Ethical Marketing Analysis: Coca-Cola's Strategies and Issues

This report delves into the ethical dimensions of marketing, using Coca-Cola as a focal point. It explores critical issues such as consumer privacy, racial discrimination, and forced participation in marketing activities, analyzing their impact on both society and the organization. The report investigates the application of various marketing tools and ethical theories, examining how Coca-Cola has navigated these challenges and the consequences of its actions. It highlights ethical principles like clear communication, transparency, and data protection, alongside the importance of complying with regulations. The analysis includes discussions of lawsuits, manipulation of consumer decisions, and the need for Coca-Cola to rebuild its image by prioritizing ethical practices. The report concludes with recommendations for managing ethical issues and enhancing overall business performance in the global marketplace, emphasizing the importance of ethical marketing for long-term success and customer loyalty.

MARKETING SOCIETY
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Ethical issues in the field of marketing and its impacts on society and organization.................3
Critical application of tools and theories.....................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
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INTRODUCTION
Marketing refers to the process or method through which enterprises and organizations
promote themselves and their products by various communications with establishing potential
consumers (Kasemsant, Setthawong and Setthawong, 2019). Business will be spending a huge
amount of money for purpose of marketing and improve their sales. On the other hand, A society
may consider based on the market economy, especially one in which economic as well as
political life will be dominated by innovative idea of individual people.
This report will discuss about the Coca-cola, which analysing the overall structure,
content of report and identifying the ethical issues or problem in field of marketing. Furthermore,
it will discuss about the identification of issue with use of secondary sources, evaluation and
their significant impact on the society. This report will consider the social value of marketing and
ethical problem faced by managers. It will be produced the different information and consider
innovative idea from large number of sources. This documentation will describe about the
different tools, theory that will support for critically evaluation by using different sources.
However, it will recommendations the various strategies that help for managing or controlling
overall business performance or efficiency in global marketplace.
MAIN BODY
Ethical issues in the field of marketing and its impacts on society and organization
In regards to marketing it can be said that it is one of the main functional unit that is
responsible for promoting products and interacting with customers. It helps company in
accomplishing their goals, attracting customers and increasing sales. Coca-cola is well known
company that is famous and it is identified that one of the main key of its success is marketing. It
invests in marketing and advertising ad through advertising in TV and others it attracted global
customers, increased sales and improved image in the market. But there are several reasons for
which it comes under some issues and it faced some lawsuit (Chonko and Hunt, 2018).
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Ethics play a vital role in performing all functions and while performing all functions of
marketing like communicating with customers and others, there is requirement for marketer to
consider some ethics and knowing the difference between the right and the wrong. There are
several ethical issues in marketing that can affect company’s overall performance and
productivity.
Privacy: Marketer collects information of customers like their age, gender, their needs
and others things. But authenticity and keeping information safe and secure is one of the main
aim and responsibility. There are several people who are less likely to share their information
due to fear of privacy and breach of information. It is one of the main ethical issues in marketing
that can create barriers in success. It s found that Coca-cola. It is stated that Coca-cola is the
market leader in environmental ethical issues and due to this, it committed to people with health
and others issues by reducing negative environmental issues (Magalhães and et.al., 2017). So, it
is important for this company to keep consumers information safe and makes them sure that they
will not share it with anyone else.
Racial discrimination: It is found that Coco-cola faced a lawsuit against discrimination
to some employees and customers on the basis of race. In this regards, hundreds of African
American employees sued coca-cola. It happened because for the same work, this company
discriminated African Americans only because of different race and they put them at the bottom
of the pay scale. It affects its image and also created barriers in the path of success and
performing marketing functions. One of the main rules of marketing functions and interacting
with customers is providing them ethical and true information. But due to this and only targeting
local people because of lack of diversity, it created several problems for Coca-cola. When
customers are being targeted randomly then it makes them feel valued but Coca-cola mainly
focused on high income group of local people. It de-motivated other people of other countries.
So, it can be said that it is main ethical issue in marketing (The Coca-Cola Company Struggles
with Ethical Issues, 2018).
