Rasmussen University: Ethical Values, Violations in Marketing

This report examines ethical violations in marketing, providing examples from companies like Volkswagen, Activia, and Red Bull, and analyzes their consequences. It discusses the American Marketing Association's Ethical Values and how these were violated. The report suggests ways to avoid ethical issues, including a strong code of conduct and management involvement, and provides a list of do's and don'ts for ethical marketing practices. It concludes that ethical behavior is crucial for sustainable business growth and protecting consumer interests. Desklib offers additional resources like past papers and solved assignments for further study.

Running Head: MARKETING 1
Marketing
(Student Name)
.

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Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Examples of ethical violation in marketing and their impact.......................................................................3
American Marketing Association Ethical Values violation.........................................................................3
Way to avoid Ethical issues.........................................................................................................................4
List of the top five do’s and don’ts..............................................................................................................4
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................4
References...................................................................................................................................................6

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Introduction
Ethics refers to the code of conduct or any system that is majorly based on the regulations as well
as moral duties that indicate the manner the individual should behave. The unethical behaviour in the
corporate work is business scandal or any political that are arises with the disclosure of misdeed by
trusted executives of large companies (Wright,Hassan & Park, 2016).
In the following part there will be detailed analyse of ethical issues and the way to resolve such
issues in effective manner.
Examples of ethical violation in marketing and their impact
There are certain companies that have adapted unethical means in their advertisement as they are
explained n below points:
 Volkswagen has falsely advertised environmentally friendly diesel cars. The lawsuit has been
field against the leading company in manufacturing industry. It was claimed that the company has
deceived consumers with the advertisement campaign. It was exposed that the company had been
cheating the emission tests on their diesel cars for more than past five years. They have paid $ 61
billion for violating the Clean Air Act.
 Activia yoghurt has claimed that their new product has special bacterial ingredients. It was
marked as being clinically as well as scientifically proven to boost the immunity system. One of
the individual has filed against that company and they were ordered by the court to remove
clinically and scientifically proven from their labels. The fine of $45 million was imposed on the
company and loses trust among their consumers.

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 One of the energy drink company, Red Bull was also sued fir their slogan “Red Bull gives you
wings”. The company settled the class action case by agreeing to pay out a maximum of $13
million to every consumer in US who has bought the drink since 2002 (Smit & Bierman, 2017)
American Marketing Association Ethical Values violation
The American Marketing Association Ethical that is violated by the companies is explained in below
points:
 Honesty: it is one of the duties of the companies to be honest towards their consumers as well as
towards other stakeholders. They should strive to be truthful in every situation and at all time but
VW, Activia and Red Bull
 Responsibility: it is the responsibility of the companies to deliver quality products to their
consumers and also take care of the environmental stewardship in their decision –making. VW
has ignored their responsibilities and adopted ethical means for achieving success in the market.
Their diesel emission scandal case affected the environment at greater level (Chao, Li & Chen,
2016).
Way to avoid Ethical issues
There are certain ways through which the unethical behaviour can be avoided as they are explained in
below points:
 There should be written code of conduct in the company that should be forced to follow by the
management of the company to avoid unethical mean in their organization.
 The involvement of management can be increased to avoid ethical issues in the organization

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 The company should reinforce the consequences for unethical behaviour that forces the individual
to adopt ethical means in the business.
List of the top five do’s and don’ts
DO’s
 The company should maintain transparency
 Companies should provide relevant and liable information about product.
 They should have open-door policy and consider all the comments and complaints from staff
 Make sure that they are delivering quality product to their consumers
 Should protect environment and society from hazardous activities
Don’ts
 Do not post any false or deceptive n any medium
 Do not promises or even suggest any great results
 Do not put under pressure on the staff. They can adopt unethical means to protect themselves.
 Do not present a half-hearted design with misleading the data
 Do not represent fictions data in their marketing (Dangelico & Vocalelli, 2017)
Conclusion
From the above it can be concluded that ethical behaviour play a prominent role in the growth of
business many companies has adopted unethical mean for their success that affected overall society at
greater level. Therefore, they should be more conscious and should follow their responsibilities to protect
the interest of consumers.

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References
Wright, B. E., Hassan, S., & Park, J. (2016). Does a public service ethic encourage ethical behaviour? Public service
motivation, ethical leadership and the willingness to report ethical problems. Public Administration, 94(3),
647-663.
Smit, A. M., & Bierman, E. J. (2017). An evaluation of the reporting on ethics and integrity of selected listed motor
vehicle companies. African Journal of Business Ethics, 11(1).
Chao, M. C. H., Li, F., & Chen, H. (2016). Perceived ethicality of moral choice: The impact of ethics codes, moral
development, and relativism. Nankai Business Review International, 7(2), 258-279.
Dangelico, R. M., & Vocalelli, D. (2017). “Green Marketing”: an analysis of definitions, strategy steps, and tools
through a systematic review of the literature. Journal of Cleaner production, 165, 1263-1279.