You know how it is when you hear an unusual phrase and keep hearing it echoed in the following days. Recently that happened to me with ‘Ethical Marketing.’ It caused me to stop and think. Ethical and marketing are two powerful and potentially opposing words. A bit like fuzzy logic.
Ethical means connected with beliefs and principles about what is right and wrong. Marketing means presenting, advertising and selling a company’s products or services in the best possible way.
Editing these two together, we get:
Presenting, advertisi
ng and selling products connected to beliefs and principles about doing the right thing.
Put like this, it’s not so complicated. Of course some businesses lend themselves to this more than others. It’s far easier to do ethical marketing if promoting projects in fields such as health, cleantech, and ecotourism, than it would be in areas such as weapons systems, tobacco, and pesticides.
Many people in business do give good consideration to the human and environmental costs and benefits involved in their activities. Their companies may be fairtrade, ethically sourced, organic, vegan, green, or carbon neutral. Often this is authentic, and there are chief executives who are also activists, bringing to market products that truly have the ability to positively impact man and nature.
Ultimately, it is up to us to define our guiding principles. In this world of tightening margins, I hope we continue to trust in life, remain generous, and have courage to confront exploitation in its many forms.
If you have an important and meaningful project, we’d love to hear from you.