10Responsible MarketingThree arrows in a circle representing

10
Responsible Marketing
Three arrows in a circle representing sustainable development.
Petmal/Thinkstock
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Discuss corporate social responsibility as a response to major
criticisms of marketing.
Describe practitioners’ duty to the marketing discipline.
Discuss the impact of a green marketing strategy on the
marketing mix.
Summarize the ethical obligations of individuals inherent in
the employer–employee relationship.
List three marketing principles that apply to managing your
personal brand for on-the-job success.
Describe three professional career paths in marketing.
Introduction
The moment you begin working in marketing, you assume
responsibility for practicing high ethical standards with regard
to your responsibility to the public, the marketing profession,
the company that employs you, and the industry in which it
functions. In addition, you must take responsibility for
yourself—your individual performance on the job, your
contribution to workplace teams, and your preparation for
advancement. In this chapter you’ll learn to apply what you’ve
learned about marketing to managing your personal brand while
on the job.

This chapter approaches responsible marketing beginning with a
wide-angle view of the effect of marketing practices on the
public and the planet. Then the lens narrows with each section
in turn to focus on concerns of the profession, organizational
employers, and individual contributors.
The marketing field offers careers in many roles, suitable to a
wide variety of personalities from analytical to creative. Where
will you find your niche? This chapter ends with an exploration
of the newest skills needed and the emerging locales where
marketing practitioners will thrive. With an understanding of
your role in responsible industry practices, this chapter
concludes our study of the basic principles of marketing.
10.1 Responsibility to the Public
Over the past 50 years, the Super Bowl has become a shared
American cultural experience, but not just because of love for
football. Millions of people tune in to watch the advertisements.
Since the rise of social media, Super Bowl advertising has
become the centerpiece of integrated marketing campaigns that
extend over many months (Sanburn, 2016). On social media,
we’re drawn to the many ads that require our clicks to reveal a
reward of some kind, whether it’s the punch line to a joke or
our score on a game or quiz. We’ve grown accustomed to the
blurring of the lines between entertainment and promotions, and
not just on television.
As marketing communications move into new message channels,
new forms of promotions have proliferated that bear little
resemblance to paid advertising. The many forms of
“advertainment” in today’s social media (branded videos,
quizzes, and so on) place the burden on the public to decide
whether products are being pitched—and in which instances that
is appropriate behavior for marketers. When you step from

being part of the public to a role in the marketing profession,
you become ethically bound to serve the public’s well -being.
That will, at times, make you the target of criticism.
Criticisms of the Marketing Function
The marketing field is frequently criticized for its negative
impact on individual consumers, other businesses, and society
at large. Marketers naturally present offerings in the best light
possible, and sometimes this crosses the line into false
representation. Marketing messages can raise unrealistic
expectations of what a product or service will do for
consumers—consider the prescription drug commercials in
which the images show happy, healthy people, but the voiceover
lists many possible negative side effects. Advertising imagery
can create unhealthy cultural ideals, like the unattainably thin
women in fashion illustrations. Because children are highly
susceptible to advertising, it can influence them in negative
ways, from food preferences (Fruity Pebbles, anyone?) to risky
behavior—just ask Joe Camel (Jenson, 2017). Over the years
there have been enough instances of unethical behavior by
businesses to warrant not just criticism but specific legislation
designed to constrain damaging marketing practices.
Critics of marketing have charged that some companies use
unfair practices to harm other businesses; some of these
practices are listed in Table 10.1. Legislation designed to limit
unfair practices exists, but it cannot keep up with emerging
methods. In December 2011 online retailer Amazon encouraged
customers to report local retailers’ prices using a specially
designed smartphone app and rewarded those who did so with
discounts on purchases of those items. The move, while legal,
was met with a barrage of criticism from the press and other
businesses (Mandelbaum, 2011).
Table 10.1: Some marketing practices’ effects on other
businesses
Practice Effect

Acquiring competitors Reduces development of new products
but produces economies of scale that lead to lower costs and
prices
Using patents to protect processes Blocks competitors from
adopting similar processes
Spending heavily on promotions Drives up costs of entry for
start-ups, which must match or exceed that spending
Demanding exclusivity in channel partner contracts Constrains
suppliers or dealers from pursuing their own interests
Pricing below costs Discourages buyers from purchasing from
competitors
Limiting the circumstances in which promotional discounts are
available Constrains buyers from behaving in their own best
interests
Note. Marketers may be tempted to use unethical practices to
achieve competitive advantage. Each of the above may qualify
as illegal depending on the extent and circumstances of the
practice. See Chapter 8 for more on the legal factors affecting
marketing practices.
Marketing’s impact on society has also been widely criticized.
The emphasis on promotion of goods and services in the
developed world has been accused of fostering materialism and
creating visual pollution, while contributing little to social
well-being. Critics point out that the market system gives
industries too much power over the public interest without
commensurate responsibility for the public’s health and safety.
Field Trip 10.1: Adbusters and Adblock Plus
Follow these links to learn more about organizations and
offerings that oppose negative practices of some businesses.
Adbusters is a global network of social activists aiming to use
message channels creatively to disrupt the way corporations
wield power.

http://adbusters.org
Adblock Plus software frees users’ Internet experience of loud
and intrusive ads but leaves those that are simple, static, and
informative.
http://adblockplus.org/en
The emergence of organizations like Adbusters and offerings
like Adblock Plus give evidence of the public’s desire to oppose
the negative practices of some businesses.
In Defense of Marketing
Marketing has indeed earned some of the criticism leveled at
it—but where would we be without it? Without marketing
communications, how would prospective buyers learn about the
goods and services that might fill their needs and desires? What
financial model would replace paid marketing communications
to support the many businesses and organizations that are
currently underwritten by advertisers?
Marketing has value. For individuals, it assumes economic
importance, allowing companies to thrive in a competitive
market and thus provide employment. Promotional activity leads
to higher sales that in turn make more offerings more affordable
to more people. Advertising subsidizes much of the information
and entertainment available in contemporary society (Kurtz,
2010). Without advertising to cover the costs of news gathering,
we would have much less access to responsible journalism.
Without sponsorships and product placement, we would see
fewer movies and television programs.
For businesses, marketing activity leads to new customers,
increased brand loyalty, and greater stability and growth.
Without these important benefits, businesses would not be able

to provide the economic advantages they do.
Other organizations, including nonprofit groups and
governmental agencies, frequently deploy the techniques of
marketing communication to achieve aims that benefit the
public. As discussed in Chapter 3, selling the idea of behavioral
change is so effective and widely practiced that it has its own
term: social marketing. Table 10.2 summarizes these arguments.
Table 10.2: The value of marketing
Stakeholder Beneficial effect
Individuals
Provides employment
Makes more offerings more affordable
Subsidizes information and entertainment
Businesses
Leads to new customers
Increases brand loyalty
Creates stability/growth
Public
Promotes positive behavioral change
Underwrites information and entertainment
Note. Marketing has value for individuals, businesses, and the
public.
Unacceptable Marketing Practices
Marketing has power. Some uses of that power fall outside
acceptable boundaries, such as manipulation of vulnerable
consumers (including the very old and very young, the mentally
ill, and others at risk), invasion of privacy, and theft of personal
information. For example, the blurring of the distinction

between advertising and entertainment has been an increasi ng
concern where advertising to children is concerned. Food
companies have come under fire for their use of entertaining
online games and smartphone apps to build relationships with
young children (Richtel, 2011).
The position of the advertising industry is that marketers are
obligated to gain the trust of children and their parents through
honest messages, while parents must accept responsibility for
monitoring their children’s media habits and developing their
consumer literacy. A strategic alliance of major advertising
trade associations formed the Children’s Advertising Review
Unit in 1974 to promote responsibility in children’s advertising.
The group’s guidelines, which address the level of children’s
knowledge, sophistication, and maturity, apply to all advertising
in print, radio, and broadcast and cable television and on the
Internet directed to children under age 12 (Advertising
Education Foundation, 2012).
Misuse of personal data is another issue that has been an object
of public concern. Data breaches are the most obvious danger;
even the most dependable and established companies on the
Internet, such as Amazon and eBay, have not proved capable of
keeping personal data safe (Perlroth, 2012). Financial
transactions conducted over the Internet and profiles on social
media sites were once the main vulnerabilities for personal data.
But as devices have proliferated that collect information from
individuals, new vulnerabilities—and questions—have arisen.
How will that trove of personal information be used?
Most consumers are aware that Google analyzes search terms to
discover trends—information it sells for profit. In 2009 Google
researchers worked with the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention to create a predictive model called Google Flu
Trends that can predict regional flu activity with a lag of only
about a day. The model is based on flu-related web searches

tied to searchers’ Internet addresses that indicate their physical
location. That Flu Trends report, originally intended to serve
public health, became the cornerstone of an advertising
campaign for Vicks in late 2011, when the company introduced
the Behind Ear Thermometer. Vicks’s advertising agency
developed a mobile campaign to reach mothers (the primary
purchasers of thermometers) using mobile apps like Pandora
that collect demographic data about users. By marrying
Google’s Flu Trends reports to the demographic data on mobile
app users, Vicks targeted its campaign for the Behind Ear
Thermometer. Vicks sent its ads only to smartphones belonging
to mothers living within 2 miles of retailers carrying the Vicks
thermometers. Each ad noted the location of the nearest store
selling the product.
Is Vicks being helpful or creepy by taking its data-driven
mobile campaign to such a degree of target marketing?
Advertising commentators felt that because the information is
useful and relevant, and the fine-tuned behavioral targeting is
not overly obvious to recipients, the campaign does not cross
the line into misuse of data (Newman, 2011f). You may feel
differently.
With the rise of artificial intelligence –enabled devices like the
Amazon Echo and Google Home, consumers have invited
“always on” listening devices into their lives. These Internet-
connected devices promise to increase convenience but can
easily be exploited by hackers for surveillance or data theft.
Sometimes the manufacturers themselves are the ones behaving
badly: In 2017 Vizio was fined $2.2 million for selling “smart”
televisions that tracked users’ viewing habits without their
knowledge and sharing that information without customers’
permission (McGoogan, 2017).
Acceptable marketing practices will always be a moving target
reflecting changing technology and societal norms. By its

