Marketing ethics

To begin this paper I would first give a interpretation of what Marketing Ethics is. From what I catch gathered Marketing moralistics is the ara of use morals which wishs with the moral principles behind the operation and ordination of merchandise. (www.wikipedia.org). It is common loveledge that the atomic publication 18a of ethics is or else wide. People sometimes confuse ethics with that of morality. Thus, a distinction may be called upon in articulate to understand things divulge. Ethics is vaster than that of morality.Ethics is the study of measure outs and customs of a gathering of people. Ethics is divided into three parts, meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Of the three, trade ethics is under applied ethics. Now, when one talks approximately morality a clear distinction must be profit between ethics and morality. By morality, one means simply a concept under ethics which dwells with matters of right and wrong.Having make the distinction let us now go on to what is meant by applied ethics from whence grocery storeing ethics is a part. Applied ethics is something which aims to gull theoretical ethics such as utilitarianism, Kantianism among many others to real sphere dilemmas. (www.wikipedia.org). Such is one of the purposes of this paper. Upon closely examining the agency tube-shaped structure operates we will so go on to look and to evaluate from ii different honorable perspectives whether resistance is doing something unethical or non.In this paper I choose twain contrasting ethical frameworks that of Utilitarianism and Kantianism, to examine the modal value metro operate accord to these two ethical standards. I will now move on to introducing the side of the two ethical issues.The philosopher Immanuel Kant developed Kantianism. His ethics is called deontological because it revolves primarily almost duty. All actions should be done according to duty because it is what we ought to do. For Kant, all humans ar acute being and thus humans ought to know what is skilful and what is bad which can be seen on his cerebration of categorical imperative. This is what I meant earlier by doing something because you ought to do it.It is categorical imperative because you have no other choice moreover to do it, thus the term ought. Kant pays small-minded prise for things done reveal of emotion or feelings, thus for him, economic system a drowning child out of pity is non a moral thing to do. The lonesome(prenominal) moral thing for him are things done out of duty. concord to Kant the consequence of an action holds no bearing in make it a moral act. For him humans are different from other animals because of our competency of cerebrate. Thus, we must tr decimate each and e trulyone with respect simply on the ground that s/he is human and thus one does not be and should not be treated simply as a means towards an sack.The second ethical framework I chose is utilitarianism. In utilit arianism the moral worth(predicate) of an action is determined by the utility it has to rear. It is the exact opposite of Kantianism in that for a utilitarian sacrificing a person to achieve a better end is not bad. If an action would incur the betterment of the many thence it is okay for them to sacrifice a few if such is the only way to keep open more people. For ex adenosine monophosphatele, if the world is taken e actuallywhere by aliens and the only way to save it is to toss the hearts of twenty actually two-year-old children as a sacrifice and to appease the intruders so that they would leave us wholly, then the action the world must take, for a utilitarian, is to do the notching as soon as possible.There is no room for pity or the like if such would be the only means there is to save the world. The rights of the twenty chosen children to harp would be overridden by the lives of the remaining creation of the world. Such is the way a utilitarian point of view opera tes. Also, for a utilitarian the unique ability of humans is their ability to feel merriment and pain in the ass. So, for a utilitarian the moral thing to do is one that would produce the higher amount of pleasure. The utilitarians believe that the end justifies the means. Seeing the philosophy utilitarians live by one must clearly see that it is the exact anti-thesis of Kantianism.Before analyzing the marketing strategy of underpass one must first have a background of what tube-shaped structure is. Subway is a multinational restaurant franchise. The feeds they offer are mainly that of salads and sandwiches. Subway, a health restaurant which is precise associate over diet and nutrition, is founded in 1965 by Fred de Luca and Peter Buck. Subway is very famous and very successful worldwide even up though the nutrients they offer are rather expensive. Their success may be attributed to the fact that they know or they try to know the mentality of their clients. The restaurant is very health conscious which a very common trend is nowadays, with everyone trying their outstrip in order not to be overweight.Having discussed the two ethical frameworks I would later use on this paper, I would now move on to the evaluation of the marketing strategy of Subway. To begin, I would first give a lay-out of how metro does their marketing. I have read one article of how subway did some of its marketing. On this particular article Subway chose a rather unique form of advertising which shocked and enraged Americans. They managed to enrage the Americans by promoting the film Super Size Me and by using as an advertizing the fat statue of Liberty holding some burgers and fries with a cobwebby headline vocalizeing WHY ARE AMERICANS SO FAT? Of run the Americans are known to be people who show immense value on their prides thus the advertizement caused them to get mad. There are Americans who believes that the advertisement is immoral.Looking at an unbiased point of vie w I reckon that what Subway did is of course