Ethical AND Legal Considerations In Designing Marketing Communication Strategies Essay Sample

Ethical and legal issues are among the most important elements to consider in designing marketing communication strategies. In many instances, the success or failure of marketing communication strategies is largely influenced by ethical and legal issues that may arise. There are many ethical and legal issues that need to be considered when designing marketing communication strategies. Since marketing communication pertains to promoting products primarily through advertisements, marketing professionals should avoid exaggerated or misleading statements about their products. Many pharmaceutical companies who engage in direct-to-consumer marketing approach, for instance, are guilty of misleading consumers into buying their drugs without revealing some of the drugs’ detrimental side effects. Most consumers are ill-informed about the drugs that they buy and since most do not have the medical expertise to determine the drug’s side effect, direct-to-consumer marketing approach sometimes leads to adverse health problems and even death . Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline are just a few examples of major pharmaceutical companies that faced ethical and legal repercussions because of their marketing communication practices. Pfizer, for instance, agreed to pay $2.3 billion for civil and criminal liabilities in 2009 for promoting the drug, Bextra while GlaxoSmithKline was reported to have pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $3 billion because the company failed to report safety data about some of the drugs it promotes . For the same reason, transparency and honesty should be the ethical values that marketing strategists should consider when designing marketing communication strategies. According to scholars, these fundamental ethical values “increase the consumers’ confidence in the integrity of the marketing system,” which every marketing strategist should try to achieve (Muchina, & Popovici, n.d., p.70).
Being an active part of the advertising media, marketing experts must be fully aware of their power to shape public opinion and its eventual impact on society. The power of marketeers in influencing society could not be undermined. As observed, “we are bombarded by images trying to make us buy through the course of the day – on mobile phones, computer screens, billboards, at bus stops, on flashing screens in railway stations and public transport”. Some advertisements, for instance, lacks ethical sensitivity as they target unsuspecting consumers to buy their products without revealing its adverse effects. Obesity, overconsumerism, and other undesirable social trends are often blamed with irresponsible marketing communication strategies. Some companies, for instance, promote unhealthy foods that target children while some promotes the use of unhealthy substances such as liquour and tobacco without revealing its adverse long-term effects. As media practitioners, marketing strategists must acknowledge that they can be held responsible in their marketing communications, especially towards children and teenagers. Most countries provide ethical and legal standards that protect consumers from irresponsible marketing, which most marketing strategists would have to abide. Marketing strategists should also be aware of the environmental impact of their marketing communication strategies. Banners, posters, as well as product packaging may have a significant impact to the environment when they are not properly disposed of. It should be noted that there is a significant number of consumers that purchase products based on ethical decisions. Also known as ethical consumerism, some individuals may boycott products that do not adhere to acceptable social and environmental standards (De Pelsmacker, Driesen, & Rayp, 2005). In the face of a highly competitive marketing environment, the marketing communication strategy that is ethically and legally sound could define the organization’s success.

References

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De Pelsmacker, P., Driesen, L., & Rayp, G. (2005, September). Do Consumers Care about Ethics? Willingness to Pay for Fair-Trade Coffee. Retrieved January 2016, from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1745-6606.2005.00019.x/full
Jahdi, K. (2013). Marketing communications and ethics. Retrieved January 2016, from is.vsfs.cz: https://is.vsfs.cz/el/6410/zima2013/NA_LaEC/um/1Jahdi.pdf
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U.S. Department of Justice. (2012). GlaxoSmithKline to Plead Guilty and Pay $3 Billion to Resolve Fraud Allegations and Failure to Report Safety Data. Retrieved January 2016, from http://www.justice.gov/: http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/glaxosmithkline-plead-guilty-and-pay-3-billion-resolve-fraud-allegations-and-failure-report
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