Chapter Nine Creative Execution: Art and Copy Arens Schaefer Weigold Chapter Nine Creative Execution: Art and Copy Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.

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LINGNAN UNIVERSITY MKT2231 Advertising and IMC 2015-16 First Term Instructor: Mr. Steve Tong Office: SEK101/6. Arens, Schaefer, Weigold M: Advertising, Second edition, McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Marketing communication (or promotional) opportunities, include a statement of.

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2. Increase- often a lot (Arens, Schaefer & Weigold, 2009, p.445). Direct response advertising includes the prime media like; television, newspapers and magazines. Direct advertising is designed to obtain a direct response such as an order, enquiry or request for a visit. (Jobber, 2007) Sale of products through catalogues.

Creativity in advertising sparks emotion and motivates a prospect or consumer to react. The content of an advertisement is responsible for informing, persuading, and reminding—ultimately influencing buying behavior. The design is directly responsible for attracting attention.

It is important to engage the viewer and peak their interest all the while establishing credibility building desire. Everything from images, graphics, text, and colors contribute to influencing buying behavior. The three components of a message strategy, verbal, nonverbal, and technical, combine to describe how an idea will be communicated. In the case of the multi-media communication channels (i.e. Television, internet), the verbal elements are derived from copy and converted into a script and delivered as a sound byte.

When the medium is print, the verbal elements are designed to be read and understood. The nonverbal elements of a message strategy encompass visuals, such as graphics, and their usage specific to the media.

A message strategy developed for radio would not include nonverbal elements. It would, however, include the technical element. Slogans, jingles, contact information, and even disclaimers are considered members of the technical element within a message strategy. The combination of the message strategy elements are intended to engage a buyer and effect their behavior.

The message strategy continues the vision identified in the creative strategy to cascade a common message across different media as part of an overall advertising strategy. References: Arens, W., Schaefer, D., & Weigold, M. Essentials of Contemporary Advertising. McGraw-Hill Irwin, New York. Sometimes, it takes a village to make a decision More often than not, a consumer’s decision to purchase a product or service is influenced by various individuals or groups in assorted roles. In many situations, individuals or groups play a number of specific roles (Solomon, 2008). Understanding each role and how it affects a purchase decision is an advantage to any marketer.

Children, for example, acting in the role of initiator or influencer sometimes manipulates parents into making purchases. However, the initiator is only one of several contributors in the decision-making process. How Does it Happen? In the following example, a multi-role decision making process involves both internal and external influences. A typical American household––Your thirteen year old daughter comes home from school sobbing and announces she has no friends. Being the good parent that you are, you ask her why.

She’s says she’s just a nobody. You ask her why she feels she’s a nobody. She says “Because I’m the only kid in class who doesn’t have a cell phone.” Kindly grandpa says, “Well we can’t have that little princess. I’ll get you one for your birthday.” She says, “I have to have unlimited text messaging too.” A child feels pressure from friends to join in the ranks of the cellular community. The child, hoping to convince her parents to buy her a cell phone is positioned as the benefactor of the decision. The grandparent is providing additional pressure on the parents by assuming the role of the accommodator.

The kids in the young girl’s class combine efforts and take on the role of facilitator. It is the peer pressure from the children in class that is the catalyst for the decision. Although influenced by all of the other roles, the parent is ultimately the decision maker. This example goes beyond parental yielding and follows the pattern of multi-role decision making.

While common in family life, organizational decision making follows many of the same traits. Organizational decision making can involve many individuals in one or more roles including, initiator, gatekeeper, influencer, buyer, and user.

Family as well as organizational decisions is subject to many levels of influence, including peer-pressure. Social conditions also play a role in the decision making process. A cell phone to an adult is a necessity, whereas with a child it is more closely related to a status symbol. Every child in the class with a cell phone is in a different social class than those without. The parents become vicariously a member of the same less-fortunate social class as their child. This offers additional pressure on the parents to buy the child a cell phone. Pressure-proofing a child is nearly impossible.