Forced participation: For gathering information of customers, marketers require
conducting survey or questionnaire and for that they require participants. IT is found that Coca-
cola targeted people non-randomly and they set some criteria of targeting people like their
experience, age, income group and other. It was other main ethical issue because it leads to
discrimination and makes other people feel de-valued and de-motivated. For performing
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functions and targeting people in an ethical manner it is important of focusing on random
targeting or targeting group of people randomly. Other main ethical issue that has been identified
is forced participation or forcing target people for taking an active participation in survey and
providing effective answers in favour of company. It is also main ethical issue in marketing and
allowing target people to omit questions and providing information as per their wish is ethics in
marketing (Zhao and et.al., 2019).
Manipulation customers’ decision: It is already stated that company can stay in the
market for the long run and can stay its customers only when it provides them authentic and real
information. Sometimes for attracting customers, companies provide false information and
promise them to deliver values that they cannot deliver actually. It can help companies out in
attracting customers but they cannot make them able to stay with the company. After knowing
the truth and all real information about the company, customers are more likely to leave
company and do not stay loyal towards them. So, in this regards it can be said that it is important
for marketer of Coca-cola company to share real and true information of the company along with
all charges that employees put on them in the year of 1999 and others. It increases trust of
customers but it is found that Coco-cola did not tell truth to customers about this unethical issue.
It created several issues or problems for this company as it affects its image in the eyes of
stakeholders and shareholders were less likely to invest money in this company. Providing all
real information like using ingredients in coca-cola, quantity of sugar, side effects of this product
and others that may affect some people if they have soft drinks. So, it is found that marketer of
coca-cola does not give all these information to customers due to fear of losing customers base.
It is called manipulation decision of customers and one of the other main ethical issue of
marketing (Mothersbaugh, Hawkin and Kleiser, 2019).
So, from the above discussed ethical issues it can be said that there is requirement for Coca-
cola to regain its image as it were having initially. Because improved image can only help this
company in attracting customers, making them influenced for buying products, providing them
value and increasing sales as well. By focusing on reducing all these issues, it can also take
competitive advantages and can become the market leader because customers prefer to buy
products from companies that focus on corporate sustainability and provide valuable products to
customers. It motivates customers and increases trust and they help company in increasing sales
and promoting products by word of mouth.
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Critical application of tools and theories
In this modern world the competition is very high and for this the most essential thing for
the company is the marketing of the company. But the competition within the business
environment is very high and for this the companies can use any sort of things and strategies. It
might be possible that company may make the use of practices which are not even ethical and
morally correct (Pittz, Steiner and Pennington, 2019). Thus, for this the major thing which Coca
Cola need to have into consideration is the ethical marketing practices and theories. Hence, for
this the major focus of the company Coca Cola is over the use of ethical marketing practices and
for this the company need to have to comply with many of the different types of strategies which
are correct and ethical in practice and does not harm the intention of any person or any other
group of people. For this there are different ethical models and strategies and different theories
and principles which are being used by the company in order to manage the ethical marketing.
The ethical marketing is defined as the strategy which involves less of the marketing
strategy and more of the philosophy containing efforts of company in protection of the
environment and along with it promotes the goods and services of the company as well. Ethics
are the principles which state that what is correct or incorrect at the moral level. There are many
different types of strategies which the company can use and apply within the business. But it is
not possible that every strategy of the company is correct and it might be possible that there may
be some of the ethical dilemma for the company that whether the strategy being opted by the
company is correct at moral level or not. Thus, for this Coca Cola makes the use of the different
types of strategies which might affect the working of the company. These principles which Coca
Cola uses to manage the ethical issues are as follows-
The first and foremost ethical principle which Coca Cola makes and implement in their
daily strategies is the clear and common communication. The major reason for this is that when
the company clearly communicates all the strategies and the messages with the other parties then
this will have a great impact over the working of the company (Lužar, Greenland and Low,
2020). The major reason underlying this fact is that every employee within the company has
proper knowledge as what they have to do an in which manner. Thus, this involves the ethical
working of proper and clear communication with all stakeholders of Coca Cola.
