ethical marketing

Week 10 Lecture 9: Ethics of new media. Assignment feedback and

guidance

Dr Nadina Luca [email protected]

Ethical Marketing

Today’s sessions • Lecture:

– To understand the key challenges in new media marketing. – To examine implications of new media for privacy, data collection and

targeting. – To review assignment requirements and formative feedback lessons.

• Seminar: one-to-one meetings on Wednesday, 11th of March if you want to discuss the formative feedback and questions about the assignment. (Please check the calendar invite that was emailed to you, if you would like to book a meeting slot). Please book one of the slots labelled: ‘BSc Marketing EM meetings’.

Reading Essential:

• Eagle, L. & Dahl, S. (2015), Marketing Ethics & Society, Sage, Chapter 5 Ethics in new media, pp. 100-112.

• Harari, Y. N. (2016) Yuval Noah Harari on big data, Google and the end of free will, Financial Times, 26 August 2016, retrieved 20 December 2018 from https://www.ft.com/content/50bb4830-6a4c-11e6-ae5b-a7cc5dd5a28c

Recommended:

• Fournier, S. and Avery, J. (2011) ‘The uninvited brand’, Business Horizons, 54 (3), 193-207.

• Also see ‘Other Resources’ on the VLE.

Ethical issues in new media marketing

The ethics of New Media

Consider

• The impact of new (digital) media forms on marketing communications

• Anthropomorphic marketing on new media channels

• Concepts of privacy and data collection, storage and usage in the age of Big Data.

• Marketing-related technologies, such as behaviourally targeted advertising.

Social media & social networks • “Social media employ mobile and web-based technologies to

create highly interactive platforms via which individuals and communities share, co-create, discuss, and modify user- generated content.” (Kietzmann et al., 2011, p. 241).

• Social media: social networks; weblogs content communities; collaborative projects; virtual game worlds; virtual social worlds.

Social media platforms

Image source: http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/twitter-ad-cards/478083

Facebook

Image source: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/optimize-your- facebook-ads/ http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/why-marketers-say- facebooks-new-emoji-reaction-buttons-are-long-overdue-167444

• Over 2.5 billion subscribers worldwide, on six continents.

• Sponsored stories, targeted ads, the Timeline format (access to lifetime history).

• Specific targeting (demographics, lifestyle, politics, religion, preferences, chat history etc.).

Ethical issues in social media • The authenticity of the content:

flogging (i.e. fake blogs). • Sponsored posts not disclosed as

such (e.g. bloggers paid to promote products/services).

• The ‘uninvited brand’ (Fournier and Avery, 2011) -> Anthropomorphic marketing (brands as social actors to make communication more ‘human-like’ and fit the social interactions mode on social media).

Image source: https://theconversation.com/how-brands-unleash- their-inner-mascot-to-win-over-customers-34371

Traditional uses of new media channels

• New media are less regulated • New ways to target and

segment consumers (e.g. children).

• Product placement – in online games

• Advergames created by companies to appeal to children (e.g. Fanta Fruit Slam) – concern about constant children exposure to brands.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2013/apr/30/food-apps-bad-children- health

Location based marketing

• Location-based media, such as iBeacon clients (near-field communication, Bluetooth or GPS, location-based media).

• Ethical issues related to constant tracking.

Image source: https://www.corumgroup.com/Blog/top-10-tech-trends-positioning-intelligence

Big data: a different way of doing marketing analytics

• Consumer activity can, and is, tracked across many new media platforms.

• Our online activities can be recorded and quantified; generating data that can be analysed to establish patterns and profiles.

• Big data - messages, updates, and images posted to social networks; readings from sensors; GPS signals from mobile phones etc.

• A different way of doing analytics:

➢ Volume (huge amounts of data are generated by our activities online and offline).