Adolescence children are susceptible to influences from both parent-pressures and peer-pressures. When confronted by these two choices, a child will choose peer-conformity (Brittain, 1963). As a result, the parents become the minority voice in the decision making process.

It is important to understand when it is beneficial to market to multiple decision makers and influencers. It is never a bad idea to have someone on the “inside” evangelizing your products or services. There is a very good reason grocers and product placement experts reserve the bottom two shelves for the Frosted Flakes and competing sugary cereals. It places the products directly in line-of-site of the freckle-faced influencer for this particular category of products. References Brittain, C. Adolescent choices and parent-peer cross-pressures.

Electronic version. American Sociological Review. 28(3), 385-391. Retrieved December 30, 2014, from Solomon, M.

Consumer behavior buying, having, and being (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. What is Rhetoric & Stereotypes? Politicians, individuals with tattoos, feminists, and senior citizens are groups within our society with little in common. While there could be overlap between these four groups, such as senior citizens with tattoos, or feminists practicing politics–there are four generalizations distinguishing these groups. The exaggerated and oversimplified opinions used to define these groups are known as stereotypes.

When stereotypes take on the form of rhetoric language they become insulting and offensive to the group being described. Moreover, accepting a stereotype without the benefit of facts is lazy, irresponsible, and depriving our own intellect. The phrase “senior citizen” is a euphemism. It is a combination of words with a positive meaning used to describe our elders.

Specifically, it is used when referring to individuals at or over the age of retirement. The euphemism, senior citizen, is quickly converted from a positive phrase to one of negativity when described by a stereotype. One version of this stereotype defines a senior citizen as an elderly, slow moving, health challenged, frequent occupant of the passing lane, with an annual pass to the local shuffleboard courts. This version is localized to the state of Florida where many senior citizens choose to retire and enjoy life. Although geography separates several versions of this stereotype, a few of the components are common. Senior citizens are weak, elder, and set in their ways. While there may be some truth to these stereotypes, as it relates to a few senior citizens, it is unfair for the rest to be pigeonholed into the same group.

For several decades feminists have endured a single, simple stereotype. The culture of the 1970s is responsible for the current stereotype. This stereotype paints the negative picture of a feminist as a masculine female, most likely a lesbian, with a complete wardrobe of plaid flannel shirts, and no male friends. There is complete disregard for the true purpose and beliefs of feminists. As with the negative stereotype of a senior citizen, this interpretation of a feminist is insulting and narrow-minded.

There is no truth in the common stereotype of a feminist. A feminist is someone, male or female, who believes in gender equality—nothing more. This stereotype was most likely derived from a group of individuals who did not understand, or agree with, the purpose and vision of feminism. As tattoos become more mainstream they continue to be associated with certain stereotypes. All versions of stereotypes describing tattooed persons cast a shadow of negativity on both males and females. Stereotypes are especially cruel to a female with tattoos.

Recent attempts have been made to shine positive light on tattoos. The euphemism “body art” is used to imply that a tattoo on a female is more about an appreciation of art rather than an indication of sexual promiscuity. Men with tattoos are perceived as rebellious, irresponsible, unintelligent, and sometimes even criminal (Hudson, n.d.).

Everyone does not share this interpretation of a tattooed person. Younger generations do not judge a person with a tattoo-riddled body—they simply accept them for what’s behind the ink. Body piercings follow a similar stereotype. It is not uncommon to see a person with tattoos also sporting a few piercings. A politician is stereotyped as a habitual self-serving liar with an ego quenched only by four years of occupying the desk in a certain oval office. While this stereotype is true for a few politicians, the rest are guilty by association. Most of the politicians who have served throughout our history are recognized as statesmen—and rightly so.

Interesting enough is the fact that attorneys share a similar stereotype. It would be worth investigating the possibility that only politicians who were previously lawyers live up to the stereotype.

