Reset: theme 8 – ethics in marketing
2020 marks the dawn of a new decade. Rachel Bevans of the Healthy Brand Company explores theme eight of ten themes driving brands into the next decade.
There are a number of areas where Ethics play in Marketing, two of these have key implications on the customer journey and customer experience, and the third on communications and transparency.
With the popularity of behavioural economics growing, in conjunction with AI and its capability to influence “next best action”, there will be a need for marketing to establish and monitor guidelines for what is ethical behaviour from the business and brand; when is a nudge too far?
We’ve seen the call for responsible lending from banks and responsible selling of mobile plans from telcos, shifting from mindless to mindful acquisition and increasing lifetime value (“trade up/broaden brand franchise”), ensuring the customer can meet financial commitments prior to making the sale.
Whilst there are commercial objectives to any marketing plan, with strategies to increase frequency of purchase, quantity purchased, trade up and broaden the brand franchise, the question has to be asked “is this profit for the good of people and planet?”
Another area is that of virtual reality, robots and digital creations with real-life human characteristics. An episode of Gruen aired in October discussed the digital character in #TeamGalaxy (Samsung’s latest campaign) and the need for brands to be pro-actively transparent in telling consumers that this character is digital, not real. Interesting times ahead!
Rachel Bevans is strategist, researcher and business director, with over 28 years’ experience helping organisations become brand-driven, customer-centric and employee-engaged. Rachel founded The Healthy Brand Company in 2012 to unite her brand experience, passion for health and wellbeing and curiosity about what motivates people.