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CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR) AND

ETHICS IN MARKETING

 By

 Miss. P. PIRAKATHEESWARI, Lecturer in Commerce,

Sri Sarada College for Women (Autonomous), Salem – 16.

 Introduction

Kotler and Levy, in their book, Corporate Social Responsibility define corporate social responsibility as “a commitment to improve community well-being through discretionary business practices and contributions of corporate resources”.  Some of the benefits of being socially responsible include (a) enhanced company and brand image (b) easier to attract and retain employees (c) increased market share (d) lower operating costs and (e) easier to attract investors. A socially – responsible firm will care about customers, employees, suppliers, the local community, society, and the environment. CSR can be described as an approach by which a company (a) recognizes that its activities have a wide impact on the society and that development in society in turn supports the company to pursue its business successfully and (b) actively manages the economic, social, environmental and human rights. This approach is derived from the principles of sustainable development and good corporate governance. Marketing managers within different firms will see some social issues as more relevant than others. The relevance of a given social issue is determined by the company’s products, promotional efforts, and pricing and distribution policies but also by its philosophy of social responsibility.

• Focus entirely in profits (and profitable firms typically serve society well)
• Explicitly incorporate social responsibility into its day-today marketing decisions to minimize negative effects on society and enhance positive effects
• Go even further and engage in social projects that are unrelated to the corporate mission and even detrimental to profits ( which could net out to be socially undesirable)
• The Success strategies of a Business formed out of abundance and grounded in ethics and cooperation are powerful and long-lasting and they help you feel good about yourself even while bringing in profits ( Shel Horowitz)
• Management must decide which of these three levels of social responsibility to adopt and which social issues are relevant to its business.

Ethical Conflict faced by the Marketers

 Marketers must be aware of ethical standards and acceptable behavior. This awareness means that marketers must recognize the viewpoints of three key players: the company, the industry, and society. Since these three groups almost always have different needs and wants, ethical conflicts are likely to arise. Ethical conflicts in marketing arise in two contexts : First, when there is a difference between the needs of the three aforementioned groups ( the company, the industry, and society) a conflict may arise. Second and ethical conflict may arise when one’s personal values conflict with the organization. In either case, a conflict of interest is a possible outcome.

Ethical dilemmas facing marketing professionals today fall into one of three categories: tobacco and alcohol promoting, consumer privacy, and green marketing. Standards for ethical marketing guide business in efforts to do the right thing. Such standards have four functions: to help identify acceptable practices, foster internal control, avoid confusion, and facilitate a basis for discussion.

Consumerism

Consumerism is concerned with broadening the rights of consumers. The concepts of social responsibility and consumerism go hand-in-hand. If every organization practiced a high level of social responsibility the consumer movement might never have begun. Consumerism is a struggle for power between buyers and sellers; specifically, it is a social movement seeking to increase the rights and powers of buyers in relation to sellers.

Seller’s rights and powers are presented in the following list:  

• To introduce any product in any size and style they wish into the marketplace, so long as it is not hazardous to personal health or safety or if it is hazardous, to introduce it with the proper warnings and controls
• To price the product at any level they wish, provided there is no discrimination among similar classes of buyers
• To spend any amount of money they wish to promote the product, so long as the promotion is not defined as unfair competition
• To formulate any message they wish about the product provided that it is misleading or dishonest in content or execution
• To introduce any buying – incentive schemes they wish

 In contrast, here are buyers’ rights and power: 

• To refuse to buy a product that is offered to them
• To except the product to be safe
• To expect the product to essentially match how the seller represented it
• To receive adequate information about the product

It is in the best interest of marketers to understand the level of consumer standards and the nature of consumer perceptions, as well as what is required to foster realism and accuracy among consumers.

Marketing and the Natural Environment

Another significant area of social concern is the environment. Marketing is ultimately dependent on the use of scarce resources to fulfill human needs, without harming or unnecessarily using scare resources.  Marketing managers should help to determine which products are produced, and which products are indirectly affecting the environment:

• The natural resources and materials used
• The amount of energy required in the production process
• The residuals (e.g., waste water) that result from production
• The consumption of resources and energy that is required to use products ( cars, air conditioners)
• The generation of pollutants (e.g., exhaust fumes) in using products
• The amount of packaging material that may have to be discarded. (packaging comprises less than 14 percent of collectible solid waste, but consumers often estimate its share of that waste at 40 to 80 percent)

Relationship Marketing and Ethics

Nowadays, most ethicists believe that Relationship Marketing is a reasonable practice leading to positive relationships between buyers and sellers. Relationship marketing requires that rules are not necessarily contractual..

