Introduction
Ethical marketing is a historical concept that started with organizational shifts to brand development by pushing favorable messages about their image and reputation. With increased consumer awareness about critical issues such as cruelty or organizational work ethic about a popular brand, morality in marketing has become imperative for strategic business success. Ethical marketing is based on the concept that professional business relationships are based on trust and honesty. Existing literature on the morality of conducting socially and environmentally responsible advertisements underwent transformations, where researchers incorporated updated evidence-based guidelines for achieving performance success. Therefore, this paper is a commentary on the ethical perspectives of business advertisements, especially the connections between ethical marketing and corporate social responsibility. The topics covered are ethical marketing scope, the current state of knowledge, research inconsistencies, and existing methodological approaches. Research conceptual framework has been used to elaborate what is known about the main topic and study gaps that should be covered in future studies. The central argument is that most scholars agree that cause-driven advertisement is a key booster to consumer purchase intentions, implying that organizations can achieve SCR and developmental objectives through moral-based marketing.
The Scope of Ethical Marketing
Scholars argue that normative thinking in business applications is similar to other social instances when humans apply moral reasoning to actions or decisions that are likely to impact others. For instance, Dyck and Manchanda (2021) opined that ethics in marketing adheres to utilitarian and duty-based guidelines for promoting positive outcomes to consumers and other third-party stakeholders affected by the organizational advertisement messages. An appropriate example of third-party considerations in ethical marketing is the culturally-driven communication techniques which must align with the social norms in the targeted region, regardless of any other market segmentation factors. Moreover, scholars consider cultural sensitivity as one of the frameworks defining the scope of ethical marketing. According to Viken et al. (2021), The Indigenous Tourism Association of Canada (ITAC) facilitates market research, determining consumer aspirations and other cultural sensitivity factors such as message appropriacy, age restrictions when designing tourism advertisement messages. Interestingly, cultural scopes in ethical marketing have been historical, with insignificant changes in how businesses should respect consumer beliefs.
Research on moral, political and philosophical questioning during ethical marketing message composition provides a broad scope elaborating the utilitarian outcomes to people and the environment. Winter (2020) stated that utilitarianism in marketing defines any cause-related initiative to promote the greatest good for as many affected individuals as possible. Winter (2020) justified the utilitarian moral judgement from the USA and Canadian tourism perspectives, where businesses are expected to ensure utilitarian outcomes for humans, domesticated, and wild animals. Scholarly literature on culture and marketing stretch over to the morality and political dimensions of ethical reasoning extend the operational scope to cover a multidimensional consumer base. Parfitt (2022) added to the knowledge, categorizing key stakeholders to an organization as the employees, customers, shareholders, and the environment. Stakeholder diversity makes organizations vulnerable to rule utilitarianism, the political perspectives that define compliance outlines for managing business conduct on providing cause-related product/service offers. Ferraris (2019) observed that politically-initiated compliance guidelines integrate culturally-defined expectations on companies to use a strong sense of ethics in promoting values and products. Therefore, research on social responsibility, especially the political and cultural dimensions, provide businesses with clarified ethical scopes for reaching consumers through cause-related initiatives.
Environmental responsibility is the second scope of ethical marketing which scholars categorize under duty-based ethical theories for promoting sustainable ecological outcomes while reaching consumers from local or global platforms. Winter (2020) elaborated that most businesses come to terms with inevitable realities upon realizing that ethical policies are instrumental to consumer and environmental protection. Moreover, green marketing is more likely to create strong connections between a business and the multidimensional stakeholder base. In contrast, political or cultural forces are more likely to support marketing efforts. Prowse et al. (2018) observed that green marketing strategies communicate global sustainability-driven towards promoting a habitable world for humans and other diverse species making up the global ecology. The duty-based categorical imperatives in defining green marketing initiatives promote a bi-dimensional approach to environmental conservation. One of them is that organizations must adhere to a universal formulation of rules regarding conservation Winter (2020). The second dimension is that organizations must adhere to human dignity by considering human resources as social capital worth protecting (Winter, 2020). Therefore, the key message conveyed by this scholar is that organizations must rid their cause-related marketing initiatives of unethical conducts, whether on the employee organizational treatment or poor working conditions by value chain third-parties.
