Social Responsibility Essay

Submitted By jwirtz3233
Words: 824
Pages: 4

Global Marketing: Ethical and Social Responsibility

The practice and implementation of ethical and social responsibility in global marketing and expansion is crucial to international and inter-cultural business. Despite short-term advantages you may gain through unethical marketing, failure to practice ethical and social responsibility in all facets of a business on a local and global scale will likely have a negative long-term result. In the article Ethical and Social Responsibility in Global Marketing (2012), Ephraim Okoro proposes maintaining high levels of ethics in an international marketplace to gain and sustain customer loyalty as well as to be able to compete successfully. He states it is critically important for businesses and organizations to demonstrate that they are providing accurate and quality information about the company’s product or service. He goes on to say that the proven and successful way to build and maintain long lasting satisfied customers is through continuous ethical communication between corporations and their stakeholders.
Okoro’s article addressed the topic of responsibility of global marketing as an important business practice that should be consistently implemented to all consumers, clients and stakeholders in the company. Okoro addressed the fact that despite thorough efforts to conduct ethical business practices there have been many faulty ethical decisions by a number of businesses in recent years. He also reiterated that the companies that where there are ethical violations there is a low value on integrity and the way the business is viewed, they focus on exploiting stakeholders through misinformation, deceptive marketing and exaggerative statements of products and services. Furthermore corporations that attempt to increase their profit margins expand their business at the expense of customers are at a lower competitive vantage point than their ethical counterpart. Okoro goes on to write that corporations who want to build successful and lasting business relationships with people should conduct business with good integrity and honesty. Essentially he is saying that without consistently practicing a high ethical global marketing strategy a company is destined to have bumps in the road and I agree with Okoro that misinforming or exaggerating about products creates distrust between the corporation and the consumer.
Okoro’s approach to corporate social responsibility on a global marketing scale is consistent with other readings that I have come across. There is always a need to ensure that businesses and corporations relay credible information to clients and consumers in order to build trust. There is a strong link between commitment and trust in international and domestic business transactions. Marketing researchers, Lawrence & Weber (2011), “have highlighted the need for honest interactions with organizations stakeholders in order to achieve social good and economic goals simultaneously”. The relationship between businesses practicing ethical marketing with customers and clients is a relationship that begins building trust between the two parties and promotes positive brand name recognition.
According to J. Altham International Business Ethics chart representing the Social Responsibility “the expectation for corporate ethical commitment is remarkable high, which is a strong indication of the significance of ethical business in the global marketplace”. Consumers across all nations put a high value on being provided with correct information in order to make the correct decision. For example, if a company provides a product, for example a mp3 player, and it is marketed as a cost effective alternative to another mp3