Morality and Ethics in Marketing - good business or idealistic foolishness?

Marketing doesn't exist in a microcosm. What you do in life usually reflects your general worldview, so I guess you choose your path accordingly.

But leaving aside any moral considerations, sacrificing your reputation on the altar of anticipated quick and easy returns is short-term thinking at best. If you're hoping for long-term success, you'll need to have happy customers as well as other businesses and contacts who actually want to deal with you.

You might deceive without conscience, but rarely without regret.

Ethics and mortality are NEEDED in marketing just as much as in the "real" world! If who you are and what you say depends on the situation then you live on a sandy foundation. People can justify all they want but deceit is deceit no matter how you spin it or package it and it will bite you in the arse at some point. We need more people in marketing who cling to high standards and ethics and who have the courage to call out those who work to deceive!

If you wouldn't promote an offer to your mom, dad (anyone you care about) then why is it OK to promote it to someone else?

That is how I have always looked at it.

When you are just starting out, it may be easier to try and justify something or simply not care. Money can make people do things that they wouldn't normally do. Where, once you have money, it is much easier to do the right thing.

I apply the same morality and ethics to my business that I do to every other aspect of my life. I would not ignore my conscience to make even a single dollar. Over the years I have made a lot of money without resorting to unethical business practices. A person is not required to be dishonest to make money it is a choice to use that method.

I have personally known marketers that were doing well short-term with questionable tactics. As time goes on they have to keep 'upping' their schemes. Also as time goes on I see them lose joy, have legal problems, have no one in their network of colleagues they can trust, have fewer friends, and usually flame out in one way or another. Who cares if you get rich materially if your life is miserable?

Morality and Ethics are the fundamentals of success in the Business World

Talk to ten different people and you will get ten different answers. In a perfect world I would say let your conscience guide you in what you do, but the thing is that marketers and people in general are all over the map.

I know a Christian Internet Marketer who's philosophy is pretty much whatever it takes to close the sale come hell or high water, and on the flipside, I know a completely atheist marketer who follows the "Golden Rule" when conducting his business efforts.

Very weird I know

Everyone's "line in the sand" will depend upon their own integrity and self worth.

In my experience, those who say "get off your high horses and start living in the real world" are generally those who try to elevate themselves by pushing others down.

Here's an appropriate question: "Would you want those marketing to you to deceive you in any way?" Obviously not.

Steve

Maxwell said it best when he stated that there is no such thing as "Business Ethics" only ethics.

Censoring my post was unwarranted.

Of course it's not okay. Let's leave ethics, morals, and religion aside.

Let's say you promote scams. Get rich quick schemes, for example.

Sooner or later, your reputation WILL catch up to you. There are marketers that I view with skepticism whenever they promote something, simply because they have promoted shady products in the past. Sites like Ripoff Report exist for one reason - for people to vent against you. It's not good for your business.

I'm in the MMO niche, and I'm sorry to say that it's probably the absolute worst niche when it comes to marketers having ethics. Lately, it's full of more and more "marketers" who are willing to say and do just about anything to sell their products.

There used to be more good people in this niche than bad, but unfortunately that's no longer true. Even worse, in the past year or two I've noticed that many of the "good guys" have decided to simply join the pack. That's because sadly, having ethics in this niche is actually a weakness.

That said, I refuse to compromise myself and sadly, I'm being rewarded by leaving a lot of money on the table. After 10 years in this niche that I really love, I'm actually thinking about leaving it and going into a couple of niches that I am passionate about because I've had them as a hobby for years.

I've always tried to follow the system of reviewing products and if I like them and find them valuable, then they are OK to recommend to my subscribers because they will undoubtedly see value in them as well.

The big problem with this thinking is that in the past few months I've found myself spending hours reviewing products only to come up empty. I would say that out of every 10 products I review, I might find ONE that is actually pretty good. And when it comes to all of this "amazing" software in the MMO niche, well... Don't even get me started.

The bottom line for me is that if I wouldn't buy the product, I don't expect my subscribers to. Unfortunately, doing the right thing ethically is hurting me financially. However, at least I can look at myself in the mirror every day and have peace of mind.

If you tell the truth and help people, you will make a lotta money over your career.

If you lie you will run into lots of problems. Even if you help people, on some level.

