategies and messages. Some business owners and salespersons
Marketing encompasses activities which a company does that are meant to gain customers and

maintain relationship with them. These activities can be summed up in the 4Ps of marketing:

Product, Place, Price and Promotion (Winer & Dhar, 2011). These activities are similar across

organizations, with companies in Ethiopia being no exception. Marketing executives are

involved in strategic decision making and forming marketing strategies. In a global world today,

one of the roles of a marketing manager is to ensure that the correct ethical decisions are taken to

implement these marketing strategies. Few of these decisions and implementations have

core ethical implications for the consumer in terms of appropriateness, consumer

education, and consumer justice or their opposites.

Ethical marketing is as important as ethical business practice in all organizations and sectors.

Ethical marketing involves making honest and true claims about a product or service in order to

attract potential clients. Only after the customer realizes that the product is truthful, do they start

to trust and rely on the product and eventually develop brand loyalty (Tama, 2019).

Unethical marketing on the other hand, is practicing deception which misleads the customers in

order to make them purchase, we can briefly identify some common unethical practices in my

country, Ethiopia, as below.

1- Distortion of fact to potential customer:

Marketers need to use authentic statements of their products without any lies or hiding truths.

There is a trend seen with some marketers who practice highlighting their product’s best features

while downplaying the negatives to attract customers. An example for misleading advertisement

is when a company falsely claims to have a sugar-free or calories-free product, this practice is

considered to attract health-conscious audience by misleading and it is legally wrong (Profitable

2- Bad mouthing competitors:

Some marketers try to emphasize the negativity and dark side of competitors in marketing

campaigns trying to turn consumers from their directions.

3- Spamming:

This term is used when a marketer sends emails to potential clients without their consent and

encourages them to buy their product. This is considered most common unethical marketing we

are aware of; furthermore, practicing this strategy may harm the image of the product for being

unethical and take away its potential clients. An example from my country is one goes through

numerous ads of betting sites and website redirections when surfing the internet.

4- Double standards in Marketing:

Violation of In-country Laws and Hypocrisy of Global Marketing Practice are two

common dimensions of unethical value practice that are rampant by Global Companies in

Ethiopia. For example, Coke and Pepsi maintain the use of chemicals that are banned in

the majority of countries. Since there are no strict laws enforcement tests have established

that these organizations use such dangerous carcinogens in developing their products.

5- Fear tactics:

Hearing <This price is for limited time only= is common from salesperson of a shop, the reason
behind it is that the marketers want the consumer to decide on spot on fear of losing

this opportunity, this submission under pressure for potential customer is a common unethical

practice (Profitable Venture, n.d.).

The above are some of the dimensions and illustration of Ethical Dimension of Marketing in a

country like Ethiopia. In many cases, the social damage and the burden on the country is way too

high, when 4P-s mix goes wrong in too many factors. Companies must adopt a framework that

does not violate the ethical dimensions of doing business, regardless of the market they operate

in.

Companies have to find ways of creating lasting competitive advantage by using a

customer-centric approach. This will not only provide customers long-term satisfaction but also

establish deeper meaning and connection with customers which enforces brand loyalty which.

References

Custora. (n.d.). The benefits of customer centric marketing. Retrieved from Custora:

https://university.custora.com/for-marketers/customer-centric-marketing/basic/thebenefits-of-

customer-centric-marketing.

Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas. (1995). Exonerating Unethical Marketing Executive Behaviors: A

Diagnostic Framework. Journal of Marketing, 59(2), 43-57. doi:10.2307/1252072

Paul Suggett, October 25, 2018, What In Unethical Advertising?, the balance careers, Retrieved

from https://www.thebalancecareers.com/what-is-unethical-advertising-38797

Profitable Venture (n.d.). 10 Examples of Unethical Marketing Practices That Ruin Reputation.
Retrieved from https://www.profitableventure.com/examples-unethical-marketingpractices/

Tama. K. (June, 2019). How To Draw The Line On Unethical Marketing. Retrieved from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/06/24/how-to-drawthe-

line-on-unethical-marketing/#6c70d4557362

Winer, R. S., & Dhar, R. (2011). Marketing management. (4th, Ed.) Boston: Prentice Hall.

