Is Marketing Ethical?

I think the biggest ethical challenge for marketers would be the fact of capturing the customer’s attention while being ethical. This is a big marketing challenge that most marketers avoid taking. Marketing a product required presenting the benefits and the advantages of the product but sometimes exaggerating these benefits. The customer would equate the products benefits and advantages with the amount of money paid for buying it. Another ethical challenge in marketing and advertisement would be transparency in telling the customers the side effect of the products. The marketers either neglect or fine print the side effect of their products. Sometimes the harmful effect of the products are displayed on the product, such as the cigarettes,  but the marketing campaign is so strong that the customer would go ahead and use the product anyway. Sundaram & Mitra (2007) found that cigarette manufacturers are advertizing in magazines and internet sites with considerable number of young reader. The advertisement in these locations use young models and display smoking as fun activity to attract large segment of the population.

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References:

Sundaram, D. S., & Mitra, K. (2007). Ethical evaluation of marketing practices in tobacco industry. [Article].International Journal of Business Research, 7(2), 194-204.