Relationship marketing allows buyers and sellers to work together. However, there are disadvantages to this approach- relationship marketing requires time to develop a list of expected conduct or “rules of behavior.” According to a recently published book on this subject, a shift in emphasis in marketing ethics – towards buyers interests and away from seller’s interests – characterizes the new country.

If this is true, new challenges are presented for marketing ethics and professionals in the field of marketing who want to conduct business in an ethical way.

Green Marketing and Ethical Issues

 

The next important area the marketer needs to know about what is the relevance of Social

Marketing in order to protect the environment and to improve the quality of life and are concerned with issues that include conservation of natural resources, reducing environmental pollution, protecting endangered species, and control of land use. The three Rs of environmentalism are Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. Many companies are finding that consumers are willing to pay more for a green product. Toyota has become quite successful with their hybrid cars.

Green marketing refers to the development and distribution of ecologically-safe products.  It refers to products and packages that have one or more of the following characteristics: (1) are less toxic, (2) are more durable, (3) contain reusable materials, or (4) are made of recyclable material. In short, these are products considered “environmentally responsible”.

To sight an example One Canadian Executive stated that “Any marketing executive who does not put a ‘green’ filter on their strategies is looking at losing market share. The whole idea of disposal is going to become unacceptable”. In West Germany and Canada, Procter & Gamble has found high consumer acceptance of pouches of liquid detergents and fabric softeners so consumers can refill rather than discard large plastic bottles.

Cause – Related Marketing and Ethics

Cause-related marketing should not be confused with social marketing. A key difference is that a major purpose of cause-related marketing is to help a business. It might be used to improve the image of the firm or to increase market share. The technique involves associating a business with a cause. Social marketing, on the other hand, is generally not associated with any company and issued solely to help society by dealing with a social problem.  Cause-related marketing has to be done correctly or it can hurt a company. A firm may look like it is exploiting a charity. It is important for the firm to be transparent and honest about what it is doing. There should also be a fit between the company and the cause. A good fit would be, for example, might be a bottled water company and a cause, it deals with providing clean water for poor people in Asia and Africa.

Social Marketing and Ethics

Social Marketing is defined as the use of marketing principles and techniques to influence a target audience to voluntarily accept, reject, modify, or abandon a behaviour for the benefit of individuals, groups or society as a whole. Social marketing is usually done by a non-profit organization, government, or quasi-government agency. The goal is either to steer the public away from products that are harmful to them and / or society (e.g., illegal drugs, tobacco, alcohol, etc.) or to direct them towards behaviors or products that are helpful to them and / or society (e.g., having family meals, praying together, etc.).

Ethnic Marketing and Ethics

Another aspect the marketer has to know about Ethnic Issues while going for global marketing and still take care of Ethics. Culture plays an important role in defining ethical standards because dissimilar cultures socialize their people differently, according to what is acceptable behavior.

The potential significance of ethnic groups for marketing justifies inquiry into the moral judgments, standards, and rules of conduct exercised in marketing decisions and situations arising from decisions whether or not to focus on individual ethnic groups within an economy. Identifying and targeting ethnic groups for marketing purposes are tasks fraught with many ethical difficulties. In a multicultural society consisting of a dominant group and many diverse, minority groups defined by ethnicity, these problems can be expected to increase substantially. Consequently, marketers may include minority ethnic consumers in their mainstream marketing programs. In itself, this has ethical consequences. Alternatively, if marketers seek to target individual minority ethnic groups within the same economy a further set of ethical consequences needs to be considered.

The international environment is recognized as attracting more difficulties for marketers because their “ethics” parameters may not match the notion of “good” in the foreign country where they wish to operate. This is a problem because it may compromise successful international market penetration, that is, a firm’s ability to compete in the international market. To the extent that international operations are part of an overall competitive strategy (either because of a firm’s need to have a presence where its main customers operate, or because the firm must/needs to follow its competitors) this also can influence a firm’s ultimate survival in its domestic market. Ethical concerns are thus clearly important both in the parent country and also in the host country..

One possible approach to ethnic marketing ethics within one country, understood as ethics applied to marketing practice targeting minority ethnic groups, is to apply the same procedures that firms use to deal with ethics problems in the international context.  Ethnic minority consumers, particularly in their first time of settlement in a new country, may be inexperienced in relation to what is available, where, and for how much, as well as being unaware of market dos and don’ts. This justifies their possible reliance on referral or recommendation by others they trust, eventually their minority ethnic group of affiliation, particularly when communication difficulties limit the number and range of accessible secondary sources. Within such a scenario, ethnic minority consumers may be perceived as disadvantaged because they are arguably more vulnerable to be taken advantage of through deceptive practices.

