Importance of Ethics in Advertising

Why Ethics are so Important in Advertising and Marketing

The main aim of any business, big or small, is to increase sales, gain more consumers, and to improve its visibility in the market. In a nutshell, the business owners are looking for ways to make money and grow. The startups, on the other hand, have an additional responsibility to benefit their stakeholders.

Business owners want to increase the market share of their products. The first thought that comes to their mind is to advertise the products and services. They want their team to come up with the most creative ways to promote their products to attract customers to them. Every advertiser wants to showcase their product as one of the best with unique qualities that none of the competitors possess.

Advertising is one of the essential tools for success in any business. However, in the fierce battle of brands, advertisers sometimes forget ethics and mislead the customers with false claims. Thus advertisements can be both helpful and harmful. The debate between ethical and unethical advertising begins here, although the line between the two is blurry and ill-defined.

What Is Ethical Advertising?

An ethical advertisement is the one which is not deceptive, doesn't lie, backed by evidence, doesn't make false claims, and is fair.

There is always a pressure on the marketers and owners to give an attention-grabbing and catchy message. In this war, there is still a chance of crossing that line between ethical and unethical. Since the ethical codes are generally not written, the marketers may take the liberty to cross that line. Many actions by the advertisers may be legal but not moral. 

Can a brand sustain with Ethical Advertising?

It may sound unbelievable, even impossible, but yes, a product and brand can grow without resorting to false or unethical advertising. The need of the hour is to effectively advertise your products and services without having to tell any lies. The new generation is well informed and understands what is ethical and what is not. According to a survey majority of Millenials are more likely to purchase products advertised by ethical companies. 

When you are adopting ethical advertising, your intentions are clear. You would communicate the truth and do not need the subliminal messages to inform the reality. Since you do not have any hidden agendas, you would also not try to mislead by giving false information. You will communicate directly with your consumers. Conversely, in unethical advertising, you will find misrepresentation and distorted messages to fool the consumers.

Why Ethical Advertising

With ethical advertising, you ensure that you are not hurting the sentiments of the society.
The advertiser should maintain a code of conduct while presenting ads
Ethical advertising means the marketer is avoiding, misrepresentation and adhering with social norms. Ethics in advertising also helps in image building of the brand and organizations

Unethical Advertising 

It is the exact opposite of ethical advertising. Unethical ads include false and untrue Advertising, puffery, and misleading ads. Using obscene or vulgarly imaginary to grab the attention of the consumers may also fall into the wrong category.
Puffery ads are the ones where the advertisers are seen, making positive claims of a particular product. It is difficult to prove or disprove many positive general claims because they are a matter of opinion. Hence such ads are legal in many countries.
Many misleading ads may not be giving you false information, but the presentation of the product is in such a manner that the consumers make incorrect inferences.
The ad is ethical when the marketer has made it with the belief that the customers will understand what the ad is trying to say. The ad, without any false claims when, convinces the consumers to think and lead to positive results, may not be called unethical. In contrast, when the advertisers start fooling their customers by showing any unpractical things, then this and will be called as wrong or unethical.
Unlike ethical advertising, unethical ads have no respect for the environment, planet, culture, and the people's true lifestyle.
The reason why we see a lot of puffery, false and misleading ads is because it is considered more of a moral issue than a crime. However, it doesn't mean the advertisers are free to show anything as per their whims and fancies. If the advertiser willfully deceives the audience into buying the product by going extreme, then he is liable to be prosecuted or fined.

Few Examples of Unethical or Misleading Advertisements 

Zomato received a backlash when they used Hindi expletives, MC, and BC in bold and put thousands of hoarding across India to sell Mac-n-Cheese and Butter Chicken.