Portfolio Activity Unit 7

The marketing strategy a company chooses to implement is not merely a conceptual model that

is hiding in its internal documents, but rather an overarching message that is broadcast to the

market through different marketing tools and tactics. These massages can aim towards building

trust, increasing profitability or strengthening brand equity and can utilize different styles. Some

can be determined as manipulative or even unethical.

“Ethical Marketing managers sympathize with emotions, while unethical one -exploit them”

(Snow, 2018). Although some marketing actions can be easily identified to be cross-culturally

unethical - such as lying and stealing, some actions might be regarded as acceptable or border-

line in one culture, while abruptly unethical in another. This ethical gray area is especially

problematic our highly globalized market; An acceptable marketing message designed to target

its local market finds its way to the digital realm of a culture that might find this message to be

offensive or unethical.

Some less obvious, yet unethical marketing methods, can be found in misleading advertisement.

When the marketer chooses to create a message that manipulates the prospects to believe and act

upon a Call to Action that depicts false pretense. This is a question of measure like most
marketing components. The marketer’s job indeed is to convey a positive message, she must then

focus on the positive aspects and reduce the weight of existing negative implications.

Nevertheless, in my humble opinion, when the message overlooks important aspects that are

paramount to the reasonable buyer such as the ability to change the price of the offer without the

customer’s acknowledgement, the marketer crosses the ethical line.

Another unethical marketing action is a derogatory message which is directed towards a certain

segment of the population. Although some marketers might suggest that a humorous message

seen by a relatively sensitive person is not derogatory, yet this is a measurement scale that is

defined relatively in each community.

Some principles that can assist in ensuring ethical marketing behavior are - transparency,

fairness, responsibility, privacy. As a rule of thumb, I would suggest testing each marketing

content through two kinds of a lens; your component and through the eyes of any segments of

the population who might see the message.

Your competitor is the economic entity that would look at all that you do in the most critical

manner, and might also use any unethical aspects of your materials to benefit itself. Therefore, I

would suggest creating an internal and confidential copy of the material plugging in your

competitors’ name, and letting unbiased marketing team to Segmented population -Should the

company have resources, I would make sure to create a highly diverse focus group of people

from all walks of life - age, profession, ethnicity, religion, gender-wise and more. I would make

sure that all marketing materials are seen by the group and adjusted accordingly to ensure no

feelings are hurt.

References
Snow, S. (2018). Are You Guilty of Unethical Marketing? Brafton. Retrieved from -

https://www.brafton.com/blog/content-marketing/are-you-guilty-of-unethical-marketing/

Portfolio Activity 7

According to Laczniak (2012), marketing ethics systematically study how moral standards are

applied to marketing decisions, behaviors, and institutions. As marketing is inherent to most

organizations, marketing ethics has to be the subset of business ethics. Hence, the ethics which

are written for business has to be considered for marketing ethics.

Give some specific examples of where you think marketing “crosses the line” into unethical

behavior

Unethical marketing and advertising can misrepresent the product or services or manipulate

customer decisions using tactics of sadness, fear to make them buy the product or service.

Unethical marketing can falsely promote a product or service, reduce reputation, and possibly

lead to legal problems (Profitable venture, 2017).

Some examples of unethical marketing practices are:

Confusing customers or potential buyers by distortion of facts

Many organizations can mislead potential buyers by not disclosing the facts of the products or

services. An organization can show that it does not contain certain ingredients to mislead a

customer on the product’s label. For instance, if any product is mentioned, it is a sugar-free or

low-calorie product when they contain those ingredients. Example: diet-coco.

It is an unethical marketing practice, where a few companies do not disclose the side effects of

the products. Some companies might mention it is a natural or organic product but might use

some chemicals and do not disclose the facts or side effects of the product. Example: Organic

harmless coconut water.

Bad word of mouth for rival products

Some organizations will promote bad word of mouth for their rival products to attract potential

customers to their products. They will promote false news about the side effects of their

products.

Applying fear tactics

Some organizations will use fear tactics for better sales of their products. They will promote the

product with limited time offers, end of season sales for few days, buy one and get one free.

Plagiarizing marketing message

It is unethical marketing practice to use other organizations marketing messages exactly as theirs.

They use the same marketing strategy and the same message in the market to promote their

products.

Making false, unverified claims, or exaggerated

Organizations make a false statement regarding the product, and exaggerating the product quality

and ingredients is an unethical marketing practice. These are common in the weight loss

industry. They exaggerate the products and make customers buy their products and service,

making a false statement.

