Key Ethical Marketing Practices Every Manager Should Have In Mind

In running your business, one factor you have to consider is your ethics. Maintaining good ethics is necessary to creating a stronger relationship (and trust) with your customers and marketing to them with honesty. Ethical approaches to marketing help you stay in line with your company’s values and make certain that you adhere to fair-trade principles, goals for honesty and transparency, and more.

What is ethical marketing?

Ethical marketing is a type of marketing strategy that places value on communicating to consumers with transparency and fairness. Using ethical marketing, you’ll promote and highlight your company’s values, such as ecofriendliness or fair-trade principles, to use them as leverage for connecting with your preferred audiences.

Why is having ethics in marketing important?

Having ethics in marketing is an essential component that establishes trust with your customers. You can also use it as a way of building better relationships through a marketing plan that focuses on longevity. When you put human rights first, the environment, and other ethical processes, you’ll set yourself apart from your key competitors and be able to stand out to consumers looking to buy from ethical brands.

4 Core Beliefs of Ethical Marketing

To get to know ethical marketing better, it’s important to look into the main parts of marketing ethically, their importance, and why they should matter to your marketing team. Here are four core beliefs to keep in mind as you consider ethical marketing campaigns:

Transparency

There is a need for honesty in advertising and communication. Consumers are always on the lookout for scams and dishonesty, and you don’t want your business to get caught up in that. When you use ethical marketing techniques, you build real trust with your consumer base. You show that you put honesty and transparency first with the way you run your business. Being clear about how you set your pricing or what you do with donations will be vital to proving you do as you say.

Fairness

The equitable treatment of all your customers is another core belief of marketing ethics experts. All customers deserve to be treated with respect, which includes not having to worry about manipulation or false advertising. As a part of your marketing strategy, remember not to use manipulative sales tactics, and play fair. All your customers, intermediaries, consultants, employees, and suppliers should be treated with the same level of fairness and respect.

Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business model. This business model is designed to keep a company accountable to several parties socially, including itself, consumers, and business or stakeholders. Similarly, marketers within a corporation have a responsibility to make decisions and to market in ways that don’t harm people or societies on the whole. For instance, vape-related products that used colorful, interesting packaging were criticized for targeting young people even though they knew that vaping could be dangerous and addictive.

Consumer Privacy

Another thing to be aware of is the importance of keeping consumer privacy at the center of all you do. Ethical marketing can include being clear about how you collect data and informing consumers about how you obtain or use their data.

6 Benefits of Marketing With Ethics

Brands that comply with widely accepted ethical marketing processes can see several perks. Some of them include the ability to:

1. Help Consumers Make Better, More Conscientious, Choices

Consumers have many brands they can buy from, but showing that your products and services offer something different, such as being environmentally conscious, will help customers make choices that match up with their ethics, too.

2. Reach Target Audiences With Similar Values

Target audiences with similar values are your key customer base, and you can reach them if you promote your own ethical principles.

3. Increased Reputation

When companies have consistent ethics, they build a positive association with their brand. The public prefers to support their favorite brands, brands most likely to be known as trustworthy.

4. Increased Customer Satisfaction/Loyalty

Customers are often happier when they buy from brands they can trust. They feel good when they know their own ethics are being upheld when they buy from a brand like yours. They’ll also love knowing that they get what they expect from your brand, a promise that is worth its weight in gold.

5. Increased Sales

When you use ethical principles to guide you in your marketing processes, you’re more likely to see increased profits. You will reach target audiences with similar ethics, and they may be more likely to want to buy from you as a result of your own ethical practices. Having good ethics can make your brand stand apart from competitors.

6. Improved Standard of Living/Health in Society

Being fair and equitable in your business practices is more than a moral issue. It can actually improve the standard of living for customers, ensuring they’re treated as well as possible during each transaction.

11 Ethical Marketing Examples

Ethical marketing tactics are used by businesses all around the world. Some of the ethical brands you may be familiar with include:

Allbirds — “Fashion Pollutes the Planet”

Allbirds uses its strong marketing slogan to highlight that it uses environmentally friendly practices, including using renewable materials and green energy. It also uses regenerative agriculture and highlights the CO2 footprint of every product it makes.

Patagonia — “Don’t Buy This Jacket”

Patagonia uses this slogan to highlight the damage caused by fast fashion. It encourages consumers to pledge to reduce consumption and make conscious decisions about their purchases.

Warby Parker — “Buy A Pair, Give A Pair”

Warby Parker helps its customers feel good by giving back. When they buy a pair of glasses, the brand donates a pair to a child in need through the Warby Parker Foundation.

TOMS Shoes — “One Day Without Shoes”

TOMS highlights the fact that many children go without shoes in developing countries with this marketing campaign. For every bare-foot photo shared to #WithoutShoes, the company donated a pair of shoes to a child.

Faguo — “Make Friday Green Again”

FAGUO’s initiative is similar to Patagonia’s. It encourages consumers to be reasonable about what they purchase, including buying higher-quality items rather than fast-fashion pieces.

Pela — The World’s First Compostable Phone Case

Plastic takes 20 to 500 years to decompose, posing a real problem for the ocean and landfills. Pela tackles that issue with the world’s first compostable phone case, which was a part of the “Plastic Free July” campaign.

Asphalte — Zero Overproduction With Pre-Order Model

Asphalte’s pre-order model is key to reducing waste and staying ethical in fashion. It sends out surveys to consumers to ask them to choose their preferred fashions, reducing the risk of producing too many items or items that sit as excess inventory.

Yes Straws — Alternative to Plastic Straws

Plastic takes a long time to break down, and it can cause serious harm to animals and sea creatures—including a particularly viral case of a sea turtle with one stuck in its nostril. Yes Straws promises guilt-free drinks by creating straws that are completely biodegradable.

Cusa — Innovative Recycling Program for Customers

Recycling can be tough until you get used to it, and it’s easy for items like plastic bottles and tea bags to add up. Cusa addresses this issue with the Terracycle program, which gives customers a $5 coupon and free shipping when they send the company used coffee sticks and tea bags.

Everlane — “Radical Transparency” in Logistics

Everlane wants you to know what goes into their pricing models, including every part of the supply chain. It goes a step further and considers its environmental impact, as well. It is 90% on the way to a goal of “No New Plastic” in its supply chain, packaging, and products.

Illy Coffee — Reforestation, Farmer Education, Sustainability

Illy Coffee focuses on sustainability and good environmental practices. The company has installed water treatment facilities and reforested areas in deforested regions of Colombia, focusing on changing the often negative effects of the coffee industry from the inside out.

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