➢ Velocity (big data is fast; huge amounts of data in a very short time)

➢ Variety (diverse, our overall digital footprint)

➢ Veracity (it enables more accurate ways of assessing patterns and trends)

Source: https://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/four-vs-big-data

How ‘big’ is our data? • A journalist asked Tinder for her data (based on her use

of the app). • 800 pages of information on her…including: her

Facebook “likes”, links to where her Instagram photos, her education, the age-rank of men she was interested in, how many Facebook friends she had, when and where every online conversation with every single one of her matches happened, occasions, interests and jobs, to pictures, music tastes and what she liked to eat; how often she connects and at which times; which partners she liked; which kinds of people are interested in her; which words she used the most; how much time people spend on her picture and so on…

• “Consumers’ data is being traded and transacted for the purpose of advertising…”

• What will happen if this data gets hacked, is made public or bought by another company?

• Ethical issues: ownership of data; privacy?

Image source: http://bigdatatrainers.com/page/3/

• Should these data be available to marketers?

• Will this result in more targeted and relevant communication for the individual?

• Or will it result in intrusion into customer privacy?

Behaviourally targeted advertising and marketing

Image source: www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/new-yorker-cartoons-for-valentines-day?

• Big data and algorithms -> implications for more accurate ways of predicting behaviour and responses in a wide range of activities.

• Behaviourally targeted advertising (BTA) – targeting adverts based on tracking website surfing behaviour, previous searches and other personal data (e.g. demographics; psychographics etc.)

• BTA is also used in areas such as finance, health, politics etc.

BTA and political marketing

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-44966969

Fake news and BTA on social networks

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-45294192 https://wellcome.ac.uk/news/why-do-we-need-vaccines https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/08/technology/coronavirus-misinformation-social-media.html

Surge of coronavirus misinformation stumps Facebook and Twitter

Big Data, data mining and BTA issues • Issues: privacy and individuality; individuals unable

to control the unveiling and dissemination of data about their private life.

• Big concerns regarding the use of our personal identifiable data, usage and storage.

• People have less control over their exposure to advertising and marketing (covert messages and targeting; implications for political marketing).

• 53% of adults on Facebook don’t understand how their newsfeed displays posts (Pew Research, 2018).

• Unsanctioned organisations using our data and inferences about our interests, passions, affiliations and associations for borderline uses about our political, religious, sexual, preferences etc. (e.g. political marketing).

• BTA - implications for polarisation (confirmation bias); a general lack of trust in media and news and changes in behaviour and attitudes.

https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/05/many-facebook-users- dont-understand-how-the-sites-news-feed-works/

Module assessment

Summative:

• Written assignment of 3000 words (100%)

• This is a 3000 word ethical consulting report analysing an organisation of your choice. To be submitted in week 2 of the summer term. Full details available on the VLE.

• Please check the course manual, and assessment documents on the VLE for full details on the assignment.

Summative assessment

• This is a 3000 word ethical consulting report analysing an organisation of your choice. • This may be based on the research proposal that you developed in your formative assignment. • Apply theories and concepts from both the taught element and your wider reading to critically

analyse the organisation’s current marketing approach from an ethical marketing perspective. • Identify a key social or environmental/ecological challenge that the organisation needs to respond

to and collect primary data to gain additional information on the organisation’s case. • Based on your analysis of the secondary and primary data, develop a new ethical marketing strategy

for your chosen organisation and provide recommendations on how to tackle this challenge drawing upon ethical marketing concepts.

• You are required to collect primary data for this report. You will need to follow the University of York ethical research guidance, provide a completed ethics form and gain informed consent from your participants in the research. Your ethics form must be reviewed by your module leader BEFORE you conduct your research. It is essential that you submit this to the module leader before the end of the term, otherwise your primary research will not be meeting the research ethics requirements of the University.

• The templates for ethics, consent forms and participant information sheet are available on the VLE. The completed ethics form, consent form template and participant/project information sheet should be included as appendices.

Summative assessment - suggested structure

• Cover sheet with the name of the organisation and subject focus

• A full contents index (and related page numbers)

• Executive summary/abstract (a short summary of the report; 1 page max.)

• Introduction: the importance of ethics in marketing in the global context with definitions of key concepts.

• Background:

– Introduction to your selected organisation and context information (e.g. stakeholders socio- ecological problems relevant to the organisation; the consumer context)

Analysis of their marketing

– How are they responding to the problems identified? What issue is remaining?

– Identify the area where more information is needed (e.g. what is the customers view on organisation’s ethics, employees? New strategy proposed? etc. )

Summative assessment - suggested structure (continued)

• Methods: justify the research approach to collect some primary data e.g. why quantitative or qualitative, which data collection method (e.g. interviews/survey/observations etc.) and how data was analysed.