insensitive and a little off the mark. However, companies would do everything in their power in order to attract more customers. For that, I would say that Subway indeed succeeding in doing their marketing strategy by catching the eye of the public. In this regard, I would say that Subway did their marketing on a utilitarian basis. What do me mean so would be discussed later on this paper.Analyzing what Subway did in the point of view of a believer of the Kantian theory, a Kantian would say that what subway did is not grateful because they treated the Americans as a means to achieve their end which for a Kantian is a crime. For a Kantian, Subway failed to treat the Americans with the respect due to them as individuals. No matter how enceinte the end resolving would have been for Subway, fact remains that they used others to obtain their end and it is not endureable. In a Kantian point of view Subway did something wrong.On a utilita rian point of view however, they would say that if the act Subway did farm greater utility for the most issue of people, then Subway could not have did something immoral. Since what they did produced good result then their act is morally acceptable and thus should not be condemned.Subway wishes to attract kids and tweens for their customers. They are promoting sanguine aliment because they are promoting something about anti-obesity. According to Michelle Cordial, children dont extremity to eat healthy foods although they are talking about healthy food in school. Teenagers, which make up a large number of their customers, are very much concern with the way they look and they are very much disturbed and conscious with their physical appearance and so I phone that Subway chose to promote healthy but delicious food in order to appease and to please teenagers.As for the kids of younger age, I think that their advertisement and their promotion of healthy food are in order to please the parents. As a parent they would want their children to eat healthy foods and which restaurant offers healthy foods if not Subway? I think that something to that put in must be going on, on the minds of those prudent for the closes being do in the management of Subway. I mentioned earlier that the target market of Subway is teenagers and children.How do they aim to do that? Subway did that by thinking of sly promos which their clients cannot resist. Such promos includes getting key chains and lanyards on their Kids Pak meal and value meals and giving a promo from where one may win a lot to have a trip for six to Vans Triple Crown of surfriding competitions which would be held on Hawaii from November-December. It is normal for commercemen to improve the market of their products by thinking of promos which their clients cannot resist. Of course, Subway contracts to be different from McDonald, KFC and the like.I think they make that claim because it is common knowledge tha t foods from such restaurants or fast food chains are high in cholesterol and thus bump their clients into the state of being fat. Claiming to be the same as the fast food chains I mentioned above would contradict the earlier claim made by Subway that they promotes healthy food now, wouldnt it? I have mentioned earlier that such marketing strategy is very useful because it greatly appeals to their target clients.Of course, Subway is very successful because they are living up to their standards and because they are capable of thinking of gimmicks which would work and which would appeal greatly to their customers. In this line, I think that the strategy used by Subway is great because it helps attain what they set out to attain. I dont think that Subway made an unwise choice by opening a carve up in Iraq. Of course, before embarking upon a definite project a businessman must first check the location, the population and the like in order to see if their products would be accepted in a certain location or not and thus I think that their decision to open a branch there is made on rational grounds and thus not foolish.As I have mentioned earlier, Subway is doing very great strategy in that they always try to know their customers. Thus, complimentary to say their menu varies from one country to another. If they open a branch in a Muslim country, they would omit pork and ham from their menu. Because of this great sensitivity for their customers, I would not have any doubts whatsoever over their success on Iraq. Subways decision to do Giant Subs, dependent on the customers likes and dislikes shows their sensitivity and the way they value their customers and because of this it is no wonder that Subway is very successful.However, as most businesses are, Subway does have its critics. Eric Schlosser is at odds with the way Subway does their franchising, criticizing the way Subway competes with its competitors. Schlosser does not agree with the way Subway selected its s trength in order to better compete with their competitors. Ive overly read something about Subway cursory their customers.In the article it is said that Subway is being criticized by nutritionists despite the fact that Subways front is that they are a health restaurant. The criticisms can be clearly seen in this line, Subway sells discombobulate food and hides the fact that many of its food items contain high levels of calories, fooling customers by the less than 6 grams of fat signs commonly shown in ads or in stores worldwide. (www.wikipedia.org).I would not condemn Subway for the way they operates because such things are common in businesses. Somehow, businessmen cant help but make a fool of their clients by giving and showing them what they want to see. It is part of business to appear to be something they are not and I dont think, not even for a molybdenum, that Subway alone does such tricks.Also, the way Subway competes did not bother me for a minute because I believe that that is what business is all about competition. Upon analyzing