If you’re reading this article, I assume you don’t need me to define the term “marketing,” as it’s likely something you are already familiar with. Ethical marketing, while it expands upon the basis of marketing, seems to have a looser definition, depending on who’s doing the speaking. While ethical marketing has been defined and practiced by a variety of organizations and individuals, I find that the commonly used definition is one that feels somewhat lacking.
This is not to say that these other organizations and individuals are not doing good work; on the contrary, I simply believe that something can be added to the working definition of ethical marketing to better explain its purpose and how we in the industry can strive for it.
The commonplace definition I find most often is that ethical marketing is marketing that focuses on a few key principles: honesty, integrity, and transparency.
This is marketing that tells honest stories, shows real cause and effect, and considers its whole, rounded impact on the customer, the business, the industry and society at large. Following all applicable laws and regulations isn’t enough; to ethical marketers, that is the minimum standard to abide by.
These extra standards can change and vary over both time and geographical location. What might be considered going above and beyond today could very likely be considered standard tomorrow, and what’s ethical for one town might not be all that ethical for the next town over.
The difficult but flexible answer to the original question posed by the title of this article is that ethical marketing changes depending on where and when you are; this means that to be an ethical marketer, one must pay attention to one’s own community. Follow local news and developments, listen to people when they vent about their struggles, and try to get out of your own bubble. Ethical marketers should strive to understand their clients, from individual customers all the way up to the entire society, as complex, yet whole, beings. Community members benefit from actual products and services that honestly address their needs, and businesses benefit by gaining a reputation for being honest and community focused.
So why do I think this definition needs any help? Across the web and looking at several different sources on this, the definition of ethical marketing seems to be more so focused on the marketing itself, as opposed to who the marketer is working with.
Being honest, transparent and full of integrity is great. Being a part of your community and listening to the issues that people face is also great. But no matter how great those things are, I argue that the definition of ethical marketing needs to include a clause regarding who you work with, if it wants to truly be considered ethical.
It is an unfortunate reality that no matter how ethical a marketing campaign is, if it supports a company or industry that has negative effects on a given group, then it is not as ethical as it claims to be. There are plenty of opportunities that marketers come across with this dilemma. They come across something – a product, a company, an emerging technology – that can reasonably provide economic benefits. To remain ethical, I argue the marketer needs to study and understand who will be receiving those economic benefits, and whether or not this is good for the greater community.
Here in Central Oregon, this is my definition of what makes marketing ethical: the practice of marketing that prioritizes honesty, integrity and transparency, while also showing preference to local and family owned businesses, creatives and media channels, for the purpose of supporting the health of the local economy, and the greater community.
Ethically, I believe every step of the marketing process should be kept local. Local businesses, local creatives, local media channels, even local marketers. As long as we have the choice between supporting massive, out-of-state companies that only care about profit, or supporting local and family owned businesses that are the lifeblood of a healthy, vibrant community, then I believe the ethical marketer should choose the latter. Every. Single. Time.
We strive to be ethical, not only through our own actions, but through the actions of those who we associate with; those whose work we choose to promote to our community.
In other words, it’s people over profit.