Bba 214 course work for marketing planning abraham ayom

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First assignment course work for Marketing Planning
CAVENDISH UNIVERSITY UGANDA
Student Name: Abraham Ayom Ayom
Course: BBA – Generic
Student ID: 02/00315/123532
Lecturer: Edinah
Module: Marketing Planning
Module Code: BBA 214
Year of Study 3rd
year, 1st
Semester
Assignment Number: One (1) First Assignment
Session Long Distance Program
Date Issued: 20th
October, 2012
Due Date: 1st
week of November, 2012
Assignment Brief: 1st
Assignment coursework question
Q. Using Examples examine the various ethical issues in Marketing?
Q. In your opinion how do you think ethical issues may be important to any company of your
choice?
Guide to Students
1. Maximum 10 pages word processed
2. Use Times New Roman
3. Font Size should be 12
4. 1.5 Spacing
5. For referencing purposes use the Harvard Author-
Date System
Instructions to Students
1. This form must be attached to the front of your
assignment
2. The assignment must be handed in without fail by the
due date
3. Ensure that the submission form is date stamped at
reception when you hand it in
4. Late submission will not be accepted unless with
prior agreement with the course Lecturer/Tutor
5. All assessable assignments must be word processed

Table of Contents
 Introduction -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
 The term Ethics-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
 Ethics in Business and Marketing---------------------------------------------------------------2
 Various Ethical Issue in Marketing-------------------------------------------------------------2
 The Important of Ethical Issue in any company of your choice---------------------------5
 Conclusion--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------5
 Referees-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7
Introduction
We have seen successful businesses fail, we have witnessed profitably running businesses suffer
from a downfall and some seemingly effective corporates receive a great fall in their profits and
popularity. One of the main reasons behind these surprising failures was the lack of business
ethics. A true understanding of the right and the wrong and the ability to distinguish between
them is ethics. Ethics is an important part of life and running a successful business is no
exception to this. To become successful, a business needs to be driven by strong ethical values.
The mindset of a businessman creates a mindset for his/her company, which in turn sets the work
culture of the business organization. For a business to prosper and maintain its wealth, it ought to
be founded on certain ethical principles. A business that is based on ethics can run successfully
for long years. Money-makers who do not heed to ethical values can only earn a short-lived
success. To last long in the market, business ethics is essential.
Ethics
Ethics is the moral principles that control or influences a person’s behaviour. It is the branch of
philosophy that explores the nature of moral virtue and evaluates human actions. Ethical is
connected with belief and a principle about what is right and what is wrong.
Ethics being the branch of philosophy is the moral character of someone that guides human
principle of what is right and what is wrong? To evaluate human action, mean the study for
what is right or what is wrong, what is good and what is bad for someone in any environment or
society. According to ethics, any human actions that does not benefit the majority of people it is
the wrong action. A good or right action should benefits the majority then the minority groups. If
you want to do something, make sure it benefits you and other people that is ethical in business
market. If we
Ethics in Business and Marketing
It is the philosophical discipline. It is the study or undertaking ethics in business. It is the
behaviour of how businesses in market behave in its daily dealing activities with the world at
large. It is the application of how the business interacts with the world at large, and the conduct
of individuals, customer and business.
Various Ethical issues in Business/Marketing

If we were all ethical, then the following thing should have not happen in our daily marketing
business activities such as:
Killing people, fighting, stealing clients property, telling lies, bribing, write bad cheque to client,
invade privacy of employees or job candidates, violate patent rights, inflated sales, falsify
records, sexually harass the opposite sex, carrying deceptive advertising, inside trading, selling
defective products
Employment
Cavendish University Uganda, cheating teaching staff & lecturers by paying them less while they
are doing a great job compare to what they earns that is an ethical issue within the management
and administration for the university.
Products in the market
Cheating the consumers by selling the expiry products or poor quality to the public for the sake
to get the profit without looking the aspect of ethics. E.g. Cool water factory was closed by the
government after discovering they were selling unclean drinking water to the public. A shop was
close and owner got arrested by the security organs after the maize floor expired and continued
to recycle them to the market mixing them with new ones.
Bribing
Bribing powerful official in order to get bids and tenders accepted and bring competitor
employees to get informational leaks is serious ethical issue in business. In fact, it is a crime that
is legally punishable in most countries today such as Uganda
Labour related issues like gender discrimination at workplace, employee harassment,
minority community participation, working conditions and child labour are also some general
ethical issues.
Business practices like sourcing of materials, quality of inputs in production, compromising on
certain aspects like product quality, safety and deception in packaging, quantity or size also fall
in the purview of business ethical issue.
Some industries consciously omit the details of the side effects of the usage of their products
from the product packaging while some indulge in controversial practices like animal testing and
these too are some of the ethical issues in business.
Forcing labour to work at below minimum wages, sweatshop work conditions, and violation
of worker rights and not complying with health, safety and environmental standards are some
common current ethical issues.
Unethical business practices like dumping good at loss making prices just to earn market
shares or to oust a new competitor from business, colluding with competitors to fix higher prices,
using high pressure selling tactics, using deceptive advertising, etc. are also some things that
need to be looked at as an ethical issue.

