Marketing ethics
...other person. There are no clear cut guidelines for marketing manager's to go by, so they must utilize their own judgement based on their own moral standards. But, in the United States their is an administrative agency that has the power to control unfair or deceptive business practices. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was created in 1914 to prevent "unfair methods of competition in commerce (commercial trade) and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce (Miller 590)". The FTC issues guidelines that define unfair practices and in some instances the FTC will investigate widespread complaints to seek settlement of the complaint. The FTC has also set forth specific rules to govern certain advertising practices such as bait-and- switch advertising. Bait-and-switch advertising occurs when a seller advertises a product at a very low price to lure in consumers, but when customers come in to purchase the product; the seller either doesn't have the product available or the product is of very low quality and the seller then encourages the customer to purchase a more expensive substitute. The Federal Trade Commission also enforces laws that govern packaging and labeling. In the past, there had been much criticism concerning packaging and labeling, so much that in 1966 the Federal Fair Packaging and Labeling Act was passed. The Act requires that labels must be accurate and easily understood by consumers. The Act also governs packaging descriptions and savings information that is disclosed on labels (Miller 529). Marketers face some morally difficult situation in which they must make ethical decisions. Such a situation could be: The marketer's Research and Development department has modernized one of the companies products. The product isn't really "new and improved", but the marketer knows that putting that slogan on the package and advertising it would increase sale. What should the marketer do? This is one type of situation that many marketers may face in their careers. If the marketer should decide in favor of such a decision his or...