A Study on Ethics and Social Responsibility in Marketing

Abstract

An ethical issue is an identifiable situation and also an opportunity which requires an individual or organization to choose from the actions that must be evaluated as right or wrong, ethical or unethical, etc. Product– related ethical issues arise when marketers fail to disclose the risks associated with a product. In pricing, common ethical issues are price fixing or failure to disclose the full price of a purchase. While ethics and social responsibility are sometimes used interchangeably, there is a difference between the two terms. Ethics tends to focus on the individual or marketing group decision, while social responsibility takes into consideration the total effect of marketing practices on society. The study focuses on understanding business ethics and socially responsible marketing, to develop and implement a socially responsible marketing plan and to study ethical issues faced in marketing. The data has been collected from various secondary sources like Journals, articles, websites and books. The aim of this research paper is to study whether the companies are following marketing strategies which are ethical and socially responsible while achieving the company objectives and goals.