Releasing products that have built-in obsolescence to generate further demand for future
products and indulging in accounting manipulations to generate secret reserves or to show higher
or lower profits are per convenience, those are strong ethical issues practices that are not easily
detected.
Ethical issue in Human Resources Management
The ethics of human resource management (HRM) covers those ethical issues arising around the
employer-employee relationship, such as the rights and duties owed between employer and
employee.
Discrimination issues include discrimination on the bases of age (ageism), gender, race,
religion, disabilities, weight and attractiveness, sexual harassment.
Issues surrounding the representation of employees and the democratisation of the workplace:
union busting, strike breaking.
Issues affecting the privacy of the employee: workplace surveillance, drug testing.
Issues affecting the privacy of the employer: whistle-blowing.
Issues relating to the fairness of the employment contract and the balance of power between
employer and employee: slavery
Ethical issue on sales and marketing
Marketing which goes beyond the mere provision of information about (and access to) a product
may seek to manipulate our values and behaviour. To some extent society regards this as
acceptable, but where is the ethical line to be drawn?
Pricing: price fixing, price discrimination, price skimming.
Anti-competitive practices: these include but go beyond pricing tactics to cover issues such as
manipulation of loyalty and supply chains. This goes to anti-competitive practices, antitrust law.
Specific marketing strategies: green wash, bait and switch, shill, viral marketing, spam
(electronic), pyramid scheme, planned obsolescence.
Content of advertisements: attack ads, subliminal messages, sex in advertising.
Children and marketing: marketing in schools.
Black markets, grey markets.
Ethical issue in production
There are ethical issues in production when producing products for a company, it cause harm
Defective, addictive and inherently dangerous products and services.
Ethical relations between the company and the environment: pollution, environmental ethics,
carbon emissions trading
Ethical problems arising out of new technologies: genetically modified food, mobile phone
radiation and health.
Product testing ethics: animal rights and animal testing, use of economically disadvantaged
groups (such as students) as test objects.
Ethical issue in finance and accounting
Creative accounting, earnings management, misleading financial analysis.

Insider trading, securities fraud, bucket shop, forex scams: concerns (criminal) manipulation of
the financial markets.
Executive compensation: concerns excessive payments made to corporate CEO's.
Bribery, kickbacks, and facilitation payments: while these may be in the (short-term) interests of
the company and its shareholders, these practices may be anti-competitive or offend against the
values of society and become an ethical issue.
In your opinion how do you think ethical issues may be important to any company of your
choice?
Business ethical issues are important for a company and its success. Here are some ways in
which this is true.
Public Image
It is impossible to discuss business ethics as a branch of academia without taking a look at the
relationship between business ethics and public image. Each corporation has a particular public
image, which represents the way in which the public views the corporation. Wal-Mart
Company, for example, has a terrible public image. Toyota Company, on the other hand, has a
very positive one. These public images are the result of a number of different things, but they are
primarily the result of the way in which a corporation acts with respect to the different things
around it.
A corporation's environmental policy, the way they treat their employees and the way they treat
the communities they exist in are all part of their overall behaviour and this in turn is the
principle factor in determining their public image. As proof of this, you will notice that even
though Wal-Mart Company makes products that have a decent quality and an extremely low
price, they still have a negative public image.
Since public image is largely a result of company behaviour, business ethics play a large role in
determining public image since they determine behaviour. And public image is important to
success in most cases, which is one of the reasons as to why business ethics are important to a
company's overall success.
Investment
Another reason that business ethics are important is the relationship they have to investment.
When a person or an entity is considering investment in a particular stock, there are a number of
things they take into account. Aside from the quantitative factors surrounding a company's profit
margin a future prospects, consideration is also given to a particular company from the point of
view of the qualitative aspects such as their public image and the products that they happen to
sell. All of these things are taken into account before the final investment is made.
Therefore, a company that would like to encourage extra business investment is a company that
has a strong sense of business ethics. Part of business ethics is responsibility to the investor and
for that reason companies with strong reputations in the field of ethical business behaviour are
also companies that tend to attract more investment from people that are new into the market.
Investment is most definitely important to success.

