Description
Discuss potential areas of ethical issues in marketing.
Explanation & Answer
There are three potential areas of ethical issues in marketing: 1. Misleading information 2. Risks not disclosed and 3 Ponzi schemes
Customers are provided incorrect or misleading information. This may lead to litigation. For example, if a product contains peanuts, customers should know it. Otherwise people with peanut allergy may have serious health issues after its use.
Risks involved should be communicated to the customers or buyers. For instance, the mortgage fiasco occurred because the agents did not inform customers about the risk involved in inflated rate mortgages. Customers did not know that they could loose their house because they were not qualified and were vulnerable to these loans.
Ponzi schemes are unethical because they cause heavy financial losses to customers. Well-known example is that of Madoff who used to pay inflated dividends from other peoples' principal payments. As a result, number of people incurred heavy financial losses when he could not fulfill his obligations.