Dabur Chyawanprash ad, which claimed that it could boost the immunity of the children three times more and help them fight diseases, was slammed by the ASCI for the unsubstantiated claims.
Arnica hair oil ad claims, "Prevents hair fall and increases hair growth" and "It gives cooling to the brain and better sleep", were misleading and unsubstantiated according to ASCI.
HUL for its lever Ayush soap claimed 'based on 5,000-year-old Ayurved scriptures with 15 ayurvedic herbs'. The Customer Complaints Council (CCC) found that these claims besides other claims were inadequately substantiated and are misleading.
 "The visual of the celebrity (Akshay Kumar) when seen in conjunction with the claims are likely to mislead consumers regarding the product efficacy and contravened ASCI's guidelines for celebrities in advertising," ASCI said.

Rules and Regulations of Advertising

In India, we have Advertising sector watchdog, Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), that investigates complaints against false and misleading advertisements

Established in 1985, ASCI is a voluntary self-regulatory organization of the advertising industry in India. The non-Government body is, committed to the cause of self- regulation in advertising, ensuring the protection of the interest of consumers.

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution (Department of Consumer Affairs) has launched a portal called "Grievance Against Misleading Advertisements (GAMA)". It is dealing with complaints relating to misleading advertisements. Under an MoU, the Department has assigned the task of processing the complaints received through the GAMA portal to the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) as per its code. ASCI evaluates any complaint regarding misleading or unethical ad received at GAMA. If the claim is true, ASCI asks the advertisers to modify or withdraw the misleading advertisements. In case of non-compliance, ASCI forwards such complaints to the Regulators concerned to take necessary action.

What Should a Marketer Do?

The businesses should avoid grabbing immediate attention by making tall or false claims. It is not going to benefit them in the long run. Besides such fake and misleading claims, it might outrage the public and make the stakeholders very angry. It is ultimately going to affect your bottom line. Above all, there are chances that you may be prosecuted if you are using unethical practices. Your company might also end up paying harsh penalties to the Government. 

In the best interest of the organization and the brand, one should strive to promote the truth in advertising. Yes, you have all the rights to project the benefits and strengths of your products in the ads. The only thing that you should keep in mind is, do not lie. Any claim that you make about your product should be substantiated with facts and evidences. Ensure that you have incorporated the strengths and relevant information about your product that the consumers should consider before buying.

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The world economy will go into recession with the likely exception of India and China- UN

An unprecedented damage has already been done by the COVID-19 this year. The entire world is now facing the economic damage caused by the deadly virus.

The consequences of a combined health pandemic and a global recession will be catastrophic for many developing countries and halt their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals - UN

The United Nation (UN) is calling for a USD 2.5 trillion rescue package for the developing nations out of which

• $1 trillion should be made available through the expanded use of special drawing rights
• $1 trillion of debts owed by developing countries should be cancelled this year
• $500 billion needed to fund a Marshall Plan for health recovery and dispersed as grants

According to the new analysis from United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the UN trade and development body titled ‘The COVID-19 Shock to Developing Countries: Towards a ‘whatever it takes’ programme for the two-thirds of the world’s population being left behind’, commodity-rich exporting countries will face a USD 2 trillion to USD 3 trillion drop in investments from overseas in the next two years.


According to the UN report, Even so, the world economy will go into recession this year with a predicted loss of global income in the trillions of dollars. This will spell serious trouble for developing countries, with the likely exception of China and the possible exception of India.

COVID-19 Impact: Relevance of 4Ps of Marketing in Business Amid COVID-19

Covid 19 and Marketing 

India has been under lockdown since March 25, and it will now continue till May 3. The number of Coronavirus cases in India crossed 32,000 on April 30, 2020 and more than 1000 people have died until now.

Every business big or small has been hit by COVID- 19 and the stock markets across the globe have crashed. Major world economies including India are bearing the brunt of lockdown. The GDP growth is declining and the economists are even predicting that the world may go into recession.

Further, the economists are still trying to analyze the exact impact of Covid-19 on the world economy. However, they are sure that the pandemic is going to give a hard hit to the economy. Moreover, it is also uncertain how long it will take to revive the economy as the condition is still volatile and the world hasn’t recovered from Corona yet.

Even if the virus slows down the businesses are going to struggle for well over a year because they will have to make up for their losses. The companies and the marketers are trying their best to adapt to the situation. During the challenging times, they need to make sure that brands remain in a positive light. The approach towards advertising need to be changed to ensure long term consumer trust and loyalty.

