Marketing Ethics and Responsibility: Addressing Ethical Issues Report

This report delves into the ethical challenges within marketing, specifically addressing deceptive native advertisements and improper brand placement. It explores these issues within the context of the digital media market, drawing upon literature reviews of CSR activities, marketing ethics, and relevant academic journals. The report examines how companies like Google, Microsoft, and Netflix have navigated these ethical landscapes through CSR initiatives and responsible marketing practices. By analyzing stakeholder analysis and consumer segmentation, the report provides recommendations for marketing managers to adopt strategies and tactics to profitably improve the ethical performance of their brands. The analysis incorporates market data, consumer insights, and the application of marketing theories to offer research-informed strategies for mitigating ethical concerns and enhancing brand image.

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MARKETING AND RESPONSIBILITY
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Executive Summary
The purpose of this report is to analyze the various ethical issues which are related to
native advertisements, and attempt to find out recommendations, based on information on
what other brands are doing to combat these ethical issues, what the market and consumer
data are, and some application of marketing concepts and theories. The issues discussed are
insufficiently deceptive native ads and stakeholders dissatisfaction. The report summarizes
that brand image through various forms of social marketing and placing properly relevant
native ads based on market research are integral for the avoidance of the mentioned issues.

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................4
Discussion..................................................................................................................................4
Introduction to the ethical issues............................................................................................4
Literature review of CSR activities........................................................................................5
Ulke, A.K. and Schons, L.M., 2016. CSR as a selling of indulgences: an experimental
investigation of customers’ perceptions of CSR activities depending on corporate
reputation. Corporate reputation review, 19(3), pp.263-280.................................................5
Forbes.com. (2019). The World's Most Reputable Companies For Corporate
Responsibility 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickyvalet/2018/10/11/the-worlds-most-reputable-
companies-for-corporate-responsibility-2018/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2019]...............................5
Lawless, J., 2018. Microsoft and the Future of AI.................................................................6
Literature review of marketing ethics....................................................................................6
Egan, B.D., 2017. Can the sanctity of journalism be maintained in an era of native
advertising? Case study of Netflix. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 4(4),
pp.339-351.............................................................................................................................6
Findings..................................................................................................................................6
Applicable theories.................................................................................................................7
Market and consumer data.....................................................................................................7
Recommendations......................................................................................................................8
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................9

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Introduction
Ethical issues in marketing are vast and the need to abide by the ethics of marketing
and advertising is a necessity for organizations to ensure that they operate responsibly in the
market (Bhattacharya 2016). Ethics is important to follow for marketers because it can
improve brand image and result in profitability of the brand (Iglesias et al. 2019). The ethical
issues which will be discussed in this report will be based on the ethical issues which have
been found in assessment 1, and the report will be attempting at identifying ways in which
these issues could be avoided by marketers in a profitable manner. For that purpose, the
report will be taking various academic resources and marketing journals to review literature
based on CSR, social purpose marketing, social marketing and marketing ethics in order to
identify the various practices which marketers have adopted in an attempt to avoid those
issues. Recommendations will also be based on consumer and market data to provide a more
relevant and effective recommendation policy for the avoidance of the issues. Focus will also
be on relevant marketing theories and models, for the purpose of analysing the ways in which
the issues could be resolved. The discussion in the report hence, would be including
annotated bibliography for the purpose of literature review, and also focus on the consumer
and market data in current market dynamics, along with relevant marketing models and
theories. The report will be taking the software industry as its focus.
Discussion
Introduction to the ethical issues
The ethical issues which have been identified in assessment 1 involve improper
deceptive ads and improper brand placement in native advertising. Deceptive advertisements
can make a reader or viewer of the advertisement misinterpret the idea or information which
is being communicated by publications and organizations alike, and can lead them to making
wrong decisions, or simply make them misinformed (Piccolo, Tedeschi and Ursino 2017).
This is an ethical issue which has been prevalent in the ad industry for over decades, and
since consumers are the biggest stakeholders for a brand, misinforming or misleading them is
a serious ethical issue that exploits the money that they pay. Improper brand placement is also
an issue which can violate marketing ethics. Improper brand placement in a publication
through native ads can make the reader of the editorial confused regarding the relevance of
the brand with the article. This violates the interests of the stakeholders since this is an