The stereotype of a politician is negative and insulting, but it does not necessarily mean it is false. There is a lot of rhetoric surrounding politicians, tattooed persons, feminists, and senior citizens.

These groups are all victims of several fallacies some of which are unjust and borderline prejudice. Side Note: It is morally irresponsible to contribute to or encourage stereotyping. This and all of the supporting rhetoric are designed to slant the truth about these groups. While there are probably a few members of each group that could be the poster child for the group’s stereotype, the entire group suffers—society suffers.

Stereotypes are unfortunately derived from little to no real facts about a particular group of individuals. These same stereotypes are rarely questioned and always used in everyday conversation, and everyday marketing communication.

There are, however, several methods used by responsible marketers to identify the characteristics of individuals to produce effective marketing results. Data Modeling & Persona Development Using demographic, psychographic and geographic information, a savvy marketer can create an accurate profile for just about anyone–including politicians. Information is gathered from various sources, appended and associated with the basic contact information for every individual in a marketing list. This extended information is used to identify specific segments and unique characteristics within each segment. There are several mainstream sources for this information, most of which originates from U.S. Census data and individual surveys. Not every piece of information is available for every individual.

This is when marketers rely on data modeling techniques to “fill in the blanks.” Two common approaches to deriving missing information are linear and logistic regression. These modeling methods use information from other records in a marketing list to “predict” and populate missing data. While not 100% accurate, it is more effective than using “default” or “generic” information–as with the use of the broad net approach of stereotyping. At the end of the day, the goal is to develop a persona for the purpose of creating a message strategy to communicate on a one-to-one level with each and every person in a marketing list–the target audience. A target audience is comprised of many different personas.

Some with tattoos, others are politicians but all are consumers. An inexperienced marketer’s approach of stereotyping will exclude many individuals likely to want and/or need a particular product or service. Effective marketing begins with sound data modeling, and a complete understanding of the various personas contained within your marketing list. Stereotype-driven marketing can only be produced for the masses. True one-to-one marketing requires each and every communication to be timely, relevant and understood by the recipient.

Speaking to each individual at a level he or she can understand gives the best chance of a marketing communication transitioning from conversation to communication. References Hudson, Karen (n.d.). Tattooed & Pierced – Breaking the Stereotype. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from About.com website: Moore, B. N., & Parker, R.

Critical Thinking, 8 th Edition. Boston, MA: The McGraw-Hill Companies senior citizen. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from Dictionary.com website: Wallflower (2007). “Feminist” is not an insult. Retrieved March 16, 2009, from ProgressiveU.org website. Communication, no matter the media, requires a sender and a recipient—a delivery mechanism and a target.

The recipient, or target, is responsible for listening to the communication. Without listening there cannot be comprehension or understanding. Listening provides a springboard of information from which to build the framework of a conversation. The only problem with listening is that there simply is not enough of it. The result of not properly listening while communicating is misspoken, misrepresented, or ill-timed responses.

Listening is a five-step process consisting of listening preparation, receiving, constructing meaning, responding, and remembering (Hybels & Weaver, 2007). The first three steps are crucial. Skipping a step can be disastrous. How accurate of a response can be derived without first preparing to listen followed by receiving information? There could not be enough information to accurately construct a meaning. The first step, preparation, is the foundation for listening.

Having the proper mindset and environment are critical. The second step in the active process of listening is receiving. Hybels & Weaver (2007) define receiving as the process of taking in, acquiring, or accepting (p. It is this step where we typically fall short in the art of communication. Receiving, while mostly associated with the hearing sense, is really a function of all five senses.

Using a combination of each of the five senses is active listening. Another form of listening, described by Dalmar Fisher (1999) as “reflective listening,” collects information and interacts with the speaker.

A typical interaction might include repeating or rephrasing the information so as to better understand the meaning. Listening orientation is an important process for gathering, filtering, and reacting to information. The four components of listening orientation are, “empathy, acceptance, congruence, and concreteness” (Fisher, 1999).

