Introduction
It can be said that the application of ethics at the business level is as direct and influential to customers as much as the application at the corporate level. The main reason for this is the customer orientation of ethics in the business level strategies and the impact that it creates. The desires, needs and behavior patterns of varied markets are crucial to this segment of organization, keeping in mind the ethics and thus are directly responsible for planning and implementing various levels of competitive strategy plans (Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility, 2016).
There are also four aspects of an organization, which are recognized as the pillars of organizational ethics and ethical compliance. These four pillars namely stakeholders, channels, content and results may be taken as antecedents and also consequences. The interaction of these forces results in a holistic approach to the integrated marketing competitive advantage processes keeping into mind the ethical considerations.
Discussion
A high range of literature is available regarding the use, importance, potentials and challenges of ethics into the setting of competitive advantages by a business. Many articles have been taken from the sea of literature so that each of these dimensions can be studied at varied levels and the relationship between ethics and competitive advantage can be identified (Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility. 2016).
There are some papers, which discuss a number of ethical concepts that are crucial in modern day marketing and competitive advantage setting. The articles discuss how the role of ethics has changed along with the change in externalities of the market and thus competition gets tough. The evolution of ethics from the conventional marketing era to modern era has been presented so as to derive the perception that integration of ethics has existed since a long time; it is the dynamism in the market that has led to dynamism in the concepts of ethics and its integration into organizational competitive advantage. The mixture and traditional, non-traditional and modern ethics have been introduced so as to meet the changes in the market. In the same reflect, there are seven dimensions that have been identified as the dimensions of ethics that should be considered by Companies while setting their competitive advantage as per the situation in the market.
Communication, branding, relationship management, integration, cross-functional planning, market orientation and synergy comprise the total ethics and competitive advantage dimensions. The inter-relationship of these dimensions with ethics has also been well explained with implications to the marketer (Practicing good ethics gives competitive advantage - Denver Business Journal, 2016).
The premise on which ethical considerations for setting competitive advantage is based is that there are multiple objectives of a brand communication and there are also multiple channels and ways through which these objectives can be achieved. Ethics, which is a form of competitive advantages of many marketers, is optimized in the competitive advantage possibilities to utilize the intrinsic relation of marketers with marketing communications. There is also high level of importance of marketers in building brand strength and equity. This can be done through maintaining correct ethical methods in the contact points and touch points in the delivery of products and services. Ethical consideration is a platform that connects the consumers with the message that the Companies want to convey.
Just like the central concept in marketing is customer orientation, the nourishment of profitable relationships is the concept around which organizational ethics operates. Most of the efforts of ethics are integrated towards the establishment and management of these long-term stakeholder relationships. Another dimension focuses on the cross-functional planning, which demands the simultaneous management of varied departments and functions. It is in sync with the ethical premise that there is more than one department, which is responsible for influencing customer relationships. Consistency in all brand messages that go out of these varied departments and reflect the competitive advantage of the Company is a must, which is facilitated by ethics. Integration is also proved to have improved the process and efficiency of message delivery and the media used. Synergy created by ethics in this matter is greatly valued by marketers. The central idea to be promoted here is the ‘one spirit, one look or one voice’ which resonates in all individuals for giving moral compliance to all organizational activities.
The final dimension talks about the ability that ethics provides companies to think outside the box, focusing on external focus, as compared to the inside-out approach. The basic idea of ethical consideration in setting competitive advantage is to move Companies from telling and selling to listening and learning and from thinking inside out to outside in (Forbes Welcome, 2016).
There are also many challenges that may exist for posing threat to organizational ethics when a company is about to set competitive advantage within its ethical boundaries. Here, we can argue that integrated marketing communications can go wrong of the challenges of ethical compliance cannot be smartly handled by a Company. The challenges in the sectors of ethics may be expressed in terms of the support and resource constraints of management, the creativity levels required in cross media, unifications of technology, strategic considerations, sharing and unification of customer data, international concerns and asset management.
The marketing department, despite its attempts to optimize promotional costs, will be in need of more resources to comply with ethics in imparting competitive advantages in the best possible way. However, the management may not be in support of marketing initiatives which has a wide horizon. Also, there are a number of media across which a brand message may be spread, when it comes to ethics. Consistency across all these media that impart competitive advantage reflection is a growing challenge for Companies as marketers are using increased number of multiple IMC platforms. The technological integration challenge is another crucial point for ethical compliers and users as varied platforms may use varied technologies. Having consistency in the level of technological knowledge and use should be well utilized in all media within ethical considerations.
The strategy of the Company also plays a defining role. The ethical initiatives are a must in strategic implications as well as in situations when a marketer uses a mid-term tactics to strengthen and align with the strategy. All the communication in the short term should be consistent and build up a premise for the long-term message that the Company holds. Too Much Information is also another concept that exists as a challenge to ethical compliance, which may create deviation in behaviors. There is so much of information available in the modern world regarding the customers, ways of doing things and target market that sometimes the noise may be high and the intended message may not reach the intended audience and intended behavior may not come out. Because of the challenges in customer data management, there may be concerns of what and how the brand compliance is being delivered. The concerns that need to be addressed through the ethical compliance in different nations are also issues for marketers.
