The principles of Ethical Marketing – 8 simple points to guide you

Psychology and marketing have been intertwined for decades! As a result, brands have tapped into the power of understanding human behavior. You have seen them use emotions to further their own interests time and again. And that has unfortunately led to some situations where businesses exploit their understanding of data to take advantage of their customers. Often tricking them into the next purchase or to buy more, to feed their own corporate interests or to cushion their bottom line. And that’s where ethical marketing acts as a frontier of what’s right and wrong.

What is ethical marketing?

Ethical marketing focuses on the principles guiding all your marketing efforts. A huge portion of your marketing is centered around your customers. You need to ensure that all tactics and actions are taken with honesty and responsibility is essential to building trust with your customers. But ethical marketing takes it a step forward by considering environmental and social causes as well.

Building and nurturing relationships with your customers becomes easier with shared values. Ethical marketing outlines those values and goals from a moral perspective as well. On one end, it holds brands and businesses to be responsible and accountable for their advertising. And on another, it promotes how the brand can benefit society at large. 

The principles of ethical marketing

It is by no means an easy undertaking to summarize this list into commandments. The large and encompassing definition of ethical marketing itself is purposefully vague. Because our notion of what’s right and wrong shifts. As time goes on, we evolve and broaden our thinking and ways in which we can be more inclusive or ethical. 

But here’s a list of things that point us in the right direction. You can take them all into consideration while deriving your marketing mix to generate tactics for your marketing strategy:

1. Be transparent and honest

You have to ensure that as much of your processes, your decisions, your numbers and changes are transparent. Why? Because it affects those who align themselves with your brand. For better or for worse, hiding the truth is never an option.

For instance, be transparent about studies and findings in your industry or about your product always. If you provide a service and are “falling short”, that’s fine. Be honest in communication with your client to let them know why things are going wrong and how you are going to resolve it. Always acknowledge when you’re wrong and then take steps to correct it!

2. Be empathetic with your customers

Marketing has come a long way in targeting, with marketing funnels looking at the buyer’s journey or marketing planning frameworks like STDC guiding the customer journey. Even the creation of customer personas for targeted marketing strategy has meant you make efforts to understand your customers. But you need to show that same empathy while responding to them. Through your customer service teams and during all touchpoint interactions

As an example, if you are implementing a change in your after-sales service term. You have to ensure that it doesn’t make it harder for customers to seek assistance. Or if you are changing the time of operation of your customer service live chat or in-person locations. Send communications that update your customers on the changes.

Here’s another blog post discussing the role of empathy in content marketing that can help!

3. Highlight safety and risks

You may not want to discuss the downside of your product or service. The risks involved can make or break decisions, so you would want to focus on the benefits always. But there is a way for you to acknowledge the risks or by addressing safety concerns and still doing business. You stand to gain long-standing trust with your customers with that honesty. 

In a situation where your product can cause hazards or pose safety risks. Be clear about this in your marketing and communications. Do not “hide” the text in some back page of the user guide and leave your customer surprised upon discovering the risk.

4. Verify your claims

You may think it is harmless to call yourself the best, the fastest, the cheapest or first. And that might make a difference in the way your consumers view your brand and/or products. You can even exaggerate the benefits of your offerings to gain a sale. But eventually, that all comes crumbling down. And those results can not only make you lose a customer but even lose the trust of everyone else you work with. This could damage your reputation and ability to do business in the future!

If you are communicating a benefit of using your services based on a case study or data, cite the source and provide your customers with a link / QR code to be able to do the research for themselves! Most customers may not even do that, but it is your responsibility to ensure that the option is provided nonetheless.

5. Don’t exploit behaviors or emotions

It’s easy to dig into behavioral psychology as a marketer or business owner and find tons of ways you can utilize concepts like loss aversion or the compromise effect to your advantage. But there’s a clear line not to be crossed when your entire marketing strategy becomes about taking advantage of those behaviors. You will also see blatant advertising that capitalizes on the emotions of customers. You eventually push them away by doing that, because they see right through it!

Whether it is in your social media content strategy, your email marketing efforts, or ad copy, communicating urgency might be necessary and relevant. But don’t badger your audience trying to exploit their aversion to missing out on an opportunity or willingly cross the line by trying to tap into negative emotions like fear.

6. Data Protection and Privacy

The 2010s saw a real need for the management of user data. Addressing the privacy concerns of your customers with a privacy notice, clear terms and conditions, and honest third-party declarations became vital to how much data the customer was willing to share. The General Data Protection Regulation or GDPR was a monumental regulation in that aspect. It covered so many concerns and was adopted across the EU and in so many other states since 2016 as the standard of how data and privacy are regulated.

A simple example of GDPR regulations includes getting express and clear consent before sending marketing communications. Other sections cover topics such as the right to access of data, email opt-outs, and the protection of collected private information.

7. Leave a lasting impact

Whether it’s including sustainability practices or human rights, your brand has a voice and your customers want to see you use it. It can bind them even closer with shared values and nurture your relationships with them as a result. This isn’t limited to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives alone but has to be deeper. It has to bind with processes that you have in place and include the people both in and around your organization.

People now care about how brands align with social and environmental causes like equality, conservation, sustainability, human rights, and ethical production practices. So if you want to gain their trust, you have to take proactive steps to utilize your resources to assist initiatives, foundations, and movements. Or even better, start your own!

8. Compliance

Local, regional, and international standards are set to build trust in products and services. Adhering to these and incorporating them as your best practices will broaden the scope of the trust your customers have in your brand. Furthermore, safety standards will help protect your own employees and partners. Legal and regulatory compliance exhibits a willingness to play fair and by the rules and is a sign of a great brand’s level of responsibility.

Let’s take an example of the hospitality industry. You have to ensure compliance with industry best practices, health & safety regulations, hygiene protocols, food waste management, and service standards. This compliance can be worn as a badge of honor as it shows your customers how committed you are to being responsible!

There are variations of these principles that can be found online as well. Figaro Digital has a similar list of 10 principles of ethical marketing and Marketing Schools (.org) also has more personal principles for the same.

Conclusion

Regardless of which set of principles you follow, the guiding principles remain the same. Choose to do the right thing, even if the wrong things sell more products, or help your brand grow faster. You need to accept and implement these principles daily, as does your team and everyone associated with your brand.

Implementation will take focused effort and consistent reminders but will also include checklists, documentation, and training. So ethical marketing principles are a complex undertaking that requires buy-in and commitment from management and employees!