Empathy, the most difficult component, involves listening accurately and non-judgmentally. Our natural instinct of agreeing or disagreeing based entirely on our own point of view creates an empathy barrier. As long as there are emotions drawn from personal experiences influencing opinion on what we hear, pure empathy is impossible. Congruence, if practiced by the listener, can encourage the speaker to become more open and direct. Congruence refers to “the openness, frankness, and genuineness on the part of the listener” (Borgatti, 2000). Without congruence, empathy becomes difficult.

If you are holding a grudge or upset with the speaker, it is nearly impossible to listen with an open mind. Acceptance in communication refers to the unconditional respect a listener has for a speaker. Proper active listening identifies acceptance as one of the most important of the four components. Acceptance is closely related to empathy (Borgatti, 2000). If the listener indicates acceptance, the speaker will use more candor. The final component of listening orientation is concreteness. Being vague in a conversation tends to encourage a volley of abstract phrases as opposed to getting directly to the point and being effective.

Sometimes the topic of a conversation might be too sensitive to discuss causing communication to have little to no concreteness. The four components of listening–empathy, acceptance, congruence, and concreteness—are important for active listening. Moreover, proper active listening is most effective when the speaker recognizes all four components practiced by the listener. Reflection, or reflective listening, reinforces listening orientation. Specifically, reflective responses provide the indication needed by a speaker to recognize an active listener.

Borgatti (2000) identifies the following principles of reflective listening. More listening than talking is a difficult principle to follow—especially for outgoing individuals.

Effective listeners ignore impersonal, distant, or abstract comments—and only respond to communication that is relevant and personal. They restate or clarify what the speaker has communicated. Proponents of reflective listening try to understand the feelings contained in what others are communicating and strive to understand the speaker’s frame of reference. They do not use their own frame of reference to interpret what is being communicated. The main thing to remember is to respond only with acceptance and empathy. In the words of Stephen Seckler (2008), “Listening is more powerful than talking.” A reflective listener responds to feelings as well as content. It is important to consider the substance of a speaker’s message before composing a response.

Proper reflective listening requires the listener to respond to not only positive comments, but negative and ambivalent as well. Leveraging the four components of listening orientation will ensure a well-rounded reflective listener. While stereotyped reactions and pretending to understand are detrimental to the success of reflective listening, not being able to recognize the nonverbal clues means only capturing partial messages. Professor Albert Mehrabian’s (2007) communication model shows only 7% of meaning in a communication is the words that are spoken. The way the words are spoken are responsible for 38% of the meaning in a communication.

The lion share of meaning in a communication is non-verbal. Facial expression, posture, and gestures account for 55% of the meaning in a communication. Non-verbal communication accounts for as much as 93% of the meaning in a communication (Hybels & Weaver, 2007). Mehrabian’s model has become one of the most widely referenced statistics in communication. The theory is particularly useful in explaining the importance of meaning (Chapman, 2009). With 7% of meaning in communication coming from words, along with 38% from tone and inflection, hearing is responsible for less than half of the total meaning of a communication.

This leaves four other senses to help properly interpret a communication—to listen. Hearing is not the only sense capable of listening.

All five senses are used in active listening. Silent signals are sent at the same time a verbal communication is taking place. In many cases, these non-verbal messages are unintentional (Hybels & Weaver, 2007).

Having the ability to read, understand, and interpret these signals are part of an overall listening strategy. As Hybels & Weaver (2007) point out, “to be unaware of non-verbal communication is to miss a significant portion of what goes on in any communication situation” (p. Using all five senses to listen—we need more of it. Following all of the facets of receiving information in the five steps of listening is constructing meaning. With all of the information captured through various senses, a meaning is derived.

Properly interpreting the cues, signals, and impulses requires the full and active use of all the senses (Hybels & Weaver, 2007). Misinterpreting any of the information could lead to unnecessary or inaccurate responses.

Responding and remembering are the final two elements in the listening preparation model. Both of these elements are optional. Responding is an important aspect of two-way communication.

