Marketing ethics

To begin this paper I would first give a definition of what Marketing chastes is. From what I have ga in that respectd Marketing ethical motive is the plain of applied ethics which mess halls with the moral principles behind the operation and regulation of merchandising. (www.wikipedia.org). It is common knowledge that the atomic number 18a of ethics is rather wide. People all(prenominal)times confuse ethics with that of morality. Thus, a distinction may be called upon in order to understand things better. Ethics is vaster than that of morality.Ethics is the es phrase of values and customs of a group of people. Ethics is divided into three parts, meta-ethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Of the three, marketing ethics is under applied ethics. Now, when mavin talks about morality a clear distinction essential be made between ethics and morality. By morality, one factor only when a concept under ethics which dwells with matters of right and wrong.Having made the dis tinction let us now go on to what is meant by applied ethics from whence marketing ethics is a part. Applied ethics is something which aims to apply theoretical ethics such as utilitarianism, Kantianism among many others to real world dilemmas. (www.wikipedia.org). such is one of the purposes of this paper. Upon closely examining the way subway operates we will hence go on to look and to evaluate from two different ethical perspectives whether subway system is doing something wrong or non.In this paper I choose two contrasting ethical examples that of Utilitarianism and Kantianism, to examine the way Subway operate consort 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 around duty. All spellions should be done according to duty because it is what we ought to do. For Kant, all humans are rational universe and thus humans ought to know what is good and what is bad which buns be seen on his composition 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 but to do it, thus the border ought. Kant pays little respect for things done out of emotion or feelings, thus for him, saving a drowning child out of pity is not a moral thing to do. The only moral thing for him are things done out of duty. According to Kant the consequence of an action holds no bearing in making it a moral act. For him humans are different from other animals because of our faculty of reason. Thus, we must tr sweep away each and e realone with respect simply on the grounds that s/he is human and thus one does not deserve and should not be treated simply as a means towards an end.The second ethical framework I chose is utilitarianism. In utilitarianism the moral worth of an action is determined by the util ity it has to offer. It is the exact opposite of Kantianism in that for a utilitarian sacrificing a somebody to achieve a better end is not bad. If an action would produce the betterment of the many then it is okay for them to sacrifice a few if such is the only way to save more people. For example, if the world is taken over by aliens and the only way to save it is to offer the hearts of twenty precise young children as a sacrifice and to appease the intruders so that they would leave us alone, then the action the world must take, for a utilitarian, is to do the go 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 live would be overridden by the lives of the remaining population of the world. Such is the way a utilitarian point of view operates. Also, for a utilitarian the preposterous ability of humans is their ability to feel pleasure and pain. So, for a utilitaria n the moral thing to do is one that would produce the higher amount of pleasure. The utilitarians cerebrate 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 dodge of Subway one must first have a background of what Subway is. Subway is a multinational eating house franchise. The foods they offer are mainly that of salads and sandwiches. Subway, a wellness restaurant which is really concern over diet and nutrition, is founded in 1965 by Fred de Luca and Peter Buck. Subway is very famous and very prospered worldwide even though the foods 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 customers. The restaurant is very health conscious which a very common trend is nowadays, with everyone trying their best in order not to be overweight.Having discussed the two ethical frame whole works I would afterwards 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 subway 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 advertisement which shocked and enraged Americans. They managed to enrage the Americans by promoting the film Super Size Me and by using as an advertisement the fat statue of Liberty holding some burgers and fries with a bold headline saying WHY ARE AMERICANS SO FAT? Of course the Americans are known to be people who testify great value on their prides thus the advertisement cause them to get mad. There are Americans who believes that the advertisement is immoral.Looking at an unbiased point of view I count 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 mor e 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 made me think 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 standable because they treated the Americans as a means to achieve their end which for a Kantian is a crime. For a Kantian, Subway kick downstairsed to treat the Americans with the respect due to them as individuals. No matter how great the end result would have been for Subway, fact remains that they used others to obtain their end and it is not acceptable. In a Kantian point of view Subway did something wrong.On a utilitarian point of view however, they would say that if the act Subway did promote greater utility for the most number of people, then Subway could not have did s omething 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 rosy food because they are promoting something about anti-obesity. According to Michelle Cordial, children dont want to eat estimable 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 step upance and so I think 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 effect must be going on, on the minds of those responsible for the finiss being made in the management of Subway. I mentioned earlier that the pit market of Subway is teenagers and children.How do they aim to do that? Subway did that by thinking of catchy 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 chance 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 businessmen to improve the market of their ingatherings by thinking of promos which their clients cannot resist. Of course, Subway affirms to be different from McDonald, KFC and the like.I think they made that claim because it is common knowledge that foods from such restaurants or fast food chains are high in cholesterol and thus expose 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 first step a branch in Iraq. Of course, before embarking upon a certain 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 sluttish a branch there is made on rational grounds and thus not foolish.As I have mentio ned earlier, Subway is doing very great strategy in that they always try to know their customers. Thus, needless to say their menu varies from one country to another. If they open a branch in a Islamic 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 says 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 position in order to better compete with their competitors. Ive too read something about Subway fooling their customers.In the article it is said that Subwa y 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 trick 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 minute, 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 conclusion that Subway lives by the maxim the end justifies the means and thus my beli ef that they are utilitarians. The cunning Subway showed in fooling their customers made me reflect about a certain philosopher I know named Niccolo Machiavelli. sure enough 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 the consequences of their actions. If fooling a customer would yield better profit for them then they would not feel the slightest twinge of remorse upon fooling their cu stomers.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 still 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 decree 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.chiefmarketer.com/division/consumer-marketing/http//www.subway.com/en-ushttps//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_PageMarketing EthicsMarketing Activities Groupon 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 dishs 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 purchase websites in Hong Kong .Groupon Hong Kong as the biggest group buying company, still being criticized as companies without ethical marketing in Hong Kong. This essay has facilitated the discovery 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 examine based two ethical values which are responsibility and transparency with according to American Marketing Association (AMA). http//hk. apple. nextmedia. com/template/apple/art_main. php? ss_id=20110701& sec_id=4104&art_id=15391305 Responsibility Groupon Hong Kong failed to accept the consequence of their marketing decision and strategies. On early September Groupon Hong Kong offers group coupon that customers only need to pay 148 for buying Mint Design place 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 service 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 inventory of the Mint Design and refuse to deal with the customers complaints. Instead of serve the customers to refund the Groupon obligate 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 enjoy the service 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 limited quota daily for the Groupon Hong Kongs customers.However, the Groupon did not disclose this to customers (Apple Daily Newspaper 2011). According to the 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 information ab out 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 leading 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 communication with suppliers. This can help Groupon to provide accurate and world-wide information of the products and services to customers.