Marketing ethics is an area that is crucial when it comes to marketing because ethics guide the moral principles that regulate marketing. In a simple definition, marketing ethics are the morals of marketing. There are both good and bad behaviors that make up the morals. Over the years, marketers have used the wrong principles to boost sales, especially through advertisements and promotions where customers are not told the truth about a product so that they can buy the product. There are many organizations that have been involved in corporate scandals that touch on ethics. Corporate scandals are unethical actions or illegal dealings that a company or its representative may engage in. In corporate ethics, marketers always try to be better decision makers because they want to make ethical decisions that avoid corporate scandals.
Greenwashing Concept
Greenwashing is the kind of marketing where the marketers deceive the customers that their products and policies are environmentally friendly, so that the customers can buy the products. Greenwashing has increasingly become standard in companies, as the ‘go green’ advocacy continues worldwide. Greenwashing becomes evident in a corporation when it spends more money on advertising its “green” products compared to what it spends on environmentally related practices. In most cases, greenwashing is found in companies that produce overall harmful products or products that contain harmful substances. Such companies spend huge amounts of money advertising their products as eco-friendly so that customers can buy. In fact, some of the companies change the labels of their products to evoke a natural environment.
Greenwashing is the systematic deception of the buying public about the ‘greenness’ of a product or service. It is a deeper issue than a logo on a product label. A logo is a symptom of the amount of environmentally friendly embellishment given to a product, which when discovered by the consumer as misleading or untruthful, is leading to the slow eroding of confidence in the assertions made by manufacturers, service providers and the advertising agencies that represent them. As consumers are becoming more aware of effective sustainability practices, they are suffering from a loss of confidence in the marketing spin; and the environment is feeling the impact of the lack of sustainability in the manufacture of the product and/or service.
The unethical side of greenwashing is the fact that companies deceive customers to buy products that they would not buy, or products that may have adverse effects on them without knowing because they have been deceived by the advertisers. A company, for instance, may sell a product that has harmful chemicals, but fail to reveal the presence of such chemicals to the customers. Instead, the company tells the customers that the product is eco-friendly.
There are a number of concerns with greenwashing’s influence on customers. For instance, the client is influenced to buy a product that is “green.’ Once they buy and use it, the harmful chemicals in the product cause adverse effects on the customer and create individual and public concern. Legally, greenwashing goes against ethical rules, while others sell products that may be considered illegal because they are not what the marketers suggest. Morally, greenwashing is a morally wrong concept because it is all about deception, yet deception is an act that is against the moral principles of companies and the society as a whole. Ethically, greenwashing is considered unethical due to all its adverse effects, such as deception and its undue influence on the customers.
From a business perspective, greenwashing is a serious threat to the reputation and profitability of a company. Making false corporate social responsibility claims can compromise the relationship between a company and its customers. For example, when clients learn that the goods they purchase do not meet relevant health, ingredient, and environmental standards, they can turn to rival brands. Such choices can be detrimental to a company as they can damage its reputation, consequently making it difficult to achieve higher sales and profit. In addition, claims over violation of health and environmental standards can lead to costly and time-consuming legal battles, which may attract punitive fines and sanctions.
Admittedly, greenwashing as a conscious effort to deceive the public into believing that a company aligns with sustainable policies when it, in fact, does not, is highly unethical. Arguably, the specified form of deception can be considered an instance of colonization since these are ultimately the vulnerable and marginalized communities that will suffer the outcomes. For example, the infamous case of the Flint water crisis, namely, drinking water contamination and the subsequent lead poisoning, has affected the African American communities to the greatest extent. Therefore, there are reasons to believe that greenwashing is, indeed, a colonial practice. For this reason, efforts must be made to ensure that organizations focus on integrating the principles of diversity, multiculturalism, and ethical responsibility into their decision-making. Thus, vulnerable groups and communities will be spared numerous risks to their well-being.
Following the current climate crisis, several corporations have been accused of “greenwashing,” or the deceptive technique of portraying products as environmentally friendly. In particular, the 2015 Volkswagen emission cheating scandal has raised questions about whether the company’s sustainability strategy was an actual effort to lessen its environmental impact. Volkswagen’s actions proved beyond a doubt that the firm was more concerned with profit and reputation than actual sustainability.
Volkswagen’s “clean diesel” campaign was later found to be a misleading marketing ploy despite being a crucial part of the company’s sustainability strategy. The company outfitted its diesel engines were with software to evade emissions tests, giving the impression that the vehicles were releasing less pollution than they actually were. Thus, Volkswagen was able to pass off their diesel cars as environmentally friendly while they were causing air pollution. In 2017, the company admitted its wrongdoings and was forced to settle for $4.3 billion. These activities also undermined the confidence of the public and customers, who thought the business was making sincere efforts to cut emissions and safeguard the environment. These facts speak in favor of the conclusion that Volkswagen’s actions can be considered greenwashing.