Listening preparation, receiving, and constructing meaning are all pre-processes of responding. Remembering, while an option, is important for reflecting back on a communication. The speed at which we communicate can make it difficult to construct meaning. Retrospect becomes crucial, but only possible if we are able to retain information from a communication. Listening and hearing are two different components of communicating. You hear with your ears, but listen with all of your senses. Hearing is the act of perceiving sound by the ear, while listening requires concentration so that your brain processes meaning from words and sentences (Treuer, 2006).

Most people tend to be hard of listening as opposed to hard of hearing. Listening expands on hearing when we pay attention to the meaning of what we hear. To listen properly, we need to be open to the meaning of the other person’s words. We need to “enter into the experience those words are meant to convey” (Sherven & Sniechowski, 2009). Listening is not automatic. It takes a concentrated effort to listen.

Sometimes we choose to listen selectively. Selective attention is sometimes worse than not listening at all. Only absorbing bits and pieces of information and filling in the rest with your imagination can lead to an unjust response. Hybels & Weaver (2007) define selective attention as, “the ability to focus perception” (p. Everyone wants to be understood.

Sometimes too much information in a short amount of time makes it nearly impossible to construct meaning. Few people can give attention to a message for more than 20 seconds (Hybels & Weaver, 2007). Listening is an art.

Developing a mastery of this art takes commitment and practice. Improving your listening efficiency is an ongoing process. Our listening efficiency is affected by our own culture, lifestyle, and emotion. “Effective listening is knowing the difference between what is said, what you hear, and what is meant” (Steele, 2009).

Our minds have the ability to listen many times faster than a person can talk. Steele (2009) identifies four stages of listening to become an effective listener.

By looking directly at the person speaking, we can better sense and interpret the message. Sensing, the first stage, is learning to read body language, tone, and inflection. Interpreting the message is closely related to the receiving element of listening preparation. Evaluating or understanding and ultimately responding to a communication round out the four stages of listening (Steele, 2009). There should be a certain amount of responsibility on the part of the speaker. Realizing there are four listening styles, a speaker should be able to communicate with everyone.

The analytical listeners will be thoughtful and skeptical while attaching themselves to every word. The driver style of listener requires a speaker to be at a faster pace and quicker to the point. Amiable listeners appear to hang onto every word and care about the speaker. An expressive listener likes to be involved and be a part of what is going on (Steele, 2009). A breakdown in communication can affect many aspects of your life. An inability to properly communicate can be devastating to both personal and professional relationships. There are noted differences by gender in the methods and effectiveness of communication.

The average woman uses 25,000 words per day, while a man uses less than half (Steele, 2009). This could explain certain problems in a relationship. The non-verbal aspects of communication vary drastically by gender. Women in North America initiate more eye contact than men (Hybels & Weaver, 2007). Because of this, it is more apparent that women have a better chance of interpreting the 93% of a communication that is non-verbal. Eye contact means observing, reading, and interpreting, facial expressions, posture, and gestures that accompany words.

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Women prove to be better listeners because they use several senses simultaneously to communicate. For example, women use touch more than men while communicating (Hybels & Weaver, 2007).

Overall, listening is more than hearing words, nodding, smiling, and even responding. The important thing to remember is that it is not always necessary to respond. It is, however extremely important to listen.

The goal is to open the meaning of the words we hear by listening with all of our senses. “It is no longer about sound but about the thoughts, feelings, point of view, expectations, memories, sensations, beliefs—the whole of the other person—or at least as much of the whole as is available at the moment” (Sherven & Sniechowski, 2009).

Listening takes practice and intention. Listening expands on hearing and leverages all of the five senses to properly interpret a communication. The benefits of listening, as opposed to hearing, are endless. Communication is an integral part of our lives.

In our relationships, we communicate one on one with our partner. The level, quality, and frequency of communication in business can affect the bottom line. Whether resolving problems, socializing, or closing a business deal, you cannot succeed without communicating.

