Role of Ethics in Marketing
1. Promoting Fairness, Honesty, and Empathy: Ethics in marketing is the practice of encouraging fairness, honesty, and empathy in all marketing operations. This involves refraining from making misleading, exaggerated, or false claims throughout the entire process, including the manufacturing and distribution of goods and/or services, employment practices, product value propositions, etc.
2. Building Trust and Credibility: Ethical marketing promotes customer trust and credibility. Unethical marketing can be effective in the short term, but it is not a viable long-term plan. Customers will eventually reject the brand as a whole, making it difficult to identify brand supporters eager to promote the product or service through word-of-mouth marketing.
3. Instilling Company Values: One of the simplest ways to encourage business ethics is to incorporate it into the company’s culture and values. Truly ethical companies must live these values daily.
4. Avoiding Legal and Reputational Risks: Ethical marketing can help to avoid legal and reputational risks.