The question that thus arises is that if the ethical compliance in corporate social responsibility for competitive advantage is so mandatory, why the compliance is so low. There are many papers, which basically discuss the under-utilization of the social corporate responsibility concept in the American corporate scene even though it has been a long time that this concept has been introduced. The intriguing part in the Company is where there are conditions mentioned when the corporate social responsibility will result in success to a Company. There conditions include the following points:
There must be systematic and simultaneous implementation of the ethical corporate social responsibility processes at all levels in the organization to set successful competitive advantage.
There should be direct support from the top management, like the CEO for the successful implementation of ethical corporate social responsibility in the promotion processes.
Strong marketing cultures should be the basis of any attempts for corporate social responsibility to induce brand management.
Issues related to functional and structural parts of any business should be the center of any effective corporate social responsibility program that sets competitive advantage.
The unique organization culture for which the ethical compliance is designed should be well recognized. In the end, the ethics is utilized for the promotion of the organization and its products.
There should be a wider vision for ethical corporate social responsibility successes rather than narrow traditional competitive advantage examples.
There is only a little evidence, according to the article that American corporations are applying marketing ethics in CSRs at the integrated levels. Even if we take communication obsessed brands like Nike, they are found to be more into innovative promotion or just horizontal integration, rather than truly practicing hard-core ethical and corporate social responsibility practices. The problems with the implementation of ethical practices have been presented as the organizational barriers, where culture and organization do not integrate into ethics. The main requirement for the successful implementation of ethical compliance in corporate social responsibility is its successful adoption. The same has been argued at many times. There is also an argument that ethical compliance for CSRs should be flexible enough to accommodate most of the structures in the American corporate sector, so that the adoption rate of CSR as the competitive advantage tool can be increased.
If there was a survey among corporate organizations as to which field they wanted to invest in to establish good relations with the public and a good image in the consumer eye in general, corporate social responsibility would win the pole hands down. Especially in the marketing wise active corporate segment, corporate social responsibility measure holds high significance among parents as it allows their companies to invest easy money and their brand images to boost.
It is proven that any Company, which has educated and dedicated individuals in the working sector, is able to succeed faster and sustain. It is in fact the quality of activities of the organization, rather than the quantity, which determines the efficiency of service structure and growth of the Company. Thus, the notion of every employee should be that only value adding activities should be a part of the overall organizational system. However, the corporate mentality begs to differ.
There are many people trying to convince themselves that a Company should invest as much in corporate social responsibility as possible so that competitive advantage can be built. While there is realization that relatively capable corporate responsibility campaigns could indeed enter the Company for good, the reasons put forward by our Companies in general, are not ethical enough for the CSR compliance. They presume that one should get into CSRs so that one can create a fake image in the consumer eye using which later in the market they can exploit the customers, get fake level fringe benefits, violate work ethics and still create profits for the Company. The activities remain specifically “suitable” for companies of big brands as it allows them liberty to create images in the public eye that are delusionary and far from the actual value delivered by the brand.
There are many individuals who complain that corporate social responsibilities of some of the Companies are merely ways of making up for the unethical activities that Companies indulge in behind consumer back. But, there are rarely such consumers in our generation who inspire their associated Companies to join CSR activities sincerely so that we can change the faults. On the contrary, there is conception that you should not try to bring too much of change at all. On one hand, there are stories of how ethical and ambitious people have a hard time moving up the public hierarchy ladder because of internal corruption, and on the other hand are the inducing consumer aspirations, which want a good for all corporate responsibility value and competitive advantage.
Every year, many companies indulge in activities of corporate responsibility with an aim that it will enhance the brand value of the organization. But, it is true that most of these organizations are not actually internally ready to indulge in ethical CSRs in the right light. As they say, there are many ways of doing things, but there is only one right way. Likewise, we should understand that there are many reasons for doing or indulging in corporate social responsibilities, but we should strive only for all the right reasons.
Conclusion
Corporate social responsibility and competitive advantage have become an integrated concept in the modern marketing world. The main challenge is to focus on new marketing so as to sustain and survive in the dynamic environment and explore the ethical impacts. Synergistic ethical compliance has established its own role in the marketing world. Many believe even till today that ethical CSR focuses on a specific product or customer market or a particular disciple of promotion and advertisement management.
The modern ethical standard in CSR, however, has enormous implications for small and big organization marketers irrespective of the commercial environments that they are functioning in. Thus, along with the change in markets, there is also a change in the way how ethics is used in varied organizational functions and the various dimensions attached to it. Technology has played a crucial role in making this happen. Ethical compliance has in fact transformed into a new marketing paradigm, which can act as a chameleon to fit any form of business structure of any form of market environment (Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility, 2016).
References
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