Just Do it! That’s what marketers want from you when you’re thinking to buy their products or services. They don’t want you to evaluate too much. Instead, they want you to take that hard earned cash outta your pockets and purchase what they’re offering. And that’s legit as long as they are conducting their marketing practices fairly and ethically. But in reality, some marketers (most to be honest) do conduct some shady business that customers don’t know, and if they knew, they might be willing to pay those hefty lawyer costs.

Stealth Marketing Taken To A Whole New Level

If you ever studied Porter’s five forces, you’ll know that competitors are one of them. It is common for companies to find information about their rivals through the internet or their customer base but sending your own employee to work for another company undercover – that’s borderline unethical. Many companies are guilty of finding information about rival companies this way and send their employees to work for other organizations. Those employees then feed customer information, pricing strategies and other important data to their parent company. This way, bigger merchandises eliminate the threat of competitors. Final customers and the companies that are being made a fool of, might not know this and hence, are being kept in the dark by the so-called bigger brands.

Selling Customer Information Without Their Knowledge

Not trying to burst your bubble but yeah, this happens! Parent or partner companies do take customer information like address, contact number, demographics and other private info that you only told your favorite brand. Companies, especially the ones trying to make their way to the top, sell customer information to the multinational brands in exchange for money or favors. That customer information is mostly electronic in nature (from e-mails). Now you might never know this because no one is going to tell you (why would they?) but it happens and it’s ethically wrong.

Using Flawed Products

Another common practice for many marketers. For example, you’re a manufacturer of medicines and produce according to the make-to-stock method. When you’re producing in such huge quantities, there are chances of some faulty products. Most of the companies don’t bother of bringing those faulty medicines back to their storehouses as they represent a loss to them (manufacturing cost). They are mixed with the usual products and given to the retailer (who might not have any idea about the defect). Customers buy such medicines and become prone to further health issues. That’s the highest level of unethical practice that a company or business can conduct. Many faulty products are being used this way just to avoid extra manufacturing and transportation costs, and customers are being kept in the dark. Pity!

Unethical Advertisement

Perhaps the most common unethical issue we come across! Some print and many electronic ads that we encounter have certain ethical dilemmas that shouldn’t be there. For example, a model in her swimsuit eating a burger inappropriately is not for the kids to watch, but kids enjoy burgers the most don’t they? Similarly comparison advertisements which try to ruin a rival company’s image by making derogatory remarks about them is another ethical violation. We are being bombarded with such ads both on social media as well as on our television screens. Therefore, it’s not surprising some of these companies face a plethora of lawsuits.

Ethical Issues In International Marketing

Have you ever wondered that why a peanut butter from the same brand tastes different in USA and say, India? It’s because the manufacturers tweak with quality of their products when it comes to sending them to other countries. Products exported to USA, Canada, and Europe are mostly of the highest quality. On the other hands, products being exported to African states and other South Asian countries lack the same taste and quality. It’s another discrimination that some marketers do on the basis of ethnicity or location. A tomato ketchup from a certain brand, of a fixed price and a fixed size should have the same taste in any corner of the world. This malpractice is still being conducted by some marketers and customers are completely unaware of.

What Is The Customer’s Responsibility?

Customers should talk about such ethical dilemmas in marketing on social media and other platforms where authorities can take notice of it. Lawsuits against such companies should also be filed so they know they’re doing some wrong stuff. Furthermore, customer awareness is the most critical thing which can stop these marketers from making unethical choices.