Ethics in Marketing Practices - Term Paper Example

Ethics in Marketing The issue of ethics is immensely crucial in marketing research, as well as market research. Ethics deal with whether or not a certain action is upright or evil or right or wrong. Marketing practices continue to present the perception that, within business environments, marketing is the field most susceptible to unethical practices. It is, therefore, deducible that market researchers engage in unethical behavior, which undermines the effectiveness of marketing research and the entire marketing process (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 56). Volunteer participation is the focal point of marketing research since customer research procedures would ultimately become impractical without cooperation from the public from which researchers draw data. The necessity for ethics in marketing research is; thus quite evident. This paper will examine the issue of ethics in marketing research noting the significance of ethics in all processes involving marketing research. Ethical behavior is a vital component in marketing research since marketing research directly controls the realization of strategic decision making in businesses. Businesses rely on information, which marketing researchers provide, to make day to day decisions, which affect business operations in one way or another. Consequence of the significance of marketing research, trade associations constantly establish guidelines to ensure ethical behavior by marketing researchers (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 79). The American Marketing Association (AMA) provides a number of ethical norms to guide the conduct of marketing research. These include the following: 1. Honesty; ensuring that marketing researchers remain forthright and faithful in all their contacts with stakeholders such as clients. 2. Responsible behavior, which entails accepting the implications of researchers’ marketing strategies and decisions. 3. Fairness entails the ability to balance justly the needs of customers with those of the seller or producer. 4. Respect, which entails the ability to appreciate the inherent human dignity of all stakeholders and ensure the just treatment of all stakeholders. 5. Openness to provide transparency in researchers’ marketing undertakings and strategies. 6. Citizenship, which aims at fulfilling the legal, economic, societal and philanthropic responsibilities, which serve stakeholders in strategic ways. Marketing researchers have immense responsibilities when it comes to different stakeholders such as research respondents, the public, clients and researchers. Ethical decisions encompass a number of characteristics that ensure that marketing researchers uphold. Firstly, ethical decisions provide for the realization of long term effects on business situations. In addition, although a majority of ethical decisions are sometimes rather doubtful, they encompass a variety of alternatives, which enhance the opportunity for ethical marketing research decisions (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 99). The points of view inherent in ethical decisions are essentially either negative or positive. Lastly, the results of ethical decisions, which include negative or positive outcomes, are relatively unpredictable and uncertain. For members of the public, ethical concerns deal primarily with the methods used by marketing researchers in obtaining and reporting research outcomes. The public sometimes depends on the outcomes of marketing research for information regarding products. If marketing researchers provide distorted information, the public stands to lose by purchasing faulty or wrong products. Therefore, it is the shared responsibility of researchers and the public to deter the incident of misguiding and incomplete reporting and biased research. Incomplete reporting occurs when either a client or researcher fails to reveal complete research results. This unethical behavior is likely to take place when marketing researchers conceal negative information, which customers would find undesirable. A misleading environment involves information distortion to lead customers to erroneous impressions regarding a business or product (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 82). The unethical act of conducting biased research occurs when researchers perform research activities improperly thereby realizing incorrect findings. This could occur when researchers fail to state the research problem clearly. On the other hand, ethical research behaviors are tantamount to the creation of healthy relations with research respondents. Research respondents are crucial stakeholders since, without their input in the research process, the entire research undertaking is impossible. Therefore, market researchers should always aim at protecting research respondents from unethical research practices. The respondent-researcher relationship entails a number of activities that produce results. Respondents participate in surveys to sell products where unethical researchers can deliberately deceive respondents, for instance, using surveys to make sales presentations or gather information useful in sales. In research terminologies, this occurrence refers to sugging, which is both unethical and illegal since they violate the trust of respondents and erodes their readiness to support research undertakings such as surveys. Another notable unethical marketing research behavior is the invasion of respondents’ privacy, which is a legally protected right (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 111). In this case, it is pertinent that researchers contact respondents at times that are convenient to the latter. Other prominent unethical behaviors include purchasing and selling of mailing lists using deceptive strategies. With regard to clients, researchers must always ensure that their behaviors and strategies do not adversely affect customers and clients. The relationship between the client and research is quite complex hence deserves special attention with regard to the conduct of ethical marketing research. Some of the most notable unethical behaviors concerning researchers’ treatment of clients include abuse of position, unnecessary research and identity disclosure among others. In terms of abuse of position, because researchers posses research expertise, they have the inherent responsibility not to take unjust advantage of their positions. Researchers should ensure that they adhere to correct research