Is Marketing Evil?
The question you might ask as a consumer whose data is been used.
If you are a movie buff like me, you might have watched documentaries that put the spotlight on marketing practices blaming the function to be manipulative, stealing people’s data, and picturing the role as evil for society. Sometimes even businesses single out marketing departments for their fall adding to the bad reputation of the profession. You could be speculative of actions when you are asked for data that is to be ‘used for marketing purposes.’ So, is marketing really an evil?
What is marketing?
To answer this question, let us get deeper and more literal into the problem. As Philip Kotler rightly pointed the definition of marketing,
‘the science and art of exploring, creating, and delivering value to satisfy the needs of a target market at a profit.’
It is a social process that requires businesses to solve a problem through an offering or satisfy the needs of their customers. You need clean water there is a company that sells water purifiers. You are looking for the best purifier option available for your home. Your need is satisfied when you buy it, the company makes a profit from the sale to survive and thrive in the market.
How does it work? And what is in my data?
Thus, marketing is a broad term that encompasses various activities aimed at promoting and selling products or services. It is a crucial aspect of business and communication, helping businesses connect with their target audience, convey messages, and drive sales. Over the years, the process has evolved and there are various ways to do marketing as we know it today.
I am a millennial. Growing up, I have seen my mother use a face cream forever. She still uses it. When I was a teenager, the company innovated to produce a closer-to-nature ayurvedic version of the face cream. Ayurvedic ingredients are strong and expected to be more effective in the long run. However, my mother’s skin reacted adversely to the new product. We communicated this to the retailer who then took the message to their upline. In a few months, the company relaunched the original product and the ayurvedic version as two different variants. It brought its original product back to the market as it received the message and wanted to retain its loyal customer base.
If a company does not collect data from consumers or a consumer does not communicate this to the company in some way, the company will not get to know the reaction to their product innovation, and thus miss out on something important.
We can only wish marketing worked this way with everyone. If it were me instead of my mother who had an issue with a face cream, I would have just moved to a different brand of skin care product and would have not bothered going to this brand again. Today, the world has become fiercely competitive and everyone is struggling for seconds of attention from their audience. To take our purifier example again, there is not just one company selling purifiers, there are several of them, and each of them showcases that they would add value to your life. Each of these companies has similar products but wants their product to be considered the best by the customer. It has become increasingly difficult to understand the needs and even more to satisfy them.
Forward to it, technology comes to the rescue by providing data on understanding the customers, their interests, and intent. Such information is used by different departments of the company but essentially for research and marketing purposes. However, not every company has laid out guidelines on the ways of collecting the data, and its usage and such decisions are still in the hands of people at different stages of the process.
Marketing should be persuasive, not manipulative
When the data is used for marketing, an ideal practice at every stage is to distinguish between ethical and unethical practices. Ethical marketing aligns with principles of honesty, transparency, and fairness, focusing on building long-term relationships with customers based on trust. For example, letting the customers know that their data is been taken and will be used by the company for various purposes. Ethical concerns can arise when marketing practices involve deception, manipulation, or exploitation. Unethical marketing, on the other hand, can lead to negative consequences for both consumers and businesses in the long run. Unethical marketing may involve false advertising, misleading claims, or targeting vulnerable populations.
Simply put, it is evil to target teenagers for selling cigarettes for any reason, sell finance schemes with unrealistic returns to someone, and make people buy things from dark, unauthenticated websites that are an easy target for scammers.
Whether motivated by short-term gains, competitive pressure, or an oversight made due to a lack of ethical awareness, or inadequate regulations; businesses decide to engage in different types of marketing activities that might raise ethical concerns. If businesses prioritize ethical considerations such as setting up guidelines, promoting awareness, and fostering a culture of integrity; they can prevent their teams from being motivated by short-sighted decision-making. Thus, it is also the management decision that is harmful or responsible for moral wrongdoing.
Ultimately, the ethicality of marketing depends on the practices employed by individuals or organizations. Responsible and ethical marketing can contribute positively to business success and societal well-being. These include transparent data practices, ensuring fairness in algorithms, obtaining informed consent for data usage, and adhering to relevant laws and regulations. You can read more about ethical marketing practices and safeguarding data and privacy in my other articles where I’ve given some tips on the use of Chat GPT.