Listening makes simple communication effective communication. Proper listening techniques–empathy, acceptance, congruence, and concreteness—guarantee effective communication. Anxiety and cognitive dissonance are two barriers that could keep us from listening and properly comprehending a communication.

Other barriers include laziness, closed-mindedness, insincerity, boredom, and inattentiveness. Listening becomes easier if the person speaking uses techniques such as assertiveness and getting to the point before the audience loses interest.

While we cannot control how people communicate with us, we can choose to listen. When interaction is required, we can be better prepared to compose a response. We should all communicate with individuals at a level they understand. And above all, we should listen. Simply put, there should be more of it.

References Borgatti, Stephen. Active Listening. MB119: Interpersonal Communication. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from Chapman, Alan.

Mehrabian’s Communication Research. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from Fisher, Dalmar.

Communication in Organizations. Mumbai, India: Jaico Publishing House. Hybels, Saundra & Weaver II, Richard L. Communicating Effectively. Boston, MA: McGraw Hill Companies, Inc.

Mehrabian, Albert. Nonverbal Communication. Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, Inc. Seckler, Stephen. Counsel to Counsel: Listening is More Powerful than Talking.

Retrieved May 10, 2009, from hore-powerful-than-talking.html Sherven, Judith & Sniechowski, Jim. There is a Real Difference Between Hearing and Listening. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from WomenTodayMagazine.com at Steele, Jonathan.

The Art of Listening. Retrieved May 11, 2009, from Treuer, Paul. Retrieved May 10, 2009, from http://www.d.umn.edu/kmc/student/loon/acad/strat/sshearing.html. A marketing company is faced with a plethora of moral challenges. Considering that it is the responsibility of a marketing company to provide services on behalf of other companies, it stands to reason that any unethical decision or approach reflects on the company being represented by the marketing firm. Moreover, antitrust concerns are always prevalent due to the fact that the marketing company has access to internal knowledge of many companies—some of which are competitors in the same market. Unlike other types of businesses, a marketing company must be trusted with a client’s most valuable asset—their customer data.

In many cases, customer records for several companies are comingled and hosted on a common platform. The marketing company is responsible for protecting the integrity of the information, but at the same time ensure that the proprietary information is not shared with competitors. All the while, the marketing company is expected to create revenue-producing campaigns. A marketing company’s success is based entirely on the performance and effectiveness of their strategies and campaigns.

If a marketing company represents several clients in the same industry, there is an inescapable moral dilemma. The marketing strategy for one company could benefit from knowing the marketing strategy and corporate direction of another. The marketing industry is crowded and fierce. Pressure to retain a customer could lead to unethical decisions by campaign managers and salespersons within a marketing company.

The temptation for a salesperson to leverage information from one account for the purpose of producing revenue-generating campaigns for another is not uncommon. Pressure from upper management, coupled with personal financial responsibilities, can influence the salesperson to make immoral decisions. If caught, the individuals responsible can face serious legal problems. Velasquez (2006) defines one of the five characteristics of moral standards as one “not established by law or legislature” (p. Marketing ethics are based on—among other things—advertising truthfulness and honesty, and privacy in database marketing.

Antitrust laws were designed to allow businesses to compete fairly. Having access to a competitor’s playbook—in this case, their marketing strategy—exposes an unfair advantage. The Federal Trade Commission created the Bureau of Competition to promote competition and protect consumers (Feinstein, 2010). The Compliance Division of the Bureau of Competition would be responsible for investigating complaints and enforcing the laws. Any legislation, passed or pending, should be in the foreground of all decisions made by an agency in the marketing industry. A proven record of capabilities and performance is imperative, but not at the risk of a bad reputation. A marketing company that cannot be trusted to represent the best interest of their client’s will not sustain business.