Targeting of minority ethnic consumers with ethically unsound strategies may lead to alienation of the ethnic markets. Careful consideration needs to be exercised before ethnic marketing strategies are developed and implemented.

Ethical Norms and Values for Marketers

Professional associations and accrediting bodies have identified guidelines for ethics in marketing. According to one of those associations, the American Marketing Association, the following rules guide marketing behavior. The American Marketing Association commits itself to promoting the highest standard of professional ethical norms and values for its members. Norms are established standards of conduct that are expected and maintained by society and / or professional organizations. Values represent the collective conception of what people find desirable, important and morally proper. Values serve as the criteria for evaluating the actions of others. Marketing practitioners must recognize that they not only serve their enterprises but also act as stewards of society in creating, facilitating and executing the efficient and effective transactions that are part of the greater economy. In this role Marketers should embrace the highest ethical norms of practicing professionals and the ethical values implied by their responsibility toward stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, investors, channel members, regulators and the host community).

1. Responsibility of the marketer. Marketers must accept responsibility for the consequences of their activities and make every effort to ensure that their decisions, recommendations, and actions function to identify, serve, and satisfy all relevant publics: customers, organizations and society
2. Honesty, Integrity and Quality are far more important than quick profits
3. Rights and duties in the marketing exchange process: – Participants should be able to expect that products and services are safe and fit for intended uses; that communications about offered products and services are not deceptive; that all parties intend to discharge their obligations, financial and otherwise, in good faith; and that appropriate internal methods exist for equitable adjustment and / or redress of grievances concerning purchases
4. Organizational relationships: – Marketers should be aware of how their behavior influences the behavior of others in organizational relationships. They should not demand, encourage, or apply coercion to encourage unethical behavior in their relationships with others.
5. Conduct your business so as to build long term loyalty. When you get a customer, you want to keep that customer and build a sales relationship that can not only last years, but also create a stream of referral business.
6. Marketers must do no harm. This means doing work for which they are appropriately trained or experienced so that they can actively add value to their organizations and customers. It also means adhering to all applicable laws and regulations and embodying high ethical standards in the choices they make.
7. Marketers must foster trust in the marketing system. This means that products are appropriate for their intended and promoted uses. It requires that marketing communications about goods and services are not intentionally deceptive or misleading. It suggests building relationships that provide for the equitable adjustment and / or redress of customer grievances. It implies striving for good faith and fair dealing so as to contribute toward the efficacy of the exchange process.
8. Marketers must embrace, communicate and practice the fundamental ethical values that will improve consumer confidence in the integrity of the marketing exchange system. These basic values are intentionally aspiration and include honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, openness and citizenship.

Education and Ethics

Ethics and values become an important concern in the US in the 80′s. In US there are about 500 courses offered in the field of Ethics by various universities. Hayward Business School earmarked USD 30 Million in 1987 to focus on teaching Business ethics to MBAs. In India AICTE (The All India Council for Technical Education) recommended the inclusion of Business ethics as a course in MBA curriculum in 1995. The aim of teaching Ethics or Ethics in marketing particular is to provide the budding marketing managers / managers to

a)      Share knowledge, build skills and develop minds of the young entrepreneurial managers of tomorrow

b)      To provide and clarify and insights into concepts of business so that young managers avoid business misconduct, when they really go and conduct the business.

c)      To create High level of integrity moral and social awareness so that they can decide when faced with business dilemma.

IIM Lucknow has started a course that seeks to provide students with an understanding of changing relationship between business and environmental management. The budding managers should be imparted with the knowledge of social responsibility and ethics. IIM-C is already having a Management centre for Human Values, and they are publishing a journal on Human values. They are also offering a course on Ethics and Values in Business.

