Ethics
How can managers promote ethics in the deployment of an Internet-based marketing campaign?
To engage in an ethical promotion campaign based upon Internet marketing, managers must first set a good example by embodying good ethics themselves. In short, managers should not make every worker's performance on campaign a kind of 'win or lose' competition, or a test of overall employee competency that is dependant upon the success of the campaign. When motivating the various persons on the work team, managers themselves must act in an ethical manner, and stress high ethical standards. Healthy levels of competition on a work team can be valuable, but too much of an emphasis upon competition can make employees feel as if they are encouraged to play fast and loose with the company's ethical standards.
Instead, managers should make sure that consumers who are approached in respectful and intelligent ways are be more likely to buy the product. Market segmentation can improve the efficacy of the campaign in terms of which consumers are reached, as can a healthy dose of creativity. Creativity and good research is key -- not strategies that solicit information from the consumers in unfair ways or make promises about the products that are not valid. These unethical methods are not good business practices, as consumers will soon see through these transparent efforts and easily move their dollars elsewhere with a simple point and click.
Managers must also make sure, before the campaign begins, that employees are in fact aware of what constitutes ethical behavior on an Internet-based campaign, as this may not always be as obvious as the mangers might like to believe. Having a brief 'ethics storming' session early on, in which employees discuss various real and pretend scenarios that stimulate discussion about how to run a campaign in a way that is effective and ethical is a good way to set a high ethical standard early on in the campaign, so problems will not occur later on.
