Is Marketing Evil?
Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for
creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value
for customers, clients, partners, and society at large (American Marketing
Association, 2017). It is a key functional area in the
business organization that provides a visible interface with not only
customers, but with all other stakeholders. It is important when addressing
marketing ethics to recognize that it should be examined from an individual,
organizational, and societal perspective (Dincer, B. & Dincer C., 2014)
For marketers, ethics in
the workplace refers to rules governing the conduct of organizational members
and the consequences of marketing decisions (Ferrell, 2005). In my perspective,
companies do not need to choose between winning or making ethical decision. I
believe there is room for both on the process of decision making.
A poor example for marketing with integrity was the recent campaign of an Italian football club, which started an anti-racism initiative
featuring paintings of monkeys. The sport in Italy has been blighted by racist
abuse this season, and the artwork commissioned by Serie A was designed to stop
fans directing monkey chants at players (Sinnot, J. & Mezzofiore, G., 2019).
Although the espoused intention of the artist was good, the anti-racism
campaign, in my opinion, not only dehumanized black people by the comparison
with an animal, but also reinforced racism by a campaign with a strong message and
poor judgement, which provoked a counterproductive result. It reminded me of the
Gucci campaign at the beginning of the year, when in a tentative of fighting
racism created a sweater which reminded black face. (O’Kane, 2019). I believe both
campaigns lacked integrity because in order to cause a brand impact they missed
the bigger picture, the holistic perspective that a marketing campaign should
take in consideration. These companies, in fact, fed racism and possibly made
it stronger.
If I am in
a position of a leader in charge of selling my service to a potential customer,
the main consideration I will take is at which expense my argumentation and persuasion
will be powerful. Gordon Brown (2009) touches on this point and included the
term of global citizenship suggested by Chris Anderson. As mentioned at the beginning
of this post, marketing, for its exposing platform and link with the
service/product to be provided, must consider all parts involved and affected in
the process from creation to publishing.
Although a campaign is created to achieve the customer, other stakeholders (internal and external) should not be neglected, neither the competition. One type of campaign that I believe to be unethical is the average political campaign. Instead of seeing candidates talking about their policies and ideas, I often (if not always) observe them mocking and diminishing their strongest competitors. A lot of marketing campaigns focus on the “adversary’s” weakness as a strong strategy. I think that if I reach this point, I need, in fact, review the quality and relevancy of my product/service. While creating an ethical campaign, my number one priority would be analyzing at what expense I am creating an impact. If a campaign is creating harm in any part involved, in my opinion, it means I am lacking integrity. Financial results shouldn’t come first on marketing campaigns. As a leader, we don’t need to choose between a successful or an ethical campaign. With responsibility and creativity, we can have both!
Although a campaign is created to achieve the customer, other stakeholders (internal and external) should not be neglected, neither the competition. One type of campaign that I believe to be unethical is the average political campaign. Instead of seeing candidates talking about their policies and ideas, I often (if not always) observe them mocking and diminishing their strongest competitors. A lot of marketing campaigns focus on the “adversary’s” weakness as a strong strategy. I think that if I reach this point, I need, in fact, review the quality and relevancy of my product/service. While creating an ethical campaign, my number one priority would be analyzing at what expense I am creating an impact. If a campaign is creating harm in any part involved, in my opinion, it means I am lacking integrity. Financial results shouldn’t come first on marketing campaigns. As a leader, we don’t need to choose between a successful or an ethical campaign. With responsibility and creativity, we can have both!
References
American Marketing
Association (2017). Definitions of Marketing. Retrieved from https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/
Brown, G. (2009, July).
Global ethics vs national interest. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/gordon_brown_global_ethic_vs_national_interest
Dincer, B; Dincer, C. (2014).
An Overview and Analysis of Marketing Ethics. International Journal of
Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences (4)11, 151-158
Ferrell, O.C. (2005). A
Framework for Understanding Organizational Ethics, in Business Ethics: New
Challenges for Business Schools and Corporate Leaders. R.A. Peterson and O.C.
Ferrell, (eds.) Armonk, New York: M.E. Sharpe, 3-17
Sinnott, J., Mezzofiore,
G. (2019, December 2017). Italian soccer anti-racism monkey artwork condemned as 'outrage'.
Retrieved from https://edition.cnn.com/2019/12/16/football/serie-a-racism-artwork-spt-intl/index.html
O’Kane, C. (2019, February 7). Gucci removes $890 "blackface" sweater, apologizes
after receiving backlash. Retrieved from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/gucci-blackface-sweater-gucci-removes-890-blackface-sweater-apologzies-after-receiving-backlash/
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