Advertisements are meant to be as attractive as possible to encourage the consumers to purchase the goods and services over competitors’ goods. In the spirit of competition, some business advertisement is deceiving and give fluid definitions and quotations that are not real and hence are ethically wrong. Statement of Ethics listed in the American Marketing Association (AMA) advocates for Honesty in Marketing. Consider branding foods ‘all natural’. Several lawsuits have been filled against several brands of commodities labeled as ‘all natural’ yet they contains unnatural ingredients. According to Wall Street Journal by Ashby Jones, September, 2011, “is your Dinner ‘All Natural’?” analyses this situation. The contentious aspect becomes the definition of the word “Natural” as used. In the absence of clear definitions, the business men use their definition to determine the label they use. This makes the customers vulnerable. However, the expected outcome by the customer should be used. The flexible definitions should not supersede the ethical obligations of the advertisers.
Although Shabbir H and Thwaitee D, 2007 pg. 75-85 opines that, before purchase of any commodity, one has to conduct thorough research to know what they are purchasing or investing. This does not give the advertisers a justification to dishonestly lure customers in adverts. It will be a very difficult thing to do if one has to research on all commodities in the market.
Kortler (2012) analyses the social responsibilities a marketing communication must adhere to. These include open and honest communication with the consumers and resellers, avoidance of deceptive or false marketing, avoid bait and switch advertisement, follow rules of fair competition, and conform to federal, state, and local regulations, among others. All these social responsibilities in marketing communication are broken if the advertiser uses the fluid definition of ‘natural’.
The fluid definition of the word ‘natural’ violates ethical issues of marketing. It gives manufactures an open hand in labeling of their products leading to deception and dishonesty. Such labeling also allows unfair competition to the manufacturers of the real natural foods/products. It is however, the duty of the client to analyze the contents of the goods before purchasing them. To protect consumers and end users from such deceptions, the laws need to define clearly the definition of ‘Natural” in the contest of manufactured goods. This shall also reduce the number of litigations filed against manufacturers.
Work cited
Kortler. Chapter 4: Communicating Customer Value: Integrated Marketing Communications Strategy; Pearson Education, Inc. Prentice Hall, 2012.
Shabbir, H., & Thwaites, D. THE USE OF HUMOR TO MASK DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING. Journal Of Advertising, 36(2), 75-85. 2007.
Ashby Jones. Is Your Dinner ‘All Natural’? Wall Street Journal, September 20, 2011. Retrieved from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903374004576580671156407598.html on 18, March 2014.
American Marketing Association. Statement of Ethics. Retrieved from https://archive.ama.org/Archive/AboutAMA/Pages/Statement%20of%20Ethics.aspx on 18 March, 2014.
