We rarely talk about ethical marketing practices, perhaps because the legal framework governing them isn’t very broad, or because we think that anything goes in this field. The truth is that there are unwritten ethical practices that most people follow, and others that are completely inappropriate, of which we are unaware.
At this point, I would like to highlight several practices that I consider unethical, allowing readers to decide for themselves whether they engage in or tolerate them.
Ethics is considered a discipline dedicated to the study of morality, goodness, and human behavior. It consists of a set of principles that define what should be considered right for most people. In marketing, many actions may appear ethical and appropriate while actually crossing ethical boundaries. Below are several examples worth considering.
- Speaking negatively about competitors
One of the most common unethical practices over the years has been growing by speaking negatively about others. This practice was more common in guerrilla-style sales, where salespeople would criticize competitors when speaking with customers or distributors, or spread unfounded rumors. In the digital era, this behavior spreads more aggressively through social media. The clearest example is the dirty campaigning that often exists between candidates from different political parties.
- Comparative advertising
Comparative advertising, contrary to what many people believe, is not prohibited in our country. However, there has traditionally been an unwritten agreement among companies to avoid practices that are common in other countries, such as the long-standing advertising battles between painkiller brands on television. In the digital world, however, this agreement has broken down, often leading to misinformation and false claims.
- to troll
This is perhaps one of the worst vices of the digital age. It involves abusing technology to create fake profiles or misuse real ones to damage the reputation of companies or individuals through social media. While common in politics, it has increasingly spread to brands as well. Defamation, deception, and direct attacks are among the consequences of this unethical practice.
- Spy
This point is controversial: Spying on a company or brand has always been part of a valid tactic that we elegantly call “benchmarking.” This issue is controversial because every marketing plan should include competitor analysis, and sometimes only intelligence gathering can provide certain insights. I believe the key is establishing clear rules. Ethical competitive intelligence should only consider information that is public or readily available to most people. Any act involving theft or the use of confidential or internal information should be considered unethical.
- Lying or manipulating the truth
Finally, one of the most serious ethical failures is manipulating the truth. This misuse of information is common in the consumer products industry, although regulations are beginning to formalize controls against it. I am referring to food products that manipulate their nutritional information to appear as light or low-calorie products (the most common tactic is reducing the calorie count by displaying smaller serving sizes), or the use of semantics to communicate something different. A common example is when a tequila brand states on its label “100% agave tequila” instead of “100% agave,” a subtle but important difference.
In summary, every marketing professional should clearly understand the rules of the game from an ethical perspective, because ultimately the integrity of a brand or company has a direct impact on its value, reputation, and long-term equity.
Article Excerpt: https://www.merca20.com/etica-en-la-era-digital/
