Marketing is an essential tool for the business world and without it, people wouldn’t know about different products and services. People tend to think that marketing is just what we see in print or digital ads but word-of-mouth is a form of advertising which is a marketing tool as well in addition to mass emails and phone soliciting. Some feel that organizations can be invasive in the way they market while some don’t feel as though certain companies do enough, so where is the balance? There are many different ways to understand marketing but one way is not think of it is as evil but a means in which to promote goods and services. There will always be an invisible line as to what is appropriate and what is not but to think of taking marketing away as a whole would lead to extreme detriment to the economy.
Do you feel ethical guidelines make a difference to marketers?
I would like to think that marketing agencies and marketing personnel respect ethical guidelines but I know not all do. Some people and or agencies are pushed to have high numbers and when sales are down, the marketing tools become more aggressive. For many years people have been fighting the phone solicitors to either take off their phone numbers or to not call at certain hours but because of outsourcing, the time differences make it harder to respect potential customer’s wishes. If there were stricter ethical guidelines in place I do think that people would have to respect them in order to get and keep customers but there will be a fine line between what is considered ethical for marketers and who creates and enforces the rules.
How can companies balance the need to win with being ethical?
You are only as strong as the business you have and continue to bring in; your customers are what you base your organizational wealth on. In order to be considered a winner you have to have happy repeat customers without overstepping ethical boundaries. The means to stay balanced will be different for each organization and industry so the organization will have to find the balance and maintain it; having a good reputation and motto can be key to continued success.
Is it ethical to track your buying habits or web visits to target you for marketing purposes?
I personally do not find it to be unethical or an invasion of my privacy to track my buying habits for marketing purposes but that just means they will use my information to find me better deals on the items I buy most often or fall into categories that I purchase from. I would rather a store tailor their sales for what I buy most than just pulling things out of the air. We have to have data for most jobs and tracking is how some organizations so it. If people find it to be unethical then they need to think about everything they do and realized how tracked they are without even knowing.
As a leader, how will you manage the ethical aspects of your marketing efforts?
I will promote that we as an organization protect our customers but also strives to bring them the best products and services available. I will remain balanced and professional at all times. I will also do what most organizations don’t do, I will listen to the consumer, the industry and the needs of society best run my marketing efforts.
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