To get a better idea of ethical marketing I skimmed through its Wikipedia page and found three main problems with marketing (from the viewpoint of those holding an anti-marketing stance in the ‘blogosphere and popular literature’). These are that marketing damages ‘personal autonomy’, causes ‘harm to competitors’, and manipulates ‘social values’. So I wonder how is it that a company can accomplish ethical marketing? Looking at Starbucks (which has been listed by Forbes as one of the worlds most
ethical companies 6 times) I try to see if their marketing avoids the three main problems. In class we discussed how we don’t often see commercials, or posters advertising Starbucks but instead we see the actual shops in locations convenient to students, workers and other busy areas. So does this influence a person’s autonomy? Perhaps without the stores in this location fewer people would even be considering buying coffee. An article ‘Starbucks: the marketing of ethics’ from Trading Visions website explains how the certification of fair trade coffee has become Starbucks greatest marketing tool. Companies such as Starbucks encourage the increase of ‘socially conscious
consumerism’, which can be seen as manipulating social values. The article also states that though the green logoed company offers fair trade products their main priority is rapid growth, and the company manages this priority by harming its competitors through ‘targeting successful independent stores, buying out competitors’ leases, operating at a loss, and saturating local markets’. Seeing as one of Starbucks main ways of marketing themselves are their shops they are harming their competitors when the buy out their leases and saturate local markets. This shows that though a company like Starbucks is praised for its ethical practices it is unsuccessful in achieving ethical marketing in the view of many in the blogosphere and popular literature.
Sources:
1)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_ethics
2)http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/03/15/the-worlds-most-ethical-companies/2/
3)http://www.tradingvisions.org/content/starbucks-marketing-ethics
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