Marketing ethics: is there more to it than the utilitarian approach?

Abstract

Of all the management fields, marketing is probably that which seems the most paradoxical when it comes time to consider its ethical aspect. This paradox stems from the fact that the main objective of marketing is to respond to the needs of consumers. Yet these same consumers often take marketing to task out of a concern for certain of its manifestations, such as advertising or pricing. Since they endeavour to satisfy consumers’ needs, marketing managers often take it for granted that their actions are ethical. Underlying this position is an essentially utilitarian approach to ethics. Attempts to determine to what extent marketing fulfils the basic principles of the utilitarian ethic. Adopting the position that the utilitarian and the deontological approach ‐ a belief that certain things are inherently good to do (also referred as duty‐based ethics) ‐ do not have to be mutually exclusive, proposes a third direction, that is a combination of both of these approaches. Concludes by suggesting the necessity for managers to integrate a deontological dimension in their practices.