Product promotional strategies:

Ethical and Legal issues

Legal – permitted by law, lawful. Ethics - that branch of philosophy dealing

with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions.

Morals - concerned with the principles or rules of right conduct or the distinction between right and wrong; ethical

Key Definitions

Legal Issues – concerned with legislation (laws) that sets rules on what you can and cannot do

Ethical issues– concerned with something that is legal, but is not necessarily moral

Legal and EthicalWhats the Difference?

Sets out the laws for promotion and advertising

Under the Trade Practices Act it is illegal to make false claims when promoting a product

The Trade Practices Act 1974

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) argued that McDonalds had breached sections 52 and 53 of the Trade Practices Act 1974 when it promoted its ‘grilled chicken burgers’

School sponsorship arrangements raise a number of ethical issues, these include1. The over commercialisation of schools2. Direct marketing to students3. The promotion of unhealthy food and drink items, and4. The influence on the school curriculum

Ethical issues

For Against

Business sponsorship agreements involving schools:

What do you think?

Creation of needs – Materialism Occurs when you continually desire new

things

Ethical issues

Do advertising campaigns A) Satisfy existing needs B) Make consumers buy something they

don’t really need

What do you think?

Answer A Answer B

Product placement is the inclusion of advertising into entertainment. Many films include examples of product placement.

Watch the video clips on product placement on the wikispaces page.

Ethical Issues

Do you consider product placement an ethical or unethical promotion strategy? Explain why

What do you think?

How you ever had someone come up to you in a shopping centre and ask you to do a quick survey about a particular product. Only to fin that they are trying to sell you that product! You’ve been ‘sugged’

Sugging is selling under the guise of survey

This is not necessarily illegal but can raise issue about breach of privacy and deception

Ethical Issues

Why is it sometimes difficult to decide whether a promotion strategy is ethical or unethical?

What do you think?