I took these 2 lessons to heart 10 years ago. When I was first thinking about making money online. I remained true to lesson #1. Because I vividly recall a well known blogger - from 8 years ago - coming out and explaining how he was lying about being a 6 figure earner, and it destroyed his career. Lasting memory for me, and I took that experience with me.

There is no line, really. Clarity and honesty. Or, the lack of clarity, and dishonesty. Your conscious always knows the way.

Of course there is a moral line in the sand! Would you want to do business with someone who is only after your money and not actually offering any value to you? I believe your reputation should come before anything else and that is how you will gain longevity in any kind of business.

It's great to see so many people on the side of integrity. What concerns me is how many ethically-challenged marketers and business people are out there.

Let me go a step further. There are a ton of business out there who operate a legitimate company with perhaps the best intentions and have "policies" that they feel either protect them or prevent problems they've experienced in the past. But, many of those "policies" end up hurting their customers or make their product/service inconvenient. In my mind, these companies are just as bad as the intentional scammers -- because they basically don't care about the customer; they only care about themselves. And, in a nutshell, that's exactly how scammers think as well.

Integrity is a fundamental requirement to be in business and those who can't do that shouldn't be in business. The only way to do anything about it, though, is to report it and vote with your wallets. If I find a company that puts themselves over the customer (whether they are legitimate companies or scammers) I put them on a list and I won't do business with them anymore. You have to set standards and boundaries -- and then stand by them.

Always do honest business. Let the others be the fraudulet ones.

If this is talking about marketing then this is my view. I been in doing sales and marketing industry for few years and also as an internet marketers at the same time. And something I learn through out these years is that, being unethical but show that you are ethical will have a higher chance get you further and richer. Example in sales, we tend to say only those good things that will close customers but we won't say things that will make customer turn off. Even if customer ask questions that will turn customer away, we will play with words or make customer confuse depend on type of customers. I believe happen to most of you before, even this happened to me before I enter into sales and marketing industry especially with telco company. Suddenly you will see a lot of extra services which you didn't request added into your bill, because by default these extra service is added into bill and you don't know if you are new customer.

Another example is a person he think he is ethical but do you maybe not. For example a so called "guru" maybe he earn $100 a month from affiliate marketing, and start promoting his coaching program, with a simple example advertisement

"Affiliate marketing guru coaching program $100 per month guarantee at only $xxxx for first 5 students!"

Do you think is he ethical? Some of you may think no, because he only earn $100 per month and not consider guru TO YOU. But do him, he is able to make $100/month is a guru that is his view. Definitely will people sign up his coaching program if he do it right or get people to promote for him and BOOOM he earning few thousand a month IF his marketing campaign is success.

Then now he change advertisement to "Show you how I earned $X,XXX a month as an internet marketer with INCOME PROOF"

Now is he a guru to you?

This is just an example, hope you guys get what I am trying to say.

I have a line that is clear and I try to stay far away from it. Honesty, ethics, and morals are part of what I am as a person (or try to be). And as others have mentioned, that doesn't change when I'm doing something online or in business.

However, the line has moved in some instances. This isn't saying my morals are flexible - they aren't. It's saying that many times a person may not know what their ethical stance is until they know more. Until they know more, they may be 100% against doing X but once they learn how things really work they may be able to accept it.

Case in point - I know of a person that buys email addresses and then sends offers to them.

When I first heard about what he does for a living, I thought he was a scammer/spammer because that's what spammers do - buy email lists and send tons of email. This perception was due to my own bad experiences as well as my ethics/morals.

So one day I asked him how he was different than your average scamming spammer. And he told me. He buys data where people have agreed to see offers including from others. He honors requests to opt out every time. Etc.

So, assuming he was being truthful (and I have no reason to doubt him), he's not a spamming scammer anymore in my view. Just because I don't want to do his type of business or may not agree in some respects, he's not necessarily bad or wrong or unethical. Nothing changed but my education.

Mark

Definitely! And not just because it's the right thing to do. Being ethical and moral IS good business. In the end, nobody would want to buy from or work for someone who they know would stab you in the back if it makes them a little more money. Businesses are built and destroyed on reputations. It won't be long before you run out of suckers to steal from. Might as well do the right thing so you can keep your customers and your business.