6 Primary Stakeholders: Customers
Marketing
• 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.
• Marketing mix (4Ps)
o Product is the product or services offered by the company that meet the
requirements of the customers.
o Price is the process of setting the prices for the products/services.
• Two important issues regarding products raise ethical concerns:
o The first deals with the issue of whether the product meets a legitimate customer
need.
Ethical Issues in Pricing
• Just price means a seller should not raise prices simply because a buyer has a strong
need for a product.
• Several aspects surrounding pricing the raise ethical concerns:
o Price gouging: This occurs when a seller take advantage of situations like
national disasters or shortages to raises prices during that situation.
o Price discrimination: This occurs when different groups are changed different
prices.
Ethical Issues in Promotion
• Promotion involves an array of tools including, for example, advertising, sponsorships,
coupons, and point of sale displays.
o The objective of promotion is to make the customer aware of your product.
• Techniques for deceptive advertising include:
o Ambiguity in advertisements: In ambiguous ads, the wording is sufficiently
confusing leading the consumer to make erroneous conclusions about the nature
of the product.
Other Ethically Sensitive Issues: Sexual Appeals and Marketing to Children
Sexual Appeals
• Sexual appeals refer to the messages, as brand information in advertising contexts . . .
Advertising to Vulnerable Groups: Children
• Some of the concerns for advertising to children
o The first issue is the ability of children to recognize a marketing communication
as advertising.
Product Safety
• Several areas of concern regarding how defective products can cause harm to users:
o Design defects.
o Material defects.
• What should a warning say to the consumer?
o Note the severity of the potential danger (e.g., death).
• Several issues to consider when evaluating warnings for product use
o What is the likelihood that the product can cause harm?
o Whether there is a reasonable likelihood that the consumer will use the product in
a way not identified in the labeling and if such use could cause harm to the
consumer.
Perspectives on Product Liability
Buyer Beware
• Buyer beware: A perspective that places the burden on the buyer for judging the value,
safety, and characteristics of a product.
Contract View
• The contract implies certain moral duties for the seller including:
o Duty not to coerce—the buyer must enter the contract voluntarily.
Due Care Theory
Strict Liability Theory
• Strict liability: The manufacturer is responsible for compensating the user for defective
Privacy
• Privacy is the state of being free from public scrutiny or from having your secrets or
personal information shared.
Ethical Rationales for Consumer Privacy
• Utilitarian theory offers support to a company perspective that the use of consumer
Emerging Challenges
• Behavioral targeting: Software that monitors web-browsing behaviors to track customer
behaviors.
• The Privacy Rights Clearing House recommends that the following should be
prohibited:
o Forcing or coercing customers into accepting RFID tags in the products they buy.
• Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) focuses on companies that collect
personal information from children under the age of 13. The law requires operators to:
o Post a privacy policy on the homepage of the website and link to the privacy
policy on every page where personal information is collected.
o Provide notice about the site’s information collection practices to parents and
obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personal information from