Target Uninformed Consumers
Business ethics are crucial since they help a company keep long-term brand advocates. To meet their monthly or quarterly goals, some sales managers do, nevertheless, target uneducated customers. Usually done for a company’s future, this approach will result in the eventual loss of potential clients. This behaviour goes against virtue ethics, which is the term used to describe a person’s morals and honesty. Businesses use advertisements, deceive customers, and omit crucial information to increase sales. A marketer’s behaviour should be guided by ethical principles to help them act in a morally upright manner (Ferrell, et al., 2019).
Sometimes sales representatives of a corporation will sell their goods to consumers who are ill-informed and who may not need them. It is not only unethical, but it can also harm the brand’s reputation in the marketplace. Here, we’ll talk about the morality of picking on uneducated consumers.
We are aware of the current market conditions, which are marked by increased competition and greater customer choice. The only goal of businesses is to increase sales in order to generate more profit, and sales staff are given strict monthly goals to meet. Dealing with the consumer who is less informed in this situation is a chance that can be taken advantage of.
Target Uninformed Consumers
Because these customers will soon discover their mistake, it could result in poor opinions of the company from a business perspective. Giving the appropriate product to the right customer is a fundamental marketing principle. (Ameer, Irfan, and Aino Halinen, 2019) Deontological ethics holds that a decision should be made based on a set of principles that determine whether the action is right or wrong, regardless of the results. In some instances, we disregard our preferred method in favour of taking shortcuts in order to get the results we want. The right path requires patience, but it is also the longest and longest path that leads to the best results.
On the other side, picking an unethical or improper path to our objectives can hurt our business and reputation in the long run.
It is unfair to hurt people for our own benefit, so a marketing expert must establish a solid rapport with their devoted clientele. For instance, Nokia said that we deliberately sold our phones with an operating system that consumers rejected to misinformed consumers. As a result, the company’s market share decreased from 80% to 2-3%. Sometimes, a sales representative will push products hard in order to obtain bigger commissions and incentives, even at the expense of damaging client relationships.
That is unethical since you are fooling people for your own advantage and enjoyment. Pleasure is the standard, according to Jeremy Bentham’s hedonism thesis, because everyone wants to avoid suffering and seeks pleasure (Crane, Andrew, et al., 2019). You shouldn’t hurt others to get what you want. A short-term gain could result in long-term losses for all parties involved and open the door for new rivals. This essay assessed the negative effects of marketing to an ignorant consumer base, which is not only unethical but also detrimental to the company.
It is detrimental from a commercial standpoint since it will damage the reputation of the brand and drive away potential buyers. This unethical behaviour for a salesperson might harm client relationships and cause them to lose their customers’ confidence. While for the customer, buying a thing they don’t need is a tremendous loss. In order to preserve their good reputation in the market, organisations should rigorously avoid this method.
Work Cited
Aino Halinen, Ameer, and Irfan. The study of unethical sales behaviour is described in “Moving Beyond Ethical Decision-Making: A Practice-Based View.” 39.2 (2019): 103–122 in the Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management
Business ethics: Managing Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability in the Age of Globalization, Andrew Crane et al. 2019. Oxford University Press.
A New Direction for Sales Ethics Research: The Sales Ethics Subculture, Ferrell, O. C., et al. 27.3 (2019): 282-297 in the Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice.