nature, the marketing discipline will always be pushing into
new territory in its search to break through existing advertising
clutter and command target consumers’ attention. As new
marketing methods appear, the process of judging what
practices are unethical will continue.
Field Trip 10.2: Industry Self-Regulation Regarding Online
Privacy
Have you ever seen a turquoise triangular icon in the upper
right corner of online ad? This triangle offers a means to
understand when information about your interests (as signified
by your online activity) is being collected or used, and by which
companies. Clicking that icon leads to online tools to control
how data is collected and used to target ads based on your
interests. The AdChoice icon represents participation in the
self-regulatory program for online behavioral advertising
developed by the industry trade group Digital Advertising
Alliance. Originally developed for Internet browser technology,
in 2015 the mobile environment was also included in this
program.
Follow this link to learn more about the AdChoice program.
http://www.youradchoices.com
Ethical Marketing
Companies that serve consumers who share a Marketing 3.0
outlook will be expected to practice a philosophy of ethical
marketing that requires them to be socially responsible and
culturally sensitive. Ethical marketing serves the sustainability
of the entire market system—not merely corporate self-interest.
A company following ethical marketing practices will
organize itself around its customers’ point of view and
perceptions of value;
seek continuous improvement and innovation; and

reflect a triple bottom line of profitability, environmental
health, and social progress.
Financial profit cannot take priority over social or
environmental impacts. Ethical marketing benefits consumers,
companies, and society as a whole (Mish & Scammon, 2010).
Some companies go so far as to organize around a mission of
achieving philanthropic goals—placing social progress or
environmental health before profits, while maintaining a
commitment to all three measures of the triple bottom line. This
structure, which may be for-profit or nonprofit, is known as the
social enterprise model. This model is particularly necessary in
emerging markets where social needs are greatest. “Eradicating
poverty is arguably humankind’s biggest challenge” (Kotler,
2010, p. xiii), write the authors of Marketing 3.0. Promotion of
entrepreneurship, more than governmental or nonprofit aid
groups, will be the force that lifts the world’s poor toward
greater security. Why? Because corporations already operate in
a market structure that leads to economic development. By
bringing this structure to the developing world, even if only to
expand markets for their offerings, corporations can play a
major role in achieving greater human rights and well-being for
the world’s poor (Kotler, 2010).
Ben & Jerry’s PartnerShop® program is a sweet example of a
social enterprise that brings business and nonprofit
organizations together: Each PartnerShop is a Ben & Jerry’s
scoop shop that is owned and operated by a community-based
nonprofit organization. The Ben & Jerry’s company waives its
standard franchise fee and provides additional support to help
its nonprofit partners’ scoop shops succeed. Ben & Jerry’s
(2018) has targeted youth development organizations to open
PartnerShops, recognizing that scoop shops offer excellent job
opportunities for young people.

In the United States two legal forms of business organization
address the needs of firms that want to pursue a social
enterprise model. One is the benefit corporation. This
classification offers an alternative to the traditional for -profit
corporation with its mandate to maximize profits for the benefit
of shareholders. A benefit corporation puts the focus on
commitment to pursuing a goal other than profit. In benefit
corporations, members of the board of directors are required to
consider nonfinancial stakeholders as well as the financial
interests of shareholders. Examples of benefit corporations
include the online craft bazaar Etsy, online glasses retailer
Warby Parker, and outdoor gear company Patagonia. To be
certified as a benefit corporation, or B corp, companies are
scored on an assessment and take steps to meet certain legal
requirements that vary by state. Companies must then get
recertified every 2 years (McGregor, 2015).
The other legal form is the low-profit limited liability company
(L3C), a structure for for-profit companies with a social mission
as their primary goal. This form is available to social
entrepreneurs who seek the legal and tax flexibility of a
traditional limited liability company (LLC), the social benefits
of a nonprofit organization, and the branding/positioning
advantages of a social enterprise (Lane, 2014). An example of
an L3C company is the Mission Center in St. Louis. The
Mission Center provides “back office” services such as
accounting, human resources, and insurance functions to small
nonprofit organizations that do not have the scale or willingness
to undertake those functions on their own (Cohen, 2014).
Whether or not companies organize as social enterprises,
corporate social responsibility (CSR) is the foundation on which
they build ethical marketing practices. This form of self-
regulation is built into a company’s business model and
corporate values. It takes the form of written policies to ensure
compliance with the spirit (not just the letter) of laws governing

marketing practice and to the unwritten law of ethical standards.
The goal of a company’s CSR policy is to embrace
responsibility for its actions, to encourage positive impact
(Wood, 1991).
Can ethical marketing be sustainable, given the intense
competition in most industries? Can organizations remain
competitive while committed to social responsibility? Yes—if
they can find a structure that supports caring without creating
competitive disadvantage. Even if the moral and ethical
legitimacy of social responsibility is evident, the fact remains
that such initiatives cost money, and organizations face an
economic imperative to remain profitable, which means
remaining competitive.
Competition solely on price leaves little room for caring. The
company that can differentiate its offerings sufficiently can
operate “in a class by itself” and thus afford commitment to
social responsibility. The business case for ethics-driven
practices can be compelling: Such policies create competitive
advantage, attract investment, reduce cost and risk of legal fines
or government intervention, attract and motivate better talent,
and foster innovation (Chavez, 2011).
Field Trip 10.3: Patagonia Marketing and CSR: A Case Study
Outdoor apparel company Patagonia has been recognized as a
leader in CSR. The company promotes fair labor practices and
safe working conditions throughout its supply chain and
commits 1% of total sales or 10% of profit (whichever is
greater) to environmental groups. Follow the link below to read
a case study on how Patagonia achieves competitive
differentiation by marketing its CSR approach.
Patagonia and the Marketability of Anti-materialism
http://www.brittonmdg.com/the-britton-blog/case-study-

patagonia-sustainable-marketing-corporate-social-responsibility
Ethical Marketing in Action
TOMS Shoes and Sustainability
TOMS Shoes must generate positive revenue if it is to sustain
its policy of giving shoes to poor children.
Do you think that you personally will benefit from the kind
of data mining described in this video?
What are the two chief problems the "data hunter" in this
video needs to solve to make predictive analytics useful to
marketers?
The marketing approach of British chocolate manufacturer
Green & Black’s presents an example of ethical marketing
delivering competitive advantage. The chocolate industry has
come to resemble the wine industry, with proliferating varieties
and price points and sources from corporate conglomerates to
boutique producers. In this crowded marketplace, Green &
Black’s chose to focus on raising consumers’ awareness of its
organic offerings and Fair Trade certification.
Green & Black’s marketers chose experiential and digital
marketing tactics. From April to October 2011, the company
created an experience at food and wine events in five U.S. cities
with booths designed to foster engagement with attendees as
brand ambassadors who introduced flavors, explained
ingredients, and entertained with dessert-building
demonstrations. It also hosted brief seminars about the
company’s global sourcing and Fair Trade credentials. The
farmers who supply cocoa to Green & Black’s receive a
guaranteed minimum price, plus additional funds to invest in
their countries’ environmental, social, and economic
development (Birkner, 2011). The campaign created a brand
relationship with consumers that lifted Green & Black’s above
commodity status.

Other examples of successful ethical marketing initiatives
include the following:
Every year, Toms Shoes hosts One Day Without Shoes, an
event designed to raise awareness about global poverty and
funds to combat it. (The company founder, Blake Mycoskie, had
visited Argentina and noticed many barefoot children, leading
to his idea for a shoe company that provided a free pair of new
shoes to youth in developing countries for every pair sold.)
Brand enthusiasts observe the day by going without shoes and
posting photos to social media with the hashtag #WithoutShoes.
Toms gives away a new pair for every hashtagged photo, up to a
million. User-generated content is central to the initiative,
which in 2016 resulted in over 27,000 new pairs of shoes
delivered to children worldwide (Rogers, 2016).
Planters, the snack nut brand owned by Kraft Foods, paid for
and developed parks in low-income neighborhoods in New
Orleans, Manhattan, and Washington, D.C. The offbeat parks
feature peanut-inspired landscape designs, plantings of fruit and
nut trees, and rain gardens. Experiential marketing events
accompanied the ribbon cuttings, with the Nutmobile (a peanut-
shaped vehicle powered by biodiesel) and Mr. Peanut himself,
in signature top hat and monocle (Foderaro, 2011).
Field Trip 10.4: Ethisphere
Ethisphere is a magazine and website with a mission to help
guide business leaders toward better business practices and
corporate citizenship while maintaining a sustainable
competitive advantage. Each year it recognizes the World’s
Most Ethical Companies—those it judges to demonstrate real
and sustained principled leadership within their industries.
Visit the magazine’s home page and click on the Honorees
button to view the most recent list of the world’s most ethical

