Author, Zaleha Othman
The growing trend of sustainable business demonstrates that the people are now conscious, care and particular about ethical sensitivity. People of the 21st centuries are looking for ethical sensitive companies and this includes ethical marketing. The entirety of marketing is not about profit anymore, today people wants to conserve the environment and care for the societies. On that note, they want to deal with companies that are ethically sensitive to the planet. Like it or not, companies have to be ethically sensitive to stand the test of time. One of the ways to be ethically sensitive is through ethical marketing. The question is what is ethical marketing?
Ethical marketing is about everything a company does. It is a philosophy rather than a strategy. It means marketing one business the right way, might that be the operations, the marketing process, product, etc. To put it simply, ethical marketing does not focus on marketing ethics strategy only, it is inclusive. However, the question lies – what makes ethical marketing companies? In this article, five key matters of ethical marketing will be the highlights.
1 – Develop an ethical marketing plan
Develop an ethical marketing plan involves a strategic decision. One of the most important and major strategic decision is how to balance between marketing increase profits manifesto and polish an image motto? Once a strategic decision is reached, steps should be taken to align the motto or manifesto to the current strategy. It is important to note that, aligning the motto to the current strategy should be developed with doing the right thing as the ultimate goal, where the should be on make decision and choices that are ethically sensitive, in order to boost companies’ reputations.
2 – Checklist of ethical practices
Create a checklist of ethical practices for the business. Some of the checklists include; develop an ethical profile, develop a corporate analysis that championing sustaining truth, makes social responsibilities core in company practice and diversify initiatives. Also, display social and environmental practices in every aspect of the business.
3 – Branding Company With Moral Values
Position your companies the right way. Position your companies that could leverage their ethical values. For example, embodied the ethical marketing principles as the brand. An example of this is Thumbprint. Thumbprint Sdn Bhd, a printing company in Rawang, Malaysia. Thumbprint has uniquely positioned its business to its history of ethical manufacturing. The company dedicated its company philosophy to ethical values. The vision and mission statement emphasized on beyond economic value. Thumbprint has shown that the company is committed to tangible goals, such as; environmental and social justice issues. Apart from that, the company designed its ethical mission as central to the company’s branding. Thumbprint constantly enforced moral values throughout the company, i.e. website, premise, vehicle. Be transparency with the branding.
4 – Sustainable Enterprising
Improves production pipelines towards sustainable enterprising. Benefits growers, suppliers, community towards one goal – ethical sensitive. Involves and engage with the community through outreach initiatives. Conduct training, guide and support the community towards sustainable enterprising.
Responsible environmental stewardship
Affiliate companies with organizations or companies with a focus on sustainable agenda and objectives. If you are doing farming, go for sustainable agriculture. Provides healthy farming, and maintain stewardship qualities.
With the abovementioned, five consciences, moves towards ethical marketing, companies would stand the test of time. Sustainable business is an enterprise that be able to provide a minimal negative impact on the stakeholders, society, global and the business environment at large. If you do that, imagine where you’ll be one year from now, five years from now, ten years from now ……longevity!
Zaleha is a Resident Faculty at OYAGSB, UUM. Follow her on ResearchGate