Scholarly literature elaborates how ethical marketing exposes organizations to public scrutiny, a reason why companies must widen the scope of moral responsibility to accommodate as many products/services marketing-related activities as possible. Parfitt (2022) elaborated the ethical advertisement evolution, noting that traditional consumer outreach initiatives were conducted on limited media platforms, characterized by poor connectivity and insufficient metrics for gauging consumer engagement. However, modern practices in the wake of social media and digital connections expose organizations to expanded accountability scopes they must fulfill. According to Parfitt (2022), new product promotion processes involve the triple A’s framework, combining ethical business, accounting, and advertising practices. Parfitt’s idea of ethical capital is that businesses must combine as many sustainability and accounting standards as they declare during social responsibility reporting to strengthen their other moral-based business initiatives. The rationale is that normative approaches to cause-related marketing can generate public backlash if a company considers ethics on select products while ignoring other practices like employee fair treatment (Parfitt, 2022). Therefore, although the ethical scope of the business advertisement is broad, each dimension shares similar approaches and operational patterns in promoting holistic operational morality.
Current State of Knowledge
Empirical evidence on ethical marketing show that there is a link between consumer emotion and purchase intentions. Ferraris et al. (2019) investigated the links between supporting a cause and consumer emotional reactions, which led to findings that consumers purchase increases when companies include a charity in marketing. Therefore, the study provides knowledge that ethical marketing helps design, build and implement brand ambitions, especially if the advertisement solves a pertinent social problem. The rationale is that morality-based marketing with cause-related initiatives focuses on a customer-centric approach by ensuring they meet customers’ needs regarding a purchase (Ferraris et al., 2019). The study implication is that marketers must pay attention to the fact that ethical marketing is a widely practiced concept, an integral part of the modern business world. Scholars insist on the importance of ethical marketing, given that the concept promotes brand developments that strengthen an organization’s image and credibility (Parfitt, 2022; Dyck & Manchanda, 2021). Therefore, small and middle enterprises should capitalize on consumer emotional excitement with cause-related marketing to create demand for their enterprise products.
Scholarly knowledge on ethical marketing initiatives is practically applicable, where organizations using cause-driven opportunities are likely meet clear responsibility in line with the pertinent challenges in an identified society. Parfitt (2022) clarified that most organizations meet their ends of the bargain by living up to ethical principles. Therefore, in its broadest sense, ethical marketing can be defined as any category of consumer outreach missions that adheres to normative standards, such as the high integrity levels for promoting positive outcomes to targeted populations (Krishna, 2011). Conversely, morality violations can be costly to the business brand, a confirmation that emotional outcomes surrounding ethical marketing go both ways. Stein (2017) observed that consumers in contemporary markets are educated and ethically sensitive, implying that businesses risk losing customers with the slightest ethical violations. Given the common knowledge that ethically compliant cause-driven marketing promotes consumer trust and emotional satisfaction, organizations should capitalize on region-specific morality initiatives when engaging consumers.
The literature scope of ethical marketing includes ethical practices from day-to-day business decisions, marketing strategy, and support services. Parfitt (2022) elaborated the point by noting that the people behind ethical marketing find new ways to support customers’ needs and their own. Moreover, organizational marketers call on their abilities and knowledge to develop products that consumers can trust and rely upon (Parfitt, 2022). The implication to organizational leadership is that managers must promote awareness about laws and regulations that govern ethical marketing, depending on the region where the brand operates. Winter (2020) added to this knowledge through the rules-based utilitarian concept, showing that companies should take the first initiatives in using socially-responsible marketing strategies when making cause-driven product/service offers.
Research Inconsistencies
Despite the extensive knowledge of the benefits of ethical marketing, some scholars disagree with the claim that cause-driven product or service offers can excite marketers. Krishna (2011) states that consumers tend to withdraw contributions to a cause if they realize that companies used social responsibility initiatives to increase sales. The rationale is that consumers associate cause-driven offers with selfish techniques by organizations to capitalize on emotional manipulations to improve sales (Krishna, 2011). Interestingly, Krishna’s (2011) observation is a common challenge that organizations must anticipate when pairing their consumer outreach missions with social or environmentally-responsible courses. The ethical challenges of marketing are defined as the problems involved in adapting to changes in how people buy. Therefore, marketers need to be aware that consumers are increasing their knowledge about ethical issues, and they need to be able to adapt their marketing strategies accordingly. Krishna’s (2011) observation elaborated on how easy it is for consumers to identify unscrupulous brand deals. However, the research still needs to be more consistent because it provides a divergent opinion from a majority of scholars whose articles are elaborated in the above scope.
Another inconsistency in ethical marketing research is the role of consumer emotional manipulation on brand growth consistency. Ferraris et al.’s (2019) study supported the knowledge that cause-driven marketing enhances consumer purchase intentions. However, the researchers clarified that purchase intentions did not improve brand use after the marketing initiative (Ferraris et al., 2019). The observation is inconsistent with Dyck and Manchanda’s (2021) assertion that companies could sell their brand image or expand it to new markets through ethical marketing and cause-driven initiatives. Another practically blank area is the gender analysis of purchase intentions. Whereas most scholars provide a generalized analysis of market penetration with an ethical advertisement, Ferraris et al.’s (2019) study on Brazilian markets found that there were little, albeit insignificant, impacts of gender differences on perceptions of morality-based advertisement with cause-driven offers. The implication is that gender differences determine emotional outcomes on consumer alignment with cause-driven products, although consistent empirical research should clarify the connection.