Moreover, the same effort and expertise should be used on every marketing campaign—regardless of the client. Ethical guidelines are critical to establishing a trustworthy reputation in the marketing industry. Enforcing the guidelines is critical for maintaining the reputation and business. Before ethical guidelines can be established, research regarding ethics in the marketing industry must be conducted. Whether the research is empirical or conceptual, the results will be enough to formulate a series of ethical guidelines for the marketing industry.

Research should continue until there is enough information regarding all current ethical dilemmas in order to establish an internal corporate ethical policy. The most prevalent ethical issues facing the marketing industry are product safety and reliability, advertising truthfulness and honesty, fairness in pricing, and forthrightness in selling (Murphy, 2002).

The American Marketing Association has established a code of ethics that provides a strong framework for which an internal, company-specific, code of ethics can be developed. The company’s ethical guidelines should include details regarding product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, and market research. Each area has its own unique ethical challenges. For example, ethic issues regarding promotion would encompass false and misleading advertising. Coercion is associated with the distribution or supply-chain process. The code of ethics needs to take into consideration every aspect of the business. Marketing research has always been under the microscope of morally sensitive consumers.

No one is comfortable giving personal information to a complete stranger. A corporate policy on ethics would offer support to the researchers in the field, and help alleviate any concerns by the survey audience. A published policy on the storage, usage, and privacy of information collected in the field will put at rest any concerns by the general audience. Additionally, an acceptable usage policy could serve as an addendum to the corporate code of ethics. Corporate ethical guidelines concerning antitrust issues are becoming more important today than ever before. While the current code of ethics developed by The American Marketing Association concentrates on issues affecting consumers, there is little written regarding antitrust or business-to-business relationships. Legislation on the subject of antitrust has been in effect for over one hundred years.

The aim of antitrust legislation is to create a level playing field for competitors (Fontenot, 2010). At the same time, however, antitrust laws and corporate adopted ethic guidelines are designed to protect the organization. A corporate guideline of ethics needs to go beyond the issues covered by legislation. The Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890, the Clayton Act of 1914, the Robinson-Patman Act of 1936, and the Federal Trade Commission Act of 1914 together ensure inter-firm competition without interfering with the spirit and creativity of the marketing industry. Standard Oil, Alcoa, American Tobacco, IBM, and Microsoft—to name a few—have faced charges for antitrust violations. These situations may have been avoided if an internal corporate code of ethics was developed and enforced. The company’s code of ethics should be a culmination of two moral philosophies—moral idealism and utilitarianism.

The moral idealism approach assumes many expectations drawn from industry standards to establish a universal acceptance approach (Sobel, 2010). The utilitarian approach will take into consideration social costs and benefits of the policies defined in the corporate code of ethics (Velasquez, 2006, p. The company’s code of ethics will ultimately define the ethical culture of the organization. At one time or another, every company is faced with moral challenges. The need for scruples spans every department at every level. The need for written policies regarding the company’s position on certain ethical issues is crucial. A company-wide adopted code of ethics demonstrates the company’s moral responsibility.

This is not only important to the employees, but many clients and prospects insist on such a policy. It is not unreasonable for a potential client to ask for documentation concerning service levels, continuity plans, and ethical standards. Certain types of business conducted within a marketing company are bound by pre-existing regulations. For example, if a marketing company were to produce a campaign that leveraged information—such as personal health data—the HIPA regulations would need to be followed. Similarly, under certain conditions, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 would be enforced to ensure the proper reporting of financial information resulting from campaigns.

A formal code of ethics should include sections covering the acceptable use of the company’s inter- or intra-net. A policy explaining the proper etiquette and protocol of communicating electronically is very important. A large percent of daily communication between employees and clients happens via email. The casualness of an email message sometimes lends itself to the inadvertent mention of sensitive company or client information. Electronic communication has become the standard. This method of communication, however, exposes several vulnerabilities and concerns.

