Download ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL MARKETING

ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL
MARKETING
BY: Assem Sharaf
Sub. To:
Dr: Passent Tantawi
IME are important as marketing is expected to satisfy
customer needs profitably, thus creating the interface
between customer preferences and companies market
aspiration.
Kant’s (1788) duties can’t be associated with self-interest
, thus companies should exist to satisfy needs and firms
have a duty to deliver benefits to the society they’re
motivated by objectives rather than self interest and
hopefully rewarded.
Mill (1998) Ethics should maximize pleasure and
minimize pain based on “common good rather than self
interest”. Would it be applied to target market or whole
market? What about international good? He
replied;Pleasure and pain principle are universal.
Crane & Matten (2004): Moral is based on social norms of
the society , no universal moral standards, marketing
adaptation, no common framework for ethics
agreements.
Contextualizing
ethical issues
in Marketing
Do Marketing
ethics matter?
• Fineman(1999): Marketing is more value laden, and
manipulates consumers in anything but an innocent and
friendly way, what is desired by consumers may not
necessarily be good for them (tobacco) and it may hurt
them in the long run.
• Kotler (1972) believes that marketers responsibility is to find
products that provide satisfaction and long term welfare
shifting the roll of marketers from being a seller agent to
buyers agent.
• Sheth et al(1988) unethical acts can be committed by the
most honest and responsible individuals in some
circumstances.
• The problem is to establish acceptable guidelines and
practice and disseminate that within the industry.
International Marketing activities and
the importance of Ethics (MNCs)
• The need for addressing the issues of IME arises from increased
internationalization of MNCs which have greater bargaining power
over local governments.
• Developing countries can be vulnerable to unethical marketing
because of their economic potential, low bargaining power, lack of
legal framework and law enforcement to protect local companies.
this makes consumers less likely to benefit from marketing ethics.
• Tax competition
Multinational corporations have played an important role in
globalization. Countries and sometimes subnational regions must
compete against one another for the establishment of MNC
facilities, and the subsequent tax revenue, employment, and
economic activity. To compete, countries and regional political
districts sometimes offer incentives to MNCs such as tax breaks.
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Market withdrawal
Because of their size, multinationals can have a significant impact on gov. policy, primarily
through the threat of market withdrawal. For example, in an effort to reduce health care
costs, some countries have tried to force pharmaceutics companies to license their
patented drugs to local competitors for a very low fee, thereby artificially lowering the
price. When faced with that threat, multinational pharmaceutical firms have simply
withdrawn from the market, which often leads to limited availability of advanced drugs.
Lobbying
Multinational corporate loppying is directed at a range of business concerns, from tariff
structures to environmental regulations. Multinational corporations such as Wal-mart
and McDonald‘s benefit from government zoning laws, to create barriers to entry.
Many industries such as General Electric and Boeing lobby the government to receive
subsidies to preserve their monopoly
Patents
Many multinational corporations hold patents to prevent competitors from arising in the
same time they offer low prices until local competitors withdraw.
Local Political influence
Massive corporate campaign contributions in democratic elections, and endless global
news stories about corporate corruption
MNCs works in one direction from developped countries to developing countries:
International marketers control more than the elements of the marketing mix; they
play a crucial role in changing social structures and competitiveness, in shaping political
power, knowledge transfer, and even determining economic development structures.
• Consumers in developed countries have low
individual bargaining power but a relatively high
degree of consumer sovereignty thus being able to
exercise much more power on companies’
marketing ethics.
• The role of experience, education and income in
assessing consumer vulnerability in developing
countries is of a much greater importance.
• The roll of local community: you may heard about
MADD(mothers against drunk driving) to face kids
and teens needs, and DAD (dads and daughters)
use their relationship with each other to
strengthen the local cultural values.
Philip Kotler:
• The best guidelines cannot resolve all the
difficult ethical decisions that individuals and
firms must make but there are some principles
that marketers can choose among:
• One: such decisions should be decided by free
market and legal system.
• Second and more enlightened one put the
responsibility in hands of firms and managers.
The situation may get better in recession
• The effect of tech.
• The need for honesty&
reliability
• What they really need.
• Turning to natural food.
• People power.
• One global community.
Facing the challenge
• In Gaski’s (1999) “Without doubt, the
ethics of one day may be the law of
the next”.
• As Sheth and Sisodia (1999) state, the
context of marketing is changing in
fundamental ways. The acceptance of
law-like generalisations is having to be,
as they suggest, “either enhanced or
modified”. The old opinion of
marketing ethics as “an oxymoron”, or
that “marketers do not have ethics” is
being re-thought.
Today, as the field of marketing develops a stronger ethical
profile, academically and professionally , marketers are
finding that it is harder to ignore the “ethics gap” between
what society expects and what marketing professionals are
delivering (Laczniak, 1993).
We don’t really know if all this research activity on marketing
ethics has affected the ethical climate of marketing
practice, and some practices such as deceptive pricing or
manipulative advertising may never disappear (Laczniak,
1993).
However, that does not mean that marketing scholars should
not strive to improve the ethical climate in which marketing
business is conducted.
THANK YOU
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