Misleading Marketing | EssayIvy.com

Running head: MISLEADING MARKETING

Ethical Dilemma: Misleading Marketing

Name

University Title

MISLEADING MARKETING

Ethical Dilemma: Misleading Marketing

Good advertising transfers the message of the benefits of the service or product to

prospective buyers and convinces them to purchase. Nevertheless, with increased

competition, companies are opting for unethical and misleading marketing drives to attract

more clients. Sales teams are tasked with the responsibility of crafting brand messages that

often tantalize the senses and ensnare the mind. With little or absolutely no time to verify the

messages seen on advertisements, the public becomes prone to trust these ads since they

believe that the messengers are more informed about the services and products that are on

sale. Promising what one cannot deliver may boost sales in the short-term, but in the long

run, results in discontented clients, which lead to the risk of bad reputation and publicity and

potential legal action. Corporations that operate in countries that have lenient corporate laws

are likely to get away with such practices despite being highly unethical. This paper will

analyze the precarious situation in which James, a newly recruited Manager for Sales and

Marketing in a local firm found himself in with regard to misleading marketing requests from

his superiors.

James is the typical ‘go-getter’ type of individual. His success in recent years in

marketing had prompted organizations from downtown New York to seek his services in

earnest. James had served in the U.S. Marine Corp and had become a respected scout sniper,

having served in Fallujah and Mosul in his first and second deployment at the height of the

Iraq War. As such, he was committed to service and was guided by the principles of hard

work, resilience, honesty, and integrity. These fundamentals shaped his character for the six

years that he served in the U.S. Marines and played a pivotal role in the successes he realized

in marketing for the relatively short period he worked in the private sector. Within three

years, he had become the most sought-after marketer in New York. Being the soldier he was

MISLEADING MARKETING

born to be, he enjoyed challenges and his new role as the Manager in the Sales and Marketing

Department in his latest assignment was surely going to provide one such challenge.

Part of James’ assignment involved crafting advertisements that would appear on

television and popular magazines. By the time he was taking over his new role, there were

some ads that were pending authorization from the Head of Sales and Marketing, which

happened to be the office he was leading. He requested for more time to go through them and

evaluate given his experience. One of the ads involved the company’s second most traded

product, a certain yogurt brand, which the company had proposed to market as

“scientifically” and “clinically” proven to assist in regulating digestion and improving the

immune system of the consumer. Upon querying further the supporting documents, there

were no scientific studies to support this marketing gimmick.

In marketing, there is a huge disparity between making false claims and pushing the

truth. In many cases, marketers make up contextual stories based on intuition to push sales of

their products. Kahneman, Lovallo, and Sibony (2011 p. 52) note that this overdependence on

intuition can lead someone astray owing to cognitive biases. The use of terms such as

“guaranteed results” and “scientifically proven” are some of the common cognitive biases

that occur among marketers that often attract heavy penalties and lead to a damaged

reputation. A cognitive bias is a systematic deviation from rationality or the established norm

in judgment and often results in illogical and inaccurate judgments, as well as perceptual

distortion. Zollo, Pellegrini, and Ciappei (2017 p. 691-692), nevertheless propose a model

based on Synderesis (innate Synderesis), which they argue may influence moral reasoning

directly, inclining towards goodness. Zollo et al. (2017 p. 681) defines Synderesis as an

inherent human faculty that continuously inclines decision-makers towards universal moral

principles. Synderesis is thus intuitively inclined towards moral and correct judgment. The

MISLEADING MARKETING

proposal to market the product as “scientifically proven” without any scientific research to

support such claims is immoral and unethical.

James finds himself in a tight spot given that he is a new entrant. Being a new

appointee, he did not want to appear being a difficult colleague, but at the same time, what

was being proposed was against his ideals. As part of our discussion, I would point out why

he should be guided by ethical practice and I would support his hesitation, given that he did

the right thing. My advice to James, therefore, is to ask for more time and approach the issue

delicately, informing the top management of his reservations and reasons for having second

thoughts about such an ad. It would be best to gather material evidence to prove why such a

move would prove more costly for the company both in the short-term and in the long-term.

Signing on such an ad would prove suicidal on his part, and that of the company he currently

works for. It would also be best to seek alternative wording for the ad in the meantime,

seeking alternative ways as proposed by Ruwan Weerasekera in the case study outlined by

Sucher and Preble (2017 p. 143).

MISLEADING MARKETING

References

Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D., & Sibony, O. (2011). How Great Leaders Unleash Innovation.

Havard Business Review, 49-60.

Sucher, S., & Preble, M. (2017). Follow Dubious Orders or Speak Up?: An Intern

Contemplates Whether She Should Compromise Her Values for a Job. Havard

Business Review, 139-144.

Zollo, L., Pellegrini, M. M., & Ciappei, C. (2017). What sparks ethical decision making? The

interplay between moral intuition and moral reasoning: lessons from the scholastic

doctrine. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(4), 681-700.

Place new order. It's free, fast and safe

Paper type

Deadline

Page count

550 words

Total price: $ 15.00

Our customers say

Jeff Curtis

USA, Student

"I'm fully satisfied with the essay I've just received. When I read it, I felt like it was exactly what I wanted to say, but couldn’t find the necessary words. Thank you!"

Ian McGregor

UK, Student

"I don’t know what I would do without your assistance! With your help, I met my deadline just in time and the work was very professional. I will be back in several days with another assignment!"

Shannon Williams

Canada, Student

"It was the perfect experience! I enjoyed working with my writer, he delivered my work on time and followed all the guidelines about the referencing and contents."