Ethical Marketing issues by Trump on Aberdeen Wind Farm - Essay Example

Ethical Marketing issues by Trump on Aberdeen Wind Farm Ethical Marketing issues by Trump on Aberdeen Wind Farm Ethical marketing entails the marketing process that makes use of ethical marketing principles in its development and results in the ethical decision making on the part of the decision-makers (Egan, 2007, 379). Ethical marketing takes a centre stage in business decision-making because of the influence it has on the social, environmental, and profitability needs of a business or a project and determines the success and acceptance of a given project undertaking. A case in point is the Aberdeen wind farm that has resulted in legal and ethical questions regarding its implementation and the challenges it has faced with American investor Donald Trump who is against the implementation of the project. My aim in this study is investigating the ethical conduct of Donald Trump to see if he is ethically right or wrong in aiming to destroy the wind farm on the reasoning that it doesn’t look good for the golf course. Aberdeen Wind Farm Story The Aberdeen Wind farm has resulted in ethical and legal battles between the Scottish government and entrepreneur, Donald Trump who believes the construction of the wind farm will result in an ugly sore adjacent to his greatest golf course. According to Trump, building his $ 1 billion golf course in Aberdeenshire was because he was informed that the wind farm project would not continue. However, “former and current first ministers, Jack McConnel and Alex Salmond” denied that they agreed to have the project stopped owing to the plans for the building of the golf resort by Trump (Taylor, April 25, 2012). The current minister says Trump wanted the current government to be held accountable for the promises of the previous government, which he believes is not possible and resulted in a court battle filed by Trump’s legal team. In a bid to halt the development of the wind farm, Trump appeared before the Scottish Parliament’s committee on economy, energy, and tourism and he said the wind farm was the most serious problem facing Scotland (Taylor, April 25, 2012). From my research the aim of the wind farm include the creation of 28,000 jobs, generation of 100 MW of electricity that would supply power to half of Aberdeen city, and act as a pilot project for the aims of turning the country into Europe’s green energy. The Scottish government approved the development of the wind farm resulting in Trump taking to the courts to challenge the project to which he subsequently lost despite the use of misleading campaigns and threats about the fall of the Scottish economy. He also made use of his celebrity status through different media channels and campaigns to influence the court decision, but he was not successful. Ethical conduct of Donald Trump in his bid to destroy the wind farm for not providing a good view of his golf course In my view, Trump believes that the construction of the wind farm will result in “an ugly industrial park” on the shoreline that will negatively impact on the tourism and conservation efforts in Scotland (Cruden, G. March 26, 2013). Trump believes that the construction of the wind farm would affect the success of his hotel through providing an ugly view of his Mernie hotel clients and the golf course. In my view, the reasoning by Trump is not enough for the stopping of the project. Other reasons provided by Trump on the need to stop the wind farm development were inefficiency, destruction of flora and fauna, abandoning of wind farms in global locations, inability to operate without subsidies, and the negative impact on investment in Scotland. Ethical right I believe that Trump was ethically right to fight for the stopping of the wind farm establishment through the legally accepted procedures through the courts and by appearing in meetings with the parliamentary committee. In my view he was ethically right because of the huge investment he has made in Scotland in setting up the golf course and the loss of revenue that he would incur if the wind farm project is implemented. Secondly, I believe that Trump was also ethically right in aiming to protect his investment owing to the loss of time and resources and the benefits that would emanate from the investment to different groups including the Scottish government through tax payment, creation of jobs, and a boost to the tourism potential of the country. Further, I believe Trump was also ethically right in informing the public of the different concerns he had on the development of the wind farm project in Aberdeen. The impact would be the provision of a channel for debate on the issue and the generation of different viewpoints and in-depth discussion that would result in the best decision made in the case. According to me, the decision reached on the continuation of the project would not have better backing were it not for his concerns that depicted the lack of merit of his concerns in terms of the ugliness of view from his hotel and golf course and the lack of evidence for other concerns compared to benefits of the project. Ethically Wrong From my point of view, there are various instances that Trump was ethically wrong in his opposition to the establishment of the wind farm in Aberdeen. First, Trump is ethically wrong to refer to the wind farm that will result in the creation of jobs and 100 MW electricity generations a “ridiculous wind farm” (Urquhart, F. March 27, 2013). Trump appearing before the Scottish Parliament’s committee on the economy, energy, and tourism and stating that he was the evidence for the inefficiency of the wind farm was the other point where he was ethically wrong according to my assessment of the case. Trump claimed that the wind farm would result in the death of many wildlife animals and birds but when challenged to provide statistical evidence he claimed that he was the evidence, which is ethically wrong in my view owing to the need to back his arguments with statistical data on the impacts of the wind farm. It was ethically wrong for Trump to use his vast resources to challenge the implementation of a project that would have enormous benefits to the country in terms of job creation and electricity generation. The wind farm project expectations