In addition to this another major ethical principle of marketing used by Coca Cola is the
becoming clear and transparent with the consumers (Lee and Jin, 2019). This is majorly because
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of the reason that when the company will make use of the ethical marketing then they will have
to share each and every information relating to the product and service with the consumer. Thus,
this will create an ethical relation with the company of the consumer as the consumer will have
more trust over the company and this will grab the attention of the consumer to a great extent.
Along with this another major type of ethical principle relating to marketing and of
working in the company is that they must keep all the information of the consumer safe and
private. This is majorly because of the reason that when the company will not keep the
information safe and secure then this will affect the goodwill and market position of the
company to a great extent.
Furthermore, in order to manage the ethical working the most important thing for the
company Coca Cola is that they must not forget to comply with all the rules and regulations and
legislation of working and ethical working as well. The major reason underlying this fact is that
when the company will make use of all the rules and regulation then this will create a good
impression over the consumers. The major reason for this is that when the company will not be
complying with the rules then this will create a wrong image of the company over the
consumers.
With all the above principles it is clear that the for company to be successful in the
modern era it is very important for them to make use of ethical working. Thus, for this it is clear
that the use of ethical working and marketing the company can secure a good and safer position
in the highly competitive market. As per the views of Purwanto and et.al., (2019) the use of
ethical marketing practices will assist the company in securing a good competitive position in the
market. This is particularly because of the reason for facing the competition in good manner the
most important thing for the company is to work in ethical manner so that it creates a better
impression over the consumer and in the highly competitive market.
On the other side Van Quaquebeke and et.al., (2019) argues that the ethical marketing is a
concept which involves a lot of different types of cost and this increases the overall cost of the
company. the major reason for this is that when the company uses the ethical practices then there
are many different areas in which company need to work and this involves application of higher
cost. As a result of this the overall cost of the company increasing and this is being charged by
the consumer only. Furthermore, in addition to this another major reason for the lowering down
of ethical marketing is that this also increases the time take for marketing of the product and
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services of the company. The major reason for this is that when the company will apply the
ethical practice then they have to research a lot for the ethical practices and this increases the
time of researching and as a result of this the overall marketing takes a lot of time.
CONCLUSION
From above discussion, it has concluded that marketing become consider an important
approach that can support for promoting the goods and services in global marketplace. Different
society has been established a strong interaction with people by using various marketing
channels. In this report, it is mainly focused on the Coca-cola that can use different marketing
approaches but identified issue or problem. That’s why, it is needed to the handle complex
business operations and functions. In this report, it can be defined the social value of marketing
and ethical problem faced by managers. Afterwards, it has been gathered or collect suitable
information and consider innovative idea from large number of sources
In this documentation, it has been analysed the overall structure, content of report and
identifying the ethical issues or problem in field of marketing. Furthermore, it can be identified
the identification of issue with use of secondary sources. Moreover, it has been evaluated their
significant impact on the society. Moreover, it can be considered the different tools, theory that
supports for critically evaluation by using different sources. However, it has been
recommendations the various strategies that help for managing or controlling overall business
performance or efficiency in global marketplace.
Recommendations
There are several ways in which managers can work on to dealing with these issues and in order
to ensure safety of the privacy of consumers and different information of business also it is
important that managers in Coca-Cola consider privacy as top priority. For this it is important to
take measures for safeguarding data, this involves effective technology development that no one
can access data of consumers as well as business that is not authorized for that. In addition to this
managers in Coca-Cola should also ensure that in within organisation only authorised person can
access important business as well as consumer data (Nicolaides, 2017). This is because
generalized access to such information can affect privacy and security of data negatively. In
order to do this should ensure responsibility of individual and should provide them authorised
access and should ensure that system can only provide information and data when person has
been authenticated by system.
