Social Responsibility: To Be, Or Not To Be

Thomas Friedman penned the best selling book, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. It looks at globalization and its impact on commerce. Advances in technology have leveled the playing field allowing for competition from unlikely sources. With improved technology, corporations and individuals are able to promote themselves and products to the masses. A challenge for some is maintaining their ethics resulting in a lack of social responsibility.

There are a number of actions that would constitute unethical behavior. I found an article that highlights five unethical marketing practices:  (1) promoting a sub-par product as the best in class, (2) contacting people without permission, (3) misrepresenting what a customer will get, (4) refusing to address a complaint and (5) having an incomprehensible privacy policy. If you want to read the article, click on this link http://www.sitepoint.com/unethical-marketing/ . Why would a company willingly embrace such unethical behavior? In one word, greed. Some people are willing to do anything to make a sale and anything to prevent losing the sale revenue. Another highly visible topic is consumer privacy. It is a very sensitive topic that elicits palpable opinions. Companies want to take advantage of the number of customers in their database by selling their information. However, the company rarely explicitly states how it will handle a customer’s private information. Once such an action has been completed, countless consumers are left frustrated, angry and vengeful. The company apologizes and asks for forgiveness, yet adds the revenue to the bottom line. Stealth marketing, another form of unethical tactic, is the practice of hiring professional actors and bloggers to promote your products and/or you to drive profits. This practice is being targeted by the FTC.

Policies have been implemented to safeguard workers and society from corporations. Some argue that there is too much regulation that stunts growth and increases prices. Nike received negative press pertaining to child labor ex-US. Additionally, a lack of social responsibility has been determined to be the cause of two recent accidents in China. In the report, http://www.worldwatch.org/node/3859 , toxins were release into the Songhua river and 171 miners were killed due to a lack of social responsibility.

Inappropriate tactics and outcomes associated with failed social responsibility have been discussed. Has anyone gotten it right? The Disney Corporation comes to mind. When people hear the name Disney, most envision children with bright smiles on their faces with eyes full of excitement as they look at Mickey, Minnie and Cinderella; pure happiness and joy. Unfortunately, there are child predators in this world that will rob children of their innocence. Disney has developed a wonderful website for adults, teens and younger children. They understand the inherent risks associated with online activities and children. That’s why they developed a document discussing Internet safety (http://disney.go.com/guestservices/safety) for youth and a contract for parents and children.

Social responsibility is a choice. Corporations and individuals make the decision to do the right thing. Whether it’s telling the truth on a dating website or reporting failures at plants housing dangerous chemicals, doing the right thing will lead to better outcomes for all parties in the long-run. A lie or cover-up is always worse than the act itself.

http://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/ftc_rules_stealth_marketing_un.htm