• Findings: Analysis of the primary data collected. • Make recommendations from your analysis regarding an improved

ethical marketing approach/strategy for the organisation. This part of the answer should utilise the theories discussed above.

• Conclusions • Appendices should include completed ethics form, consent form and

participant information sheet (for interviews); questionnaire (in case you conducted a survey); interview guide; excerpts from the interviews; excerpts from the survey data; examples of the data that you analysed etc.

Summative report suggested structure (continued)

Notes: • You can choose an organisation from any sector and any global region but

you need to ensure you can find data on this organisation. It does not have to be a UK based organisation.

• The work should show evidence from a range of sources (journals, think tank reports, NGO reports, sustainability reports etc.) on the ethical marketing approaches and performance in the chosen organisation.

• The work should illustrate application of ethical marketing concepts. (e.g. ethical theories, ethical/sustainable consumption, socio-ecological context, triple bottom line, value creation, corporate social responsibility, transformative relationships; social marketing; sustainability marketing mix, issue literacy, ethical consumption theories - concepts such as consumer-citizen, empowerment and resistance, vulnerability etc. ).

Formative feedback: key points to consider for your summative report

• Show evidence of research on the organisation (e.g. newspaper, academic articles, books, corporate reports, independent bodies reports and/or studies etc.). Do not use ONLY company sources for your evidence;

• Show use of the recommended textbooks and some of the articles in the reading list. • Show wider reading and use of more academic journal articles; • To reach over mark of 60 you need to show wider academic reading of theoretical content; • Define, explain and reference the theories, concepts and frameworks applied in the

report. • Key theories/concepts: ethical/sustainable consumer behaviour; ethical theories;

sustainability marketing elements etc. • Recommendations for ethical marketing strategy based on evidence and theory. • Source evidence; Use references throughout for offline and online sources (Harvard style). • Clearly articulate the aims of the primary research. • Justify methodology and specify number of participants and recruitment technique (i.e.

sampling).

Examples of theories/concepts/frameworks

• Ethical theories; ethical consumption frameworks and theories; sustainable consumption; socio-ecological context; triple bottom line; value creation; corporate social responsibility; sustainability transformations; sustainability innovations; corporate activism; social marketing and sustainability approaches; sustainability marketing mix; ethical consumption theories concepts such as consumer-citizen, empowerment and resistance, vulnerability etc.

• Check lecture and seminar slides, reading list and reference lists for wider reading around ethical marketing concepts.

Completing the research ethics forms • Complete the ethics form; participant information sheet and informed consent form

template (if conducting interviews, focus groups or observations) and include them in the appendices of the summative project.

• All relevant research ethics forms and templates are on the VLE: Ethical Marketing/Assessments/Research Ethics forms.

• For summative submission, anonymise the ethics form and the participant information sheet (remove your name and email address; include your student examination number).

• Include sufficient detail in the ethics form (e.g. research summary, methods etc.). • Make sure to provide a justification for the methodology used based on academic sources

(e.g. why a particular method is appropriate for your research questions). • Project information sheet – avoid guiding answers by making value statements about the

organisation or their approach. • Data confidentiality section – also should include information about how data will be

stored. • Section on risks: it needs detail, even if it is a low risk study; you need to show how

potential risks will be mitigated.

Research considerations • Summative report: it should show an overview of the company’s

social and ecological problems and how they incorporate ethics and social and environmental values and goals in their marketing (e.g. any sustainability, ethical, CSR initiatives?).

• Research questions are the overall questions of your study (e.g. What are consumers’ perceptions of X; How do consumers experience Y; What is business responsibility for employees? Etc.) not the exact questions that you will be asking the participants.

• Hypotheses require testing; are your testing relationships between variables? If not, hypotheses may not be relevant.

• In your summative project, include the questionnaire; interview guide; interview excerpts in the appendices.

