TJ Vasquez
It’s incredibly challenging to create and publish ads that target audiences are going to like, and the reason is usually the fact that people don’t really like ads. Be that as it may, businesses need ways to promote their products and services to their customers, so ads are not going anywhere soon. However, there are significant differences between good, ethical ads and poor, unethical ads. Audiences are more likely to respond positively to ethical marketing tactics in ads, so if you want to engage with your audience rather than alienate them, follow ethical marketing tactics.
What is Ethical Marketing?
Ethical marketing can be defined as the practices that businesses use to promote products and/or services in ways that are both honest and accountable. To implement ethical marketing and advertising protocols, businesses and marketing teams alike need to carefully consider how their marketing endeavors affect consumers and society.
Ethical marketing includes, but is not limited to the following components: truthfulness in advertising, sustainability, responsibility, and transparency. We’ll delve deeper into the best practices to follow in order to uphold each of these pillars in the next section.
For now, it’s important to understand that audiences and society as a whole have become much more interested in business ethics and they tend to support companies that make substantial efforts to be an ethical organization. As such, many companies have embraced the idea of ethical marketing and, in turn, they’ve pivoted their business practices in order to build a more trusting, respectable relationship with their customer bases.
Ethical Marketing Best Practices
To create ads that reach your target audience and motivate them (in a positive way) to purchase your products or services, employ ethical marketing best practices. These include respect, transparency, authenticity, inclusivity, sustainability, security, and accountability.
Respect
A major component of ethical marketing involves treating consumers and general audiences with respect. Nobody likes to be talked down to or disregarded. This is especially so when this treatment is coming from a company that’s offering them various goods or services. Treat both your audience and outside viewers as you would treat someone that you know and care about.
Transparency
Transparency is characterized by being open and honest about the product, service, or organization you’re representing. If you have a high-quality product, there’s no reason to embellish or hide certain features in ways that don’t accurately reflect the item at hand.
When you’re advertising, do your best to be honest, straightforward, and fair to your customers.
Authenticity
People typically appreciate when an organization clearly has human beings working behind the scenes. When a business behaves similarly to how a person would (ex: when a business has a personality, a voice, and an identity), audiences identify with that business. Do your best to ensure that your organization doesn’t appear too flat and faceless. It’s best to showcase the unique individuals that have made your company what it is. Taking this approach will help your brand stand out against your competitors.
Inclusivity
Every business has a target audience, which is a standard part of growing and succeeding in your company’s specific niche. However, while you’re focusing on your target audience, do what you can to avoid “othering” people who have either not yet purchased your products, or who exist outside of your target audience. If your product is geared toward a specific audience, it’s okay to market that way, just so long as you avoid excluding other people.
Examples:
- Inclusive marketing: Secret deodorant’s “strong enough for a man, but made for a woman” slogan.
- Exclusionary marketing: Many medication commercials that showcase the individual’s condition as burdensome to others, such as the “Gotta Go” bladder control medication ads from the early 2000s.
Sustainability
Consumers tend to appreciate businesses that make an effort to protect our environment. Much of today’s society is concerned about climate change. As such, adopting sustainable business practices can make quite a difference for companies that want to get into ethical marketing.
Lead by example and recycle, reduce waste, and adopt more eco-friendly production tactics.
Security
Caring about your audience’s safety and security is another great step if you want to advertise ethically. Focus on privacy protection, consumer health, and overall safety when marketing your products to an audience.
For example, if you’re selling an online product, mention the cybersecurity measures that your organization has taken to protect consumers from malicious online attacks.
Accountability
A business that’s able to step forward, make commitments, and stick to them is a business people can get behind. If you make a mistake, for example, be willing to admit to it and from there, set forth procedures that will prevent the same mistakes from being made in the future.
If you want to begin a new initiative or incentive amongst your audience, do your part as well. Let’s say you’re encouraging your audience to consume fewer fossil fuels or waste less water at home. Instead of encouraging them as an uninvolved corporation, take part in those activities right alongside your audience.
Testing for Ethical Marketing in Your Ads
If you’re creating ad content and you want to ensure that you’re practicing ethical marketing, test the content yourself.
You know your company, and if you’re maintaining good brand authority, you know your audience as well. View your content from the perspective of someone who knows your brand and typically respects it. Then ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this ad waste my time or does it make important points?
- Is this ad potentially offensive?
- Is the ad truthful?
- If you didn’t know anything about the brand, what would this ad suggest to you?
- Does the ad accomplish the goal you’re working toward?
- Is this ad going to annoy people?
- Are you living the message that you’re portraying to your customers?
If you’ve answered these questions in ways that satisfy you and your team, you’ve probably got a decently ethical piece of advertising.
Ethical Marketing Issues to Avoid
When pursuing ethical marketing tactics, there are a few things you need to avoid. Take a look at the following points in order to learn about the sort of content you’re better off keeping out of your marketing content.
Deceptive Tactics
Don’t lie to your audience, in fact, don’t even stretch the truth with your audience. Tell them what your product can do, and let the quality and ingenuity that went into its creation speak for itself. For example, if you’re selling a vitamin drink mix, explain in clear terms what the product is intended to accomplish. Don’t fill your ad with flowery language that leaves viewers confused about what to expect. Your ads should cover which vitamins are in the drink mix, how much is in a serving, and what those vitamin concoctions are supposed to accomplish.
This tactic is much more ethical than suggesting that the product will make consumers grow fuller hair or suddenly become the most popular person at the office.
Stereotyping
There’s a time and a place for stereotypical humor. Because it’s so difficult to get right, that time is not now and that place is not in your ads. Avoid stereotyping people in ways that are either intended to put them down or bully them into purchasing your products.
Example:
You don’t want to be like the microwaveable Ballpark Frank commercial that portrayed fathers as helpless fools that can’t cook anything that isn’t easy to just heat up in the microwave. That sort of ad content likely did not have fathers clamoring for the Ballpark Franks in the hotdog aisle.
Confusing Data
Try to remain as clear and consistent as you can with your data, especially when it comes to pricing. Posting ads that are “technically” true despite their confusing nature is not likely to net you more sales. Instead, your audience is going to be annoyed when they discover that they’ve been misled.
If you’re an internet service provider and you want to market your monthly wireless internet service, list your prices as clearly as possible. If you have a 3-month introductory price, it’s okay to mention it in your ads, but don’t make it seem like this price is what consumers can expect to pay for internet service long-term.
Example:
- Clear Pricing– “$60/month for [specific service package] after 3 months of promotional pricing at $45/month.”
- Deceptive Pricing– “$45/month for [specific service package]” with no mention of the promotional pricing or regular pricing after the promotional period expires
Negative Messaging
Political ads are often the worst culprits when it comes to negative messages in ad content. Rather than discussing the merits of the organization, product, or service being advertised, these ads make their content based on attacking or discrediting a competitor.
These ads represent the worst types of negative messaging. However, negative ads also take the form of those that imply or directly state that the consumer will “miss out” if they don’t purchase your product or service.
Don’t do this. It’s oftentimes just cruel and it does nothing to promote the benefits that the product or service has to offer.
Marketing content doesn’t have to be boring in order to be ethical. All brands need to do in order to be ethical is make an effort to do the right thing, both as a company and as individuals who operate the company. Be honest, understanding, inclusive, and clear when you’re advertising your products or services and it should be relatively easy to use ethical marketing practices.
If you’d like help in creating ethical, engaging content, reach out to Content Cucumber. Our talented team of writers has what it takes to make your marketing efforts tick all the right boxes. Book a demo with us at your convenience.