procedures, implement viable approaches and research designs (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 128). In essence, ethical conduct of marketing research entails the conduct of quality research that involves respecting clients’ resources such as money and time. In addition, ethical research conduct detests the performance of unnecessary research. Researchers have the explicit ethical responsibility not to engage in unnecessary research, for instance, in the evident that secondary data is sufficient hence there is no need to conduct primary researchers. Furthermore, it is immensely common to find unqualified persons conducting research undertakings. This behavior is extremely unethical since such researchers may lack sufficient technical expertise needed to conduct research effectively. In this case, it is the duty of such a researcher to inform the client of his limited technical expertise (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 106). Moreover, identity confidentiality is a prominent feature of ethical marketing research. Clients have the right to expect that researchers will protect their identities before, during and after the conclusion of the research project. Researchers are, therefore, ethically bound not to disclose their clients’ identities to competitors and other respondents and third parties without gaining the consent of the client. The last stakeholders of the marketing research process are researchers. Researchers, as well as research firms, have an inherent right to receive ethical treatment. This treatment concerns the treatment of researchers by clients and involves a variety of issues. Although marketing researchers have immense ethical responsibilities to other stakeholders owing to their technical expertise, such researchers also require similar ethical treatment. Clients should detest from improper solicitation, which involves a client misusing researchers’ proposals, for instance, by turning the proposals over to other researchers for implementation. Clients must acknowledge that research proposals are the property of the relevant research firms (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 96). Clients should also treat researchers ethically by ensuring the confidentiality of the researchers’ proprietary techniques. Clients should, therefore, detest from using such techniques in the future without seeking prior permission from the researchers who develop the techniques. Ethical behavior towards researchers as vital stakeholders of the research process also detests the misrepresentation of research findings. This means that clients should not distort research finds to suit their own interests or benefits at the researchers’ expense, for instance, damaging the researcher’s reputation. Researchers, on the other hand, owe their clients additional information at the request of the client. The research process entails the discovery of new knowledge gaps that require filling; hence clients constantly require additional information. Researchers are ethically bound to furnish their clients with such additional information although clients should also be willing to pay extra for such requests (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 69). As demand for marketing research increases due to market globalization, new ethical issues emerge and need addressing. Market researchers constantly encounter areas of concern regarding ethical issues. Emerging areas of concern today include among others demonstrating sensitivity to ethical diversity from diverse cultures. The international code of market research provides an international code for the practice of marketing research, which is a logical continuation of strategies and policies. Ethics is applicable in the field of marketing research, as well as other forms of research, such as research for a class project. Research for a class project encompasses a variety of dilemmas, which require the research to think logically in order to ascertain the ethical behavior applicable in that situation. I would apply ethics in the field of research by ensuring that my actions as the researcher conform to the norms of ethical behavior in research. A recent occurrence highlighted the magnitude of ethical dilemmas, which plague research. During my conduct of research for a class project, I encountered the issue of incomplete results and biased research. The class project was a group event where a project group consisted of four to five students. My group sought to research and report the effects of drug abuse on students. We split the research duties into four segments whereby I was required to conduct an extensive literature review while other members gathered primary data through various methods such as questionnaires, surveys and interviews. The ethical dilemma emerged when members of the research group insisted on reporting findings from interviews without omitting the respondents’ names. I dealt with this issue by insisting that such reporting is contrary to the ethics of research since all respondents are entitled to anonymity and confidentiality with regard to the information they disseminate (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 51). The group ultimately understood the ethical implication of their suggestion, and we reported our findings but left out the respondents’ personal information. This incident enhanced my appreciation for ethics in research. In conclusion, marketing researchers are responsible to a variety of stakeholders who include clients, interviewers, outside contractors and respondents involved in marketing research. With regard to the study design, as well as research implementation, researchers must always adhere to ethical standards of conducting research, for instance, ensuring that, among others, respondents and clients’ information remains confidential (Murphy, Gene, Norman and Bowie 71). This paper examined ethical issues related to the conduct of marketing research noting the effects of unethical actions on the relations between stakeholders involved in the research process. In order to realize an effective and efficient marketing research process, researchers must always adhere to established standards for ethical research. Ethical marketing research allows for the realization of sufficient and applicable information, which both sellers and buyers can use in their decision making endeavors. Work Cited Murphy, P. E. Gene, R. Norman, L. and Bowie, E. Ethical Marketing. New York: Prentice Hall, 2004. Print. Read More