A Comprehensive Analysis of Law and Ethics in Marketing Practices

This essay examines the critical role of law and ethics in marketing, highlighting the differences between legal and ethical issues and their respective importance in business practices. It uses examples of Johnson & Johnson and Coca-Cola to illustrate the consequences of breaching legal and ethical standards in marketing. The essay emphasizes that following both legal and ethical guidelines is essential for reducing risks, ensuring customer loyalty, developing credibility, and gaining long-term benefits for organizations. The discussion covers the importance of legal compliance to avoid claims and allegations and the significance of ethical marketing to maintain customer trust and foster long-term relationships. The report concludes that a breach of either legal or ethical standards can lead to significant issues for a company, underscoring the need for businesses to prioritize both in their marketing strategies.

Why do law and ethics in
marketing?
Student’s Name
Date:- 17-02-2019

Introduction
 Every organisation have certain business activities
and the same is require to follow the good
practices in the same.
 Here good practices refers to the ethical and legal
activities.

Difference between legal and ethical issues in
marketing.
 Marketing is one of the significant activity of
business and similar to other activities, an
organization should follow the proper ethics in the
same.
 In addition to being ethical, the marketing
operations of a company are also required to be
legal. Now the issue is to check the difference
between legal and ethical issues.
 In order to answer this query, this is to state that
legally says which marketing activity is lawful and
which one is unlawful. Whereas on a different
side, ethics say what should be and what should
not be.

Cont.
 The difference between legal and ethical issues in
marketing can be understood by an example.
 For instance- some marketing tactics can be
perfectly legal but the same will be considered as
unethical as they take advantage of the uneducated
population (Ingram, 2019).
 Working without a license, using children in the
advertisement of adult products, not meeting with
the compliances of applicable legislation are legal
issues.
 Showing discriminatory contain, making the
product available only for prime customers,
contacting people without consent lead ethical
issues (DeMers, 2017).

Legal Mistake in Marketing by Johnson &
Johnson
 Drug companies are mainly involved in illegal
marketing activities. One such example is of
Johnson & Johnson, which is a Pharmaceutical
company having the headquarter in united states.
 This company marketed one of its drugs named
Risperdal for unapproved uses. It was an illegal
marketing action taken by the company.
 The company also inappropriately promoted two
other drugs named Invega, an antipsychotic drug
and heart-failure drug Natrecor.

Ethical Mistake in Marketing by Coca Cola
 Another case taken as an example is of Coca-cola,
which is a soft drink producer.
 The company was engaged in the deceptive and
unethical, marketing practices. The company has
been sued because of misleading and false
marketing of sugar-sweetened beverages.
 According to the lawsuit made on the company,
the products were generating many health issues
including diabetes and obesity.

Importance to follow law in marketing
 Irrespective of the nature, shape, and
size of the organization it is important
for everyone to follow legal activities in
marketing.
 The main reason is that it is beneficial
for the organizations to consider the law
in marketing as it reduces the risk of
claims and allegations.
 When there would be fewer allegations,
organizations will have to pay low or
else no fine which will bring financial
positivity.

Importance to follow Ethics in marketing
 In addition to law, another factor named
ethics is also there, which is important
in marketing.
 For every entity, it is important to follow
the ethical measures while selecting
marketing and promotional strategy.
 Marketing ethics are impotent to ensure
customer loyalty, to develop the
credibility and to gain the long term
benefits.

Conclusion
 In a conclusive way, this is to state that both of the
factors such as legal and ethical are important in
marketing.
 Breach of any of them can bring many issues for
an organization.
 In the presented report, the discussion was focused
on the difference between these two factors and
their importance. In conjunction with this, by
taking the examples of two companies, the
consequences of such breach have also been
reviewed.

References
 Bagley, C., E. (2015). Managers and the
Legal Environment: Strategies for the
21st Century. USA: Cengage Learning.
 DeMers, J. (2017). 5 Common Unethical
Marketing Practices: Are You Guilty.
Retrieved From:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondem
ers/2017/05/17/5-common-unethical-
marketing-practices-are-you-guilty/
#6aeeafd82f27

Cont.
 Ferrell, O., C. & Hartline, M. (2013).
Marketing Strategy, Text and Cases.
USA: Cengage Learning.
 Ingram, D. (2019). Examples of Legal
But Unethical Situations in Business.
Retrieved From:
https://yourbusiness.azcentral.com/exa
mples-legal-but-unethical-situations-
business-21719.html