UNIT 1.1

UNIT 1.1 UNDERSTANDING THE IMPLICATIONS OF ETHICS TO DIGITAL MARKETING

Digital Marketing

Within the specialisation of digital marketing, understanding the legalities and ethical issues from early on builds a strong foundation for a successful campaign. This unit will explore the implications of ethics in marketing whilst demonstrating understanding of legalities and common practices in within the industry.

1.1 Explain the fundamental principles of ethical behaviour in digital marketing.

Digital marketing refers to advertising delivered through digital channels such as search engines, websites, social media, email, and mobile apps and many other platforms. Within this industry ethical decisions have to be considered and made throughout marketing processes. Ethical marketing is less of a marketing strategy and more of a philosophy that informs all marketing efforts. It seeks to promote honesty, fairness, and responsibility in all advertising.

Similar to every industry there are unwritten laws, more formally known as fundamental principles, concerning ethical behaviour in marketing which are:

  • All marketing communications share the common standard of truth.
  • Marketing professionals abide by the highest standard of personal ethics.
  • Advertising is clearly distinguished from news and entertainment content.
  • Marketers should be transparent about who they pay to endorse their products.
  • Consumers should be treated fairly based on the nature of the product and the nature of the consumer (e.g. marketing to children).
  • The privacy of the consumer should never be compromised.
  • Marketers must comply with regulations and standards established by governmental and professional organisations.
  • Ethics should be discussed openly and honestly during all marketing decisions.

Sources:
• (https://uk.marketo.com/digital-marketing/) Accessed on Thursday 10th January 2019
• (http://www.marketing-schools.org/types-of-marketing/ethical-marketing.html#link1) Accessed on Thursday 10th January 2019

1.3 Explain current and emerging concerns and expectations that are relevant to digital marketing.

The industry of marketing is always changing, especially in this current era of information and social media. This creates concerns for marketers as the way information and marketing campaigns are received can fluctuate

  • Less Focus on Keywords

In the past, keywords were the bread and butter of SEO.

Find the right keywords and use them the right way and your site could shoot to the top of search results, helping you get more traffic and exposure.

With all of Google’s algorithm changes, keywords have become less important. They are still used, but they are not the focus. Instead, Google crawls your site to get a sense of the overall tone and scope. It’s a topical approach rather than seek and find.

That means that you need to use search phrases rather than keywords and that you need to build content around topics rather than writing a blog post for each keyword you want to target. Make your site a resource for the phrase or question you are targeting and you will see results.

  • More Ad Blockers

There is more competition than ever for advertising, and networks like Google and Facebook are pushing up prices across the board. For competitive niches, you’ll have to pay a lot more this year.

Make sure that you’re getting your money’s worth by creating the best ads and placing them on the right networks. Using an automated program like In-feed can take the guesswork out of it and ensure that you get the placement you need for maximum ROI.

Even with smart choices, you’ll still need to put more money toward advertising in 2017. Start looking at your budget now to see where things can be moved.

Digital marketers will always face challenges, but learning about changes and developing new strategies can help you overcome them. The changes expected for 2017 are part of an evolution, so it is important that you think long-term about how your strategies will help you reach your goals.

  • Cluttered Market

There are billions of websites in a limited number of niches. How will you make your website stand out amongst the rest?

SEO is just one way to help you rise to the top, but it is not enough. You have to find ways to provide unique and valuable content, you have to have an original voice, and you have to engage people.

Everything has already been done, so there’s no use in trying to reinvent the wheel. You can’t be outrageous or goofy because that bar is already too high. Ditto for shocking or controversial.

Instead, focus on giving your readers what they really need. Provide them solutions to their problems. Talk about the things they care about. Make emotional appeals.

Source: (https://www.business2community.com/digital-marketing/biggest-challenges-digital-marketing-2017-01790253) Accessed on Thursday 10th January 2019

1.4 Evaluate the ethics of digital marketing campaigns.

Considering the fundamental principles of ethical marketing, evaluating pre-existing campaigns entails using the principles as criteria to evaluate the successes and failures of marketing strategies used in the past.

H&M – Coolest Monkey in the Jungle Controversy

(https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2018/01/08/10/hm-hoodie.jpg?w968)
Accessed on Thursday 10th January 2019

H&M came under fire [during early in January 2018] for an ad that featured a black child donning a sweatshirt with the words “coolest monkey in the jungle” etched on the front. The scandal drew public accusations of racism all over social media…the company has taken several actions, including hiring a diversity leader and issuing a public apology that was featured at the top of its website.

Referring back to the principles, it appears that the H&M marketing / public relations employees dismissed that ethics should be discussed openly and honestly during allmarketing decisions as well as the fact that marketing professionals [should] abide by the highest standard of personal ethics. A social issue such as covert racism is an easily avoidable issue which – to the displeasure of the black community – H&M were supposedly ‘unaware’ of.

Sources: (https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2018/01/19/hm-faced-backlash-over-its-monkey-sweatshirt-ad-it-isnt-the-companys-only-controversy/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6d45ae7c0174) Accessed on Thursday 10th January 2019

Co-op – Sexist Easter Marketing Campaign

Co-op released a print ad on Newspaper that invited people to reward their daughters with a chocolate Easter egg, specifically, for ‘doing the washing up.’ Yes, it was 2017. Unsurprisingly, they got a backlash for it. The Manchester-based supermarket quickly released an apology but the damage had already been done.

Source: (https://blog.printsome.com/marketing-fails-recent-years/)

co-op, marketing fail, easter egg
Source: (https://blog.printsome.com/wp-content/uploads/co-op-egg-marketing-fail.jpg)
Accessed Thursday 10th January 2019

Although this mistake may seem laughable at face value, it clearly highlights the basic errors of the marketing team at co-op. Looking at this advertisement from an ethical perspective they’ve disregarded stereotypes completely making this either a very ignorant or a lazy attempt at marketing. This campaign received a fair amount of backlash on twitter and on other popular platforms and resulted in the ad being quickly taken down but many feel that an ounce of though in the pre-production stages could’ve avoided all of this.

To conclude, understanding the implications of ethics to digital marketing and the constantly progressive market in current times is a foundation skill needed by all marketing professionals. Being able to be understanding, adaptable and self aware allows industry professionals to avoid basic errors as presented in the case studies throughout.

All Sources Used

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