Exploitation means charging a high price for the actual price of the product or service. For better

marketing, a company has to provide an equal price to the value. If a value is more than the

price, then there will be a loss to the company. If the value is less than the price, then it is

unethical.

Spamming

Spamming means sending unsolicited emails to the customer and compel them to buy their

products or services. Sending emails messages regarding the products or offers is also

spamming.

Then make some recommendations on what should change.

An organization has to make specific changes in its marketing practices to make them ethical.

Organizations have to disclose all the ingredients and product details in the product label. If a

customer is satisfied with the product or service, he will be a loyal customer of that brand. An

organization has to be ethical towards the customer, and they have to encourage customers with

their products by being honest about the company and product. They have to charge prices

appropriately for the product as per their value. They have to adopt a specific format that does

not violate the ethical dimension. Companies have to use a customer-centric approach to

compete with the customer and sustain themselves in the marketing industry for the long term.

According to Hunt (1984), organizations have to serve as role models by conducting their

activities impeccably, encouraging ethical behavior by promptly reprimanding unethical

conditions, and drafting and promoting corporate and industry codes of conduct.
Reference

Laczniak, R. (2012) Ethics of Marketing from Marquette University -

https://epublications.marquette.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=market_fac

Profitable venture (2017) 10 examples of unethical marketing practices that ruin the reputation -

https://www.profitableventure.com/examples-unethical-marketing-practices/

Hunt, S. Chonko, L. Wilcox, J. (1984, August) Ethical problems of marketing researchers -

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/

259970524_Ethical_Problems_of_Marketing_Researchers.
Introduction

According to Tama (2019), ethical marketing entails presenting truthful promises in

order to attract potential consumers. Advertisers should promote their products with honest and

authentic credibility and loyalty. In today's world, a brand strategist is in charge of ensuring that

the best and legal decisions are chosen while executing marketing initiatives.

Controls should be in place to guarantee that businesses do not misrepresent or spread false

information about their products or services (Snow, 2018). After confirming that the items are

genuine, the buyer might begin to trust and rely on the product, resulting in brand loyalty (Tama,

2019).

Examples where marketing crossed the line into unethical behavior

1. In emission testing, Volkswagen, for example, misled and fooled its diesel

automobiles. People bought automobiles after believing the company's falsehoods, but they had

to return them after the incident since they were unfit to drive.

2. Masking the facts or leaving information regarding a product out is just as harmful. Stearic

acid is a background component in several gum-chewing companies, for example. However,

these businesses should be aware that their Stearic acid comes from goat, chicken, sheep, dogs,

and cats' fat (Harris, 2013).

3. Another form of unethical action is making disparaging remarks about competitors.

Rivalry is inescapable, yet it is unethical to speak about or lie about competitors (UoM, 2010,

p.385). We'd also witnessed how political parties spend their time debating other

political parties rather than representing the people once they've been elected.
4. Advertisers must employ genuine sales promises that do not conceal lies or realities from

potential consumers. Some marketers have noticed a trend of emphasizing the greatest

aspects of their product while disregarding the negative repercussions of attracting customers.

For example, if a company fraudulently claims to offer a sugar-free or calorie-free product, it is

known to deceive the health-conscious audience and is legally incorrect (Profitable Venture,

n.d.).

5. Phishing: When a marketer sends prospective consumers e-mails without their permission,

inviting them to order their goods, this is referred to as spamming. This is the most common

unethical advertisement we are aware of; it has the potential to harm the product's image by

being immoral, as well as remove potential customers. One example is the large amount of

advertising on betting sites and page transitions that you see when surfing the internet.

According to 15% of advertising, the most difficult ethical problem is fraud. Contributions from

outside vendors, questionable fee payments, or money under the table can all cause difficulties.

Businesses have no legal excuse to provide customers gifts or extravagance. Avoiding generating

an additional cost for sellers is the greatest method to create a false image of the brand.

Recommendations on what should change

The products should be precisely marketable, whether they are sold online, on social media, or in

person. Close-ups or zooms in pictures of an object are commonly used by businesses to enhance

efficiency, however this is not the case when a client receives the goods. Marketing methods that

are unethical, such as faking ethnic commercials such as equal and light cream ads, and offensive

sales, should be avoided. Manufacturers should operate within a framework that is

independent of the market in which they operate and does not jeopardize the legal side of
conducting business. Businesses must discover methods to establish a sustained competitive edge

by employing a customer-centered approach. This not only ensures long-term customer

retention, but also fosters brand loyalty by providing deeper relevance and ties to clients.

