Business Ethics As It Applies To the Marketing of Products to Consumers within the United States and the Local U.S. State of West Virginia.

Business Ethics as it applies to the marketing of products to consumers within the United States and the local U.S. state of West Virginia

Introduction

Marketing is the process associated with promoting the sale of goods or services. It is an integrated process through which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships. In the return value, from customers is captured. Marketing is used to create customer demand, satisfy customer requirements and retain their loyalty. Customer-focused marketing is based on the four Ps: product, promotion, price and placement. Product communication to the consumer is mainly part of the promotion instrument. (Brenkert, 1997)

Improvements in customer satisfaction or customer loyalty are objectives of marketing instruments even if it is hard to measure the direct impact. Marketing can have a role in leveraging the company's sustainability credentials to build brand equity. In order to do this, it is vital to ensure consistency with the respective corporate sustainability strategy; any claims made must be consumer relevant, science-based and presented in a precise, accurate and unambiguous manner, the basic ethics. (Murphy, Laczniak, Bowie & Klein, 2005). The following paper will discuss and highlight some of the major business ethics in terms of Marketing Ethics, with green products.

Discussion

The subject of ethical marketing and effective communication is very broad and complex. Marketing, in general, may be viewed in terms of the three pillars of sustainability i.e. the economic, social and environmental. There is currently no consensus, based on sound scientific, measurable and transparent criteria, of what is meant by “sustainable” “green”, “ecological”, “environmentally friendly”, “environmentally friendlier” and other products. Given that all products have negative impacts on the environment, we have used the term “environmentally friendlier products”. Within this term, we propose to include all products which go beyond minimum legal requirements from an environmental perspective. It therefore, includes products such as eco-labeled products and other certified schemes or industry-wide schemes and initiatives not subject to third party verification. (Mascarenhas, 1995)

Marketing Instruments

For the marketing of environmentally friendlier products and services, companies use marketing instruments, which are well established for other products. The key challenge is to build trust that such products and services produce measurable advantages for the environment and perform equally well as the product formerly used, in a cost-effective way.

A number of company performance actions may influence the consumer's decision to purchase goods or services. All these actions of the company represent the “marketing mix”. These instruments can be used either by brand owners or retailers for their private label products. Marketing always constitutes an offer to consumers. In the competitive world between different brands, manufacturer brands and retailer own brands and between numerous retailers, consumers decide on the success of different marketing instruments through their daily purchasing decisions. The most important determinants in the consumer's decision to purchase or not to purchase a particular product are the price and performance /quality of ...