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uncalled brand placement in a place where it does not belong (Barbieri, Silvestri and Lalmas
2016).
The market identified in assessment 1 is the digital media market.
Literature review of CSR activities
Ulke, A.K. and Schons, L.M., 2016. CSR as a selling of indulgences: an experimental
investigation of customers’ perceptions of CSR activities depending on corporate
reputation. Corporate reputation review, 19(3), pp.263-280.
This article by Ulk and Stohl considers the link between CSR activities and public
perception of a brand. The article takes Amazon’s CSR activity as a reference to the topic,
and suggests that the company has been experimenting with a diverse set of CSR activities
over the years. Amazon’s CSR activities include education, women empowerment, feeding
the needy, and financially supporting charitable organizations. The authors point out that
despite having a vast range of CSR activities, the company never boasts or markets its
activities. Word of mouth does a better job for the company in this case. The perception
which Amazon creates here is that of an authentic socially responsible brand. It keeps the line
required between social responsibility, and marketing. This indicates that the brand does its
activities in a credible manner and not just for the sake of brand image. This speaks of the
ethics of the brand and in turn increases its brand image and reputation (Ulke and Schons
2016).
Forbes.com. (2019). The World's Most Reputable Companies For Corporate
Responsibility 2018. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickyvalet/2018/10/11/the-worlds-most-reputable-
companies-for-corporate-responsibility-2018/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2019].
In this report published by Forbes, the author states that Google is one of the most
well reputed companies in the word in terms of CSR. The company has a variety of CSR
activities which range from China’s youth competition of social change, to funding the top
charitable organizations in the world for social change. Referring to this, the author states that
the company has managed to cement its brand image and positioning through its CSR
activities. The company positions itself as a leading innovative IT company. They preach of
development. However, technological development is not enough to bring about overall
development in the world. This is where the vast range of CSR activities of Google fills the

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gap between global development and technological development. This assures that the CSR
activities of the company are totally in conformity with the philosophy of the company,
making it one of the most credible companies in the world (Forbes.com 2019).
Lawless, J., 2018. Microsoft and the Future of AI.
This article by Joe Lawless focuses solely on the CSR activity strategies of Microsoft
and analyses how the company effectively communicates their messages to the target
audience which in turn increases their brand value and image. The research finds that the
company focuses on reaching out to the socially impacted areas and attempts at educating the
youth of those places. This fits the company perfectly since they launch softwares which need
education to operate. Therefore it is also important for them to promote the education which
is required in the global community, so that they are known in the world as a company which
promotes the development of the requirement which they promote through their business
(Lawless 2018).
Literature review of marketing ethics
Egan, B.D., 2017. Can the sanctity of journalism be maintained in an era of native
advertising? Case study of Netflix. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 4(4),
pp.339-351.
In this journal of social media marketing, the author lists Netflix as a practitioner of
ethical native marketing. Netflix has always maintained a line between the content of a
publication and its brand name alongside it. They also do not sponsor content which have no
relevance to the philosophy of the brand. This makes Netflix a trusted and appreciated native
marketer in the global community. The company has always believed in satisfying its
stakeholders by sponsoring appropriate content, which does not look misleading (Egan 2017).
Findings
From the above annotated bibliography, what can be concluded is the fact that the
brands which have been mentioned, have taken a step forward to reduce the impact of any
bad reputation which they might come across in the market. Through marketing initiatives
like CSR and social marketing, brands like Google, Microsoft and Amazon have created a
positive brand image for themselves, which completely eliminates the chances of the public
ever catching their deceptive adverts. Hence, it can be said that the trend in the brands is to

