Sustainable Marketing : Social Responsibility and Ethics

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

Learning Objectives

• Define sustainable marketing and discuss its importance.

• Identify the major social criticisms of marketing.

• Define consumerism and environmentalism and explain how they affect marketing strategies.

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Learning Objectives

• Describe the principles of sustainable marketing.

• Explain the role of ethics in marketing.

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First Stop: Sustainability at Unilever

• Goal - Accomplishing a broader social and environmental mission to improve stagnant sales and profits

• Sustainable Living Plan• Spans the entire value chain• Fuels innovation, resulting in new products and

new consumer benefits

• Five Levers for Change - Inspires people to adopt specific sustainable behaviors

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Figure 16.1 - Sustainable Marketing

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Social Criticisms of Marketing

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Marketing’s Impact on Individual Consumers

• High prices• Deceptive practices• High-pressure selling • Shoddy, harmful, or unsafe products• Planned and perceived obsolescence • Poor service to disadvantaged consumers

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Marketing’s Impact on Society as a Whole

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Marketing’s Impact on Other Businesses

• Acquisitions of competitors

• Marketing practices that create barriers to entry

• Unfair competitive marketing practices

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Traditional Rights

Seller’s rights Buyer’s rights• To introduce any product in any

size and style with proper warnings and controls, if necessary

• To buy a product that is offered for sale

• To charge any price for the product without any discrimination

• To expect the product to be safe

• To spend any amount to promote the product if competing fairly

• To expect the product to perform as claimed

• To use any product message that is not misleading or dishonest

• To use buying incentive programs that are not unfair or misleading

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Proposed Consumer Rights

• To be well informed • To be protected against questionable

products and marketing practices• To influence products and marketing practices

to improve quality of life• To consume in a way to preserve the world

for future generations of consumers

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Environmentalism

• Protects and improves people’s current and future living environment

• Concerned with:• Damage to the ecosystem• Loss of recreational areas• Increase in health problems

• Environmental sustainability: Generating profits while helping protect the environment

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Figure 16.2 - The EnvironmentalSustainability Portfolio

Source: Stuart L. Hart, “Innovation, Creative Destruction, and Sustainability,” Research Technology Management, September–October 2005, pp. 21–27.

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Major Marketing Decision Areas That May Be Called into Question under the Law

Decision areas Legal issuesSelling decisions • Bribing

• Stealing trade secrets• Disparaging customers• Misrepresenting• Disclosure of customer rights• Unfair discrimination

Advertising decisions • False advertising• Deceptive advertising• Bait-and-switch advertising• Promotional allowances and services

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Decision areas Legal issuesChannel decisions • Exclusive dealing

• Exclusive territorial distributorship• Tying agreements• Dealer’s rights

Competitive relations decisions • Anticompetitive acquisition• Barriers to entry• Predatory competition

Product decisions • Product additions and deletions• Patent protection• Product quality and safety• Product warranty

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Decision areas Legal issuesPackaging decisions • Fair packaging and labeling

• Excessive cost• Scarce resources• Pollution

Price decisions • Price fixing• Predatory pricing• Price discrimination• Minimum pricing• Price increases• Deceptive pricing

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Sustainable Marketing Principles

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Sustainable Marketing Principles

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Figure 16.4 - Societal Classification of Products

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Marketing Ethics

• Corporate marketing ethics policies should be developed by firms as guidelines for handling various issues and dilemmas.• Distributor relations• Advertising standards• Customer service• Pricing• Product development• General ethical standards

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Marketing Ethics

• Principles are needed to guide companies and marketing managers on issues of ethics and social responsibility.• The free market and the legal system should

decide such issues.• Responsibility is in the hands of individual

companies and managers.

• Addressing ethics helps build strong customer relationships based on honesty and trust.

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Ethical Codes Suggested by American Marketing Association

• Do no harm• Foster trust in the marketing system• Embrace ethical values

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The Sustainable Company

• Sustainable companies create value for customers through socially, environmentally, and ethically responsible actions.

• Sustainable marketing provides the context in which companies can build profitable customer relationships.


Learning Objectives

• Define sustainable marketing and discuss its importance.

• Identify the major social criticisms of marketing.

• Define consumerism and environmentalism and explain how they affect marketing strategies.

16 - 24


Learning Objectives

• Describe the principles of sustainable marketing.

• Explain the role of ethics in marketing.

16 - 25

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,

mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.Copyright © 2015 Pearson Education, Inc.

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