companies.
http://worldsmostethicalcompanies.ethisphere.com
As has been shown, many marketers and the corporate leaders
they report to have taken seriously their responsibility to the
public’s best interest. This comes in response to criticism of
marketing for contributing to confusion between advertising and
entertainment and engaging in practices with negative impacts
on individual consumers, businesses, and society. In defense of
marketing, we must recognize its contributions to a healthy
marketplace. Promotional activity leads to growth and stability
for companies; jobs, information, and entertainment for
individuals; and marketing of ideas that lead to positive
behavioral changes in society.
Ethical marketing and the social enterprise business model have
emerged to place value on the triple bottom line of profi ts,
people, and planet over profits alone. Marketers are discovering
how to use social responsibility to establish competitive
differentiation that lifts them above competing solely on price.
As the examples cited illustrate, many companies are now
actively responding to the major forces identified with
Marketing 3.0. They are carving out positions of authentic
competitive differentiation, engaging consumers in meaningful
ways, and serving human and environmental welfare through
social initiatives.
Questions to Consider
During the Great Recession of 2007–2009, some state
governments began to consider legalizing, licensing, and taxing
Internet gambling to generate new revenue to help fill budget
gaps. Legalizing online gaming would help states maintain
needed services, but it might put more people at risk for
gambling addiction. What is your view of the ethics of the

situation?
10.2 Responsibility to Our Planet
In Chapter 8 consumer concerns such as depletion of
nonrenewable resources, pollution, destruction of habitats, and
climate change were noted as factors in the marketing
environment. Plus, it is in the nature of Marketing 3.0’s
humanity-centric consumers to expect and even demand
ecological sustainability from the companies we patronize. As
collaborative partners cocreating the value we buy, we don’t
want our “business partners” to be actively harming us or
jeopardizing our children’s future. For these consumers,
ecological sustainability is a competitive advantage. Green
marketing has emerged in response—an approach characterized
by practices that minimize the impacts of production processes,
packaging, and marketing communications.
Greening the Four Ps
Green marketing impacts all four of the marketing mix’s four
Ps:
Product: Every manufacturing step offers an opportunity for
a company to make green choices, from sustainably sourcing its
raw materials to how its products are packaged. CSR can be
seen as part of the product concept that adds value through
meeting consumers’ desire to buy from companies that prioritize
sustainability.
Place: Green marketers must consider the impact of supply
chain logistics that get raw materials, components, and finished
products to consumers. The increased speed of transportation
has made distribution easier anywhere in the world—if you are
willing to ignore the carbon footprint of all that shipping.
Distributed manufacturing offers a green solution, such as using
3-D printing that allows products to be manufactured close to
final customers (Meyerson, 2015).

Price: Products with the feature of “being green” are
generally expected to be more expensive than conventional
offerings—but worth it for the planet’s sake. However,
consumer demand for green products proved relatively elastic in
the economic downturn of 2008. These factors affect pricing
decisions for green offerings (Clifford & Martin, 2011).
Promotion: Consumers are becoming more skeptical of
advertising claims of social responsibility (Huffman, 2015).
Green offerings bring their ecological bona fides to the brand
narrative—if in fact the product and the company that stands
behind it are green.
Ethically, green marketing is impossible unless the company is
green in its behaviors. A company’s purchasing, production
processes, packaging, and marketi ng communications must all
be authentically oriented toward ecological sustainability. Let
us consider each in turn.
Green companies’ purchasing of raw materials and
component parts should be ecologically neutral or even benefit
producing, as when those purchases reward sustainable
agricultural practices. Production processes can be “greened,”
as when Nike switched to DyeCoo technology that eliminates
the use of water in the dyeing process (Nike, 2016).
Packaging for shipment has come under fire for creating a
growing stream of waste as online shopping has grown. E-
commerce grew by 25% in 2016, according to NBC News. As
consumers receive products directly, apartment buildings and
homes now generate more waste than retail and grocery stores
(Sottile & Kent, 2017). Companies have responded with
innovative solutions, like Dell Computer’s use of agricultural
waste (such as wheat chaff) injected with mushroom spores. The
final product looks and acts like Styrofoam but is organic, is
biodegradable, and can be used as compost or mulch (Dell,
2016).
The greening of marketing communications is most obvious

in the shift to online channels and the more targeted use of
direct mail, which reduces paper consumption. The
environmental impact of printed communica tions can be reduced
through use of sustainably harvested or recycled paper and
printing with soy-based ink. Online channels would seem to be
free of effects on the environment, but are they really? Media is
the fifth largest industry in the United States, and with its
growth comes attention to the carbon footprint of server farms,
networks, computers, and mobile devices (Ottman & Mallen,
2014).
Walmart store aisle that advertises “earth-friendly products.”
Associated Press
After losing about 8% of consumers because of negative
perceptions, Walmart introduced environmentally friendly
products, required suppliers to use more efficient packaging,
and improved its fuel-efficiency processes and waste
management.
Before we leave the topic of green business practices, one
emerging business model deserves a closer look: the sharing
economy model used by companies like Airbnb, Uber, and Turo.
By shifting from production of new assets to putting customers’
underutilized assets to work, these companies help the
environment. The marketplace produces fewer goods while
maintaining access to a broad variety of goods and services.
Measuring carbon emissions, home sharing is 66% more
effective than hotels. Car-sharing participants reduce their
individual emissions by 40% (Scorpio, 2012). The sharing
economy model exemplifies the Marketing 3.0 emphasis of
cocreation of value.
Issues and Concerns
Overall, green marketing is in harmony with the values of

Marketing 3.0’s humanity-centric consumers. However,
companies that want to operate with ecological sustainability
must confront several issues.
There is a great deal of confusion among consumers about
sustainability practices. If you have ever stood in front of a
display of egg cartons at the grocery story, wondering about the
relative merits of cage-free, free-range, free-roaming, or free-
farmed eggs, you have likely experienced this confusion. Eggs
can also vary by type of feed and use of antibiotics and
hormones. In fact, eggs have more eco-labels than any other
product, according to Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer
advocacy group (Atkinson, 2014). It is this profusion of labels
that deepens consumer confusion.
Understanding Greenwashing
Greenwashing promotes a perception that a company is
environmentally friendly, when that is not actually the case.
How do companies use the visual elements of their brand
image to project an environmentally friendly image?
When a company responds to consumer pressure with more
environmentally friendly policies and practices, can it be
considered authentially green?
Eggs are just one example of a significant issue facing
marketers: the lack of a universally understood and respected
standard to which the term “green” can be held. Multiple
standards for certification and eco-labeling exist, some
administered at the federal level and others by nongovernmental
entities. In a study reported in the Journal of Advertising,
researchers Lucy Atkinson and Sonny Rosenthal found that
consumers prefer detailed labels that contain informatio n about
the eco-claims being made over simple icons or graphics that
suggest eco-friendly qualities. Their study also tested whether
the source of an eco-label—from a government agency or from a

corporation—affected consumers’ evaluations. They found that
while consumers appreciated corporate interest in green
practices, they were more likely to trust government labels.
Atkinson (2014) posited that the advertising industry could be
part of an industry movement to establish consistency and
transparency in labeling.
Green marketing can create competitive differentiation for a
brand. But if that marketing is not held to the standards set by
the FTC, a company may be engaging in greenwashing, a term
for deceptive marketing communications that promote a
perception that a company’s policies or products are
environmentally friendly when that is not actually the case. If
consumers believe that a company is greenwashing, that
perception can damage the brand’s reputation whether or not
greenwashing is actually taking place. Thus, it is important to
hold all marketing to a high ethical standard.
In 2012 the FTC issued revised Green Guides to help marketers
avoid making green marketing claims that are unfair or
deceptive. The Green Guides include sections on the principles
of ecological benefit claims, as well as guidance on specific
claims, such as “nontoxic” and “recyclable,” plus use of carbon
offsets, green certifications and seals, and renewable energy and
renewable materials claims. Marketers should use caution when
making green marketing claims, since misleading or overstated
claims can lead to regulatory or civil challenges (Federal Trade
Commission, 2018) and, of course, making such claims is
unethical.
Exaggerated claims and false claims are two kinds of ethical
lapses related to greenwashing. Volkswagen portrayed itself as
an environmental steward producing automobiles at the leading
edge of the clean energy revolution, until it was discovered to
have installed software designed to trick emissions tests on 11
million cars with supposedly clean diesel engines. Other

carmakers have sinned by exaggeration as well: In 2014 Kia and
Hyundai paid $300 million in fines after overstating the gas
mileage for 1.2 million vehicles (Gelles, 2015).
Examples of false claims are rarer, thankfully. And yet when a
claim of responsibility to the planet is baldly better for the
company than the consumer, it creates a perception of
greenwashing that can damage a brand—and a whole industry.
Hotels have begun encouraging guests to support the
environment by shutting off lights and reusing towels, but these
claims are increasingly recognized as self-serving, since they
also reduce operating costs (McMurray, 2015).
Underwriters Laboratory (UL) maintains a list of “deadly sins
of greenwashing” which marketers would do well to follow. For
the list, follow the link in Field Trip 10.5.
Field Trip 10.5: The Sins of Greenwashing
UL Environment works to advance global sustainability,
environmental health, and safety by supporting the growth and
development of environmentally preferable products, services,
and organizations.
Seven Sins of Greenwashing
http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/findings/the-seven-sins
Green Marketing Is Growing
As has been shown, the implications of green marketing reach
into every corner of a business, from modifying the four Ps to
choosing marketing communication practices that do not take
advantage of consumer confusion. Marketers must steer clear of
greenwashing to establish authentically green value
propositions and thus meet Marketing 3.0 consumers’ desire to
do business with companies that respect the triple bottom line
of financial, social, and environmental sustainability.

