CONCEPTS FREEDOM, IDENTITY, AUTHENTICITY
A controversial attempt at defending an institution often deemed as exploitative, by considering the potentiality for change in marketing strategy due to the proliferation and availability of interpretative consumer choices within social media culture.
For my stage three project I have decided to study the unethical issues that surround marketing in contemporary society. My interest in this topic has developed due to the fact that I recently applied, and was accepted, to a postgraduate course at Lancaster University in ‘Management and Marketing.’ The application required a personal statement, and it was through this requirement that I began to consider how I could link my philosophical background to a management and marketing application. In researching the course I became aware that one of the taught modules was ‘understanding business ethics’, as a result I decided to focus on business ethics for my project. The area of business ethics that I am going to concentrate on is marketing ethics. My aim in this project is to give a detailed discussion into the various marketing techniques apparent in contemporary society, through this discussion I aim to establish certain ethical pitfalls that marketing schemes slip into. Within this investigation I will concentrate on two areas, false and deceptive marketing and selective marketing. Thinkers: Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno. I believe both are ideal for my project as both of their thoughts relate to a critique of capitalism. I shall begin with Karl Marx and his notion of commodity fetishism, in doing this I will concentrate on his work entitled ‘The fetishism of commodities and the secret thereof’. This will lay the foundations from which I will introduce the thoughts of Theodor Adorno and his work on the culture industry, and the deceptive qualities of mass culture.
TERRITORY: The Marketing World. Ethical problems of marketing such as target marketing, standardization, stereotyping, exclusion and the removal of personal autonomy, all caused by forms of marketing. CONCEPTS: Capitalism – Economic structure that gives all power to the private owner. Thinkers – Karl Marx. Theory – Commodity fetishism – Attributing false value to commodities. Theodor Adorno. Theory – Culture industry – producing mass commodities, mass culture and popular culture, all of which fool the consumer into a state of happiness and Satisfaction with capitalism. COMPARISON: Marx and Adorno’s theories of capitalism highlight many of the ethical problems of marketing in capitalism that are clearly seen in the modern day, ultimately capitalist marketing creates commodities that have gained power over the individual and removed our autonomy.