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create a positive brand image in advance, so that future ethical issues can be compromised by
the public, and misleading advertisements can never be something which these companies
can be accused of, due to their contributions to the society. Netflix on the other hand has
always been devoted towards appropriate marketing. They have never tried at advertising
their brand on a platform that does not match their brand philosophy. This indicates that they
have always satisfied their stakeholders by placing their brands properly in appropriate
content.
Applicable theories
The first concept of marketing which could be applied to the issues is the stakeholders
analysis. Stakeholders analysis takes a serious of events, which starts from gathering
information about the interests of the stakeholders and then grouping them for the purpose of
future reference, to determine how to formulate a message to suit the interests of each of
those stakeholders, and also which message should be targeted to which stakeholder in
particular. This helps the company or brand to formulate marketing strategies and messages
which would coincide with the interests of the stakeholders that are concerned with the
marketing strategy of the brand (Ferretti 2016). Firstly, this can be helpful for brands in
formulating a proper message by the brands, which would not offend the interests of the
stakeholders. It is important to note that a company has various internal stakeholders who are
more or less equally important to impress by the marketing strategies of the brand, since if
that does not happen, the entire marketing strategy goes in vain. It is important that brands do
the stakeholders mapping as well to analyse which group of stakeholders are of the highest
priority in terms of serving their interests with a marketing strategy (García-Nieto 2015 ).
Another theory which could be applied is consumer segmentation. This is for the
purpose of effective deceptive advertising. This concept involves proper segmentation of the
consumer base of a specific market in order to formulate the message accordingly. The idea is
to gather information regarding the demographic, psychographic and also the behavioural
aspects of the consumer base and segment them into groups, to properly identify who actually
the target audience is and how to effectively send the messages to them which would prove to
be effective and would also be appealing to them. This can be linked to the practice of
deceptive advertising. Brands must gather the information required regarding their target
audience and segment them into demographic, psychographic and behavioural characteristics.
This is to gain the insights into the consumer base. Research suggests that elements like
humour in an advertising can completely make the audiences overlook the product or the

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brand, and simply pay attention to the message itself (Öztayşi 2017). This is critical for
effectively putting forward a deceptive ad in native advertising. The content should be such
that relevance of the product or the brand advertised is completely overlooked and not judged
by the audience, creating no room for ethical concerns.
Market and consumer data
As per the market data, native ads consume a total of 58% of all the forms of digital
marketing present on the internet. This is a lot since there are a lot advertisers put up more
than a million ads on the digital platform every month across the world. Of these ads, native
ads are clearly more than five hundred thousand. This indicates the level of competition that
exists between native advertisers to be put up on the internet. This means that a majority of
the editorials that readers get to view are sponsored by some advertiser.
As per the consumer data, research shows that of 97 people who were interviewed on
whether they believe in what they are shown in advertisements, 78 people claimed that they
either sometimes do, or never do at all (Marketing-schools.org 2019). This represents the
high level of skeptism that exists in the consumer base of any given organization.
Recommendations
From the literature review, the marketing concepts and the market and consumer data
which have been discussed in the report so far, the recommendations can be made
accordingly.
Firstly, brands should involve in CSR activities and make their campaigns known to
the world. This is how many companies have made a social impact in the minds of the public,
thereby enhancing their brand image as well. The main idea which has been conveyed
through the annotated bibliography of the report, suggests that brand image plays a crucial
role in making people believe in the brand and their advertisements and reduces the chances
of possible crises due to any accidental ethical issues which it might face in the future of its
operations. This also involves social purpose marketing, and social marketing. The report
also discusses how Netflix keeps its stakeholders in mind before an advertising campaign.
This ethics should be adopted by other brands as well since the interests of the stakeholders
can make them satisfied with the marketing tactics of a brand, and failing to do so would
mean that the brand has committed an ethical mistake by formulating a strategy that does not
comply with the interests of the stakeholders themselves.