Two vehicles parked outside Subaru of Indiana Automotive Inc.
Associated Press
All Subaru production plants commit to zero-landfill
manufacturing, and its Indiana automobile production plant is
the only such facility in the United States to be designated a
wildlife habitat by the NWF, according to the company’s media
center.
An excellent example of authentically green marketing comes
from Japanese automaker Subaru. In 2016 and again in 2017,
the automaker teamed up with the National Wildlife Federation
(NWF) to combat decline of natural habitats in a partnership
branded Subaru Loves the Earth. Following guidelines from the
NWF, Subaru created certified wildlife habitats on the grounds
of over 400 schools and supported hands-on educational
programs to connect young people with nature. Subaru donated
gardening supplies and paired Subaru dealerships with schools
in their areas to provide the water, nutrients, and care the
wildlife habitats need to thrive. Participating schools were
encouraged to share photos and stories in their social streams.
The Subaru Loves the Earth initiative was humanity-centric,
ecologically beneficial, and a good fit between the company’s
value chain and its core customers’ values (Subaru U.S. Media
Center, 2017).
Every company should at least evaluate the possibility of
integrating ecologically sound practices into its business
strategy. Green marketing is not a cure-all for boosting sales,
and it can be more difficult to sustain during times of economic
hardship for consumers, but companies that do adopt this
approach gain an important point of competitive differentiation.
These companies should make their credibility apparent by
displaying their proof of meeting recognized standards of green
performance. Reporting standards, certifications, and eco-labels

are useful green marketing tools (Aulakh, 2012).
Do you research a company’s green status before purchasing?
Does that behavior change when you are purchasing in a local
store versus purchasing online? Does it make a difference what
kind of products you are thinking about? For example, do you
strive for sustainability when it is something you purchase and
consume frequently, like household products, but less when
thinking about purchases that you make only rarely, like
furniture or a car?
10.3 Responsibility to the Marketing Profession
When you accept a position as a marketer, whether with a small
start-up company or an established global brand, you commit to
bring honor to the house. Your first step toward responsibility
to the marketing field should be to join professional
associations, industry trade groups, and local business
organizations. These groups’ members will continue your
education in best practices and emerging issues.
The chief organization to which marketers in the United States
belong is the American Marketing Association (AMA). This
group’s roots stretch back to the early 1900s in marketing
education as well as practice. Today the AMA serves as a
conduit for knowledge sharing, provides resources and
professional development opportunities, and promotes thought
leadership to help marketers deepen their expertise and enhance
their careers. (Information is available at
http://www.marketingpower.com.)
After joining organizations such as the AMA, make time to be a
full participant. When you attend meetings, pay attention to
presentations; the information you take in will be fresher than
anything you find in books or periodicals. Ask for copies of

handouts and slide decks if not provided. Ask questions of the
presenter.
Make use of networking time during association meetings to
develop relationships with colleagues and potential mentors.
Share what you’re working on with your peers, within the
bounds of confidentiality. Volunteer for service roles, choosing
project work or organizational leadership, depending on your
time and talents. The time you invest will prepare you for
success.
Field Trip 10.6: Professional Organizations for Marketers
Follow these links to websites of leading associations for
marketing practitioners:
4 A’s (formerly the American Association of Advertising
Agencies)
http://www.aaaa.org
American Advertising Federation
http://www.aaf.org
American Marketing Association
http://www.marketingpower.com
Association of National Advertisers
http://www.ana.net
Direct Marketing Association
http://www.the-dma.org
Know and Abide by Applicable Laws and Regulations

In Chapter 8 you learned that laws and regulations crafted to
protect companies, consumers, and society require businesses to
operate in specific ways. It is incumbent on marketers to be
familiar with the regulations affecting the general practice of
marketing and those specific to certain industries. Intellectual
property and copyright laws apply to everyone, including all
marketing practitioners in all industries. Airlines,
telecommunications, utilities, financial services, and health care
are among the industries in which marketers must know and
abide by additional applicable laws and regulations.
For example, financial institutions are subject to certain
requirements, restrictions, and guidelines designed to maintain
the integrity of the financial system. Regulatory authorities
include the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the
Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation, and the National Credit Union Administration. In
financial services, regulations will always have an impact on
the marketing department, because changes trigger a need to
communicate with clients of the institution.
In health care, the Health Insurance Portability and
Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) addressed many issues,
including the need to ensure the security and privacy of health
data. The HIPAA Privacy Rule defines how health care
providers and insurers can use individually identifiable health
information (termed Personal Health Information, or PHI).
Data-driven marketing techniques must comply with HIPAA
limits designed to minimize the chance for inappropriate
disclosure of PHI (What Is HIPPA, 2012).
With regulation comes compliance; financial service marketers
must work closely with their compliance officers to ensure that
all efforts are “up to code.” Health care marketers must be
knowledgeable about the many fine points of HIPAA in order to

design marketing strategies that abide by the applicable laws
and regulations.
Practice Within Ethical Boundaries
Most marketing tactics are not constrained or prohibited by
existing laws and regulations. But there is still a guideline with
which marketers’ behavior must comply: the profession’s own
ethical boundaries, touched on earlier in the discussion of
ethical marketing.
Customers will resist doing business with a company that
behaves unethically. An important marketing practice designed
to respect ethical boundaries is permission marketing, a concept
popularized by Seth Godin in his 1999 book Permission
Marketing: Turning Strangers Into Friends, and Friends Into
Customers. This direct marketing practice arose in response to
concerns about unwanted e-mail (spam) and other marketing
communications. Permission marketing requires obtaining
permission from prospective customers before directing more
marketing efforts toward them. Godin’s (1999) insight was that
true one-to-one relationships are built on an explicit agreement
between seller and buyer. In an age of data-driven marketing
communications, tracking the opt-in or opt-out status for each
relationship is not difficult—and absolutely required for
marketing within ethical boundaries.
One of the overriding themes in discussions of ethical business
practices is the issue of transparency—the use of nondeceptive
tactics and the ready disclosure of the motivation behind
observable action. Specifically, do recipients of promotional
messages know when a pitch is being made? The answer was
easy in traditional marketing communications, where a logo or
the words “brought to you by” conveyed all the information that
was needed about who was selling what. Advertisers’ defense
was that consumers were intelligent and could identify
commercial messages and interpret them as such. In an era in

which paid brand ambassadors and product placements blur the
boundaries of commercial pitches, the “intelligent consumer”
defense starts to break down. Permission marketing is one
strategy by which transparency is reintroduced.
But transparency is more than avoidance of deception.
Transparent literally means “what is beyond or behind can be
distinctly seen.” In this sense transparency goes hand in hand
with authenticity. Companies are learning not to try to convince
consumers they are anything other than what they truly are, in
terms of their business model, marketing messages, and ethical
behavior. A case in point: McDonald’s Canada developed its
“Our food. Your questions” campaign to counter misinformation
and customer concerns about ingredients in its food. The
campaign gave customers an opportunity to ask anything—and
McDonald’s a chance to educate consumers and stand by its
word. The campaign launched in 2014 and by July 2016 had
attracted over 42,000 questions and 3.8 million visitors to the
campaign’s FAQ website (Milbrath, 2016).
Domino’s delivery driver.
Associated Press
A “fail” by Domino’s tracking app in 2017 shows that a small
error can erode trust.
A “fail” by Domino’s shows that a small error can erode trust.
Domino’s app lets customers track their pizza. But in 2017 one
customer got a message that delivery driver “Melinda” would
arrive with his pizza. Instead, a man showed up. “Ever since
then, I knew everything they said . . . was made up,” Brent
Gardiner told the Wall Street Journal. Domino’s responded that
“Tracker has worked as intended for . . . millions of orders. . . .
Sometimes people make mistakes.” Not even a white lie is
acceptable to Marketing 3.0 consumers (Bindley, 2017).

Marketing tactics will continue to evolve, with norms involving
transparency, protecting privacy, and ethical organizational
behavior evolving in response. Marketing leaders are calling for
the industry to take a leadership role in establishing those
norms (Drumwright & Murphy, 2009). A good place to begin, as
you prepare to join practitioners in the field of marketing, is
with the AMA’s Statement of Ethics; follow the link in Field
Trip 10.7.
Field Trip 10.7: American Marketing Association’s Statement of
Ethics
American Marketing Association’s Statement of Ethics
http://www.marketingpower.com/AboutAMA/Pages/Statement%
20of%20Ethics.aspx
In conclusion, as marketers we each owe our profession our best
work. We keep our knowledge and skills at their sharpest by
actively participating in professional organizations. Marketers
must also know and abide by applicable laws on the books, as
well as the unwritten ethical code emerging from contemporary
marketing practice that welcomes transparency, rewards
relationship building, and condemns greenwashing and other
forms of deceptive spin.
Who gets to decide what is ethical behavior? Should rank-and-
file employees leave such decisions to the organization’s
leaders? Can marketers live by one set of ethical values in their
personal life but carry out assignments that ignore those values
while at work?
10.4 Responsibility to Your Organization
When you accept a marketing position, you become ethically
bound to serve the public and the marketing profession. You

also accept an ethical responsibility to your employer. The
relationship is not simply economic; it is a mutual dependency
with impact on both employer and employee. The employer has
an obligation to consider employees’ welfare. The employee has
a duty to give a full measure of effort in return for a paycheck.
In addition, employees have an obligation to behave ethically in
all transactions with stakeholders—coworkers, managers,
shareholders, and customers.
More companies today are making their philosophy and values
transparent. The public experiences that transparency in mission
statements, positioning slogans, and the like. Stakeholders are
provided with company policies and guidelines designed to help
managers deal ethically with questions and issues that arise.
These guidelines typically cover the company’s CSR philosophy
plus policies regarding customer service, supply chain relations,
and issues relating to the marketing mix such as fair pricing,
safe product development, and truth in advertising.
Organizations bear the responsibility to ensure that such
policies are credible, sustainable, meaningful, and prudent (i.e.,
will not jeopardize profitability or the interests of
shareholders.) Prospective employees increasingly say they
want to work in organizations that share their philosophies and
values (Balmer, Reyser, & Powell, 2011). Transparency
regarding philosophy and social responsibility policies helps
employers and employees find the right fit.
Responsibility to the Brand
Branding as a marketing technique is intended to attract and
retain customer relationships. Marketing 3.0 consumers are
looking for ethical, customer-oriented brands. A brand’s
narrative emerges from public perceptions of the brand’s
persona. Whether that story is positive or negative reflects
marketers’ performance in living up to the image they’ve
created. Patagonia is one brand that has earned a reputation for
social responsibility. Others include Stonyfield Farm (organic

