When it comes to activities in the business world, marketing is often seen as one that has a lot of shady connotations that you need to do everything that you can to dispel. There is a growing body of thought that is all about ethical marketing and the ways in which you are able to put your company out into the world without being duplicitous or underhand in any way. So, here are a few of the core principles of ethical marketing that you can look to run your company by.
Remain Transparent and Open
The first principle involves remaining as transparent and open as you can with your customers and clients. This means not making promises about your products and services that stretch the truth. It also means doing everything that you can in terms of clearly displaying your privacy policy and making it very clear if you are planning on storing customer data and marketing directly to them. Of course, there is a lot going on in terms of legal obligations to data protection, but if you can go above and beyond on this front, it really shows that you take all of the principles seriously.
Do Not Make Unverified Claims and False Comparisons
This point is closely linked to the first one, but it is all about the things that you should not do – and this certainly means avoiding making any claims that cannot be backed up with real, hard evidence. You should also be wary of making false comparisons – particularly when it comes to your own products and the ones that your competitors are putting out there. Of course, there are certain advertising industry standards that you need to uphold, but you should be doing this as a point of principle. To help on this particular front, you could turn to an agency that specializes in ethical marketing such as Eleven Marketing & Communications.
Avoid Exploiting the Emotions of People
There has been more and more research done in terms of marketing and the ways in which it can play on people’s emotions, so you certainly need to avoid saying anything that can trigger this type of response in people. It automatically clouds their judgement and makes it much more difficult for them to make the type of informed decisions that are necessary when it comes to deciding to buy a particular product or use a certain service.
Think About the Environmental Impact
Marketing is one of the activities that can have the biggest impact on the environment and the world around us, which means that you need to be particularly careful in terms of what you are pumping out there. For example, just think about all of the leaflets and flyers that are often printed out. Could you instead switch to an entirely digital strategy rather than this one?
These are a few of the core principles of ethical marketing that are certainly worth embracing at your company.