References

Harris, J. (2013, June 18). 10 natural ingredients you have no idea you're eating: Fish

bladders, bugsecretions, and more. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved from

https://www.latimes.com/food/ dailydish/la-dd-10-wacky-natural-food-ingredients-20130613-

story.html

Profitable Venture (n.d.). 10 Examples of Unethical Marketing Practices That Ruin Reputation.

Retrieved from https://www.profitableventure.com/examples-unethical-marketing-practices/

Snow, S. (2018, Novemb er 19). Are you guilty of unethical? Marketing? Brafton. Retrieved

from https://www.brafton.com/blog/content-marketing/are-you-guilty-of-unethical-marketing/

Tama. K. (2019, June 24). How to Draw the Line on Unethical Marketing? Forbes. Retrieved

from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescommunicationscouncil/2019/06/24/how-to-draw-the-

line-on- unethical-marketing/#6c70d4557362/

The University of Minnesota. (2010). Principles of marketing. Licensed under

Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0. Retrieved from:

https://open.lib.umn.edu/principlesmarketing/front-matter/publisher-information/
Portfolio Activity Unit 7

BUS5112-01 - AY2022-T4

Marketing Management

University of the People

Organizations use different marketing tools to connect with new potential customers as well as

their existing customers by means of direct or indirect marketing. Most consumers connect with

organizations via internet and social media to gain more information about their products or

services and the reviews by other consumers before making a purchase decision (Principles of

Marketing, 2010). Companies achieve high profits when they invest on social media marketing

as it is not as expensive as traditional marketing tools. However, every region has different

values, culture backgrounds, traditions, and customs that companies must learn to be familiar

with the audience. Companies must pay important attention to the advertisement content based
on the region they wish they promote themselves. Moreover, organizations must use technology

methods to restrict sharing important information they post on social media.

Companies need define clear regulations and use social media restrictions on their website to

prevent client information data breaches (Belbey, 2015). Otherwise, company's reputation can be

affected and this can as well effect their revenue tremendously. For instance, Netflix, a well-

known company that offers online streaming services of shows, movies, and documentaries,

posted a Brazilian movie called “The First Temptation of Christ” that made fun of Christianity

(Armus, 2020). Many of Netflix users got offended and raised complaints by signing a petition

toremove this movie. It is true that freedom of speech is in the US low however Netflix crossed

theline by streaming this unethical movie.

Netflix is still aiming to grow their market globally, and it is subjected to respect the regulations

or censorship by cutting some episodes to avoid violating certain governments orders (Armus,

2020). This company should pay attention of any of their contents before promotion them based

on the region they want to show their contents. It is important for them to be familiar with

essential demographic factors to avoid unwelcome consumers, political members, and loss of

new customers. For example, they cannot show nude scenes in Muslim countries nor they cannot

mock any religious beliefs almost in any country again.

Another example can be Dolce & Gabbana, an Italian designer clothing organization that ran a

marketing campaign in China years ago. The series of promotional videos they created were

considered offensive and racial by the Chinese people and the Asian community shared private

instant messages by Stefano, the brand founder, that was clearly insulting Chinese. Although

some analysts claimed that the company founder's account were hacked to affect his reputation
amongst Asians. This actually made Dolce & Gabbana to post a video apologizing to Chinese

people for these videos (Xu, 2018).

Organizations must be careful about the content of their promotional videos especially when they

are targeting other foreign countries. When they do not properly analyze the promotional

content, it can act as a cutting edge towards them and can result loss of customers in long term.

Most times this damage can be irreparable even if they apologies and amend their content. It will

be counted as their brand history that they had unethical practices and reflect as a bad reputation.

Reference

Armus, Teo. (2020). Brazilian judge orders Netflix to take down ‘gay Jesus’ Christmas parody

from Porta dos Fundos—The Washington Post. (n.d.).

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/01/09/brazil-comedy-group-firebombedgay-jesus-

judge-rules-netflix-remove-movie/

Belbey, Joanna. (2015). Protect Your Firm From The 12 Risks of Social Media. (n.d.).

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joannabelbey/2015/05/21/protectyour-firm-from-the-13-risks-of

social-media/?sh=2c43ed9e331e.