dairy products), Tom’s of Maine (personal care), the Body Shop
(personal care), and Ben & Jerry’s (ice cream), among others
(Balmer et al., 2011).
No organization can maintain an ethical reputation for its brand
when its rhetoric is divorced from reality. Attempts to do so
have brought trouble to the likes of Toyota, BP, and Wells
Fargo.
Field Trip 10.8: Critical Lessons From Product Recalls
Despite the best efforts, no organization can completely protect
itself from the possibility of harm to customers. Therefore,
brands must prepare to respond to unfortunate events.
Follow this link to read advice from the brand management
company that handled Blue Bell Creameries’ response to a
listeria outbreak that tainted its products.
Blue Bell: 4 Lessons From a Recall Crisis
http://vianovo.com/news/blue-bell-4-lessons-from-a-recall-
crisis
Responsibility to Channel Partners
An expectation of ethical behavior is part of the relationship
among partners in organizations’ supply chains. A few negative
events can undo the cumulative effect of many positive
activities. Factors most often cited in research about channel
partner relationships are conflict, opportunism, and unfairness
(Samaha, Palmatier, & Dant, 2011). Managers should take a
proactive approach—for example, developing training for
channel partners in the importance of ethical behavior and
enforcing contracts designed to mitigate the potential for
conflict and opportunism.
Consider the fictionalized example of a SkyView Foods

marketing analyst named Eric. He was tasked with improving
the software that aggregated individual store sales in the 28-
store grocery chain. The aggregate sales data reports were used
to claim promotional reimbursement from a manufacturer in a
trade promotion. The amount of each reimbursement check was
based on the quantity of product retailers sold to consumers,
rather than the quantity purchased from the manufacturer. Eric’s
department submitted sales reports to claim the reimbursement,
which the manufacturer checked for accuracy, duplication,
eligibility, pricing, and customer returns. Once the claims were
reviewed, payment was made to SkyView Foods.
The new software Eric implemented automated the sales reports
that were previously produced by an accounting clerk. Eric’s
boss came to him with a command to revise the new software so
that “counts could be modified.” When Eric probed about what
sort of modifications could be needed, he learned that the
company had been fudging the counts of products purchased to
increase reimbursements from manufacturers. Eric’s colleagues
encouraged him to go along with the deception, citing better
prices for customers as a result. Eric was still pondering his
dilemma when the manufacturer discovered the discrepancy in
past reports. Eric did a quick online search and learned that
when similar deceptions were uncovered, other retailers had
been required to pay fines. In one such account, he learned that
five executives—including the one who blew the whistle on the
deception—lost their jobs (Castleberry, 2011).
Eric’s situation highlights the difficulty for an employee when
channel partner relationships veer toward the unethical. In this
case, opportunism spelled real potential risk for Eric’s
employer—and possibly for its employees as well.
Responsibility for Value Creation
What’s your ROI? In other words, what return are you
generating on the investment your company has made in you?

You are responsible for creating value for your employer. If you
are not focused on that goal, you are slighting one of the chief
responsibilities incumbent on an employee. (This applies not
just in the marketing field, but in any position.) Generating
value is your obligation—and your job security, to some extent.
What defines a value-creating employee? Some of the attributes
are tactical, having to do with handling responsibilities
efficiently and effectively. A value-creating employee
completes assigned tasks without waste and with positive
outcomes.
Some of the attributes of a value-creating employee are
strategic, having to do with seeing the big picture and
envisioning where effort would add value. Do you bring a
problem-solving mind-set to your role in your employer
company? The best problem solvers are systems thinkers who
view a “problem” as an interdependent part of an overall
system. Rather than react to a specific part (problem), systems
thinkers envision how the outcomes or events triggered by a
proposed solution will potentially contribute to the whole.
Because of their attention to the whole, systems thinkers are
better at contributing solutions that improve operations without
bringing unintended consequences.
Systems thinkers create value. If your current role does not
allow you to bring a problem-solving mind-set, what aspect of
your work life could you use to demonstrate those capabilities
and show your potential to generate added value beyond the role
you were hired to fill?
The bottom line is this: Employees who are not generating value
are generating reasons for redefinition of their job descriptions.
If you’re not creating value in your current role, you’d better
have your resume up-to-date. Where would you like to be
employed instead? Envision the type of company and position in

which you will be able to generate a positive ROI for your next
employer.
This discussion of the ethical requirements of employees toward
their employers has covered responsibility to the brand, to the
company’s channel partners, and to value creation at the level
of individual effort. At every level in an organization, it is
important for individuals to walk the talk supporting
relationships among channel partners and between the brand and
its public.
If you were Eric working for SkyView Foods, would you have
blown the whistle on your employer or colluded in the
deception?
If you were the creative director of an advertising agency that
was assigned to promote a vehicle with known safety problems,
would you accept or refuse the assignment?
10.5 Responsibility to Yourself
The September 1997 issue of Fast Company magazine carried an
article titled “The Brand Called You” authored by business
management guru Tom Peters. The essay called for workers to
recognize their role as “head marketer for the brand called
YOU.” Appearing as the first dot-com boom was still on the
rise, the article captured much about a time when the world of
work was rapidly being reinvented. At one end of the spectrum,
large companies were growing even larger through mergers and
acquisitions. At the other end, dot-com start-ups were grabbing
attention and unprecedented investor dollars. The Internet had
delivered the potential for an economy based on a free-agent
workforce. Peters tapped a nerve.
The Free Agent Philosophy

“Everyone has a chance to be a brand worthy of remark,” Peters
(2007, para. 10) declared. Then he proceeded to apply the
principles of positioning to the problem of career success.
Peters observed that when anyone can have a consumer presence
and a communication channel, the people who succeed will be
those who have built a trusted brand name. Peters spelled out
the need for positioning “Brand You” on points of competitive
differentiation. He asked individuals to take the challenge
marketers put brands through: Answer the question “What is it
that my product or service does that makes it different?” in 15
words or less. What’s the customer value equation offered by
“Brand You”? Delivering work reliably on time, giving
excellent service to internal and external customers, and
meeting allotted budgets are all features with benefits.
But Peters pressed his readers to go a step further: to ask what
you do that adds measurable, distinctive value. What have you
accomplished that you can shamelessly brag about? What do
you want to be known for?
As a student of marketing, it should be clear to you that these
questions aren’t rhetorical—they’re the tools of the trade
marketers use to find a unique value proposition on which to
position a brand.
Peters identified a key shift in the 1990s world of work: the
emergence of what he termed “Project World.” In Project
World, careers are not a linear climb up a corporate ladder.
Instead, careers are constructed from a stream of steadil y more
interesting, challenging, influential projects. Loyalty in Project
World is not given blindly to a company—it belongs to
colleagues, teams, projects, customers, and self. “A career is a
portfolio of projects that teach you new skills, gain you new
expertise, develop new capabilities, grow your colleague set,
and consistently reinvent you as a brand,” Peters (2007, para.
20) wrote. He concluded his landmark article with a call to

define success as doing what you love, as a result of job and
project opportunities that allow one to be a great colleague,
visionary, business strategist, and creator of value (Peters,
2007).
Since Peters published “The Brand Called You,” the sheer
proliferation of messages and message channels has made
standing out as an individual more doable—and, paradoxically,
more difficult. The takeaway from Peters’s lesson in applying
branding to individual career development is simple: Focus on
becoming the best at what you do.
Did “Project World” emerge as Peters projected it would? Pretty
much, although it earned a different name—the “Gig Economy.”
A 2017 study found that 36% of the U.S. workforce were
freelancers, with freelancing expected to surpass traditional
employment by 2027. Millennials are leading the way in this
trend, the study found: Forty-seven percent of millennial
workers were freelancing, more than any previous generation
(Edelman Intelligence, 2017).
Field Trip 10.9: “Brand You” Original and 2 Decades Later
Read the original 1997 Fast Company cover article “The Brand
Called You.”
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html
Has this concept stood the test of time? Follow these links to
read an opposing view published in 2015 and a rebuttal
published on Tom Peters’s blog.
https://newrepublic.com/article/122910/my-paradoxical-quest-
build-personal-brand
http://tompeters.com/2015/11/brand-you-2015
Commit to Your Success

Will you commit to developing Brand You as head marketer for
your personal brand or follow a more traditional approach to
your career design? Either way, certain basic responsibilities to
yourself apply. You must commit to doing original work; to
filling the gaps in your skills, knowledge, and abilities; and to
avoiding inappropriate self-promotion.
Do original work: As a student, you have no doubt been warned
about the perils of plagiarism. All laws concerning the
originality of ideas apply to you whether you are a student,
employee, free agent, or entrepreneur. Intellectual property
consists of the output of the minds of individuals that has
commercial value, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic,
and certain other intellectual works. Because it is property, it
can be kept or sold. Others can be prevented from altering it or
selling it for their profit. Copyright law exists to protect
intellectual property and covers both published and unpublished
work. The minimum requirements for copyright law to apply are
that the work must be original, have exhibited some minimal
level of creativity, and be in a fixed form of expression. Fine
points of the law cover fair use and parody, two exceptions that
allow a certain degree of leeway in the use of others’
intellectual property. The website http://www.copyright.gov
provides a wealth of information on applicable U.S. law.
In a culture that has grown increasingly accepting of the
mashup—a term that comes from the hip-hop music practice of
mixing two or more songs—it is easy to forget that a chain of
responsibility to the original creators exists with each bit and
byte appropriated for new creative work. As a marketer, you
will likely face frequent temptation to build on or borrow from
inspirations in popular culture around you. Commit to working
within the bounds of the law—and showcasing your own
original talent.

