Sunday, November 8, 2009

SPECIAL ETHICAL ISSUES IN MARKETING TO CHILDREN

Children are an important marketing target for certain products. Because their knowledge about products, the media, and selling strategies is usually not as well developed as that of adults, children are likely to be more vulnerable to psychological appeals and strong images. Thus, ethical questions sometimes arise when they are exposed to questionable marketing tactics and messages. For example, studies linking relationships between tobacco and alcohol marketing with youth consumption resulted in increased public pressure directly leading to the regulation of marketing for those products.

The proliferation of direct marketing and use of the Internet to market to children also raises ethical issues. Sometimes a few unscrupulous marketers design sites so that children are able to bypass adult supervision or control; sometimes they present objectionable materials to underage consumers or pressure them to buy items or provide credit card numbers. When this happens, it is likely that social pressure and subsequent regulation will result. Likewise, programming for children and youth in the mass media has been under scrutiny for many years.

In the United States, marketing to children is closely controlled. Federal regulations place limits on the types of marketing that can be directed to children, and marketing activities are monitored by the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission, consumer and parental groups, and the broadcast networks. These guidelines provide clear direction to marketers.

source: http://www.answers.com/topic/ethics-in-marketing

3 comments:

Syed Ahmad Hashmi said...

Another important aspect highlighted. keep it up.

M. Umer Toor said...

i don't think that marketers everywhere just control children. They are the ones contributing to the enslavement of the society at large. They scan us every time. They study us. If you are an intellectual man, they'll send you things about pens, latest books on the subjects you read, for example. We who claim to live in free societies are not really Free People. The Bedouins of Sahara deserts are the real people. They go wherever they like. They wear whatever they like. Nobody is there to dictate their choices in eating, clothing, consuming other objects. We, as marketers, often tend to like trickery, than genuinely creating something beautiful. Yeah there's nothing bad about spreading the message about what you are producing, rather a constructive activity.

and i bet that none of us would be really considered about the more subtle negative tactics of marketing, which tend to enslave the minds of the 'consumers'. we may be very strong against more evil kinds of marketing. yet we are going to be a part of this big system, this culture of consumerism. we are only going to be managers. not policy-makers hopefully.

Rana Aqeel Akhtar said...

childern are part our socity and we can't ignore them. and we can be a policy markers.