Marketers' ethical obligations to consumers over corporate profits

Marketers frequently find themselves facing ethical dilemmas. Sometimes those dilemmas can be loosely framed as being between their duties to the companies or clients they work for and with, but also to their market: the customer. The latter ethical obligation will generally tend to trump the former, although there are always going to be situations where a marketer is under ethical obligation to fulfill a contract to a client or company regardless of his or her personal feelings about their work. Unless the marketing strategy turns out to be an egregious ethical violation -- in which case its validity can be taken up in a number of ways including using legal counsel -- then the marketer can usually find the means to persuade their company to adopt a more ethical approach.

The American Marketing Association (n.d.) further simplifies marketing ethical dilemmas by focusing on core ethical values like honesty, social responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, and overall global citizenship. Some of these values may seem nebulous until they arise in real world settings. For example, being a marketer may not seem to have any relationship to participating in the global community but the AMA (n.d.) does urge its members to adopt a pro-social stance, avoiding doing work for unethical organizations that may harm the environment or who refuse to participate in any corporate social responsibility. A marketer has the free will to work for whomever, but ultimately his or her ethical obligations transcend the company and its profits.

Honesty and social responsibility may be the two most important and distinguishing features of marketing ethics. Marketers are generally well aware of their obligations to honesty: truth in marketing is a common motto. Marketers have an obligation to help their companies develop successful and effective marketing strategies, but those strategies can be successful without resorting to violations of this fundamental tenet. Truth in marketing applies equally as well to aspects of marketing that have nothing to do with advertising: such as pricing strategies. When a marketer is involved with every level of a product\'s marketing cycle and its strategic objectives, the imperative to be honest remains salient. A marketer can offer suggestions for how to market a product more ethically but that is also in line with the objectives of the company. Marketers might also come across situations in which they have to come forward with information, or to collaborate with colleagues on how to best position a product in ways that are honest as well as in accordance with a company\'s values.