Fill your skills gaps: When you step into a position in a
marketing department, your education and previous work and
life experience will have led to mastery of a set of skills. But
will that include everything your new position requires? Likely
not. Given the rapid pace of evolution in marketing, especially
in digital channels, knowledge and skills become outdated
quickly. Don’t be discouraged by what you don’t know; your
ability to learn is more important to an employer than mastery
of outdated skill sets.
Because marketing plays a significant role in both the costs and
the sales of a business, familiarity with basic accounting is
recommended for marketers. You also need enough knowledge
of math concepts such as ratios to understand what the gauges
on a marketing dashboard indicate or to perform a breakeven
analysis. Good written and verbal communication skills are also
a must in business, even for people in technical and/or
analytical roles. Ability to write clearly and concisely is
important.
If your education has not exposed you to sociology, psychology,
or anthropology, you are likely to find yourself in a customer -
oriented company without sufficient understanding of human
behavior. If you have not studied engineering or biological
sciences, you may be missing the systems thinking or scientific
knowledge that would make you more valuable to your
employer. Commit to lifelong learning, both through study and
experimentation. Mark Brown, SEO/content strategist at
Wunderman Memphis, a digital marketing agency, says:
You can dive right into social media management and website
building. It costs no money to create a Facebook page, and there
are many options available to build free websites. Whether
you’re sharing your favorite memes or writing articles about
your favorite video games, you’ll get exposure to tracking
traffic and engagement metrics, creating content, and basic

website architecture. These skills, as well as your initiative and
curiosity, will be received positively by hiring managers. (M.
Brown, author interview, December 8, 2017)
Avoid inappropriate self-promotion: Whether or not you
wholeheartedly adopt the Brand You philosophy, develop your
instinct for appropriate self-promotion. It has never been easier
to build Brand You, but it has also never been easier to destroy
your brand.
Seek and accept assignments that allow you to build skills and
showcase them. That might mean volunteering for an extra
project or teaching a class, writing for the company newsletter
or local paper, or offering to give presentations at workshops
and conferences. The visibility will build Brand You—if you
deliver substance and avoid shameless self-promotion.
Also use social media to raise your visibility—but be sure you
have something to say. Quality rules over quantity in the busy
world of social networks. Other rules of appropriate self-
promotion include the following.
Keep your credentials visible—but never fake or exaggerate
them.
Develop an area of expertise and become your company’s
“go-to” person on that topic—even if it’s just how to produce
better PowerPoint presentations.
Once you’ve built that area of expertise, share it freely. Give
advice and offer opinions. (But acknowledge the expertise of
others just as freely.)
In social media, create conversation. Ask questions, post tips,
and let building Brand You follow naturally.
Divide your time responsibly. Make sure more of your time is
spent on value creation for your team than for Brand You.
Putting a little of your work time into being visible is good for
all, but too much is not. Some say an 80/20 split is about right

(Elmer, 2011).
Bottom line: Bragging will get Brand You nowhere. Becoming
the best at what you do will.
While not everyone agrees today about the enduring
applicability of Peters’s free agent philosophy, it has come to
characterize the workplace experience of many. Peters’s Project
World describes where many marketers work today. In Project
World, individuals must take responsibility for the originality
of the work they produce, the development of their skills and
knowledge base to meet evolving demands, and the style with
which they pursue self-promotion.
Who do you think is more viable in today’s business culture: a
Brand You free agent or an “organization person” who is
willing to put personal advancement second to the good of the
company? Explain the reasoning behind your answer.
10.6 Marketing: A Vibrant Career Path
Working in marketing means a job with lots of variety,
collaboration with many different departments inside the
company, and frequent contact with distribution channel
partners, customers, and the public.
Marketing positions can take you in several different directions.
If you are by nature an analytic type, you could apply your
skills in market research or data mining. If your talents lean
more toward creativity, you could be the genius behind great
advertising campaigns. Are you a “people person”? Put your
skills to work in public relations, account services, or marketing
management.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it (to quote the

culturally important 1960s television show Mission Impossible),
is to find the career path in marketing that allows you to do
your best work while contributing value to an organization you
believe in. Where will that be?
What Jobs Fit You?
A good place to begin building your knowledge about marketing
jobs is the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ online Occupational
Outlook Handbook. The link in Field Trip 10.10 will take you to
the section describing jobs in marketing and related fields.
You’ll find detailed information there about the nature of the
work in different specialties, training and other qualifications
required, potential for advancement, employment outlooks,
wages, and more.
Field Trip 10.10: Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational
Outlook Handbook
Follow this link to the Bureau of Labor Statistics online
Occupational Outlook Handbook section on jobs for advertising,
promotions, and marketing managers.
http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/advertising-promotions-
and-marketing-managers.htm
Click the “Similar Occupations” tab to explore related careers,
such as art direction, graphic design, and public relations.
Marketing is such an important business function across such a
broad spectrum of organizations that it would be easier to
answer “where isn’t there opportunity?” than to specify where
opportunity exists. Marketers work in three areas:
as entrepreneurs, marketing the organizations they lead
in organizations with marketing departments
in agencies that provide specialized services to organizations

The nature of work life is somewhat different in each of these
career paths. Entrepreneurship gives some people their first
taste of marketing work. Some discover marketing in their DNA
and go on to make that aspect of starting and running a business
the focus of their careers. The case study in this chapter follows
an entrepreneur who brought to life his concept—connecting
people to cultural projects for financial support.
Marketing departments within organizations, including for-
profit companies, social enterprises, nonprofit groups, and
government agencies, produce a significant portion of marketing
jobs.
Agencies that provide specialized services such as advertising,
marketing communications, event management, social media
management, and web content fill out the opportunities for
employment in the marketing field.
Within organizations there are typically multiple levels,
including executives, managers, and specialists. In companies
and agencies, account executives often serve as liaisons
between members of teams serving specific accounts. All three
types of workplaces (start-up, corporate, or agency) offer
careers in marketing. Individuals could choose to specialize in
one sector or move among them for a more varied career
experience.
As the business world adapts to the expectations of the
emerging Marketing 3.0 era, working relationships, job roles
and titles, and everything else is undergoing a process of
reinvention. Do not expect yesterday’s functional structures to
be relevant in tomorrow’s workplace. As you look for a job in
the marketing field, you will need to seek the latest information
about job roles and the skills and abilities they require.
Your Career in a Marketing 3.0 World

Consider the forces identified with Marketing 3.0: consumers’
demand for participation, increasing global opportunity and the
resulting need for increased social responsibility, and an
increasingly creative, connected society able to focus on higher
meaning. What do these forces spell for careers in marketing?
Traditional marketers relied on four skill areas: personal
selling, advertising communications, sales promotion, and
marketing research (Kotler, 2005). As data mining, CRM,
experiential marketing, and online media have joined the mix, a
whole new set of skills will be needed. Consider the following
media reports about changing expectations.
A gap is emerging between worker skills and the demands of
new jobs that require substantial quantitative, mathematical, and
technical skills. Today’s behavioral targeting techniques put the
emphasis on generating many ideas and testing them for
consumer appeal. Agencies are now hiring “number crunchers”
to perform quantitative analysis and produce data visualizations
that reveal the meaning behind the numbers. Skills like
interactive design, social media, and coding languages are in
demand. The most attractive candidate will bring a talent for
strategic insight in addition to creative and technical skills
(Vega, 2011).
The new advertising agency organization will transition its
workers from generalists to specialists in one of four
specialties: strategists, creators, connectors, and catalysts. Old
titles like vice president or account supervisor will go away,
possibly to be replaced with titles that specify job type followed
by “senior” or “associate” to designate levels of accountability.
Even the workplace will be reimagined to reflect the process of
managing campaigns that combine paid, earned, owned, and
shared media channels (Elliott, 2011c).
The public relations industry is undergoing a self-initiated

makeover, recognizing that the profound changes in the earned
media channel call for a new definition of its work. New media
have made it easier for consumers to learn about corporate
blunders; public relations today is more about facilitating an
ongoing conversation than influencing what the public believes.
The public relations field encourages practitioners to take
actions that counter a negative view of public relations as
“spin,” such as joining its professional association and adhering
to its code of ethics and standards of practice (Elliott, 2011f).
Employers today seek people who can create value on the job
that technology cannot. The people who succeed will be those
who can innovate, adapt, and reinvent their jobs as business
practices evolve.
The many different marketing career paths have one thing in
common: All offer the ability to help an organization succeed.
Whether you find your niche in entrepreneurship, organizational
work, or a role in a service-providing agency, you will be
contributing to building a brand, improving product and service
offerings, and enhancing customer loyalty. In the meantime,
develop your marketing skills. These will help you sell yourself
to potential employers.
Field Trip 10.11: Do Ad Agencies Need Young Talent?
In 2016 the New York Times ran an article titled “Ad Agencies
Need Young Talent. Cue the Beanbag Chairs.” The article
described the advertising industry’s need to compete with tech
companies and start-ups. Comments on that article pointed out
that youth alone is not what the industry needs, but viable
solutions to low pay scales, pervasive sexism, racism, and age
discrimination. A choice example: “The advertising industry’s
primary problem is not recruiting Millennials. At this point, the
industry is unable to retain people of any age who possess real
talent” (Ember, 2016, para. 64).

