Marketing and Society: Starbucks - Essay Example

The article, 'Ethical marketing for Competitive Advantage on the internet' deals with the very debatable question, what is an invasion of privacy Its author Ashok Ranchod has weaved quite interesting facts around this very question. It seems to him that the marketing done online is taking on an aggressive streak with pop-ups, deceiving banners, hyperlinks, etc being the majority of marketing techniques. The article takes a futuristic approach, with the author pointing out the fact that companies need to develop long-term marketing plans, which would retain customers rather than short-term plans.

The short-term plans might sell the product or service initially but in the end, if ethical considerations have not been taken place then the company would end up losing its customer base. Therefore in order to survive in the market, the future plans of a company should be more of long-term nature. The situation that Ashok Ranchod looks upon is that of information acquiring on the Internet. According to his research, many people hesitate from indulging in online purchases due to this factor. Cybercrimes, information thefts are becoming all too common these days.

There have been many ethical boundaries drawn but only 20% of them are being implemented. The steps that can be taken to rectify this ethical concern is that each product is first analyzed on its harmfulness to the customers. The product should be well tested and should be harm-free. Twisting the truth is another factor, with regards to which care should be taken. Then the third most important factor is individual autonomy. This is that companies should not attack customers with pop-ups and deceptive links, instead, the decision should be left on the customer.

Kotler and Levy have written an interesting book, 'Corporate Social Responsibility. Even they believe that through ethical considerations you can enhance company image, lower employee turnover, lower costs and easily attract investors thus giving you a competitive edge.