Principles of marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.1901

Xu, Yuhan. (2018). Dolce & Gabbana Ad (With Chopsticks) Provokes Public Outrage in China:

Goats and Soda: NPR. (n.d.)

https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2018/12/01/671891818/dolce-gabbana-adwith-

chopsticks-provokes-public-outrage-in-china
Portfolio Activity Unit 7

Introduction

Many companies talk about trust while marketing their brand, because they realize the

importance of gaining customer trust in building their brand, and certainly this trust collapses if

the company practices any kind of lying and deception to achieve profits at the expense of

damage to customers.

The link between companies and customers is marketing, through this marketing, the relationship

based on honesty and trust is built ethically, or a relationship based on unethical lies, deception,

or subterfuge is built, so ethical marketing is making honest claims to attract potential customers.

This is through when their honest marketing practices, to build trust in their brand in one way or

another, this leads to the formation of a loyalty state for the brand, which keeps returning

customers and praise.

As for unethical marketing, it depends on sending wrong messages to potential customers about

products and services, which may lead to the loss of the company's reputation or the destruction

of its trademark in addition to the legal damages that may be caused to it (Mascarenhas, 1995).

Examples of unethical behavior marketing

Case 1:

One of the unethical marketing behaviors is to make false or exaggerated claims to achieve

greater sales of products. For example, weight loss products since weight gain is a matter that

worries many people, and they are always looking for easy and quick solutions to lose weight.

Promoting weight loss products through false claims such as saying "to lose your extra weight in
15 days" this marketing is not based on unethical behavior related to lying but also related to

promoting products that have harmful effects on people (Totten & Mckay& Jones,

2003).

Case 2:

And among the unethical behavior in marketing is misleading facts, such as that the company

claims that its product is sugar-free or that its products are healthy, this is what happened to the

company Nesquik. In 2015, the Nesquik brand had to remove the basic bar that contains the

phrase “A great start to the day,” after the UK's advertising watchdog banned their ad that

featured a cartoon rabbit. They found that it encourages bad eating habits in children because her

products contain sugar (BBC, 2015).

Some recommendations on what should change.

The main motivation for unethical behaviors in marketing is the love of money. To earn more

money, some companies or individuals follow unethical methods of marketing, such as lying and

deception. One of the most important recommendations that I make is to create an ethical value

with a human dimension in the strategies of marketing followed and not just relying on the goal

of making more sales (Mpamizo & Omagor & Ntayi, 2011).

Also, the other recommendation is to create a monitoring system not only for advertisements but

for salespeople who seek to achieve higher sales to earn more money, as they may take unethical

ways for that (Mpamizo & Omagor & Ntayi, 2011).

the company's credibility levels with clients are verified, and to conduct the necessary

investigations if the company's credibility level decreases (Mpamizo & Omagor & Ntayi, 2011).

Conclusion

The unethical behavior in marketing is not limited to products or services, but we also clearly see

it in the field of politics, as it has become commonplace for people to deceive and lie in

marketing campaigns during political elections. People are now more aware of unethical

marketing, as they have taken advantage of easy access to the Internet to review the products or

services they want to obtain to ensure their authenticity, and this is what I do and recommend.

Conclusion

In developing any marketing communication, it is important to consider ethical and legal

implications, as the main purpose of the same is to gain consumer’s trust and loyalty in the

company and their brands, in order to build a long and lasting consumer/business relationship.

Unethical practice can lead to consumers filing a lawsuit against the company for false

advertising and this is likely to damage the reputation of the company. Consumers would no

longer trust their products or their brand and this may lead to a drastic decline in sales of the

product.

References

Oswald A. J. Mascarenhas. (1995). Exonerating Unethical Marketing Executive Behaviors: A

Diagnostic Framework. Journal of Marketing, 59(2), 43-57. doi:10.2307/1252072

INDUSTRY: EMPTY PROMISES AND LIES.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310506581_ADVERTISING_IN_THE_WEIGHT-

LOSS_INDUSTRY_EMPTY_PROMISES_AND_LIES

BBC. (2015). Nesquik bunny ad banned over 'great start' claim. BBC NEWS.

https://www.bbc.com/news/business-35168427

Mpamizo, B & Omagor, C & Ntayi, J, M. (2011). The Love of Money, Pressure to Perform and

Unethical Marketing, Behavior in the Cosmetic Industry in Uganda. Published by Canadian

Center of Science and Education.

https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/5ade/7f139c57cdbcbed82c9dd9681d0fe39121c7.pdf
Introduction

In this week's study and throughout the marketing management course we have learned about

marketing channels and tools used by marketing managers globally to execute their roles and

functions in organizations. According to Amanda (2022), Marketing is about attracting

customers and making sales. However, there are some unethical advertising and promotion

tactics that may cause people to mistrust a brand.