Read the article here:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/19/business/media/ad-
agencies-need-young-talent-cue-the-bean-bag-chairs.html
Are you prepared to explore the marketing job market and
assess the opportunities against your aptitudes and interests?
How would you begin such a research project?
10.7 Basic Principles of Marketing: Putting It All Together
In 1968 the Virginia Slims cigarette brand was introduced to
young professional women with the slogan “You’ve come a long
way, baby.” At this point in your study of marketing, you
recognize not just the historical era in marketing that the
campaign belongs to, but also the ethical issues presented by
that product and promotional strategy. You’ve come a long way,
baby!
You’ve developed an appreciation of the transformation in
marketing practice now under way. You are prepared to meet
the demands of communicating with consumers who are more
media-savvy and more empowered than ever before. You can
distinguish between corporate behavior that adds value to the
triple bottom line of “people, planet, and profits” and behavior
that does not. You are prepared to begin the search for a
fulfilling role in the economy in a company you believe in or to
pursue more education that will lead to a fulfilling role. This
demand for connection between employees’ and employers’
value systems is itself a paradigm shift, one more added to the
many that are changing the practice of marketing.
This course has introduced you to concepts and processes in the
first two chapters, laying a foundation for subsequent
exploration of aspects that are under marketers’ control—for

example, the marketing mix covered in Chapters 4 through 6.
In Chapters 7 and 8 you were called on to contemplate the
uncontrollable factors marketers face: the nature of customers;
their purchasing behavior, emotions, and motivations; and
marketers’ responses to customer behavior, including the STP
approach and increasing emphasis on making customers true
collaborators in creating the value they seek. You’ve learned
about sociocultural, technological, ecological, economic,
political, and legal forces in the marketing environment, at
home, and around the globe.
The final two chapters have drawn you deeper into management
of the marketing process and hopefully heightened your
awareness of the responsibility you bear to the public, your
profession and employer, and your own future when you take a
position in the marketing field.
This course has been designed to stimulate your enthusiasm for
more learning about the business of marketing. If the workplace
rather than course work is in your future, the contemporary
examples in this course (designed to connect theory to current
practice) should help you hit the ground running. Either way,
your mastery of the basic principles of marketing will help you
succeed.
Case Study: Power2give
The entrepreneurial approach that founder Scott Provancher
brought to developing power2give for his employer, the Arts
and Science Council (ASC) of Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North
Carolina, presents an example of responsible marketing that
takes into account a desire to serve the public good, the fund-
raising profession, an employer organization, and a young
man’s own career.
When Provancher, president of the ASC of Charlotte-

Mecklenburg, crunched the numbers, he saw red—red ink. The
numbers indicated steeply declining dollars from workplace
donations. Like many of its peer organizations across the United
States, the ASC is an arts agency engaged in grant making,
managing public arts programs, and providing services to help
artists and organizations. The decline in workplace givi ng
triggered by the 2008 economic downturn severely affected
several major employers in the Charlotte area.
As the council’s president, ultimate responsibility for donor
development lay with Provancher. Luckily, he had a bent for
entrepreneurial thinking. Turning the funding crisis into an
opportunity for innovation, he developed a new product that
would help not only the organization he led but also its peers
around the country and the public audiences they ultimately
serve. He created power2give.
Power2give is an online cultural marketplace listing projects
seeking funding in the arts, sciences, and history. The website
brings donors and nonprofit organizations together with a
simple online interface for describing projects, promoting them,
and making donating convenient for both giver and receiver.
The powerful but simple idea for this online tool was born out
of strategic planning by the ASC in late 2010. Provancher, 36 at
the time, assembled ASC staff members and stakeholders to
conduct strategic planning. He brought his insights about fund-
raising in a Marketing 3.0 world. “People expect more
emotional connection with the organizations they donate to,” he
recalled saying to his senior staff. “We need to make $25
donors feel like $25,000 donors” (S. Provancher, personal
communication, January 2011). Provancher sketched out the site
concept and conceived the name. The ASC invested in the
website’s development and branding. A year later, the new
fund-raising tool was launched. The ASC sought out its peer
arts councils in other cities, enrolling them in the power2give

platform as host organizations who would promote the tool to
both donors and project organizers in their local communities.
Provancher knew he wasn’t the first to envision a social media
platform model applied to funding for cultural projects.
Kickstarter (http://www.kickstarter.com) had been launched in
April 2009. But Provancher spotted several weaknesses in how
Kickstarter could meet the needs of the types of cultural
organizations the ASC typically funded. Responding to these
concerns led to features of power2give that differentiate it from
Kickstarter, such as tax deductions for donations, an ability to
make challenge grants, and a gift card program that allows a
donor to select a dollar amount while the recipient selects a
project to receive the funds.
For the public, power2give provides an easy way to find out
about projects of interest, see the progress of fund-raising so
far, and use the simple online interface to donate. Donors and
other visitors to project sites are encouraged to help promote
projects through e-mail and their social media channels.
Local host organizations enrolled in power2give invest in
comarketing to support the fund-raisers who post projects on the
site, and offer training and support in social media marketing.
Provancher fulfilled his responsibility to his employer by
focusing on building a sound business model for power2give.
“We envision rolling this out to hundreds of communities,”
Provancher (personal communication) said in January 2011. To
succeed, having launched its initial product, the ASC must stay
on track to develop needed functionality. Power2give’s creators
must convince enough new communities of the power of its
fund-raising model to eventually recoup the costs of start-up.
Provancher’s responsibility to the ASC requires him to lead
power2give’s development so that it contributes to the ASC’s
mission.

Provancher’s service to the public, the fund-raising profession,
and the ASC also serves his own career development—which
has taken an unusual path. Trained as a classical percussionist,
he didn’t realize marketing was in his DNA until his work in
fund-raising for orchestras and subsequently the ASC brought
the realization that “marketing is like getting a piece ready for
performance. The plan is just notes on a page. Marketing is
constantly testing, changing, and adapting the piece to appeal to
an audience” (S. Provancher, personal communication, January
2011). He then developed his Brand You with a “layman’s
MBA” by taking business courses and reading books and
publications such as the Harvard Business Review.
When interviewed in 2011, Provancher was grateful to the ASC
for the opportunity to explore his entrepreneurial side by
developing his idea for power2give, but he recognized that the
concept was intellectual property that belonged to his employer.
“It’s not the kind of thing you launch and then leave alone,” he
mused. “In the future, what will be the best way to govern it?
It’s not core to ASC’s mission. Do we grow it or sell it?” (S.
Provancher, personal communication, January 2011). Given the
nature of employment in Project World, Provancher knew he
would face a decision whether to go with power2give as it
grows or remain in his leadership position with the ASC.
Several concerns faced power2give as the platform rolled from
its introductory stage toward responsible growth.
pricing it effectively so that all stakeholders —donors, host
organizations, and project organizers—perceived good value for
dollars exchanged
persuading local host organizations and project organizers
that the fund-raising model as a concept could work, which
meant enhancing their capacity for marketing using social media
fearing that project listings on power2give could potentially

cannibalize other kinds of giving
What happened next for Provancher, the ASC of Charlotte-
Mecklenburg, and the power2give platform? “Ultimately, ASC
realized it wasn’t in the national crowdfunding business,” he
said in a 2017 follow-up interview (S. Provancher, author
interview, November 30, 2017). The platform itself was viable,
but the ASC leadership decided it would be a better fit for a
company with greater mission alignment to managing a platform
for a national market.
In October 2016 the ASC sold the intellectual property and
technology that comprised power2give to Fractured Atlas, a
nonprofit technology company providing business tools for
artists and nonprofit organizations. “It made much more sense
for it to reside with Fractured Atlas, than ASC trying to keep
control of it but not have the resources to scale it to its full
potential,” Provancher (personal communication, January 2011)
said.
Regarding the challenges facing power2give itemized above,
Theresa Hubbard of Fractured Atlas observed that while there
are now more platforms that offer the ability to make tax-
deductible donations, the power2give platform incorporates a
fiscal sponsorship model, which remains an important
differentiator. The platform also reduces the administrative
burden on the fund-raising organization. Power2give no longer
offers as much comarketing and training support as originally
envisioned, but local curators (formerly known as local host
organizations) can do so. Fractured Atlas has selected a price
that is “fair to all users, while still being competitive,” Hubbard
(author interview, November 22, 2017) said.
Time proved that fears about fund-raisers’ lack of experience
with social media marketing and cannibalization of other forms
of fund-raising were unfounded. Hubbard said, “Nonprofits use

crowdfunding for specific projects, but turn to more traditional
methods of fund-raising for their ongoing activities” (T.
Hubbard, author interview, November 22, 2017). Fractured
Atlas planned to roll power2give into its own branded
crowdfunding platform.
Provancher has since left the ASC to form his own professional
consulting business to provide services to the nonprofit sector
and the people who fund them. “You have concepts, ideas, and
projects on one side, and the capital resources to make them
happen on the other side, and I saw a lot of opportunity to
improve how the people, the ideas, and the capital work
together,” Provancher (personal communication, January 2011)
said. He launched Lewis & Clark with a focus on strategic
consulting on fund-raising campaigns for nonprofits. In 2016
that company acquired Ignite Philanthropy Advisors, which
advised foundations on grant making, thus bringing together
services for fund-raisers and donors. Today Provancher leads a
thriving company rebranded as Ignite Philanthropy. Still
entrepreneurial in his thinking, he envisions a business model
that allows him to scale through acquisition of similar
consulting firms in midsize cities across the United States. “We
see philanthropy as the sector we serve—not the projects, not
the donors, not the nonprofits, but all of that, together,”
Provancher (personal communication, January 2011) said.
Provancher’s advice: “Whatever your role, there’s always an
opportunity no one has identified yet. You can always tweak,
change, or even blow up the model. Entrepreneurs always try to
understand the ultimate customer, and keep asking ‘what could
we be testing?’” (S. Provancher, personal communication,
January 2011).
The example of power2give proves that an organization can do
well by doing good—and that an individual with a talent for
marketing and the spark for entrepreneurship can have real