include the creation of 28,000 jobs for the Scottish people and $11.5 billion addition to the economy and it would be ethically wrong for Trump to deny all these people job opportunities on the basis of having an ugly view from his golf course. Trump argues that the development of the wind farm would result in spoilt sea views for his Menie resort clients, and he was prepared to spend up to £10m fighting the development of the wind farm. From my analysis, Trump was only thinking of the profitability of his business and has no consideration for the benefits that the wind farm will have on the Scottish government green energy plans, the jobs to result from the implementation of the plan, and the economy growth that would result from the generation of power enough to supply about half of Aberdeen city, 49,000 homes (Cruden, March 26, 2013). The lack of consideration of other people’s benefits depicts the ethical wrongdoing of Trump in stopping the development of the wind farm. I also belief that was ethically wrong for Trump to state that the implementation of the project should be stopped on the basis of inability to operate without large subsidies and the inefficiency of wind farms without statistical evidence. In my view, the success, efficiency, and subsidization of the project cannot be judged on the performance of previous wind farms globally owing to the installation of new machinery and advanced technology that could potentially revolutionize the green energy in Scotland. The development of the golf course and related facilities by Trump in the Scottish coastline was also ethically wrong owing to the environmental concerns that emerged. The golf course has negative impacts on the delicate coastline ecosystem where he argued that the creation of 6,000 jobs and economic growth from his investment would trump over concerns. Trump is not in an ethical position to oppose the development of the wind farm on environmental concerns un yet he oversaw environmental concerns in the construction of his golf course making his move of opposing the wind farm development ethically wrong. In his arguments, Trump takes a personal swipe at Alex Salmond when he states that the approval of the project was a political decision depicting the entrepreneur action as ethically wrong in my view. Trump stated that Alex had an obsession with obsolete wind technology that would result in the destruction of Scotland’s beauty and magnificence, which is ethically wrong owing to different considerations including the Scottish government's green energy aims, jobs for the people, and growth needs. Taking the fight on the wind farm project to negatively discrediting the current Minister Alex Salmond is an unethically way of Trump business conduct. I think launching of anti-wind energy campaign through the use of misleading advertising claims and celebrity status by Trump was ethically wrong and was intended to affect the objective determination of the case (Cohen, December 02, 2013). The investigations were on-going, and the start of the misleading campaigns would potentially have affected the correct decision on the matter depicting the wrongful ethical conduct of Trump. Trump also demonstrated wrongful ethical conduct in his statements on the wind farm project when he said they are expensive energy source and that they are made in China (Cohen, December 02, 2013). In effect, he demonstrates a lack of credibility in Chinese-made products or that they offer low efficiency or benefits to the users providing a poor image and negative impact on China that has no direct relation to the legal and ethical battles he has with the Scottish government. It is my view that the fights by Environmentalists in Scotland opposing the establishment of the golf course and the land disputes that resulted in the establishment of the gold course show wrongful ethical conduct. A case in point that I remember is a farmer fighting for his land after he was forcefully evicted by the billionaire to provide for space for building the golf course. The Scott’s concern was also the destruction of the unique landscape by Trump’s development and the loss of their homes further depicting the wrong ethical conduct of Trump. Conclusion To conclude on the case, ethical wrongdoing is more prevalent than the instances when Trump was ethically right in the opposition to the development of the wind farm in Aberdeen and the decision to continue the construction has merit. These include the lack of concrete evidence to back the need to stop the development of the wind farm and consideration of only his profits disregarding te needs of the Scottish government and public, job creation potential of the projects, and economic growth. Trump uses different ethically wrong measures to achieve his course of stopping the wind farm implementation as evidenced through misleading adverts and campaigns that are ethical marketing issues. Despite have a right to money and time invested in the golf course, Trump does not have a credible reason to necessitate to abandoning of the wind farm and he undertakes many ethically wrong actions to achieve these but he has not been successful a the project implementation was approved. References Cohen, M. (December 02, 2013). Donald Trump Wages War on Scotland over Wind Farm. Policy.Mic. Retrieved from http://mic.com/articles/75251/donald-trump-wages-war-on-scotland-over-wind-farm Cruden, G. March 26, 2013. Donald Trump vows lawsuit as Scottish Government approves wind farm. STV News. Retrieved from http://news.stv.tv/north/219032-trump-row-aberdeen-bay-windfarm-given-approval-by-scottish-government/ Egan, J. (2007). Marketing communications. Sage. Taylor, B. April 25, 2012. B Donald Trump says he was 'lured' into building £1bn golf resort. BBC. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-17826561 The Telegraph. January 18, 2012. Donald Trump halts golf course construction due to 'ugly' wind farm threat. The Telegraph. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/9023251/Donald-Trump-halts-golf-course-construction-due-to-ugly-wind-farm-threat.html Urquhart, F. March 27, 2013. Donald Trump golf course hotel axed over wind farm. The Scotsman. Retrieved from http://www.scotsman.com/news/environment/donald-trump-golf-course-hotel-axed-over-wind-farm-1-2857877 Read More