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Basics of Marketing - Kotler Philip

Moral principles of marketing

Even conscious, respectable marketers face many moral dilemmas. It is often not clear how best to proceed. Since not all senior employees have a highly developed sense of moral responsibility , a firm needs to develop an official marketing policy of the organization. Politics is a list of "clearly established general principles that any employee of the organization must follow rigorously and from which there are no exceptions" 22. These fundamental settings cover problems of relationships with distributors, adherence to advertising practices and customer service, as well as problems of pricing, product development and principles of an overall ethical nature.

In the compilation on the next page are listed 14 morally difficult situations in which a marketing person can get into the course of his career. If, in all 14 situations, the marketer chooses to choose actions that give a momentary trading effect, his behavior can perhaps be called immoral or immoral. If he does not take any of these actions, he can be untenable as a marketing manager and constantly experience a depressing sense of inner moral tension. It is quite obvious that the manager must have a set of principles that would help him in the moral assessment of the seriousness of each situation and the solution of the problem, how far one can go without crossing norms of integrity.

Each marketer must develop for himself the fundamental principles of good conduct. Any system of morality is based on the ideas of a good life and the relationship of one's own well-being with the well-being of others. Having developed clear principles for himself, the marketing person will be able to cope with the multitude of intricate problems that arise in the field of marketing and in other spheres of human activity.

Today's marketing figures face many challenges. They are opened with a huge number of marketing opportunities, thanks to scientific and technical progress in the use of solar energy, the emergence of household computers and robots, cable television, modern medicine, new modes of transport, new forms of recreation and entertainment, new means of communication. Simultaneously, within the framework of the socio-economic environment, there will be forces that impose increasingly large restrictions on the practice of marketing activities. And the decisive word remains for firms that will be able to create new values ​​and carry out marketing, full of moral responsibility to society.

DIFFICULT MORAL SITUATIONS IN MARKETING

1. You work for a tobacco company and have not yet been convinced that smoking cigarettes causes cancer. You recently got acquainted with a study report, during which the link between smoking and cancer was clearly established. What will you do?

2. Your research department has perfected one of the products produced by the company. The product did not become a truly "improved novelty", but you know that the emergence of such statements on packaging and advertising will increase its sale. What will you do?

3. You were asked to fill up the "cheap" sector of your product range with a simplified model that could be advertised to attract buyers. The product, devoid of improvements, will not be very good, but you can hope that salespeople will be able to persuade customers to purchase more expensive modifications. You are asked to give a "green light" to the creation of a "stripped" version. What will you do?

4. You talk with a woman who until recently was the product manager in a competing firm, and you think that she can be hired. She will gladly tell you about all the plans of the competitor for the coming year. What will you do?

5. One of your dealers on an important sales territory recently began to have troubles in the family, and sales figures fell. In the past, it was one of the most high-performing company sellers. How soon his family life will go back to normal, it is not clear, but so far a large number of sales is lost. There is a legal opportunity to liquidate the trade privilege granted to this dealer and replace it. What will you do?

6. There is a chance to attract a large client, which will mean a lot to you personally, and for the company as a whole. His procurement agent hinted that a "gift" might work. Your assistant advises you to send this agent home a color TV. What will you do?

7. You have learned that a competing firm has given its product a property that will have a big impact on sales. At the annual specialized exhibition this firm will have an office for guests, and at one of the receptions for its dealers the head of the firm will tell them about this new property of the goods. You can easily send your spy to this reception to learn about the innovation. What will you do?

8. You are struggling to achieve the conclusion of a big contract and during negotiations on sales, you will find out that the representative of the buyer is looking for a more profitable job. You do not have the desire to take it to yourself, but if you tell him about this possibility, he will most likely hand over the order to your firm. What will you do?

9. You have to choose one of three advertising campaigns, in general, developed by the advertising agency for your new product. The first campaign (A) is built on honest information and the principles of "soft selling". The second campaign (B) uses sexually-sensual motives and exaggerates the benefits of the product. The third campaign (B) is confusing, screaming, irritating, but which will surely attract the attention of the audience. Preliminary tests showed that the effectiveness of the rollers is in the following order: B, B and A. How do you do?

10. As vice president of marketing for a brewing company, you will learn that in one of the most profitable states for you are going to raise the age of officially authorized consumption of alcohol from 18 to 21 years. You were invited to join other brewers organizing a lobby against the bill, as well as make certain monetary contributions. What will you do?

11. You want to interview a sample of consumers about their reactions to a competitor's product. It is proposed to conduct these interviews allegedly on behalf of some non-existent innocuous "Institute for the Study of Marketing." What will you do?

12. You produce a shampoo that prevents the formation of dandruff and is effective even with one-time use. Your assistant tells you that sales will go faster if you specify in the instructions on the label that the shampoo should be used twice. What will you do?

13. You are talking with a capable woman who wants to act as a sales agent. The level of her qualification is higher than that of the men you spoke with earlier. However, there are suspicions that her employment will cause a negative reaction from some of your current sales agents, among whom there are no women, and can annoy some of the company's important clients. What will you do?

14. You are the manager of the sales service in a firm that sells encyclopedias. Usually a traveling salesman encyclopedias enters the house on the pretext of allegedly conducting a survey. Having finished the survey, he switches to fulfilling his commercial task. This method seems extremely effective and is used by most competitors. What will you do?