Existing Methodological Approaches
The survey approach is the consistent methodology used by most scholars to investigate the relationship between charity-driven product offers and consumer purchase intentions. Ferraris et al. (2019) and Krishna (2011) used quantitative surveys with 224 and 92 participant samples, respectively. Both studies investigated gender outcomes in the purchase intentions of companies that used cause-driven advertising techniques. Whereas Krishna (2011) used a simulated scenario involving studying emotional outcomes during charitable giving, Ferraris et al. (2019) used real-life scenarios by investigating purchasers in various markets. Interestingly, both studies focused on emotional changes that autonomously make consumers want to purchase a product. Therefore, Ferarris’ (2019) methodology appeared more credible because it captured the practical scenarios in a real social setting. One possible weakness undermining Krishna’s (2011) research credibility is that participant briefing before the simulated research could cause lead to conformities because participants can choose the emotional roles they plan to manifest. Therefore, future researchers should investigate real intentions by analyzing practical market scenarios with reliable data on consumer behavior when encountered with cause-driven advertisement messages.
Conceptual Framework
Environmental Responsibility
The ethical marketing of products and services is the public’s interest in the product or service and its social, economic, and environmental factors. Both consumers and governments are interested in ethical marketing because it promotes environmental protection and profitability by safeguarding stakeholder welfare (Winter, 2020). Since environmentally responsible marketing is one of the most important parts of ethical business, companies must ensure they maintain professionalism when developing their materials for packaging and storage mechanisms. Companies must pay attention to the numerous global issues that demand companies take extra steps to ensure environmental responsibility. Scholars support market research such that organizations investigate consumer interests in environmentally-responsible marketing (Parfitt, 2022). The rationale is that
Social Responsibility in Ethical Marketing
The ethics of marketing is a topic that has been discussed previously, especially its role in promoting philanthropic activities to local communities or immediate brand stakeholders. Marketing, in general, has experienced much controversy over the past years among consumers and scholars: for example, about how to exploit consumers’ emotions. One of the main issues individuals have with ethical marketing is that it is based on deception, which can be considered unethical behavior (Krishna, 2011). However, if false claims are made about what a product does or does not do, it may still be considered a legal business practice by some states and countries. Therefore, the discrepancies between morality and legality in ethical marketing is a theoretical quagmire that can be detrimental to business success when globalizing to culturally-strict markets.
Discussion: Insights, Gaps and Future Research Directions
Existing literature on ethical marketing and consumer engagement corroborate that cause-driven product or service offers can boost consumer purchase intentions. However, there needs to be more research regarding the impacts created by cause-driven marketing on different consumer segments. For instance, whereas Ferraris et al. (2019) observed that supporting a cause can improve sales and benefits on a company product, Krishna (2011) insisted that most consumers think of products supported by social responsibility initiates and emotion-tripping techniques for boosting company sales. Therefore, future researchers should elaborate on both scenarios by digging deeper into factors likely to cause consumer purchase backlash, even as some courses drive up sales. The rationale is that specific charity intentions could elicit consumer emotional responses while others fail to be as convincing.
Ethical marketing is crucial to building trust and improving the reputation of a business. Online engagement through e-commerce is one of the latest insights on normative reasoning for client outreach. Online shoppers meet brand products across diverse platforms, some promoting augmented connections for sharing messages and making consumer referrals to a brand’s products/services. Since consumers are becoming savvier about product/service purchase decision-making, companies across all industries must ensure they comply with integrity guidelines. One of the best practices for engaging clients is transparency, which entails consumer briefing and honest social responsibility reporting on digital connection platforms.
Conclusion
In conclusion, companies can use guidelines to help businesses improve their business practices and ensure that advertisement messages are created in an ethical form. That implies that the best practice principles would guide marketing teams toward balancing the design of a company’s overall business while concretely addressing how it engages all stakeholders. Ethical marketing promotes products and services that are consistent with organizations’ values, beliefs, and ethics. Organizational advertisement and consumer engagement techniques in harmony with the law can improve consumer purchase intentions, enabling organizations to achieve SCR and developmental strategies under a single intuitive program. Even as organizations focus on engaging consumers, particularly those most affected by an individual company’s actions, they must ensure utilitarian guidelines for promoting beneficial outcomes to the environment as much as they do to humans.
References
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