As a marketing manager in my country I would like to provide some reflective responses to the

question below:

Give some specific examples of where you think marketing “crosses the line” into unethical

behavior, then make some recommendations on what should change.

Every marketing manager and company needs to understand that while trying to attract sales and

revenue to the company, there is need to be honest, responsible, transparent and accountable and

sustainable, both socially and environmentally. As a deviations from these are perceived as

unethical by customers. (Amanda, 2022). Having said this, there are five categories of unethical

behaviors in marketing according to Amanda (2022) and they are: false advertising, portraying

hurtful stereotypes, misusing customer data, negative advertising and advertising misleading

pricing.

In false advertising, companies overstate the benefits of their products with the hope of attracting

more customers and more sales but this can be detrimental to building customer trust when they

eventually realize the falsehood. This false promising can even occur when companies attempt to

market the general masses rather than a targeted audience. It is therefore recommended that

companies should target their advertising to specific audience avoid this (Amanda, 2022).
In portraying hurtful stereotypes, companies use gender, race and age to convey their message.

Rather than targeting a specific audience, they stereotype. To draw the line, extensive market

research is recommended to help remove the bias and assumptions and give specific

demographics for a target market. (Amanda, 2022).

Misusing customer data is another unethical behavior in marketing and advertising that is rather

tricky in the sense that the company may not even know that they're misusing customer’s data; as

third parties may access and use the data without their knowledge. Hence the need to implement

privacy policy and transparency, first to protect customer's information and secondly to let

customers know how their data is being used by the company. (Amanda, 2022).

Another unethical behavior in marketing and advertising is negative advertising, usually aimed at

discrediting another company's products just to gain new customers. This can bring about legal

battle between the two companies and can cause the company indulging in it to lose the respect

of the customers and eventually lose the customers too. To this end, focusing on one's products

and highlighting its benefits to customers is more productive and recommended (Amanda, 2022).

Lastly, advertising misleading pricing, this comes in two ways, the first is price hiking which we

experience very often here in Nigeria. A situation where companies artificially raise the prices of

products (in Nigeria: petroleum) during a high demand time or sales promotions. The second is

predatory promotion which I personally experience with one of our competitors distributing

Devon Kings vegetable oil. This is a situation where (he) the competitor promotes extremely low

prices of the Devon Kings oil to attract customers, in an attempt to steal them away from (us) his

competition. And sometimes, after attracting them, he applies the bait and switch technique by

selling them a different product, specifically Emperor vegetable oil claiming that Devon Kings is
already out of stock. The disadvantage of this for him is that customers don't trust him fully, they

still end up coming back to us and even letting us know his strategy. (Amanda, 2022)

In conclusion, I'd like to talk about two companies in Nigeria that were recently in the news for

crossing the line with their advertising. The first is Sterling Bank; in 2022 March/April during

the Easter season, they did an advert with the caption "Like Agege Bread He Rose" describing

the resurrection of Jesus Christ to how bread rises in the oven and the Christian community

bashed them so seriously and they lost a lot of customers as a result of this controversial advert.

Until now, they are still struggling to remain in business, a lot of their branches have shot down

or relocated to a smaller space. Secondly, in this year's Easter season, Friesland the producers of

Peak milk made the same mistake with their caption being "He was pieced for us" displaying a

pieced tin of milk with a nail. And customers seriously called them out. Though the impact for

Peak is not as devastating as that of Sterling Bank.

Finally, it is important for marketing managers to beware of these ethical issues to avoid

attracting severe negative consequences to their companies.

References

Amanda Hetler (21 Dec, 2022). 5 ethical issues in marketing to avoid

https://www.techtarget.com/contributor/Amanda-Hetler

Principles of marketing. (2015). University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

https://doi.org/10.24926/8668.1901 (Original work published 2010)

Stokes, R. (2020, April 20). eMarketing - the essential guide to marketing in a digital world.