Role of Social Responsibility in Indian companies

In a global CSR study undertaken in 7 countries (viz. India, South Korea, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, The Philippines and Indonesia) by the U.K. based International Centre for CSR in 2003, India has been ranked second in the list. This ideally shows the value that is important to customers in India. Bharat Petroleum and Maruthi Udyog have been ranked as the best companies in the country. The next comes in the list are Tata Motors and Hero Honda. Canara Bank, Indal, Gujarat Ambuja and Wipro are involved in community development work of building roads, running schools and hospitals. ACC has been rendering social service for over Five decades. They are setting up schools, health centers, agro-based industries and improving the quality of rural life. BHEL is actively involved in the Welfare of the surrounding communities is helping the organization to earn good will of the local people BHEL is also providing drinking water facilities, construction of roads and culverts, provision of health facilities, educational facilities, and so on companies like ONGCs are encouraging sports by placing good players on their pay rolls. TISCO, TELCO and HINDALCO won the award for excelling in CSR, jointly given by FICCI and Business world for the 2003.

ONGC has also committed resources by adopting a few villages to implement President Dr. Abdul Kalam’s idea of PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas). NTPC has established a trust to work for the cause of the physically challenged people. Similarly in the private sectors like Infosys, Wipro and Reliance are believed to be most socially responsible corporations.

In 1999 Kofi Annan of the United Nations invited corporate leaders for a Global Compact to promote nine principles covering three areas: human rights, labor rights, and sustainable development. Today, India can be legitimately proud to have had the second largest number of companies from any country subscribing to the Global Compact. Several public sector companies have joined together to form the Global Compact Society of India.

Conclusion

Several forces are driving companies to practice a higher level of corporate social responsibility: rising customer expectations, changing employee expectations, government legislation and pressure, the inclusion of social criteria by investors, and changing business procurement practices. Companies need to evaluate whether they are truly practicing ethical and socially responsible marketing. Business success and continually satisfying the customer and other stakeholders are closely tied to adoption and implementation of high standards of business and marketing conduct. The most admired companies in the world abide by a code of serving people’s interests, not only their own. The following are the suggestions that the society must use the law to define, as clearly as possible, those practices that are illegal, anti-social, or anticompetitive. Next, companies must adopt and disseminate a written code of ethics, build a company tradition of ethical behavior, and hold its people fully responsible for observing ethical and legal guidelines. And, individual marketers must practice a “social conscience” in their specific dealings with customers and various stakeholders.

When working with a dealership or a lender there are something’s that both side of the equation are looking to accomplish. For the buyers they are looking to purchase the best vehicle that fits their needs and something that is affordable to help them rebuild or reestablish their credit. The dealerships that offer bad credit car finance options are looking to satisfy the customers. Doing this would consist of them selling the buyer a vehicle that they can make payments on and not worry able defaulting on the auto loan. This in turn will make more room on the lot for more vehicles that are newer models.

There are a lot of dealerships that have the ability to offer nationwide auto finance. This really comes in handy because there are customers that are looking to buy a vehicle in just about every city and state that you can think of. Working with the options of rebuilding and reestablishing bad credit car buyers are putting themselves in a great position to get back to a better credit standing.

If you are wondering where you can start off your search for some of the best dealerships located in your city or state then you should be checking out badcreditautogiant.com. Here you will have access to some of the largest bad credit auto giant dealers a round, so it is really up to you what the next steps will be. Now would be the best time for you the buyer to decide exactly what your needs are when it comes to the vehicle, the budget when it comes to what you can afford for the max monthly payment along with the prices of the vehicle.

Credit plays a major part also it would be a great idea to get a copy of your credit report from the three credit bureaus. This will give you a better understanding of where you are credit wise. It will also give you a chance to take care of small items that may be delinquent or past due. This will show the lenders and dealers that you work with you are very serious not only about getting a vehicle but keeping it also.

Remember that bad credit auto giants are in your local area being city or state so it is up to you to do the necessary research or just simply check out badcreditautogiant.com to start the process today.

Getting the right kind of gas grills is something that a lot of people very interested in. This is quite understandable given the fact that there is a great deal of utility of gas grills among folks who love grilling food. Grilled food is a great hit around the world, and if cooked properly, it can be not only tasty but healthy too. There is no wonder then, that in corporate and individual circles, gas grills are in great demand. Earlier, people used to go out and buy grilled food, but now people would like to host their own barbecues, which is why proper gas grill ratings are in vogue and great demand too.

The utility of gas grill ratings arises from the fact that these are able to provide users and prospective gas grill buyers an idea of the specific attributes and the quality of the gas grill that they are buying, or planning to purchase. These ratings are essentially done by experts and also rating agencies that are qualified to provide such ratings. After all, novices and laypeople are not qualified to evaluate, review and rate gas grills, as they just do not have the requisite competence in terms of knowledge and skills for the same. This is why you will find that most of the most authentic gas grill ratings are found in reputed magazines and publications, both online and offline, where the quality of ratings is backed up by the credentials and qualifications of the raters.