impact (S. Provancher, personal communication, January 2011;
S. Provancher, author interview, November 30, 2017).
Challenge Question
It’s not hard to see the levels of responsibility evident in Scott
Provancher’s work with the ASC to develop power2give. But
what about an employee who brings an innovative idea to a
more traditional, profit-driven organization? Imagine instead a
Procter & Gamble employee who comes up with a new product
that serves a real market need but doesn’t fit the mission of any
of the company’s strategic business units. How do you think the
story would develop?
Key Ideas to Remember
Marketers have a responsibility to serve the public’s well -
being. Marketing has been criticized for its negative impacts on
individuals, businesses, and society. Companies are realizing
that today’s consumers, investors, and other stakeholders expect
ethical marketing practices. Organizations large and small, local
and global, are expected to adhere to behavior that is socially
responsible, culturally sensitive, and sustainable in terms of the
entire market system—not merely one organization’s self-
interest. Companies that practice corporate social responsibility
find it attracts investors, motivates employees, engages
consumers, and helps establish a brand position that reduces
competition solely on price.
Responsibility to the planet responds to consumers’ concerns
about ecological degradation and their desire to do business
with companies that share humanity-centric values. Green
marketing is characterized by practices that minimize the
impacts of production processes, packaging, and marketing
communication.
Marketers must take responsibility for advancing the field of
marketing toward higher standards of professionalism. This
responsibility requires preparation, including maintaining
knowledge of applicable laws and ethical codes, engaging in

continuing education, and participating in professional
associations. Marketers must work within ethical boundaries,
which includes avoiding deceptive communications, protecting
individuals’ privacy, and bringing transparency to
organizational behavior.
Marketers are accountable to their employer organizations.
This responsibility includes supporting positive perception of
the brand, maintaining good relationships with channel partners,
and contributing personally to value creation. When rhetoric
becomes divorced from actual behavior, no one benefits;
everyone in the organization must walk the talk of ethical
marketing.
All workers must take responsibility for their careers. Tom
Peters foresaw a workplace in which careers consist of
increasingly challenging, influential projects that build loyal
relationships but do not resemble the traditional climb up a
corporate hierarchy. He saw a workplace full of free agents who
build their personal brands by applying marketing principles
like positioning a brand, developing a unique value proposition,
and establishing clear competitive differentiation. While not
everyone will be comfortable adopting Peters’s Brand You
approach to his or her career, all must commit to doing original
work; filling gaps in skills, knowledge, and abilities; and
maintaining appropriate boundaries regarding self-promotion
for advancement.
The marketing profession offers many opportunities for
satisfying work experiences, suited to a wide range of
personalities and talents. Individuals are responsible for finding
a career path that allows them to do their best work while
contributing value to their employer. Some marketers work in
organizations, while others work in agencies that provide
specialized services to those organizations, such as advertising
or social media marketing. Some marketers become
entrepreneurs who create organizations around their innovative
ideas. It’s not uncommon for individuals to move among
different career paths in marketing. Wherever you find your

niche, your success will derive from your ability to adapt and
reinvent yourself and your work as business practices change
over time.
Critical-Thinking Questions
Do you agree that marketing should be considered socially
beneficial? Or do you agree with critics who counter that
marketing is harmful to individuals, businesses, and society?
Choose a side and make your case, recalling the arguments
presented in this chapter and adding your own.
Businesses are increasingly investing resources in
sustainability efforts. Do you think this is because it is the
“right thing to do”? Or is it motivated by a desire to increase
profits, to attract customers who value sustainability efforts, or
perhaps to cut costs?
Describe ethical considerations with regard to marketi ng to
children. When the marketers’ pitch includes a cause
component, such as a breakfast cereal that promises to provide
breakfasts to undernourished schoolchildren, is marketing to
children more ethically acceptable?
Vicks’ use of behavioral targeting to promote its Behind Ear
Thermometer illustrated use of personal data by a company
outside the relationship between the consumer and the mobile
apps with which that data had been shared. This is perfectly
legal. But is it ethical? At what point does commercial use of
personal data constitute abuse of the public’s trust?
Use of brand ambassadors and product placement were cited
in this chapter as examples that blur the boundary between
promotional messages and other kinds of communication. How
can an average consumer know when a pitch is being made, and
by whom? What steps do you feel marketers should take to
make sure their tactics are not deceptive?
Consider your purchase behavior as a consumer: Do you
looking for the lowest prices? Do you take into account the
reputation of brands you consider? If your behavior is typical of

most consumers, do you feel that companies can afford to be
socially responsible and still be competitive? Give evidence to
support your answer.
Evaluate individuals’ ability to affect the social
responsibility of their employers’ brands. This might involve
responsibility to channel partners, as in the hypothetical
example of SkyView Foods in this chapter, or responsibility to
customers, as in the highly publicized occurrence in 2017 of
Wells Fargo Bank employees creating 1.4 million fake accounts
as a result of a corporate culture of high-pressure sales. If you
were an employee of SkyView Foods or Wells Fargo Bank, what
steps could you take to improve your employer’s social
responsibility?
How might you apply the insights of permission marketing—
that true one-to-one relationships are built on an agreement to
accept contact between seller and buyer—to your search for a
job in the marketing field?
In your judgment, should a company invest in individuals
who adhere to the Brand You philosophy that places loyalty to
self ahead of loyalty to an employer? Why or why not?
Key Terms to Remember
Click on each key term to see the definition.
benefit corporation
(or B corp) A type of for-profit corporate entity, authorized by
30 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, that includes
positive impact on society and the environment in addition to
profit as its legally defined goals.
ethical marketing
The application of ethics in the marketing process. Involves
demonstrating behavior that is socially responsible, culturally

sensitive, and sustainable across the entire market system.
fair use
The use of copyrighted material for a specific, limited, and
transformative purpose, such as to comment on, criticize, or
parody that copyrighted work; does not require permission from
the copyright owner.
green marketing
The marketing of an organization, product, or service
characterized by minimized environmental impact. Incorporates
a broad range of activities, including modifications to product
production processes, packaging, and advertising.
greenwashing
Deceptive marketing communications that promote a perception
that policies or products are environmentally friendly.
intellectual property
The output of the minds of individuals that has commercial
value, including literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain
other intellectual works, protected by copyright laws.
low-profit limited liability company (L3C)
A hybrid of a type of LLC intended for ventures with a social
mission as their primary goal. Unlike a charity, the L3C is free
to distribute retained earnings after taxes to owners or
investors.
mashup

A combination of preexisting elements into a new work, often
used in music and web application design but applicable to all
types of creative output; a potential concern when it violates the
intellectual property rights attached to the preexisting elements.
opt-in
Express permission by an individual to accept contact (for
example by mail, e-mail, or telephone) from marketers, which
might take the form of merchandise, information, or persuasive
messages.
opt-out
Express instruction by an individual to stop contact by
marketers, which might consist of merchandise, information, or
more messages.
parody
A work that imitates for humorous effect another, usually well -
known, copyrighted work; unlike other forms of fair use, in a
parody more extensive use of the original work is permitted.
permission marketing
Marketing centered on gaining customer consent to receive
information from a company. See also opt-in and opt-out.
social enterprise model
Guidelines that apply business strategies to achieving
philanthropic goals, such as social progress or environmental
health; may be structured as a for-profit or nonprofit.
transparency

The use of nondeceptive tactics and ready disclosure of the
motivation behind observable action.
9
Managing the Marketing Effort
Businesspeople in a meeting.
FlamingoImages/iStock/Getty Images Plus
Learning Outcomes
After reading this chapter, you should be able to
Summarize three reasons integrated marketing
communication has become imperative.
Describe two uses of analysis in marketing strategy
formulation.
Summarize the decision factors in media planning.
Describe the use of marketing dashboards for control in
marketing management.
Summarize the relationships among analysis, analytics, and
Big Data.
Describe the implications of Big Data for control through
metrics.
Introduction
Managing the marketing process is central to the operation of
any business in any industry sector. Chapter 2 covered the
“what” of that process—the steps that take place in a specific
order to carry out the marketing function for a business. This
chapter takes a different approach to the same subject, tying
together many themes from previous chapters. At this point in

your study of the basic principles of marketing, you know a
great deal more about the marketing mix, customer markets,
competitors, and environmental influences than when you
began. You are ready to deepen your understanding of the
concerns of marketing management—the “who,” the “how,” and
the “why” behind the marketing process.
Managing the marketing effort requires four functions:
analysis
planning
implementation
control
In this chapter, we will consider each in turn—but first, let’s
confirm that they are taking place within the frame of integrated
marketing communications (IMC)—the management approach
required to achieve coordination across those four functions in
today’s multichannel message environment, online and offline.
IMC demands that organizations link all management initiatives
related to brand communications so that receivers encounter a
consistent message across all channels. The increasing
complexity of marketing communications across paid, owned,
earned, and shared (POES) message channels (discussed in
Chapter 6) gives urgency to the adoption of the IMC approach,
in order to manage the marketing effort more effectively.
9.1 Integrated Marketing Communications
Successful use of the IMC approach requires teamwork across
every business function touched by sales, marketing, and
corporate communications. In-house resources must work
seamlessly with outside partners, like traditional advertising
agencies, digital marketing firms, media buyers, and more. But
achieving a meaningful level of coordination among internal
units, service providers, channel partners, and customers is not

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