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In order to deal with racial discrimination it is important that managers within Coca Cola give
diversity training to employees that they understand importance of different employees within
organisation. This will help them in understanding that it knowledge and competency of
individual with an organisation is more important than the race. It is also important that
managers within Coca-Cola create a collaborative and integrative organisational culture that
everyone is equally valued and respected. In addition to this managers with Coca Cola can also
implement disciplinary action when anyone is found to have done any sort of discrimination with
other employees. Effective practices for integrative and collaborative organizational culture are
very important to deal with any kind of discrimination within organization.
As identified in this discussion another ethical issue is post participation of consumer in research
and forgetting different kind of information through survey and questionnaires. This is also an
ethical issue because it is not right that Coca Cola forcefully gather information and collect data
from consumers. In order to deal with this issue and become more ethical in organisational
practices it is important that managers developed proper policies and ask for permission to
consumers from whom data is being collected (Astrachan and et.al., 2020). It is also important
that individuals and employees are given training when undertaking Research and collecting data
through different methods like survey that they do not force any consumer or individual to
participate in survey. This is also important that while collecting any data which is of sensitive
nature consumers are given prior information and permission if taken from them before
collecting information.
Another issue identified and discussed was manipulating consumers decision. In present
marketing environment organisations undertake several practices to influence customers and
many of the times they also try to manipulate their opinion which is completely unethical. In
order to avoid this situation and become more ethical managers in Coca Cola should develop
practices four fair marketing and promotional practices. They should ensure that employees are
given adequate as well as accurate information about the product and Organisation do not
manipulate their purchasing decisions with false or inaccurate decisions.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chonko, L.B. and Hunt, S.D., 2018. Reflections on ethical issues in marketing management: An
empirical examination. Journal of Global Scholars of Marketing Science, 28(1), pp.86-
95.
Zhao, Z. and et.al., 2019. Effect of product type and time pressure on consumers’ online impulse
buying intention. Journal of Contemporary Marketing Science.
Mothersbaugh, D.L., Hawkin, D.I. and Kleiser, S.B., 2019. Consumer behavior: Building
marketing strategy. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Kasemsant, J.P., Setthawong, P. and Setthawong, R., 2019. Insights from the Comparative Study
of the Thailand Marketing Research Society (TMRS) Standardized Social Economic
Status between.
Nicolaides, A., 2017. Ethical Practices, Eco-centric Business and Environmental
Sustainability. Journal of Human Ecology. 57(1-2). pp.1-10.
Astrachan, J.H and et.al., 2020. Values, Spirituality and Religion: Family Business and the Roots
of Sustainable Ethical Behavior. Journal of Business Ethics. pp.1-9.
Purwanto, R.M., and et.al., 2019. Study the importance of business ethics and ethical marketing
in digital era. Journal of Critical Reviews, 6(5), pp.150-154.
Van Quaquebeke, N., and et.al., 2019. Perceived ethical leadership affects customer purchasing
intentions beyond ethical marketing in advertising due to moral identity self-congruence
concerns. Journal of business ethics, 156(2), pp.357-376.
Pittz, T.G., Steiner, S.D. and Pennington, J.R., 2019. An Ethical Marketing Approach to Wicked
Problems: Macromarketing for the Common Good. Journal of Business Ethics, pp.1-10.
Lužar, K., Greenland, S. and Low, D., 2020. Ethical Marketing of Harmful Products: Sugar,
Alcohol and Tobacco. The SAGE Handbook of Marketing Ethics, p.339.
Lee, J.Y. and Jin, C.H., 2019. The Role of Ethical Marketing Issues in Consumer-Brand
Relationship. Sustainability, 11(23), p.6536.
Magalhães, M.J. and et.al., 2017, January. A Review on privacy issues in hotels: A contribution
to the definition of information security policies and marketing strategies. In International
Conference on Global Security, Safety, and Sustainability (pp. 205-217). Springer, Cham.
Online
The Coca-Cola Company Struggles with Ethical Issues. 2018. [Online]. Available through <
https://dev.harbert.auburn.edu/binaries/documents/center-for-ethical-organizational-
cultures/cases/coca-cola.pdf>
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