When it comes to gas grill ratings, these have to be on certain valid and relevant parameters. For one, the rating has to look at the kind of heating that is provided. The next aspect that comes into play is the energy efficiency. In these times of global warming, this is of great importance. Another factor that needs to be rated on is that of quality of make and durability. When you have so many kinds of gas grills available ion the market, these aspects are something that should be evaluated and checked upon. One of the key factors that need to be looked at is the price. Getting the best value for money is the objective, which is what you should be on the lookout for. As a consumer who cares about quality, you would be quite interested in the kind of ratings that various competing products have on these different aspects.

You will be able to get gas grill ratings on various websites and also online portals that are dedicated to stacking up products against each other and letting you know how each product fares. You would do well to look at the authenticity of these ratings so that you get the best deal possible. There are so many people who masquerade as experts online, which are why you have to be extra careful when deciding on the ratings that you want to refer to. When you want to have the real deal in gas grill ratings, do look at the credentials and also the pedigree of the rating agency. If possible, you should also evaluate their rating methodology before you believe the ratings.

January 2011 dawned with Angry Birds PC (for Windows PCs), a version for Apple OSX, plus versions for several Sony consoles. In the pipeline and due for beta testing in April is the Facebook version of Angry Birds.

The success of play angry birds online games may be down to a few things. Perhaps the most important is that the game is just enormous fun to play. Because the game was developed for play on a phone, that meant it had to be simple. Anything too complex will not work on a tiny phone screen. But not every game that is simple is necessarily fun to play. Here Rovio scored by getting the concept right. 

The idea of a game in which flocks of birds are fired by slingshot at pigs, aiming to slaughter as many of the beasts as possible, sounds absurd. But that absurdity is a major part of the appeal of the game. The concept is silly but memorable. And now the strength of that basic concept is about to take Angry Birds to an even higher level.

In the gaming world you know you’ve got a hit when even people who don’t play games have heard of your game. Once that happens there is the potential to make the game, or rather its characters, into a wider brand. 

While Rovio is keeping interest in Angry Birds high, by the upcoming Facebook launch, and also by producing sequels and variations on the original game, the Finnish company has set its sights as well on turning Angry Birds into an animated movie and/or TV series. Just recently it was confirmed that there will definitely be a movie, although no details of the plan have emerged yet.

Although a state of the art animated movie will take time to produce, Rovio is wasting no time in pushing the Angry Birds game online on its website. Fans of the game can now buy from a range of high quality.

Angry Birds merchandise, including soft toys of the various bird and pig characters, as well as official phone cases for the iPhone 4. If you find Angry Birds irritating, you had better get prepared to be a whole lot more irritated, because it looks as if it will become increasingly hard to escape from these Angry Birds (and pigs) in the next few years.

Creative writers are basically artists: sometimes they can create, other times they just cannot and have to wait for inspiration to come. If you intend to start out a career as a creative writer in the near future, engaging in a creative writing course would be a very good idea. There are a lot of them nowadays, so you will have many from which to choose one.

Courses for creative writers are an alternative to studying English literature, and they will do a lot more for you if you want to get started as a writer. They will provide you with all the knowledge you need as long as you have the desire to be trained and the skills required to eventually become a good writer. These courses will teach you how to write short stories, novels, and poetry, and will allow you to express yourself and let out your emotions through well-chosen words. The emotional release should be done while carrying the readers along with their own emotions so they can relate on a personal basis.

Moreover, virtually any creative writing course is under the art category in most institutions. This is how you will find that there are other related art classes available to be taken in specialized areas such as screen play writing, poems, and longer fiction. While some people are born with the innate skill of putting the pen to paper without having any form of coaching to teach them how to write, almost everyone can learn how to produce better work with a class.

Even the most experienced writer has to admit that there are still many things to learn about their craft, so you can take these classes even if you think that you were born with creative skills. You will learn many things that will improve your skills and have practical application, such as compiling or organizing your finished work. These classes will teach you the art of writing creatively.

One place to find a good class is to attend a community college class that specializes in creative writing. Your writing ambitions will be benefited from gaining a lot more knowledge and experience. You will find that having an experienced person to read and critique your work can often take you to the next level.

Once you finish taking a creative writing course and you get a certification, there are lots of options for you. You can either find a writing job for local publications, or you can start building an online career as a writer. There are plenty of requests for this kind of writer on freelance websites where you can earn a living doing what you like.