Category Archives: Topic 4

12.08.14
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Reflection: Marketing ethics or lack thereof

reflectPhoto Credits: movemequotes

I think when it comes to selling a product or service, there are plenty of marketing approaches to choose from. Some people uphold the highest standards of honesty and integrity while others will say or do absolutely anything to make the sale or attract eyeballs. That means there is a lot of people that live in the gray area as Khai has mentioned in this post, where companies use controversy in tandem with the exploitation of the misfortune of others to gain publicity.

Sara gave me a few good examples of opportunistic marketing / real time marketing in her comment. I think companies/brands who adopt those approaches can be too hasty to ride the wave of free publicity and fail to consider the consequences and relevance to their audience.  I think there is no point engaging in social media with content on a topic that has nothing to do with what your company stands for. I believe the audience will disregard it, and they are smart enough to know that the content has been written for the sake of writing it.

By no means am i the judge to give the final verdict of what is right, wrong, honest, dishonest, ethical or unethical. I have made “grey” decisions in the past. I guess marketers need to make ethical mistakes in order to get a clearer picture of what is acceptable. The mistakes made isn’t the most important. It’s what we learn from them and how we operate moving forward that matters.

The world is constantly changing and so is the online world and i think people are looking for less hype and more value. So i think for marketers who are willing to demonstrate integrity, uphold an ethical standard and bring value to their target audience will reap the majority of the profits.

Blogs i’ve commented on:

Corrine
Khai

12.05.14
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Right or Wrong, Black or White, It depends?

mmw_ethics_articlePhoto Credits via: Insightiitb

Issues of ethics are difficult to discuss, as they often are not clear cut and linger in the grey area, between black and white. I would like to briefly talk about ethics in a business/marketing context. Here is my crude attempt at creating a short video clip about one of Ford’s social media posts.

Ford updated their Facebook status following the capture of the second bombing suspect. The brand said, “To the first responders of Boston: Thank you. You are true American heroes.” It is hard to find fault in wording, ford is just expressing their sincere appreciation for the sacrifices of those who serve. What about the striking image of their products, complete with the Ford logo and tagline ? It seems fine right? Compared to the dull text message they could have posted. Ford is just trying to associate their brand with the image of the police. No false advertising there either, they are indeed manufacturers of the police vehicles.

While not everyone will agree, Augie Ray feels that Ford’s use of brand imagery not only reduced the sincerity of the message but demonstrated questionable ethics. he asks to compare the two status updates and consider the following questions:

  • Which is a more authentic expression of appreciation to people who sacrificed their safety to protect us?
  • What does the product and brand imagery of the post on the right add (if anything) to the sincerity of the gratitude compared to the simple text version?
  • Which version more clearly puts the focus on the heroes in Boston?

As future digital marketers, we need to be responsible when sharing content on social media. There are posts that are deliberately set up to gather likes and shares, with motives which are less than ethical. For example, Like-Farming is hugely popular and uses social engineering tactics in order to gather as many likes as possible. User data is then collected and sold on the black market, or the user is directed to a survey scam or even a site infected with malware. As a social media marketer it is our job to know about these scams so you don’t pass/use them on to our followers/customers

When we click “submit” to share the next social media post, it is easy to settle on the simple questions of will it achieve its goal, fits best practices and suits the brand. As digital marketers we have take the extra step to ask ourselves if it is honest, transparent and ethical. While it is a much higher standard to adhere to, isn’t higher standards what consumers want and what brands should be striving towards?

References

Photos in video via: Socialmediatoday , Chromasia

Anon., n.d. Hoax Slayer. [Online]
Available at: http://www.hoax-slayer.com/like-farming-scams.shtml
[Accessed 5 12 2014].

Butters, K., 2014. Xen. [Online]
Available at: http://xen.com.au/social-media-marketing-ethics/
[Accessed 5 12 2014].

Ray, A., 2013. Social Media Today. [Online]
Available at: http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/ethics-social-media-marketing-responding-boston-tragedy
[Accessed 5 12 2014].