How to use the 4Ps of Marketing amid Covid-19 

The COVID-19 outbreak has affected the businesses and made a big dent in the revenues. That doesn’t mean a marketer lose all the hopes and stop the marketing activities. Marketing managers need to remain motivated during this time and keep on promoting the brands. This is a time when marketers can come up with innovative campaigns so that their brand is registered in the minds of the people.

Product

Customizing products according to the market needs is very difficult in the challenging times. Amid Covid-19 the marketers can think of making some changes that are acceptable and can be implemented to best serve the customers and communities without having a negative impact in the future.
There was a huge impact on the businesses of Swiggy, Zomato, Flipkart, Bigbasket, Amazon and many other online companies due to lockdown. Amid lockdown, only the essential items were allowed to be delivered at home. These players immediately shifted the gear and took permission to deliver the essential items like vegetables and groceries. They are effectively making use of their delivery infrastructure and witnessing a surge in the revenue even at the time when other companies are struggling.
The companies are also helping the government in reducing the supply chain burden.

Place

The Corona Virus has also drastically changed the way buyers are approaching the businesses. There are no physical meetings or contact between the two.
Marketers are designing ways to interact with customers keeping in mind the safety and social distancing aspect, and deliver what customers want and need
The companies should start using AI-enabled chatbots options and to solve queries customer queries. Furthermore, giving a virtual demonstration of your products instead of sending a representative at home is a better idea amid Covid-19.
The training providers and educational institutes can use the online platforms for their trainings and courses.
Country Delight- a Gurgaon based Dairy Startup, is sending the flowing message daily to its customers- “Dear Customer, Please help us keep you safe with 100% contact-less delivery. Your delivery partner has sanitized their hands and has a normal temperature of 97.3 at 4:00 am today, Thanks.”- Team Country Delight

Price

Pic Credit: Allie on Unsplash

The people are already living in fear and are very cautious while spending or purchasing anything during the pandemic. Increasing your product price to take advantage of the situation is not going to help your brand. Similarly offering a lot of discounts is also not good for the health of your company. The price adjustment if needed can only be done in conjunction with other departments like operations and finance. You may feel the need of giving some discounts to your clients.
Some companies have waived off the shipping or delivery charges. Companies like Byju’s and Vedantu’s are giving free subscriptions till lockdown. Similarly, some matrimony apps are also offering free subscriptions during this period.

Promotion

Promotion is all about the act of communicating the values and benefits of your products to your customers. Managers use various methods of promotion to make their brand visible in the market. Promotion in a normal scenario includes direct marketing, sales promotion, advertising, and personal selling to persuade customers to your business.
Due to lockdown, there is an over 80% increase in social media usage and internet browsing. The TV viewership has also seen a similar surge. The advertising cost is also all-time low these days. Marketing managers need to identify the medium that will best suit their products. They need to take advantage of those mediums to engage their audiences.
Organizations need to assess not only the tactics or mediums they use to engage their audiences and deploy their marketing strategy but also the context of the messages they're transmitting via those channels. The promotional campaigns also need to be carefully designed keeping in mind what your consumers want to hear from you in those messages.
Many travel companies are requesting their consumers to simply postpone and not cancel their vacation giving a message that they are badly hit by Corona.
Some health drink companies, Multivitamin manufactures are focusing on more immunity development amid Covid-19 as a person with strong immunity has more chances to fight corona.

Conclusion
There is a need to reassess and readjust the four P’s of Marketing during the Corona crisis. Certainly, the companies are facing the heat due to lockdown. The marketing managers have a big responsibility to respond to these business challenges and pain points. They need to understand and adjust to the needs to find creative solutions to tackle the situation.

These 4 Ps of Marketing are very helpful when it comes to running a business. Under this unprecedented situation, the marketing managers need to rise above the storm to avoid the pitfalls. Hence the circumstances, if not handled properly can make these 4Ps Painful, Panicky, Puzzled, and Pathetic


Since everybody is working remotely, marketing budgets need to be planned accordingly by the managers.