LibreTexts.https://biz.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Marketing/Book
%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes) licensed

by CC By-NC-SA 3.0

Overview:

This document describes several scenarios with examples of ethical and unethical behavior by

marketing teams while marketing products.

In marketing, there are many ways a business can advertise and make money. Some marketing

techniques are ethical and some are unethical. This not only frustrates customers but also puts

pressure on them. Some unethical marketing strategies can damage a company's reputation and

lead to legal issues. There are many companies that use unethical marketing strategies.

One unethical marketing strategy is spam. This is repeated attempts to contact the same

customer via email or letter and many companies do this. An example of a company doing this is

Groupon. Groupon sends about 388 emails per user, sending countless deals and offers (Gore,

2016). Another company that does this is Target. Target also sends lots of emails to customers

regarding product deals and more, sending around 120 emails per user (Gore, 2016). A final

company that I want to quote for spam is Facebook. Facebook would spam with e-mails of

product advertisements and offers.

Another unethical marketing strategy is lying to the customers. Lying to customers can cause a

lot of problems. One of the companies that had made this happen is Volkswagen. Volkswagen

advertised that it had low-emission vehicles. However, part of the scandal occurred when they

cheated data for emissions testing (Birch, 2020). This cost them a lot of money and damaged

their reputation. Another company that did this was Olay. Olay created a wrinkle-free, prettier-

looking model, Twiggy (Birch, 2020). This shows that they are lying about the product's

effectiveness and leading to complaints. Olay's parent company has tried to excuse Twig's

appearance was due to a post-production process.

employees and drivers (Rath, 2017). Uber had to pay them a hefty $20 million for false claims

about maximum wage.

The next unethical marketing strategy is plagiarism. Plagiarism is the direct copying by one

company of another company's material. One of the companies that plagiarized from another

company is Apple. The company Apple stole technology from Nokia and in return “Nokia sued

Apple for patent infringement, claiming that Apple has relied on its patents related to software,

video coding, chipsets, display, UI and antenna for years dating back to the release of the iPhone

3GS” (Olya, 2019, para. 3).

Conclusion:

I think marketing managers should make sure not to copy the exact product but add on some

other unique features if their idea is matching with another company's product or service.

Companies should not fake anything, nor should they lie since they can get into serious trouble

which might cause the company to lose its reputation and go bankrupt. In the case of spamming,

one should refrain from doing it and rather ask customers if they are interested to receive offers

and promotions. Not only does it annoy the customers it also gives the company a bad name. The

manager should use ethical marketing strategies to promote the company. One good ethic is to

stay truthful about all your products and the value your products are providing. This way

company can build up its trust with customers. Another way to increase trust is to keep customer

data private and protected. This way customers will trust the company more and remain a loyal

consumers.

References:
Tanner, J.F., & Raymond, M.A. (2013) Principals of Marketing Version 2.0. Flat world

Knowledge.

Rath, J. (2017). 18 false advertising scandals that cost some brands millions. Yahoo Finance.

https://www.businessinsider.com/false-advertising-scandals-2017-2

Birch, J. (2020). The importance of avoiding unethical advertising practices.

https://www.colourgraphics.com/blog/ethical-unethical-marketing/

Stokes, R. (2020). eMarketing -the essential guide to marketing in a digital world.

LibreTexts.https://biz.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Marketing/Book

%3A_eMarketing__The_Essential_Guide_to_Marketing_in_a_Digital_World_(Stokes)

Gore, L. (2019). These are the 15 companies that send the most spam

emails.https://www.al.com/news/2016/02/these_are_the_15_companies_tha.html?

msclkid=74dbe4a4a64111ecabd81c83ecb8cb78

Olya, G. (2019). 14 Top Companies That Lost Big Money in Lawsuits.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/14-top-companies-lost-big 100000850.html?

msclkid=0a3adc90a64a11ec8451a1cbc366f5d0&guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9

3d3cuYmluZy5jb20v&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAHYifPWH42Qxxpdk2lYqrb4_3YFKTNtOlV

JnjfrAk2O0bKTRd0ArB1W_ypyjVH4DxNQWfjZQ6j_7HA9sLSpeyMBoH9_o3a3uESLcZfrW

Zv9LY19mBD1bXNJeeQ2riJJLF_AyvVJum2YSx_Ar52vZCXUjio8cfZuruwCmzM0JpI