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Unethical Marketing Case Study

700 Words3 Pages

Unethical marketing and arrogance are key factors that can corrupt even companies with one of the most admired corporate culture in the world (Hartley, & Claycomb, 2013, p. 311). The definition of unethical is “not morally correct” (New Oxford American Dictionary, 2013), unethical marketing, therefore, refers to a situation in which a business values profitability more than providing customer value. When combined with arrogance, the quality of "revealing an exaggerated sense of one’s own importance or abilities” (New Oxford American Dictionary, 2013), they can bring down businesses. In this paper, I will firstly explain the relation between unethical marketing and arrogance. Then, I will analyze roles and consequences of each element according …show more content…

Firstly, since groupthink is a committee decision, diffusion of responsibility and the pack mentality took place in and lowered the company’s moral standards (Hartley, & Claycomb, 2013). Secondly, Toyota became irresponsible. It had known about the accelerating problems since 1986, but never took any actions until the first major recall in 2009 (Hartley, & Claycomb, 2013). In other words, they had been approaching the problems with a wait-and-see approach for about twenty-five years. Third, Toyota also covered up the existence of data regarding unexpected acceleration problems. Thus, Toyota violated both the company’s founding principles and …show more content…

Early signs began when top executives stopped taking feedback from manufacturing plants, dealers, and customers into consideration altogether. When accidents occurred, Toyota blamed former management, supplier, and customers instead of addressing the issue. For instance, during first recall in 2009, the company rationalized the problems by citing mat problems as a part of driver error (Hartley, & Claycomb, 2013). Toyota President Toyoda did not try to make amend, even though it was evident by the second recall in 2010 that the pedals stuck regardless of the presence of floor mat (Hartley, & Claycomb, 2013, p. 315). In fact, it took fifty-two deaths to finally make Mr. Toyoda issue a public

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