Security of everyday, casual email messages is non-existent. The corporate code of ethics should address problems related to the flippant attitude sometimes portrayed in electronic communication. Casual comments can very easily be taken out of context and leveraged against a company for proving a lack of ethical standards. Email etiquette and voice mail policies—at the corporate level—need to be well documented, distributed, and enforced as part of a corporate code of ethics. Email messages are no longer used only to send quick messages to the next cubicle (Woloch, 1999). Important corporate communications, such as policies and contract negotiations, are distributed across email channels.

The simplistic nature of email communication lends itself to vulnerabilities as it is used more often to communicate sensitive information. One of the most important considerations for adopting a code of ethics is current technology. New technologies are realized every day. Companies are beginning to leverage technologies that did not exist a decade ago. Social networking, instant messaging, and text messaging are becoming mainstream communication tools for businesses in every industry. The code of ethics adopted by any company should include current issues that are easy to understand and enforce. The code of ethics for a marketing company will need to expand beyond the typical policies for interoffice communication.

Social media has become a viable communication channel for corporate marketing and advertising. A company code of ethics should never be a company secret, but rather the roadmap for morality. Every employee, at every level, within the corporate structure should be trained to understand, abide by, and enforce the company’s code of ethics. The employees are the face and voice of the company. Every action is subject to scrutiny.

The company will succeed by standing strong, unified, and embracing the adopted code of ethics. However, when an employee recognizes a situation that is contrary to his or her own moral virtues, there needs to be a mechanism for grievance. The company’s code of ethics must include the procedure for reporting unethical behavior.

A formal grievance procedure will encourage employees to become actively engaged in enforcing the corporate code of ethics. Moreover, the company is making a global statement regarding the widespread acceptance of the code of ethics policies. The grievance procedure will need to include sections explaining the differences, and reporting steps, between an illegal action and an unethical action. An illegal action, for example, should be reported to authorities responsible for upholding the laws. Once adopted, the code of ethics will be circulated throughout the organization.

Every employee will be required to attend training sessions that will enforce the importance of a company code of ethics on ethics while explaining the details of each internal policy. Most large organizations have an extensive human resources department. The HR department is already well versed in the methods and techniques for training employees on company policies and procedures. The challenge, of course, is managing competing schedules and the demands of clients while isolating the necessary time to train every employee. While it is true that companies conduct ethics training to comply with legal mandates, positive fallout includes increased employee morale and retention (Tyler, 2005). With a well-defined code of ethics and a company-wide adoption of the policies, ethical issues can be addressed before they become a concern. As policies within the code of ethics change to address the company’s social costs, new training will be necessary to implement and enforce these policies.

The corporate code of ethics is always evolving. A marketing company must not only adhere to their internal policies, but also inherit the policies of their clients.

Every marketing company eventually becomes an extension of other businesses. Any wrongdoing by the marketing company is reflected upon its clients. In some cases, as with Nestle in the 1960s, the burden of responsibility is entirely with the company—not the marketing firm or outside vendors. After many years of unethical behavior resulting in public boycotts, Nestle pledged to adopt the WHO/UNICEF International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (Sikkink, 1986).

The development of a formal code of ethics by Nestle Corporation might have thwarted the unethical actions by their marketing and advertising team. Businesses of every size leverage marketing companies for promoting their products and services. Any marketing company, bound by its own code of ethics, will accept projects that will not jeopardize their moral standards. Ethical dilemmas occur when a marketing firm is forced to choose between their moral compass and their bottom line. The policies outlined in the corporate code of ethics are only a guideline for moral standards.

The decisions faced by a marketing company may not be as black and white as a code of ethics. In these situations, the company must look beyond these policies. Companies find themselves, many times, faced with an ethical dilemma. In many cases, the problem is not internal to the company, but the result of a decision made by a client. A marketing company can be asked to develop a marketing strategy for a controversial product. There will always be a desire to be profitable, but to what end?

A formal statement of ethical principles will add the necessary structure for an organization to become strong moral stewards. At the same time, a code of ethics can cause personal conflict. A marketing company armed with a code of ethics becomes the moral compass for their clients and a beacon of societal principles for the consumer. References Feinstein, R.

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