Partnerships
In the business world, joint ventures happen all the time. They happen all the time because they
are ultimately of great importance to the bottom lines of businesses. A business can be made or
broken on just one joint venture and part of the reason that joint ventures are successful is that
they combine the forces of two extremely powerful companies on occasion.
If you want your company to do well in joint ventures, then you need to have good partners. The
only way to get good partners is to have a good reputation both in terms of a track record and in
terms of your business overall. And of course, the best way to get a good reputation is to ensure
that your company has a strong tradition of ethical business behaviour.
Stop business malpractices: Some unscrupulous businessmen do business malpractices by
indulging in unfair trade practices like black-marketing, artificial high pricing, adulteration,
cheating in weights and measures, selling of duplicate and harmful products, hoarding, etc.
These business malpractices are harmful to the consumers. Business ethics help to stop these
business malpractices.
Improve customers' confidence: Business ethics are needed to improve the customers'
confidence about the quality, quantity, price, etc. of the products. The customers have more trust
and confidence in the businessmen who follow ethical rules. They feel that such businessmen
will not cheat them.
Survival of business: Business ethics are mandatory for the survival of business. The
businessmen who do not follow it will have short-term success, but they will fail in the long run.
This is because they can cheat a consumer only once. After that, the consumer will not buy
goods from that businessman. He will also tell others not to buy from that businessman. So this
will defame his image and provoke a negative publicity. This will result in failure of the
business. Therefore, if the businessmen do not follow ethical rules, he will fail in the market. So,
it is always better to follow appropriate code of conduct to survive in the market.
Safeguarding consumers' rights: The consumer has many rights such as right to health and
safety, right to be informed, right to choose, right to be heard, right to redress, etc. But many
businessmen do not respect and protect these rights. Business ethics are must to safeguard these
rights of the consumers.
Protecting employees and shareholders: Business ethics are required to protect the interest of
employees, shareholders, competitors, dealers, suppliers, etc. It protects them from exploitation
through unfair trade practices.
Develops good relations: Business ethics are important to develop good and friendly relations
between business and society. This will result in a regular supply of good quality goods and
services at low prices to the society. It will also result in profits for the businesses thereby
resulting in growth of economy.

Creates good image: Business ethics create a good image for the business and businessmen. If
the businessmen follow all ethical rules, then they will be fully accepted and not criticised by the
society. The society will always support those businessmen who follow this necessary code of
conduct.
Smooth functioning: If the business follows all the business ethics, then the employees,
shareholders, consumers, dealers and suppliers will all be happy. So they will give full
cooperation to the business. This will result in smooth functioning of the business. So, the
business will grow, expand and diversify easily and quickly. It will have more sales and more
profits.
Consumer movement: Business ethics are gaining importance because of the growth of the
consumer movement. Today, the consumers are aware of their rights. Now they are more
organised and hence cannot be cheated easily. They take actions against those businessmen who
indulge in bad business practices. They boycott poor quality, harmful, high-priced and
counterfeit (duplicate) goods. Therefore, the only way to survive in business is to be honest and
fair.
Consumer satisfaction: Today, the consumer is the king of the market. Any business simply
cannot survive without the consumers. Therefore, the main aim or objective of business is
consumer satisfaction. If the consumer is not satisfied, then there will be no sales and thus no
profits too. Consumer will be satisfied only if the business follows all the business ethics, and
hence are highly needed.
Importance of labour: Labour, i.e. employees or workers play a very crucial role in the success
of a business. Therefore, business must use business ethics while dealing with the employees.
The business must give them proper wages and salaries and provide them with better working
conditions. There must be good relations between employer and employees. The employees must
also be given proper welfare facilities.
Healthy competition: The business must use business ethics while dealing with the competitors.
They must have healthy competition with the competitors. They must not do cut-throat
competition. Similarly, they must give equal opportunities to small-scale business. They must
avoid monopoly. This is because a monopoly is harmful to the consumers.
Conclusion
Experts in business management and researchers have endorsed the need for businessmen and
company professionals to study ethics. They have asserted the importance of founding business
on ethical values and following them. They have urged management professionals to adhere to
ethics and accept it as a part of business. Ethics remain being important in business and strong
ethical values shall take the business a long way
References

http://www.buzzle.com/articles/ethical-issues-in-business.html Ethical issue in marketing and
business.
http://kalyan-city.blogspot.com/2011/09/need-or-importance-of-business-ethics.html the
important for ethical issue to any company/business

Bba 214 course work for marketing planning abraham ayom

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