Example of good practice (based on previous student work): Introduction

• “During the twenty-first century, due to growing concerns about the challenges that the world was facing and the future prospect for human kind, the field of marketing became increasingly under pressure (Eagle and Dahl, 2015). Economic growth, rapid population increase and the emergence of new technologies during the previous century, have given rise to concerns about environmental and social issues, and businesses play a significant role (Belz and Peattie, 2012). The emphasis on business ethics and sustainability marketing in business is hence becoming more important in the global context. Elkington (1999, p.21) defines sustainability as “the principle of ensuring that our actions today do not limit the range of economic, social and environmental options open to future generations”, in addition, according to Savitz and Weber (2006) a sustainable corporation is one that creates profits for its shareholders while protecting the environment and create benefits to the society.” (Student report 5)

Example of good practice (setting the socio-ecological context of the organisation)

“Automobile industry has always been controversial in sustainability development. Despite the convenience, vehicles contribute to the climate issues, such as emissions of greenhouse gases and energy depletion (Mayyas et al., 2012). Critics mainly focus on the product aspect, specifically the life cycle of a vehicle, from sourcing, production process, energy consumption, to the end- of-life stage (Bridges and Wilhelm, 2008).” (Student report 3)

Example of good practice (signposting)

“This report argues that Victoria’s Secret contributes to social problems. Through its advertising, fashion shows and magazines, the brand promotes unhealthy and unrealistic standards of beauty. In fact, researchers found that in a study where women who were exposed to idealized media images, including Victoria’s Secret commercials which featured very thin models, there was a significant and negative impact on women’s dissatisfaction with their bodies (Strahan et al. 2008). Low body confidence is a critical public health issue in our society for both teenagers and women, who are trying to reach standards of unrealistic thinness and beauty presented in the media, as well as for men that trying to find “the perfect women” (Chrisler et all, 2013). Today, the brand is still retaining the same marketing strategies promoting size zero body shapes, ignoring the change in the fashion industry and, the shift in consumers, as discussed below in section 4. ” (Student report 5)

Example of good practice (definition)

“According to (Belz and Peattie, 2012), sustainability marketing mix (4Cs) is a practical tool that sustainability marketers usually adopt to meet customers’ needs but also consider the environmental and social issues, which comprises four components, customer solution, communication, customer cost and convenience.” (Student essay 2)

Example of good practice (analysis based on diverse sources)

“There is evidence that contradicts Morrisons claims about their role in marketing unhealthy products. For example in their promotion tactics in 2015 the year in which the mentioned CSR report was based, the organization Children’s Food Campaign claims that out of 200 prices cuts, only one was for a vegetable while the majority of cuts were on unhealthy products or household cleaning items (Sayid, 2015). In 2016 there was some improvement, the Watchdog group, Which? found that out of the four major retailers Morrisons offers for unhealthy products was 48% while the average range as between 52% and 55% (Gallagher, 2016; Holland, 2016). Regarding their advertising in 2014 their ad was banned by the Advertising Standards Authority as it portrayed a girl discarding vegetables and only eating the hamburger (Bold, 2014). This was considered to promote bad eating habits in children .” (Student report 1)

Example of good practices (ethical theory application)

“The ethics of rights and justice states that human rights should be protected and respected in any action that is committed (Crane & Matten, 2016). According to this theory, to determine if the proposed business strategy is morally right, then one should analyse if rights are respected and protected in their actions. Health is considered a human right. Therefore marketing unhealthy products which will cause obesity and have negative effects on the health of consumers cannot be regarded as complying with this ethical framework, hence according to this framework Morrisons is acting unethically.” (Student report 1)

Example of good practice (ethical theory application)

• 4. Ethical marketing approaches “An ethical analysis to assess the marketing approach of Victoria’s secret must be conducted through the lens of various ethical frameworks. A useful framework to analyse the main problem of this report is Utilitarian analysis. “Utilitarianism”, developed by Jeremy Bentham (1789) and John Stuart Mill (1863), is an ethical theory which states that “an action is morally right if it results in the greatest amount of good for the greatest amount of people affected by the action” (Crane and Matten, 2015, p. 98). Known as one of the consequentialist theories, utilitarianism bases the rightness of an action on the outcome that it produces and, according to its basic foundations, the “greatest happiness principle” and the “collective welfare”, individuals should endeavour to maximize happiness for the greatest number of people (Crane and Matten, 2015). If we apply this theory to Victoria’s Secret’s main problem, as described in section 4, we must first look at all actors involved and all potential outcomes in terms of benefits and harm from two different actions that the brand can have in its adverts: action 1 (using ultra-thin models) and action 2 (using more diverse people), as shown in Figure 3.“ (Student report 5)

