Deceptive Marketing Unethical Practices in Marketing: Deceptive Marketing

Business ethics requires that business organizations should act in a manner that is morally and ethically upright. One of the areas where ethical behavior is crucial is marketing. Marketing is one of the major functions within an organization. It is basically concerned with communicating and reaching out to customers in an attempt to promote products, services, and/or brands. Nonetheless, unethical behavior in marketing is not a rare phenomenon. There are often instances of misleading or deceptive advertising, exaggerated claims, using fear tactics, spamming, exploitation, and other practices that fit the unethical tag. If not addressed, these practices can in the long run affect an organization's reputation. Deceptive marketing is one of the common forms of unethical behavior within the marketing realm. This paper discusses this practice. Following a definition of deceptive marketing, the paper pays attention to regulations for deceptive marketing and real-world cases of deceptive marketing. Finally, the paper considers the implications of deceptive marketing on organizations and what organizations can do to avoid deceptive marketing.

Also known as false advertising, deceptive marketing involves making false, unverified, or exaggerated claims about a certain product or service with the intention of influencing potential consumers to buy the product or service (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). For instance, claiming that a product is safe while it is actually not safe is deceptive marketing. Equally, claiming a product reduces weight in two weeks (even without dieting or exercising) while it does not is tantamount to deceptive marketing. Other forms of deceptive marketing include photo retouching, omitting important information, hidden fees and surcharges, tampering with measurement units, and oversized packaging (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). These examples represent deceptive marketing as consumers are deceived or misled into buying a product or service that may or does not offer the claimed benefits or attributes. Essentially, a representation is deceptive or misleading if it could sway a consumer to purchase or consume the product or service advertised.

There is a thin line between persuasive marketing and deceptive marketing. This is because the two seek to achieve the same goal. Persuasion is the heart of marketing. Any marketer puts out a marketing message with the aim of convincing consumers to buy or believe in a product. Some marketers may, however, employ unacceptable ways to persuade consumers -- deception. The main difference between persuasive marketing and deceptive marketing is the underlying intension. In persuasive marketing,...

In deceptive marketing, however, the intention of the marketer is to mislead or misrepresent, not to inform or induce the consumer to believe (Ferrell & Hartline, 2014). Additionally, persuasive marketing often benefits both the marketer and the consumer, while deceptive marketing only benefits the marketer, making it unethical.
False advertising is unlawful in most countries around the world. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to ensure marketers communicate truthful, accurate, and verifiable claims to consumers in their marketing messages, and if possible support their claims with scientific evidence (DeMers, 2017). From television and radio ads to print media, online, and outdoor ads, the commission examines claims that have the potential to affect consumer health. The claims may be related to food products, tobacco, alcohol, dietary supplements, over-the-counter drugs, high-tech products, as well as the internet (FTC, n.d.).

FTC derives its authority from various legislations such as the Federal Trade Commission Act and the Lanham Act. The primary aim of FTC is prevention as opposed to punishment. In other words, the commission treats instances of deceptive advertising from a civil law perspective rather than a criminal law perspective. Accordingly, in the event of deceptive marketing, the commission typically orders the marketer in question to cease its illegal behavior or to disclose more information to avoid the possibility of deception. Though the commission may mandate an advertise to correct its advertising there are usually no jail sentences save for when a marketer declines to obey orders requiring it to stop deceptive marketing practices.

Even so, instances of marketers making exaggerated claims in an attempt to make their products more convincing or more attractive are still common. The prevalence of these instances makes the line between ethical and unethical marketing quite blurred. The ethical line according to DeMers (2017) is when a marketer's claims begin to be unverifiable. For instance, long before regulations for the marketing of tobacco products were introduced, cigarettes were promoted as "healthy." This is not true as…