Black Friday is around the corner and many people have already started looking for Black Friday deals.Businesses are as keen to sell their goods as buyers are to buy them. Almost all of us get carried away by the mesmerizing offers and fascinating deals that show up as soon as we open our social accounts.But there are some reasons to be careful before going after these deals and offers. And here is why:
Some businesses do not practice ethical marketing and aim only to sell their products at any cost. Let’s first know what is ethical marketing and unethical marketing.
Ethical marketing abides by the ethical principles of fairness, transparency and correct claims while advertising or selling their products.
Unethical marketing uses any tactic, including false claims, unsolicited advertisement, slandering their competitors and so on. They might show that the item is on sale although it might have the same price as previously advertised regular price.
To give you some example of a business who is adherent of ethical marketing; here is a scenario;
Some Real Examples of Ethical Marketing
” A customer goes to a famous furniture store and selects a sofa for his condo, the store representative informs him that it is a great sofa for the living room but might not fit into a small apartment. He tells the customer that if he needs condo furniture, he needs to check out the store’s website to find other varieties. The representative also suggests that he should take the measurements of walls in his living room so that he picks a sofa with the correct measurements in hand. Though the customer did not buy the sofa he liked right there but the correct guidance of the store representative built his trust in that business.”
This was one example of ethical marketing. The customer representative guided the customer to get the sofa that fits into his condo’s living room. He did persuade him to check out the company’s website to find a sofa. But, he did not push the customer to buy the same sofa he liked in order to make a quick sale.Thus he demonstrated an ethical marketing strategy. The customer’s knew that the representative did not try to mislead him and that he could count on that business.
Here is another example of ethical marketing;
“A customer goes to a home appliances store a week before Black Friday. The store representative tells him that he can buy an appliance he urgently needs and if that appliance went on sale on Black Friday, he could claim the extra money he spent on it.”
This kind of marketing gesture shows that a business really cares for the customers. It does not want customers to lose.
Some Real Examples of Unethical Marketing
The main idea behind unethical marketing is to make quick sales of one’s services and products without giving the buyers a chance to know well about them. The businesses who practice it believe in making profits at the cost of customer satisfaction. These businesses rush the customers to make a purchase and approach them with false or misleading claims. Although they might make quick sales but they lose trust in the long run. Here are some scenarios of unethical marketing.
“A customer goes to shoe store. He buys a pair of shoes for $50. Some days later he comes back to buy a pair of shoes for his son. He finds out that there is a sale banner outside the store. He is excited to see so many items on sale. While taking a tour of the store, he notices that the pair he bought for $50 was also on sale. This time the actual price was marked as $90 and the sale price was $70.😏”
I hope you got the point….There was no actual sale.They raised the prices and advertised it as sale.
☞ Result: The customer was flabbergasted and annoyed and decided never to come back at that store.
Another Example…
“A famous departmental store where a lot of people come everyday for grocery raised their prices like hell after Covid. As the bewildered customers tried to find cheaper stuff in the aisles, they come across huge banners all over the store saying,” We promise the cheapest rates in the market”, ” Best deals of the season”, ” Lowest Grocery rates”, “Up to 70% off”, etc. All these marketing slogans appearing right in the middle of a price hike aim to lure you into believing that you are still getting reasonable rates.”
Investigate before you Buy👨💻
By giving you some of these example, I don’t aim to explain ethical and unethical marketing to you. I want you to know that you need to be aware of the fake sales and misleading advice of the unethical advertisers at the time when Black Friday and Christmas sale season in on. Do not just get lured into believing what they say and waste your money into a sale scam. Investigate well before buying an item and make sure it is on a real sale.
I wish you enjoyed this article. Leave a comment if you found it useful. Thanks for reading it all the way!👍
