Ethics

Ethics are very important to every society and any organization. They set the scale for good and bad. Ethics should be employed by marketers in their activities including advertisement. Advertisement should conform to acceptable values set in the society. This paper examines the marketingadvertisement ethical issues and the deceptive tactics employed by FreeCreditReport.com as well as the solution to this.

Ethics marketingadvertising.
Marketing ethics is simply principles and standards that define acceptable marketing conduct as determined by the government regulations, public, private-interest groups, the firm itself and the competitors. Marketing ethics should be beyond rules and regulations. Morals should be the guide. The goodness and badness measure should be used.

Advertisements are intended to influence the targeted persons attitudes, perceptions and decisions. Richard (2003 p 276), defined subliminal advertisement as powerful advertisement that appeals to ones emotions, even unconscious, needs. Usually the subliminal advertisements are strategically placed in television dramas or even in movies. They include words, pictures, or even sounds that cannot be perceived at normal level of conscious awareness. They employ hypothetical, falsehood strategies, some advertisements exploit psychological strategies to hook people to bad habits.  

Sale people are trained on how well to use deceptive advertisement strategy. They use deception to make the customer believe that a product or service is better than that of the competitors. Sale people, also claim to be committed to the activities that will improve the welfare of the society. Such activities include donations to the poor, planting trees, sponsoring social activities and so on. Sales people are trained on how put this in the mind of the society from where they derive their customers. Under such condition people will unconsciously like to be associated with such organization where in real fact this may be mere advertising strategy to woe customers. Another skill used by sales people to influence customers is use of free giftssample.  A customer is offered free servicesproducts for the first few days and after heshe is won to the use of that product the service provider will apply the terms and conditions on the customer. Some of this terms and conditions are never disclosed to the customer unless the customer insists to have full information. They say buyer should be aware.

Freecreditreport.com claims to be offering free credit report to those who will enroll to their program. They only charge 1 due to federal restrictions for Experian credit report but they claims that this one dollar goes to donations through Donorschoose.org which is an online charity providing funds to classrooms in need.  The claim that mistakes on the credit report can lead to loss amounting to thousands makes one feel that heshe really need perfect credit report. They also claim to donate 100 of the 1 charged on their customer. This is meant to create the impression that this credit report service provider is committed to socially acceptable investments such as helping the poor. To those customers seeking to promote such organization, they will be won easily and even unconsciously. This is deceptive. This is a commercial organization and by donating all its income then how does it survive in the market Where its profit does comes from One may not be conscious about this and heshe will think by using freecreditreport.com services will mean helping the needy. They also offer a chance for one to make 7-days free trial membership in triple advantage. As a rational consumer, one will like free offers, one will then unconsciously run to join freecreditRepot.com. However, much hidden cost is attached to these free services. The sale person is trained to ensure customer do not clearly understand this. According to freecreditreport.com, if one do not cancel hisher membership during the 7-day trial period heshe will be billed 1-4.95 for each month membership continued. There is a provision of canceling membership anytime without charge during the trial period. This is meant to woe customers who are not sure about from which organization to get the service from. They also claim that FreeCreditReport.com which monitor through Experian, whos monitoring begins within 48 hours as compared to monitoring with Equifax and TransUnion which takes approximately 4 days to begin. This may be propaganda to ensure that customers do not prefer the services provided by their competitors.
Ethical issues includes false or misleading advertisement or selling techniques, lying, using gifts to influence consumers decision. The claim that monitoring with Experian is faster as compared with Equifax and TransUnion is an ethical issue. The marketing ethics is against naming your competitors and their ill as one advertise for the product and services.

There is a need to question ones advertisement. The motives should be critically analyzed so that a good solution to advertisement can be achieved. Are they honorable and decent How far are the advertisements conforming to the general accepted standards of behavior Is the advertisement respectable, acceptable and good enough How the communicator treat person also greatly play a great role.  Is heshe treating people as a means or as an end Many advertisement fall short of ethics when subjected to this scale. Advertisers are known to make promises which are in their knowledge that the advertised product will fall short of.

Advertiser should give the relevant information needed by the consumer so as to make an informed decision as far as the product or service is concerned. Sale people can also achieve a lot in advertising a product. They will interact with the consumers and any relevant information needed by the consumer will be availed by the sales people. True information about a product or service can be placed on periodical magazines. Readers will have an option on what to read and make decision out of their conscious. It will be imperative to base any advertisement on the six core values respect, responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, and citizenship.