Example of good practice: explaining the methodology

• 5. Primary data “For this report, primary data has been collected using the qualitative method through 21 face- to-face interviews, combined with visual methods. As stated by Belk (2017) and Malhotra et al. (2017), in-depth interviews represent the ideal method of data collection to investigate consumers’ thoughts and for evaluating advertisements. In fact, the data helped the project to gain a better insight into consumers’ views and perceptions towards the brand, which helped to understand how the brand could improve their marketing strategy. Participant recruitment was conducting using the snowballing sampling technique, after interviewing a few people, the researcher asked them to identify and refer potential subjects. Although X is perceived as a female brand, women and men’s views will be both crucial for this project. With this in mind, respondents were 15 females and 6 males. An interview schedule was prepared to provide a structure and to guide the researcher; the interviews were conducted only after the participants completed and sign the ethics form, project information sheet and the consent form, as shown in Appendix 8.“ (Student report 5)

General feedback

• Analysing the marketing mix (include all elements of the mix);

• The analysis could also refer to the marketing communications approach of the organisation analysed (e.g. transparency or more typical models of promotion; any stereotyping? Any examples of PR or lobby?)

• Be selective about the tables/diagrams/figures that you include in the report.

• Structure of the report and presentation (clear headings, signpost, proofread before submission).

Summative report • Presentation: written report (3000 words);

• Bibliography: Harvard referencing; attach any relevant information (e.g. relevant tables or diagrams) in the appendices.

• You may draw upon your mid-term research information (formative) where relevant.

• Sources & evidence: secondary desk research (including a range of key sources) and primary research, to underpin the contextual information, choice of strategy and recommendations.

• Identify the areas where more information is needed and justify the research approach to collect some primary data. Include a brief analysis of the primary data collected.

• Demonstrate academic knowledge and understanding in the application of ethical marketing (e.g. theories and concepts); The work should illustrate application of ethical marketing concepts. (e.g. ethical theories, ethical/sustainable consumption; socio-ecological context, triple bottom line, value creation, corporate social responsibility, social marketing; sustainability approaches sustainability marketing mix, ethical consumption theories concepts such as consumer-citizen, empowerment; vulnerability etc.). Define and cite sources for the theoretical constructs.

• Make recommendations from your analysis regarding an improved ethical marketing approach/strategy for the organisation. This part of the answer should utilise the theories discussed above. It should show why incorporating ethics and social/environmental values and goals is important.

• Appendices should include completed ethics form (use your student exam number not your name), consent form template (if using interviews, observation, focus groups etc. ) and participant information sheet.

• References, tables, diagrams and appendices do not count towards the 3000 word count.

Final remarks

• Before starting the assignment make sure to revise the lectures and seminars resources. Please, check the module handbook and material (lecture and seminar slides, summaries of seminar discussions, podcasts, reading list, assessment guidance on the VLE).

• Use Turnitin to check your work. • Always include “Ethical Marketing” in the subject line of emails.

Good luck!

References

• Eagle, L. & Dahl, S. (2015), Marketing Ethics & Society, Sage, Chapter 4 Ethical issues in marketing relationships, pp. 75- 90 & Chapter 5 Ethics in new media, pp. 100-112.

• Fournier, S. and Avery, J. (2011) ‘The uninvited brand’, Business Horizons, 54 (3), 193-207.

• McAfee, A. and Brynjolfsson, E. (2012) Big Data: The Management revolution, Harvard Business Review, October, Retrieved October 2017 from https://hbr.org/2012/10/big-data-the-management-revolution

• Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R., and Wood, G. (2007) "An ethical basis for relationship marketing: a virtue ethics perspective", European Journal of Marketing, 41 (1/2), 37-57.

• Murphy, P. E., Laczniak, G. R. & Prothero, A. (2012) Ethics in Marketing: International Cases and Perspectives. New York: Routledge (Chapter 18: Facebook)