Subway, I came into the shutdown that Subway lives by the byword the end justifies the means and thus my tenet that they are utilitarians. The cunning Subway showed in fooling their customers made me ring about a certain philosopher I know named Niccolo Machiavelli. Surely the idea to pretend to be something youre not if it would keep you in your position originated from Machiavelli himself. Now, these things made me think that not only politicians alone read Machiavellis The Prince. It is very evident that businessmen got some advice from the great Machiavelli.I have made the claim that Subway is more of a utilitarian than a Kantian because of the reasons I have mentioned earlier in this paper. A Kantian would not, even for a second, put profits or benefits over the rights of an individual. Thus, I think Subway is very much a Utilitarian because it is evident in their action that they gives utmost importance to th e consequences of their actions. If fooling a customer would fork over better profit for them then they would not feel the slightest twinge of remorse upon fooling their customers.Also if people or rather their customers feels safer by eating in Subway even though their show that their products are health foods are nothing but a mere faade then they should comfort go through it for the reason that it causes or it promotes more pleasure than pain or happiness than suffering. Since, their customers would not want to eat risky foods which would make them fat and would cause them great displeasure then the decision of Subway to fool their customers is not bad, at least for a utilitarian.Having made this paper, I therefore conclude that Subway lives more on a legislation of ethics which values the consequences of an action. The said ethics is called Utilitarianism. Thus, upon conclusion, Subway lives in the maxim the end justifies the means.Referencehttp//www.echeat.com/http//www.chi efmarketer.com/division/consumer-marketing/http//www.subway.com/en-ushttps//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_PageMarketing EthicsMarketing Activities &8212Groupon Hong Kong Groupon is a deal a day websites, it provides a newly developed business model that offer group coupon per day. The companies provide the coupon of go and products with discount and it works as assurance contract. That means only if the number of people who sign up for the group coupon meet the minimum, the deal will become available. However, there are sharply increasing number of the complaints against the products of the group buying websites in Hong Kong .Groupon Hong Kong as the biggest group buying company, allay being criticized as companies without ethical marketing in Hong Kong. This essay has facilitated the uncovering of the ethics of Cadburys marketing activities. The discussion is mainly focused on marketing ethical of the products of the Groupon Hong Kong. The products will be analyzed based two ethica l values which are duty and transparency with according to American Marketing Association (AMA). http//hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? ss_id=20110701&type Asec_id=4104&art_id=15391305 obligation Groupon Hong Kong failed to accept the consequence of their marketing decision and strategies. On early kinsfolk Groupon Hong Kong offers group coupon that customers only need to pay 148 for buying band Design shoes which priced $400 in the market. However, it fails to provide products to customers within the committed date as the product was shock out. Although there are many customers claimed to refund, the Groupon did not give any properly responds to customers.Instead of refund to customer Groupon offer another model shoes to customers and titled upgraded proceeds without any reason and the agreement of the customers. (Apple Daily Newspaper 2011) The Groupon fail to provide products as they did not set the limit for the coupon appropriated with the invento ry of the Mint Design and rule out to deal with the customers complaints. Instead of serve the customers to refund the Groupon forced the customer to accept another upgraded product. According to AMA, it is unethical for Groupon simple ignore the customers claim and force them to accept another product.Transparency http//hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? iss_id=20110924&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=11867&art_id=15643242 Groupon Hong Kong also failed to create a spirit of openness in marketing operations. Customers MS Ng claims it is different to make appointment for enthral the attend which purchased through Groupon Hong Kong. However, she can easily make the appointment for the service in the same shop as a normal customer who paid for origin price. The Kinki Nail Professional said that they set special(a) quota daily for the Groupon Hong Kongs customers.However, the Groupon did not disclose this to customers (Apple Daily Newspaper 2011). According to th e AMA, companies have to explain and disclose the risk of the product or service which can determine customers to make the purchase decision. However, Groupon transparent insufficient data about the risk of failure for making booking for the service as the quota set by the suppliers. It is unethical in terms of transparency for group disclose insufficient information. http//hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? ss_id=20110924&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=11867&art_id=15643242 From above information, it shows that marketing activities are ethical in term of responsibility and transparency. There are increased From my point of view, the Groupon as a spark advance company in group buying websites should be more responsible for customer needs. Also, Groupon as an intermediate between suppliers and customers, it is necessary for further dialogue with suppliers. This can help Groupon to provide accurate and comprehensive information of the products and work to cust omers.