All business
people would agree that marketers are accountable to the organization’s leaders
and are duty bound to ensure that promotional activities are within legal and
regulatory boundaries. But is it good business to set the bar higher and go
beyond what is legal when marketing to certain segments?
One hotly contested area involves marketing to various
vulnerable populations. Palmer and Hedberg (2013) credited Brenkert (1998) with
offering the first substantive argument in support of the commonly accepted
practice of refraining from marketing to vulnerable populations in a manner so
as to exploit those vulnerabilities. In his groundbreaking thesis, Brenkert
(1998) identified groups such as children, retirees, and individual who
recently lost a family member as being vulnerable.
However, in a critique of Brenkert (1998), Palmer and Hedberg
(2013) suggested that organizations have the right and need to market to
vulnerable populations. Further, Palmer and Hedberg’s (2013) contended that
marketers should utilize approaches designed to exploit the vulnerability of
those populations.
A specific area that attracts a great deal of debate involves
producers of alcoholic beverages and adolescents. In a survey of 13 to 15 year
olds, Gordon and Harris (2011) found that the mean age for adolescents to have
their first alcoholic beverage was approximately 11 years, with 50% of 14 year
olds reporting to have tried alcohol.
Furthermore, 51% of the participants owned clothes or other items that
featured the brand of an alcoholic beverage. Based on the findings in their
empirical study, Gordon and Harris (2011) suggested marketing practitioners have
a responsibility to consumers beyond what is legal and need to ensure that the
promotional activities include social responsibility strategies. The
researchers encouraged alcohol and food industry marketers to change from
solely encouraging consumption to putting social responsibility at core of the
strategy.
In fact, many in the alcoholic beverage industry have already
begun implementing social responsibility in their marketing. In a recent study,
87% of alcohol advertisements contained a version of the drink responsibly
message (Smith, Cukier,
& Jernigan, 2014). Diageo is a major
producer of alcoholic beverages whose brands include Johnnie Walker, Royal
Crown, Smirnoff, Guinness, Baileys, Don Julio, and others. Mosher (2012)
reported that the company spent 17% of its advertising marketing budget between
2001 and 2005 on social responsibility messages. Diageo is a good example of an
organization that takes a holistic approach to marketing by recognizing the
importance of going beyond what is legal so as to maintain a positive public
image.
So is it good business for marketers to go beyond what is legal?
In my opinion, the simple answer is yes. Diageo’s holistic approach to
marketing involved a sophisticated public relations campaign aimed at the
public, government agencies, elected officials, and public health associations.
This type of holistic approach is critical when
the company’s product has potentially negative
impacts on public wellbeing (Mosher, 2012). While the drink responsibly
messages were largely contained in promotional techniques designed to increase
consumption, the fact remains that U.S. law does not require the messaging (Smith et al., 2014).
What
do you
think?
Learn
more about the author by checking my LinkedIn Profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/roycewilliard
© 2015. The
Williard Group LLC
References:
Brenkert,
G. G. (1998). Marketing and the vulnerable. Business ethics quarterly,
7-20. Retrieved from: http://philosophia.uncg.edu/media/phi361-metivier/readings/Brenkert-Marketing%20and%20the%20Vulnerable.pdf
Gordon,
R. & Harris, F. (2011). Assessing the cumulative impact of alcohol
marketing on young people's drinking: Cross-sectional data findings. Addiction
Research & Theory, 19(1), 66-75. doi: /10.3109/16066351003597142
Mosher,
J. F. (2012). Joe Camel in a bottle: Diageo, the Smirnoff brand, and the
transformation of the youth alcohol market. American Journal Of Public
Health, 102(1), 56-63. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2011.300387
Palmer,
D., & Hedberg, T. (2013). The ethics of marketing to vulnerable
populations. Journal Of Business Ethics, 116(2), 403-413.
doi:10.1007/s10551-012-1476-2
Sher,
S. (2011). A framework for assessing immorally manipulative marketing tactics.
Journal of Business Ethics, 102(1), 97-118.
doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-0802-4
Smith, K. C., Cukier, S., & Jernigan, D. H. (2014). Defining
strategies for promoting product through ‘drink responsibly’ messages in
magazine ads for beer, spirits and alcopops. Drug and alcohol dependence,
142, 168-173. doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2014.06.007