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Doing a stakeholders analysis can be a very effective way of doing so. Firstly, a
stakeholders map should be created by the brand, and the priority of the stakeholders should
be analysed on who to impress with a particular marketing strategy. This will help the brand
in effectively mapping out the interests which their marketing strategy would need to
coincide with. This would reduce all the chances of ethical concerns. A consumer
segmentation of the target audience can also help in choosing a message or a content that
would be so much appealing to them that the relevance of the sponsorship of the native ads
will be completely overlooked in terms of deceptive advertising.
Further market and consumer data suggest that brands should be placing native ads on
the basis if the relevance of the article or editorial. This is because not only would it suffice
the ethical concerns, but would also make the sponsorship competitively relevant in a market
of countless native ads. Consumer data suggests that the public hardly ever believes an ad
completely. The skeptism in the market is the reason why brands should be very much aware
of the content which they are sponsoring. An improper and inappropriate sponsorship would
only create a feeling in the viewers that the publication is influenced and unauthentic.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the practice of native advertising
can be ethically wrong at times, especially due to the increasing number of native ads which
are taking place every day. Ethical concerns include insufficiently deceptive advertising and
non-compliance with stakeholders interests. Many organizations like Netflix and Microsoft
have always aimed at making a good brand image through various forms of CSR marketing
as a preventive measure, so that they can gain the trust of the public in a market full of ethical
concerns and skeptism. Consumer segmentation and stakeholders analysis should be done by
brands before placing a native ad, as per the recommendations in the report. Market and
consumer data suggests the importance of proper and appropriate sponsorship, since
competition in the market and skeptism among consumers are ridiculously high. It is
important to note that these strategies which have been recommended are for the brand image
of the companies, which implies that consideration of profitability have been done prior to
the formulation of the recommendations.

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References
Barbieri, N., Silvestri, F. and Lalmas, M., 2016, April. Improving post-click user engagement
on native ads via survival analysis. In Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on
World Wide Web (pp. 761-770). International World Wide Web Conferences Steering
Committee.
Bhattacharya, C.B., 2016. Responsible marketing: Doing well by doing good. GfK Marketing
Intelligence Review, 8(1), pp.8-17.
Ferretti, V., 2016. From stakeholders analysis to cognitive mapping and Multi-Attribute
Value Theory: An integrated approach for policy support. European Journal of Operational
Research, 253(2), pp.524-541.
García-Nieto, A.P., Quintas-Soriano, C., García-Llorente, M., Palomo, I., Montes, C. and
Martín-López, B., 2015. Collaborative mapping of ecosystem services: The role of
stakeholders׳ profiles. Ecosystem Services, 13, pp.141-152.
Iglesias, O., Markovic, S., Singh, J.J. and Sierra, V., 2019. Do customer perceptions of
corporate services brand ethicality improve brand equity? Considering the roles of brand
heritage, brand image, and recognition benefits. Journal of Business Ethics, 154(2), pp.441-
459.
Kamerer, D., 2017. Native advertising: A close look at an emerging advertising unit. Journal
of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 5(3), pp.303-316.
Lawless, J., 2018. Microsoft and the Future of AI.

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Marketing-schools.org. (2019). Ethical Marketing | What is Ethical Marketing?. [online]
Available at: http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/ethical-marketing.html
[Accessed 4 Mar. 2019].
Öztayşi, B., Gokdere, U., Simsek, E.N. and Oner, C.S., 2017. A novel approach to
segmentation using customer locations data and intelligent techniques. In Handbook of
Research on Intelligent Techniques and Modeling Applications in Marketing Analytics (pp.
21-39). IGI Global.
Piccolo, S., Tedeschi, P. and Ursino, G., 2017. Deceptive advertising with rational buyers.
Management Science, 64(3), pp.1291-1310.
Donghua University Press.
Egan, B.D., 2017. Can the sanctity of journalism be maintained in an era of native
advertising? Case study of Netflix. Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 4(4),
pp.339-351.
Forbes.com. (2019). The World's Most Reputable Companies For Corporate Responsibility
2018. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/vickyvalet/2018/10/11/the-worlds-
most-reputable-companies-for-corporate-responsibility-2018/ [Accessed 8 Mar. 2019].
Ulke, A.K. and Schons, L.M., 2016. CSR as a selling of indulgences: an experimental
investigation of customers’ perceptions of CSR activities depending on corporate reputation.
Corporate reputation review, 19(3), pp.263-280.