Marketing Ethics Assignment Everyday, we, as consumers, are bombarded with advertisements for all types of products. These advertisements are created by a companies marketing team and this team must follow specific rules and regulations set by the American Marketing Association (AMA). Many times companies fail to abide by these AMA rules and use unethical marketing practices to help buildup sales. Julep, Johnson & Johnson, and Wal-Mart have recently been under investigation for unethical marketing. I am going to focus on these three unethical marketing cases and determine how each situation could have been avoided. The first case involves Julep, which is a cosmetic company based out of Seattle. From 2012 to 2015, Julep was accused of using …show more content…
Once the issue was brought to their attention, Wal-Mart should have immediately acted on the issue instead of making a false statement on why people were overcharged. This failure to abide by the ethical values under the AMA guidelines resulted in bad press and fines that could have been avoided if handled in a different manner. As business manager, I would have fixed the error as soon as it was brought to my attention and sent out an apology letter containing a reimbursement to all the customers who purchased the product. The goal in any business is to keep your customers happy so they will return and spread a positive word about your company. Everyday, companies face ethical issues and have to respond appropriately to keep their customers happy and stay away from hefty fines. The key is to follow the regulations set by the American Marketing Association and if for some reason they fail to do so, act fast and respond in an ethical manner to resolve any issues. These were just three examples of unethical marketing practices, with many to arise in the future, companies can learn from the past and strive for more ethical business practices in the future.